Successful Goal-Setting: Financial Goals for 2021
I gave up on my financial goals for 2020 around May of this year. Like everyone else, I had big dreams and goals for my life for 2020. But between the pandemic and the election, my ultimate goal became to survive and thrive. But now I'm ready to start preparing for 2021. It's time to set some goals for the new year. I'm sharing my financial goals for 2021 and the items I'll use to help me achieve these goals!
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Successful Goal-Setting
But first, let's talk about goal-setting. Here are the three steps I used to brainstorm and write my financial goals. I hope these can be helpful to you as you plan all of your goals for 2021.
1) Review your year. Give yourself a rating (with grace of course).
This step should help you get a better idea of how you did with your goals. But please be gracious with yourself. 2020 was a wild year and if you didn't accomplish any of your goals, that is okay!
2) Brainstorm what areas you can improve.
Get out some pen and paper or your digital planner to brainstorm what you want to accomplish next year! Here are a few general categories to consider: health, finances, career, and self.
Since this post is about finances (we'll get to the other categories later), you can consider your debt, budget, savings, and income goals.
3) Draft and refine your goals.
Start drafting your goals! When you have a final version that you're happy with, be sure to write them down somewhere so you won't forget. (I'm still debating where to keep my 2021 goals! I'm thinking Google Keep, but if you have other ideas, please let me know.)
Bonus Question: Consider what you'll do and how your goals will change if life drastically changes.
You know why this bonus question is here! One of the biggest lessons I've learned from 2020 is the ability to pivot, adapt, and keep going. Going forward, it'll be important that we be flexible and perhaps pursue Plan B or C for our goals instead when life throws us lemons.
My Financial Goals for 2021
Well, it's time to get personal! Here are my financial goals for 2021:
1) Pay off all my consumer debt.
Between my personal credit cards and the furniture I bought on credit when I moved, I have about $6,700 in consumer debt. I want to pay this off in 2021. Some of my other goals will help with this (see goal #2). But I'm still thinking through how to accomplish this goal. (I recently cut back on non-essentials this month by deleting unused subscriptions.)
2) End the year with three separate streams of income.
Now this goal is my favorite on this entire list! I want three separate streams of income. This goal takes more mental work than the others, but I'm ready. Stay tuned! I have so many ideas for this goal.
3) Set and follow monthly and weekly spending goals.
My spending can get out of control when I'm stressed. I won't even look at my bank account or my planner financial inserts! That ends in 2021. (Really it ended in the beginning of November.) I'll be using my finances inserts from Three Nikkis to track my spending and expenses!
I didn't mention a savings goal because I don't have one right now! Some experts say that if you're like me and have debt, you should only have $1,000 in savings. This amount always seemed low to me. So I think my goal should be 6 months of expenses. (But whew, that's a lot of money so we'll see!)
If you can't get enough of finances, check out the Finance Friday series here!
Anyways, have you thought about your financial goals for the year or are you foregoing goals altogether?