Schedule Goals...Achieve Goals! | Series 4.4

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Welcome to the EnjoyMore30s Family Finance

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podcast. The only podcast dedicated to making life more

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enjoyable for young families by hitting on the financial topics

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that tend to weigh on us, stress us out, and distract our focus

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from simply enjoying life.

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Hello and welcome to the fourth episode of The

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Your Major Money Misnomers series. As always, if you like

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what you're hearing, please make sure to subscribe or follow us

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on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. Clicking that star,

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leaving a review really helps us reach other young families out

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there. So last week, we discussed Tax Refunds are Bad

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(Whaaat?!), help you better understand what a tax refund

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actually means, AKA loaning money to the government on a 0%

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interest loan and what you can do to change that amount you may

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be receiving by lowering your withholdings, saving the saving

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the difference, or even contributing more into your tax

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free growing Roth retirement accounts instead. So check that

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out if you haven't already.

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Today, we are discussing goals. Schedule Goals...Achieve Goals,

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where we are going to discuss why goal setting is so important

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even if it initially can seem so daunting, maybe just downright

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annoying. We're going to cover what you need to know about what

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makes goal setting so powerful and what you can do to more

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easily work it into your life. In grammar school, for me, we

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had this physical fitness test, I think that's what it was

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called. And there are two basic levels of achievement. You

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either I guess didn't get any achievement at all, you got the

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higher level achievement, or you kind of got the lower level one.

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So there are three different boxes you could kind of fall in.

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And to get that top one you needed to excel in every single

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exercise test that they laid out. There was sitting reach,

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shuttle run, push ups, I think as well, outside of push ups,

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probably a lot of really antiquated exercises that nobody

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would ever tell you to do anymore in the gym. But you

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know, being the competitive person, I was/still am, I wanted

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the top level. Now all of those I didn't have any problem with

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that I listed so far. I mean, sitting and reaching, touching

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your toes, doing a couple push ups that was okay. The one thing

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that drove me crazy, though, was the pull ups. I just could not

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do enough to qualify and it always landed me in that lower

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level of certification. One year, I decided that I wanted to

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actually train ahead of time in preparation, and I was able to

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drastically increase what I was able to do. Now you think this

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story would be about perseverance and hard work and

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glory and the ending to the story is that I now received the

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higher award but I didn't. I went from maybe three pull ups

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to six pull ups, but I needed like seven or eight. So I still

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didn't wind up getting what I wanted, I was in the same kind

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of lower certification category. And for my eyes for how I looked

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at things at that time, at least, I had failed. And you

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know, you feel pretty crappy about that. So what you need to

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know is that if you ever felt this way before, when it comes

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to goal setting, you may have an incorrect viewpoint on goals,

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like I did for pretty much most of my life. Judging the success

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solely based on that outcome. When I first started at New

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Horizons, one of the earliest things that the founder, Bob,

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did was to review my goals annually. Now, I don't think I

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really ever consciously made another goal probably between

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that presidential fitness test time and starting this first

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job. I mean, there were things that I wanted to do for sure,

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like go to a good college or make the varsity soccer team in

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high school. But most of the time, I never really organized

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them in my head is an actual goal. Just kind of, you know,

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like stuff you want to do. There wasn't a formal plan or anything

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like that to try to get me there and when Bob wanted to go over

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goals with me, it wasn't just business goals. He wanted my

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personal goals as well. And I found this really exceedingly

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difficult. You know, what do you put down for goals when your

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boss is asking? Should you make the goals really high to reach

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towards them? What if I make it really big and then I don't hit

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any of them and I look like a big loser in front of my boss.

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Should I put it low so that I can hit it? But you know what if

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he sees that I've really just setting super easy goals. What

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does that say about me? So it really took literally years for

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me to get to a point to not only stop being paranoid and anxious

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around goals, but to really embrace them and love them. And

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the switch for me was when I found out that goals aren't

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really to make you feel bad about yourself. There isn't

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necessarily a winning and losing to it. Goals are to help you be

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farther along than what you otherwise would be. So in my

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fitness test example, I doubled my pull ups. I was way further

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along than I otherwise would have been. So what you can do is

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take these lessons to your financial situation: make a goal

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for monthly savings, make a goal for updating your legal

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documents, make a goal for a budget. And if you don't hit it

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exactly, don't beat yourself up about it, as you're likely

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further along than you otherwise would have been. So if you're

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saving, let's say, $100 a month now, and you think, "hey, my

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goal is I'd love to be able to save $500 a month, that would

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just be fantastic" then go for it. If you only wind up saving

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$300 a month, you're still 200% better than your starting point.

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At 7% growth, that extra $200 a month would be around $35,000

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after 10 years that you otherwise would not have had. So

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that's nothing to scoff at at all. If you have no let's say

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legal documents set up and you give yourself 30 days, but it

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takes 45 days, hey, that's, that's still great, that's

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probably quicker than the 180 days it would have taken without

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any kind of a plan or a goal. The other great part of this is

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that when that time passes, it gives you a little reminder. If

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you just say to yourself, I should really get my legal

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documents done, you go years without revisiting it, like who

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wants to think about doing their legal documents?! If you change

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that statement to "my goal is to get my legal documents done in

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30 days", then when 30 days passed, if it isn't done, you

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could say "Wow, well, I didn't hit that but let me get let me

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get myself another 30 days and try again". But you have that

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reminder because you set a time frame for it.

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So the recap for today is to remember that goals are to help

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you make improvements more quickly. So don't think of them

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as as failures. Think of them as "Oh, I didn't do that. Let's try

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again. Let's reset that clock", and we're still on a path,

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probably get it to get it done quicker than we otherwise would

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have. All of this is about moving in the right direction,

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taking steps in that right direction. So remember, any step

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you take is a good thing. The most goal oriented ambitious

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people in the world do not hit 100% of their goals every single

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year. I've heard stats like anywhere from maybe 50% 60%.

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Like that was that was our best year. So you know nobody is

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setting all these goals and hitting on all of them. So don't

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let that stop you from not even setting one.

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Thanks as always for tuning in today. If you are able to

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implement what we're covering, that's fantastic. You're better

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off than you were before. You have less to worry about and you

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can just focus more on what we're all here to do, enjoying

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life. If you are wanting help with these things though, or

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have questions you need help in clarifying, check out that Ask

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Joe section on the show's website, www.enjoymore30s.com

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that's enjoy more 3 0 s.com. If you enjoyed this episode

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specifically, please make sure to subscribe reviews on Apple

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podcasts wherever you listen. There are literally millions of

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young families out there I'm trying to reach and help just

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like you.

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The next episode is Your Home Isn't an Investment, maybe

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surprising, where we're going to break down what needs to be true

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for something to really kinda have to be considered an

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investment and how people can sometimes make negative

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financial choices as a result of the traditional "your home is an

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investment" mindset. Until next week, thanks for joining me

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today and I look forward to connecting with you guys again

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soon.

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The conversations on this show are

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Joe's opinions and provided for general information purposes

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only. They do not constitute accounting, legal tax or other

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professional advice for your specific situation. You should

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always seek appropriate advice from a financial advisor,

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accountant, lawyer or other professional before acting upon

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any content or information found here first. Joe is affiliated

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with New Horizons Wealth Management LLC, a branch office

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of TFS Securities, Inc., and TFS Advisory Services an SEC

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registered investment advisor member FINRA/SIPC.