Values are the beliefs and practices in your life that are
very important to . So many things can influence
your values—your parents, other family members,
friends, your religion, you read, and experiences
you have. Your values may even change over time as
learn and do new things.
The point is that you have a set of . And they
affect all the choices you make, including your choices
about money. Maybe believe it’s important to
donate money to charity. Or maybe you’d rather have
money the bank than a new car of your own. These
types of beliefs and reveal your values about
money. Knowing what they are makes it much easier to
a plan for getting the things you really want.
Getting SMART About Your Goals
probably know that a goal is something you aim
for. It’s something you want be, do, or have at
some future time. It points you in the direction
need to take. Achieving a goal gives you a sense of
accomplishment, which spurs on to setting new
goals for even bigger and better things. So learning to
and set clear goals is key to your success in life.
If one of personal goals is to go to college the same
year you graduate from high , you know you have
to take the SATs, decide which schools to apply to,
mail applications by certain deadlines. Knowing what
you’re aiming for makes it a lot to map out a
process to see what you have to do to meet goal.
But if you don’t set the clear goal of going to college the
year you graduate from high school, you could
easily miss some of the things need to do to meet
your goal.
Setting clear financial goals is also important. ’s easier
to find the money for a June trip to Florida if you decide
January that this is what you want, then make a plan
to save for , instead of trying to scrounge up the money
to go at the last minute.
thing you need to know about your goals is how
long you expect they take to accomplish. Goals that
you want to achieve within the next three months
called short-term goals. Goals that are set for three
months to a year are intermediate-term goals.
Long-term goals are ones that it’ll take you more than a
year achieve.