3 Tips for a Successful Financial Vision Board

Alicia Nelson-Bell, EFW Program Coordinator

You asked for it in response to one of our Utah Money Moms’ Instagram story conversations a few weeks ago, and here it is! Three tips for a successful financial vision board. Vision boards aren’t just a collage of pretty pictures. You can bring your financial goals to life by properly using a vision board through the power of visualization. Many experts have talked about the power that envisioning success can have and a financial vision board is an extremely effective tool. Here are three of our favorite tips to help you succeed:

1. Dream without Fear: When creating your financial vision board take time and allow yourself to dream of what you would like your life to look and feel like. Don’t let fear or doubt keep you getting started. We’ll talk about making these things more realistic in a bit, but for now just dream big and try to only focus on positive thoughts rather than things that haven’t worked in the past. DO THIS TODAY: Take time to write down what you want your life to be like in 10 years (kind of like when you wrote a letter to your future self in school), what would this look like? What does success look and feel like to YOU? Add pictures or words that represent these things to your financial vision board. Your board can include pictures of things or experiences you want your financial situation to help you have and pictures or words describing the feelings you want to feel. It can be as big or small as you prefer.
2. Set Realistic Goals with Actionable Steps: Now it is time to create steps to make your vision board your reality! Brainstorm a few small steps you can take this month, next month and this year to help you get where you envisioned on your board. One of the problems many people run into when they create a vision board is that they’re simply hoping these great things will just come to them. The truth is, if you want to change your reality and create a vision board that actually works, you need to plan out ways to do the work. Pick intentional, simple steps so you’re not overwhelmed. Make sure these steps are aligned with your vision of success and the things you value most.
3. Make Strategic Space for Your Financial Vision Board: Research shows that a financial vision board has greatest impact when it’s placed where you will see it every day. While it may be convenient to start creating a financial vision board in an app or by pinning things on Pinterest, it must eventually be created by you on a physical piece of paper. The action steps you created in step two should be things you can be working on each day or each week, so it is important that you are seeing your vision board often to keep your mind motivated. Keep your vision of success on your mind and it will become your reality.  Vision + Action = Success!  

Don’t let fear get in the way of creating your financial vision board. Put your goals and dreams down on paper and then create small steps to take daily and weekly. Hang your financial vision board where you will see it daily so you will constantly have a reminder. Include goals from all areas of life on your vision board, because as we often say, all of our life goals have financial implications of some kind.