Checking Up On Your Financial Goals

Alicia Nelson-Bell, Finance Intern

​Resolving to be better with your money in some way in the coming year is among the top three categories for New Year’s resolutions in the US according to a recent survey (Finder, 2020). Many lessons were learned from the unique year of 2020, including many ways in which people found that they were being successful in aspects of their lives as well as other ways in which they felt they could do better. 

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According to a 2020 article from Magnify Money, about 51% of Americans were planning on setting new years resolutions for 2021 that were finance related and 53% who set finance related resolutions for 2020 reported that they achieved it. If you are among the 51% of Americans that set a finance related resolution, this is for you because we want to help you be successful in reaching your goals. We have almost half of the year left, so now is the time to check in on how you are doing with your goals finance related and non-finance related.
Reasons goals fail to be achieved:

• You know your what but not your why: you know what you want to achieve, but you have either forgotten or never established why achieving that goal/making that change is important to your life.
• You have no social support: If you don’t have a social support team or partner to be accountable to then it can be so much easier to slack off on making the needed change to reach your goals. Change can be hard, especially changing financial habits, so it is so important to have support to keep you going when it gets hard.
• You don’t track your progress: Right now, as we are just over half way through the year, is a great time to do some reflecting on both what has been successful/ the positive progress you have made and what hasn’t worked as well for you. Be sure to celebrate your progress no matter how big or small and recommit to why it is important to you and small, measurable steps you are going to take to see success between now and the end of the year.
• You’re treating a marathon like a sprint: Good things take time with any goal, but especially financial goals. Be patient and take small steps that allow you to see sustainable progress. If you make drastic changes all at once they may be hard to sustain.
• Too much thinking and not enough doing: Make sure that your goals are specific and measurable, but don’t spend so much time planning them out that you overwhelm yourself and don’t make any progress.
• People set them and then forget them: Many people set goals and forget about them until the end of the year and wonder why they didn’t make any progress. It is important to revisit your goals often and reflect on your progress and ways you can do better going forward.

Tips to see success in your 2021 financial goals:

• Make sure you didn’t set too broad of a goal at the beginning of the year- If you find that you did, see how you can make it more specific so it is more achievable.
• Have a way to track and measure your success with your goals- have an accountability partner that can keep you on track. Have specific times set that you will evaluate your goals, weekly or monthly. Have a way to reward your progress.
• Make sure that your goal is something that is realistic for you to achieve- don’t set goals that aren’t realistic or it will be hard to have any motivation to try and even make any progress. Don’t set a goal to save $50,000 in a year if you only make $40,000.
• Have frequent times to evaluate your progress- This can be essential in maintaining motivation to keep going. This will keep the what and the why of your goals on your mind so that you don’t forget, like many people.

These same principles can be applied to your short-term goals that you are working on for the year of 2021 as well as your intermediate and long-term goals to help you be successful in reaching the life you want. As Dr. Lucy Delgadillo professor at USU once said, “We do not have financial goals, we have life goals with financial consequences” as you achieve success with your financial goals, you will see yourself more able to have success with other goals in your life. Just remember to constantly keep the what and why of your goals on your mind and evaluate often.