Question

Identify two to five financial goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. Include the factors you considered to set your goals. For example, describe the role your personal financial statement and balance sheet played in informing your goals.

Answer 1

A personal financial statement is a document or spreadsheet outlining an individual's financial position at a given point in time. A personal financial statement will typically include general information about the individual, such as name and address, along with a breakdown of total assets and liabilities.

The statement is useful for tracking goals and wealth. It is also often required when applying for credit.

• The personal financial statement lists all assets and liabilities of an individual or couple.
• Subtract liabilities from assets to see the net worth. Positive net worth shows that the person has more assets than liabilities.
• Net worth can fluctuate over time as asset and liability values change.
• Personal financial statements are helpful for tracking wealth and goals, as well as applying for credit.
• Income and expenses can be included, but ideally, these are placed on a separate sheet called the income statement.

The main factors we considered to set our goals are:-

• Specific.
• Measurable.
• Attainable.
• Relevant.
• Time-Bound

My Financial goals examples which are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely are :

1) Reaching a Blog Earnings Milestone

Even when using a platform such as WordPress, getting a blog to the point where it earns you money requires a lot of work. However, it’s also something you can turn into a SMART goal. Here’s how:

• Specific: First off, you’ll want to set a number to aim for. This will be specific to you, although $100 for a new blog is a good start.
• Measurable: Of course, it’s easy enough to measure your success here, since money is all numbers and there are various associated metrics you can track.
• Attainable: As we said, it’s a reasonable target for a somewhat new blog to bring in at least $100 per month.
• Relevant: This type of goal would definitely be relevant for many, including affiliate marketers, or someone looking to sell a product (such as the previous e-book example).
• Time-Bound: Again, this will be based on your own setup, although we’d recommend a reasonable six-month window to complete the task.

2) Publish a Greater Volume of Blog Posts

In our opinion, the best way to get more organic traffic hitting our blog is to publish content consistently. The more we archive grows, the greater the chance of increasing your visitor numbers. Let’s break this goal down using the SMART model:

• Specific: For a small to medium-sized blog, moving from one to two articles per week is a pretty good starting point.
• Measurable: For this goal, we suggest you track your performance on a monthly basis, and check whether you’re missing any deadlines.
• Attainable: Depending on your workload, two posts per week is perfectly doable. If it isn’t, you either need to reassess your goal, or outsource some of the work.
• Relevant: Your ultimate goal is the growth of your blog, and publishing more content is the equivalent of building the pathway to it.
• Time-Bound: For this goal, we recommend setting a minimum of one month for completion. Then, you can re-evaluate until you find a happy spot for you.

Financial goals are the personal, big-picture objectives you set for how you’ll save and spend money. They can be things you hope to achieve in the short term or further down the road. Either way, it’s often easier to reach your goals if you identify them in advance.

Examples of financial goals

Think about what’s important to you as you begin to set goals. It’s completely normal to have several goals, and for them to change over time.

Examples of financial goals include:

• Paying off debt.
• Saving for retirement.
• Building an emergency fund.
• Buying a home.
• Saving for a vacation.
• Starting a business.
• Feeling financially secure.