Having a Financial Goal WILL Change Your Behavior
Goals can be a great motivator. A goal gives a person something to work for, a purpose, and a reason for continuing down a path when things get difficult. I’ve heard many motivational speakers refer to it as your, “Why.†Such a goal can be the stimulus that spawns a major change in behavior. Let me give you some examples of what I’m talking about.
My son recently had a gaming friend who lived across the country, and whom he had only talked to online, stay with us for a week. They really hit it off, and are already planning for the friend to come back during winter break. A few days later, I noticed my son had made an extra transfer of funds to his savings account. When I questioned him about the transfer, he stated he wanted to save some extra money to make sure his friend could make the trip this winter. I commended him for his willingness to help his friend. As we talked more, he had an amount in mind he wanted to save, and was willing to make sacrifices in his weekly spending to make it happen.
My son was willing to reduce his own spending to meet a goal of helping his friend make a return visit this winter.
Last month, I announced my plan to pay off nearly $10,000 in debt by the end of the year. To do this, we are reducing our weekly spending, suspending our savings, and picking up extra work to generate more income. Once the debt is gone, we will have extra money in our budget to apply to things such as our son’s college education fund.
We are willing to make sacrifices to put ourselves in a position to help our son with the cost of his college education.
Both my son and I have goals. We both have our, “why,†to keep us going when things might get tough. When my son might want to buy something extra for himself, he’ll think about how much fun he’ll have with his friend, and put money into his savings account instead. When I’m tempted to go out to eat, or buy something I don’t need, I’ll think about how much I want to help my son graduate from college debt free. I’ll apply those funds towards paying down my debt instead.
Goals can be powerful motivation that help generate change in your financial life. I can see it happening to myself, and I can see it happening to my son. How about you Clever Friends? Are you working towards a financial goal that motivates you?
Brought to you courtesy of Brock
Brock is a software engineer by day and personal finance blogger at night. He is a fitness junkie and enjoys grilling and smoking meat. Married with two children, Brock strives to improve his skills as a husband and father, and is always on the lookout to stretch his family’s budget as far as he can.
Goals are super powerful, I like to use multiple goals to stay motivated and on top of each one.
My goal is to pay off one of our large credit cards by the end of the year. I can’t wait! I feel like I’m finally making significant headway towards my goal, which is very motivating.
I also think ahead to the fun stuff that awaits once we’re debt-free, such as investing in real estate.
I was just thinking about this today while working on my post for tomorrow. Setting goals has made a huge difference in my life – especially over the last three years that I’ve been blogging – and tracking my progress has made a huge difference in my success rate.
My husband and I both have a short term and a little bit of a longer term goal that we are working toward. We have been quite frugal through our entire marriage so it’s not hard for us to put our extra money all into savings. We do go out, but we do activities that cost little to nothing. Goals are great motivators. Thanks for sharing!