Goals are incredibly important.

Whether little or large, goals can help us focus on a direction and can support us to achieve the vision we have for our lives.

Goals are personal. You goals are unique to you and should be centred around milestones that would enrich you personally.

Some goals may be connected with being healthier, being fitter or even being happier. When it comes to financial goals, at Financielle we have a particular methodology that we like to use and we’re going to share it with you now.

Financielle Goal Setting: Research it. Model it. Plan it. Track it.

• Research it.
• Model it.
• Plan it.
• Track it.

Research it.

Research your goal. Be specific about the goal it is to become. Anyone that has done any amount of manifestation before – bring your goal to life. Do the leg work, understand the logistics, get the numbers. This could start on a simple piece of paper or it could be a mini spreadsheet. We want a financial number to aim for.

Model it.

Go through your current budget; note down what comes in (i.e. your income) and what goes out (i.e. your expenses) and you will be left with your Excess. Your Excess is the money you have to put towards your goals and with your Excess number and your financial goal number, you should be able to work out how long it will take you to hit your goal, if at all.

Plan it.

Now we build a plan. If you’re not on track through your current financial model to hit the goal, you need to do something about it. Do you need a higher Excess? If so, remember when we squeeze your budget in The Financielle Playbook, we do what we can do increase income and decrease expenses to grow that Excess. We need to build a plan of action to help us hit our goal.

Track it.

What we focus on, moves. We need to track our progress to remained focus on our goal and build momentum as we work to complete the goal. That’s why we created the goal setting area in Financielle App, so we can all set our goals and track our progress against them.

Let’s take a couple of examples.

FINANCIAL GOAL 1: One amazing holiday per year.

Research it:

• What’s an example destination? How long would you go for? What standard hotel do you want? How much does that cost? Have you priced it up? What spending money will you need?
• Let’s say it’s £5K, we need to build up to the point where you can have this in your budget every year since the goal is annual.
• This means having roughly £417 per month in Excess that we can then direct to an annual travel sinking fund.

Model it:

• Do your budget, in the Financielle App, on a spreadsheet or even on a sheet of paper.
• Take your income, minus your expenses, what is the Excess?
• Does the excess help you hit your goal?

Plan it:

• If your Excess is enough, you can then switch to making this a travel sinking fund monthly amount. Remember, this then brings your Excess back down to zero as suddenly, annual luxury travel becomes a line in your budget.
• If your Excess isn’t high enough, you need to try balance your budget to make sure you have enough money to do all the above.
• What can you cut out of your budget to switch out for travel? For example, takeaways and impulse clothes buying may not be as rewarding to you as memory building trips around the world.
• Where else could you bring in income to contribute to the budget? For example a part time job, asking for pay rise, thinking up a side hustle – with a goal in mind. Side hustles that can bring £500 / math for example.
• If this is too much of a stretch, could you plan the travel every other year? Or reduce the travel budget?

Track it.

• Use your goal tracker in the Financielle App to track your progress towards your travel financial goal.

FINANCIAL GOAL 2: Buying a home

Research it.

• Where do you want to live? What does it cost? What do bills cost? What is your earning trajectory going to be? Can you afford the mortgage repayments? Have you spoken to a mortgage advisor?
• Let’s say it’s a £200K house and you need £20K deposit plus £5k fees and money for interiors/appliances etc, your financial goal number is £25K.

Model it.

• Do your budget, what is your Excess?  How long will it take to save £25K at your current rate?

Plan it.

• You now need a plan to grow that Excess if you want to speed up the time it is going to take. How can you grow that Excess?  Do you have debt to pay off that will then help improve your credit and grow your Excess? Can you squeeze your budget?
• Where else could deposit funds come from? For example a Lifetime ISA could secure you an extra £1K per year from the government. Could you sell things on FB marketplace? Is anyone gifting you anything towards the deposit?

Track it.

• Use your goal tracker in the Financielle App to track your progress towards your house deposit financial goal.

Our last tip for setting financial goals? Tell people about your goal. Bringing your goal to life, taking accountability for it and sharing it with others will support you to tackle it head on and make it happen.

This method can be used for any type of financial goal. Financial independence, house renovations, starting a business and even becoming an ISA millionaire!

Good luck and don’t forget to screenshot your goals and send them to us ❤️