The Ultimate Guide for Creating and Accomplishing Your 2023 Money Goals
It’s been a tough couple of years. Maybe you’re still facing long-term financial consequences from the pandemic. Maybe you relocated and are still figuring out your new city. Maybe your finances have you up at night because your investment portfolio is looking scarce these days.
Whatever you experienced this year or are currently facing, I hope you’re able to spend some time this season reflecting on the good. It can be hard to find the good - both personally and on a national level. But I promise you - there’s still some good out there.
From January 2022 to October 2022, the US Department of Veterans Affairs has secured permanent housing for 30,914 homeless veterans - and they have goals to place even more by the end of the year. In the first quarter of 2022, 1.45 million entrepreneurs reached their goal of starting their own businesses.
The human mind is a powerful tool and when we set goals for ourselves and our businesses, the sky is truly the limit. Goals help us stay motivated and on track when life gets hard and the unexpected happens.
What goals do you have for yourself in 2023? Maybe you want to practice more mindfulness, learn a new skill, or increase your customer base by 15%. When it comes to your finances, I want to show you how to create and accomplish your money goals in 2023 so you can soar to new heights and live the life you’ve dreamed of.
When you define purposeful goals for your money, anything can be achieved.
Create Your 2023 Personal Finance Goals
Before you start creating your financial goals, start by writing down your dreams and aspirations. What do you want your life to look like? What is most important to you?
Money itself should never be the end goal, but rather the means to get you to bigger, meaningful goals.
These goals are going to be highly personalized. Some people want to FIRE at age 35 and never work another day in their life. Others may want to prioritize memorable family vacations while they still have their kids at home, even if that means more working years. There are no right or wrong goals, they’re simply different from person to person.
Here are some categories to think about when creating your 2023 personal finance goals.
Career and Education
Think about your current position and compare it to where you would like to be. Here are some considerations to get your goal-setting started:
Do you enjoy your current company and perhaps want to advance internally?
Do you want to switch career paths entirely? Does the new path require formal education? What kind of funding will you need for formal education?
Do you want to gain more skills? Is there a mentor or a program that could help you with this?
Do you want to start your own business?
Each goal has varying levels of effort that will be required. Asking someone to mentor you is vastly different from starting a 4-year degree program. But whatever is needed, you can absolutely get started on accomplishing your goals in 2023.
Budgeting & Saving
If you don’t have a sustainable budget and method of tracking your expenses, 2023 could be the perfect time to get these systems in place! A budget will help keep your spending in check and reach your short, medium, and long-term savings goals.
Examples of budgeting techniques include the 50/30/20 method, the pay-your-self-first method, the envelope system, zero-based budgeting, and more!
Whichever method you choose, try to stick to it for a couple of months. It can take time to adjust and it often takes practice and endurance to grow in financial diligence. Having a budget can help you accomplish different savings goals.
Short-term (0-5 years) savings goal examples: house down payment, car, wedding, vacation, debt payoff, or a fully funded emergency fund.
Medium-term (6-10 years) savings goal examples: child’s college education, starting a business, home renovations, anything from the short-term list that might be longer than 5 years.
Long-term (10+ years) savings goal examples: retirement fund, paying off your mortgage, buying a second home, extensive HSA account.
All of your savings goals should be prioritized and updated, as needed. Life happens and your plan won’t always go as expected, but it’s important to have your goals in place as a roadmap.
Investing
Investing goals can be short or long-term and they can help you reach your savings goals and grow your portfolio.
Short-term retirement vehicles: brokerage accounts, real estate, CDs, money market accounts, bonds, and alternative investments.
Long-term retirement vehicles: 401(k)s, Roth IRAs, self-directed IRAs, or pension plans.
Debt
Debt weighs both you and your budget down. Consider setting up a debt repayment goal for 2023. List all of your debt and choose a repayment strategy.
Some debt repayment strategies include:
Debt snowball: paying debts off in order from the smallest principle to the largest.
Cash flow index method: paying off debts that impact your cash flow the most.
Debt avalanche: paying debts off in order from debt with the highest interest rate to the smallest interest rate.
Choose one of these strategies and get your finances on track for financial freedom.
Giving
Giving can have a major impact on our career advancement and money management. The simple act of giving to others increases our happiness, which increases our confidence, overall work performance, and entrepreneurial drive.
Determine how much money you currently give away - percentage or dollar amount - and see if it’s in alignment with your giving goals. If you’d like to give more - and it’s in the budget - think of the charities, causes, etc. that you’d like to give to and the impact your donation will have.
Money Mindset
Maybe your biggest financial goal doesn’t have a dollar amount attached to it whatsoever. Maybe your money mindset needs some improvement.
Your money mindset is comprised of the attitudes you have surrounding money. These core beliefs are often developed in our childhood and affect the way we spend, save, handle debt, and more.
If you’re unhappy with your money mindset - maybe you’re a penny pincher scared to give any money away or maybe you can’t seem to stop spending your entire paycheck - set a money mindset goal.
To get started, discover your current money mindset and dive into your fears, triggers, and habits surrounding money, then think about the mindset you’d like to have instead.
How to Accomplish Your 2023 Money Goals
Now that you have your list of money goals, it’s time to make a plan to achieve them. You’ve probably heard of the acronym S.M.A.R.T before. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. This is an excellent method to apply to your 2023 money goals.
Specific: From the list above, pull out your goals and make them as specific as possible. For example, don’t just put “invest more”. Instead try, “I want to increase what I put in my company 401(k) by 10% every paycheck and invest 5% of my monthly income to a brokerage account to save for my 10th wedding anniversary trip.”
Measurable: This aspect of SMART goals should be pretty easy when it comes to financial goals because most goals will have percentages or dollar amounts associated with them. Using the example from above, you could check in with yourself in 3 months to ensure the 10% and 5% are still flowing into your investment accounts and that it’s sustainable.
Achievable: Speaking of sustainability, you want to make sure your goals are achievable given your income, lifestyle, cost of living, and other factors. If you have 4 mouths to feed, it’s probably not achievable to invest 90% of your income. You can still set goals that make you stretch or even make you a little uncomfortable but don’t be unrealistic.
Relevant: Make sure your money and financial goals are relevant to your life. Don’t set goals that don’t apply or belong to different areas of your life.
Timely: Assign a deadline to each of your financial goals, with smaller deadlines along the way. For example, “I want to be in a new career field by the end of 2023.” Smaller deadlines could include, “By the end of March, I will have completed 2 relevant online courses” and “By the end of September, I will have applied to 3 companies in the new field.”
Some other tips that will help you accomplish your 2023 money goals include:
Visualizing: Imagine your first Monday as an entrepreneur. Picture yourself on the beach with your spouse celebrating a milestone anniversary. Or visualize your retirement full of freedom and time with loved ones. Whatever your goal is, visualize it! This will help you stay motivated and remember what you’re working towards.
Automate: Set it and forget it! Consider automating savings, investing, and debt payments.
Get inspired: Read books and listen to podcasts to get educated and inspired.
Don’t do it alone: A financial coach can provide you with the necessary tools and encouragement to reach your financial goals. Their expertise and experience can offer you judgment-free advice, clear action steps, security, peace of mind, confidence, education, and accountability.
Create and Accomplish Your 2023 Money Goals With Financial Fitness Coaching
At Financial Fitness Coaching, we love the new year because it brings a fresh start, a new perspective, and the inspiration to reach big intimidating goals. I have goals for my personal and professional lives this year and I can’t wait to hear yours! To see how we can help you and your business email me at kristen@financialfitnesscoaching.com or simply schedule a free 20-minute Discovery Call on my calendar.