How To Stay Committed To Your Financial Goals

Financial goals are a game-changer, but setting them is just one step.

This is how to stay committed to your financial goals so you can smash them.

My first ever money goal was when I was around 14 and I wanted to get an MP3 player. 

My parents told me they didn’t have much so I worked in newspaper delivery in my neighbourhood until I saved up some money for it.

This left a profound mindset in my mind regarding having money goals and working to reach them.

Now in my very early thirties, I still operate under the mindset of setting financial goals and working towards achieving them.

Setting Financial Goals

Setting financial goals should be a part of your lifestyle.

Your goals will be different from my goals however, a life without goals will lead you anywhere.

It’s highly unlikely that financial goals are achieved by chance or accident. 

From paying off our debts and buying a house, to having over 3 months’ emergency fund saved, it all took intentionality.

Setting money goals is how you can become intentional about your money decisions.

I’d say set money goals for the short term and the long term.

For instance, you may aim to start living on less than your income over the next 3 months.

Then aim to invest £20,000 over the next 2 years.

How to Stay Committed To Your Financial Goals

Setting your goals is one thing, staging committed to them is quite another.

I’ll be honest with you, setting goals and working towards them is by no means a walk in the park.

You will face some hurdles, pitfalls and even resistance along the way, and this is where the true test of your commitment comes.

This may be from life throwing sucker punches at you and being caught off guard.

Or an issue arises that requires a substantial amount of money which would take you back to square one on your money goals.

Or, if we’re being transparent, you may just be too lazy to put in the work to make them happen.

I’ve had all three of the above happen to me and I’ve learnt some tricks and tips along the way to staying committed to your dreams.

This is how you can stay committed to your financial goals and be able to live your best financial life.

Develop Success Habits

Habits are small decisions you make and the small actions you take daily.

The majority of your life is ultimately the sum total of your habits.

You are what you repeatedly do, success is therefore not a destination but a habit.

Developing success habits involves starting a new habit and/or changing a negative habit.

Change Negative Habits

I like to tackle the negative habits first as these have a much stronger impact on my money mindset.

As a generalisation, negative habits involve being financially irresponsible.

This can be not checking your bank account balances, living without a budget, or spending all your money soon after payday.

Take the time to identify habits that will hinder you from reaching your money goals.

Early in our marriage, we were aiming to live on less than our income. 

We identified that a huge part of our money went to groceries.

Not because we were living on it but because we were buying a lot more than we ever needed.

To add fuel to the fire, we bought whatever we fancied whenever we felt like it, which was almost every other day.

Once you’ve identified your negative money habits, you can devise a plan to tackle and change them.

Develop Positive Habits 

The other side of the coin is to build new habits that will empower you to achieve your money goals.

In our above example, we started to plan our food shop and we did our shopping once for the whole week.

When we were saving up for our house we developed the pay yourself first habit.

This is where you prioritise savings before other non-essential expenses such as social events, personal shopping or takeaways.

Developing the right habits that you’ll do consistently over time plays a big part in staying committed to reaching your financial goals.

Build The Right Systems For Your Financial Goals

I am an absolute stickler for systems and processes.

This simply means having the right things in place that make it easier for you to do what you need to do.

Following on from our experience of managing our food shop, we built the system of planning our meals.

This was as simple as using the Notes app on our phones to write down the meals and ingredients required per meal.

This system still required us to do some work on our part of planning the meals and writing them down.

However, the biggest game-changer was when we opened a separate groceries account and set up an automated payment from our main account into it.

This groceries account had the exact amount we planned to spend on food from our budget.

This system worked wonders as the transfers were automated, and we knew we had to stick to it.

Other Kinds of Systems

Automating payments is one way of doing it.

Other options can include cutting your credit card so you can’t use it any longer.

Removing all card details from PayPal so you can control your impulse online spending habit.

Stop saying yes to someone asking for money before you figure out if you can help them.

The Best Money System You’ll Ever Need

By far the biggest money system that enables us to reach our goals is having a budget.

A budget is how you control your money or manage your expenses.

Above that, it’s a superpower to controlling your finances and making sure you put your money towards your financial goals.

If nothing else, having a budget will be the most impactful and empowering system you’ll ever have to stay committed to your financial goals.

This is why we’ve designed a budgeting spreadsheet for you which we call Our Ultimate Money Plan. This will empower you to plan your money towards reaching your financial goals.

Build The Right Team

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together!

Having the right team in your life that will supercharge you to stay committed to your financial goals.

There’s a certain grace and mental fortitude you get when you have the right circle around you.

I come from an African family and we truly believe (and I’m testament) that it takes a village to raise a child.

Think of your financial goals as your child that you want to nurture and grow to become what you dream of.

Having said that, I do warn that it’s important you be very selective about who you allow into your circle.

Sometimes your circle is not who you would have thought or the childhood friend you’re so close to.

Sometimes, friends aren’t the best circle to have when it comes to your financial goals.

Especially if you’re both seeking to lead and achieve different kinds of lifestyles.

How to Build The Right Team

Identify your strengths and weaknesses concerning your financial goals.

Your team is built to empower you where you lack, or to add more value to your strengths.

The areas you need some help, you find someone to uplift you.

You can find like-minded people on various online community groups on social media and become a part of that group.

Find someone who’s an authority in the area you’re interested in and buy all their products i.e. books and courses. 

To me, this person becomes a mentor of mine, even without a typical human to human interaction.

Alternatively, you can pay someone for direct mentoring and coaching.

Celebrate Small Milestones

I don’t like the idea that you can’t celebrate until you’ve reached and achieved a goal.

Think of school. You only graduate after completing the whole curriculum, and nothing happens in between.

I prefer celebrating each milestone along the way of your journey instead.

As I mentioned before, this road can be tough and it’s hard to stay on course the whole way.

Imagine not being able to feel a sense of accomplishment until you’ve saved up £30,000 from nothing. 

Despite that being a great goal to reach, you shouldn’t refrain celebrating your first £1,000 or reaching the halfway point of £15,000.

Celebrating small milestones is like getting a shot of confidence and determination to keep going.

It’s evidence that what you’re doing is working, but more than that, it shows you can do it!

Plus I use it as an opportunity to assess my journey so far and areas I perhaps could do better or what I could do more of.

How To Celebrate Your Smaller Money Goals

Break down the big goal into smaller chunks and key dates you aim to achieve them.

Set up a way to track the progress of your journey towards reaching your financial goals.

You can find various trackers for paying off debts or building savings online.

You can also track your spending through our free expense tracker, to know what’s going on with your money.

Set aside an evening, a day, or a weekend to take a moment to celebrate your journey.

It’s up to you how you celebrate.

But I hope it goes without saying, celebrating your savings journey doesn’t mean blow that savings on a night out.

You can simply have a takeaway night, a movie day, or have a call with someone from your circle to celebrate your milestone together.

Keep The Dream Alive

Often the present situation can distort your mind from the goals you set and dreams you want to bring to life.

Keeping the dream alive is when you take the necessary steps to keep the dream alive in your mind. This works differently for everyone.

At the very least, I’d say everyone should write down their goals somewhere you can easily read often.

By reading your goals often you drown out the noise of the challenges and busyness of our daily lives and just dream.

The only reason we were able to buy our house is that we kept our dream so alive in our minds we endured the pain of renting a bedroom.

How Do You Keep Your Dreams Alive?

First, have your goals somewhere you can easily visit and revisit at any given time. 

This can be your notes app on your phone, screensaver on your devices, or stuck on your bedroom wall.

Secondly, design a vision board.

A vision board is where you visually express your goals through pictures and/or certain phrases.

For example, if your goal is to buy a house, you’d put a picture that represents your dream house on your vision board.

You may also add affirmations underneath the picture such as I deserve a beautiful home for my family where we’ll be happy. 

Finally, talk about your dream life often.

I believe words carry power and the more you verbalise something the more real it becomes for you.

Building a habit of positive self-talk is one that will serve you well in all areas of your life.

In this case, it will strengthen your resolve to stay committed to your financial goals.

Take Action

Develop your financial goals today.

Analyse your habits and see which habits you need to stop and which ones you need to start.

Set up the right systems to help you win.

Connect with the right circle to help you on the way.

Build the elements that will enable you to keep the dream alive.

Save this and refer to it often to stay committed to your financial goals.

Share this with your friend, family, or partner and encourage them to do the same.

Let us know how you’re getting along by getting in touch with us, we’d love to hear from you

Knowledge is powerless without action

So take action, and take care

Thando