Setting Financial Goals
SMART
Five Key Ways to Make Your Goals More Effective
About This Course
The smart way to explore the SMART goal framework is to craft a goal as you learn. In this interactive, animated course, you will listen to narration of the SMART goal approach, help characters in the course put the framework into practice, and then revise your own goal to enhance its outcome. It’s a hands-on way to help make your own goals more achievable.
Duration
Approximately 20 minutes
Note: This course features audio narration. To enable closed captioning, click CC at the bottom right-hand corner of the viewer.
Additional Details
Setting Financial Goals
Securing your financial well-being is one of the best gifts you can give yourself and your family. Your stable financial future starts with learning, planning, and setting effective goals. No matter how much, or little, money you have, it’s important to educate yourself about your opportunities. Let’s start by clarifying your financial aspirations and setting goals that are right for you.
What Matters Most
Make a list of what you want to achieve financially and rank your aspirations in order of importance. Some examples include saving for:
- Comfortable retirement
- A house
- Paying for college tuition
- A new washer and dryer
- A second car
After you have determined your financial targets, decide on a time frame. Knowing your deadline is important, because when you save or invest, you’ll need to find an investment option that fits the amount of time you have for achieving your goal. See Stock, Bonds, and More and Investment Strategies to learn about appropriate investments.
Setting SMART Goals
Establishing a time frame for your financial goal is just one factor of the SMART approach for meeting goals. This approach provides an effective framework for moving forward. With a SMART goal, you identify specific, achievable outcomes and set milestones and deadlines for progress. It’s a structured way to help ensure your goals are more than good intentions.
Ready to learn (or refresh your knowledge of) the SMART Goal approach?
With animated, interactive e-learning on setting SMART goals, you can craft the right goal for you. In this personalized online course, you will explore each component of the SMART acronym as you hone a goal that you really want to achieve.
Tips & Resources - Setting Financial Goals
- Be sure to include saving for your financial goals in your budget.
- Life happens. Understand that your progress may be slower than expected or you may not meet a goal. Celebrate how far you have come, reset the goal and begin again!
- Goals can be fluid and may change as your needs change. Review and revise your goals as your situation changes.
Not sure what to tackle first?
Visioning is a way to explore your aspirations, establish priorities, and create a long-term picture that can guide your short-term decisions. Crafting a vision for financial wellness can enhance motivation and increase your ability to work purposefully toward your goals.
You can start right now
Explore visioning at your own pace, on your schedule, with online, interactive e-learning that guides you through the visioning process:
Seeing Your Way to Wellness
How to Use Visioning to Create a Healthier Tomorrow
Kick-start your chances for improved health and financial well-being by taking a look inside. Spending a few minutes creating a vision for your personal wellness can help clear the way for progress.
Duration: Approximately 20 minutes
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