After New Years, everyone is scrambling to set their 2020 goals. But, 2021 is honestly not so far away! I mean it is already MARCH, only 9/12 more months to go. D:
I think it’s great to have big goals for 2020, but there is only so much you can achieve in one year! Instead, you should always be focused on long-game and your Future Financial Goals! In this article, I will share how you can set your future financial goals as a recent graduate in 3 simple steps:
- Self-Reflect
- Total Amount
- When You Need Your Money
SELF REFLECT:
The first step to setting your future financial goals is to self-reflect. Now I know we are all busy with our lives, with working, hanging out with friends, dating, etc, but it is important to take a step back and look at your life. When self-reflecting you should take some time to evaluate your current life, and where you want to be in 5, 10, and even 30 years when you retire.
ASK YOURSELF:
- What type of life would you be happy with? Would you be happy renting an apartment or townhouse for the rest of your life?
- Do you want kids? And if so are you willing to save on average $100,000 per child just for their tuition?
- When do you want to retire? Do you want to wait until you are 60 to start enjoying life when all your youthfulness is gone?
These are some of the questions you should be asking yourself. When setting your future financial goals, you have to create goals that primarily will make you happy. This is YOUR one and only life by the way.
2. TOTAL AMOUNT:
The second step to setting your future financial goals is determining the total dollar amount of your goals. Without having a number in mind, it is IMPOSSIBLE to hold yourself accountable to achieve your financial goals. People often say they want to move out in 5 years, yet they haven’t done any research on how much they will need in-order to move out.
Example:
Lets say you want to buy a place in Toronto in 5 years. First figure out the average condo price today, and then the historical growth rate of the condos. Now if you want to buy in 5 years, then add that growth rate to your condo price every year to get your purchase price. Your purchase price * 20% downpayment is your financial goal.
Do you think you will be able to achieve this? If you can that’s great, you got your first future financial goal, but if not you will likely have to reconsider and readjust your goals/expectations. (Sorry to be so blunt but this is the reality we face at least in the GTA). 🙁
3. WHEN YOU NEED THE MONEY:
We already talked a bit about the importance of when you will need the money, but there is another important reason to figure out exactly when you plan to achieve your financial goals! The timeframe in which you can save and invest your money is directly correlated with how much risk you are able to take. I covered this in “Should I Invest My Money.”
If you need the money in 10+ years, you have the “CAPACITY” to invest in riskier investments and achieve higher returns. The reason for this is that even if the market crashes, like it did a few weeks ago, you still can wait 10+ years for it to recover. If you just put in money in the stock market a few months ago, and you need the money tomorrow, you are not in luck because your investments have probably significantly decreased in value.
This investing strategy is known as goals-based investing, and I’ll be doing a separate article specifically for this. Subscribe below if you want to be notified of my next articles!
CASE STUDY:
Let’s take a quick example of the Toronto Real Estate Market.
**DISCLAIMER: I am just showing a estimation calculation I did not thoughly research this the Toronto real estate market **
Let’s say you self-reflected and you really want to live that thrilling downtown Toronto life.
- Currently, the average price of a 1-bedroom condo is $550,000.
- Assuming a historical growth rate of about 4% per year, the total price of a condo in 5 years will be $695.925.
- That means a 20% downpayment would be $139,185.00.
- That means over the 5 years, you would have to save approximately $27,937 per year.
Now although your salary may be 60k+, but take into taxes, expenses, and other savings goals, I saving 30k a year may be more difficult than you think. If saving 30k per year for 5 years is unreasonable, then may have to readjust your financial goal into something more realistic.
Conclusion:
In summary, to set your future financial goals, you need to 1. Self-Reflect, 2. Determine how much money you will need, and 3. When you will need it. By having a concrete number and timeline, you can set future financial goals that you can ACTUALLY achieve.
