Without goals, maintaining a regular financial plan is a lot like maintaining a regular exercise program — easy to start, difficult to sustain.

Don't worry so much whether your investing goal is noble or logical. Perhaps you want to invest so you have enough money to move to Italy and paint. Maybe you invest because you have nothing else to do with your time.

In the end, it really doesn't matter why you invest. Just that you have a why. The why provides an anchor to your investment program, the raison d'etre. You'll need this anchor to develop the discipline to invest regularly over a long period of time.

Developing a Goal
As you develop a goal, keep in mind the following:

		Make sure the goal is something you truly want. This goal has to matter to you because achieving it will require a great deal of time and effort. You've got to want it bad, so bad that failure is not an option. The goal has to be extremely personal, something you care about a great deal. Powerful goals feed off powerful values. What do we value most in life? Family. Freedom. Spirituality. Leisure. Health. Friendship. Self-preservation. Charity. Creativity. Tie goals to important values, and your chances of succeeding skyrocket.
		Goals and plans should be specific. Specific goals focus your commitment. Progress is more easily measured and evaluated. That's key, especially given the length of time necessary to stay on the right track.
		Written goals are better than mental goals. A goal in your mind is merely a dream. Dreams are fine. But let's face it — dreams are, well, dreams. They lack a concrete quality that demands a commitment on your part. Dreams are hopes and wishes. That's why dreams don't come true. A written goal, on the other hand, takes the abstractness of a dream and makes it concrete. The dream is now on paper in black and white. In a way, you've signed a contract. You've made an official record. I know it sounds a bit silly, but try it. You'll feel a much greater level of commitment to pursuing the goal simply by writing it down.
		Limit your goals. Limiting your goals focuses your efforts. If you have too many objectives — you want to retire early, endow a chair at the university, travel around the world, pay for the grandkids' tuition — you'll lose the focus necessary to reach your primary goal.
		Keep the goal to yourself. The world is full of naysayers. You don't need someone telling you that you'll never reach your goal.
		Think of reaching your goal as a series of small steps. When I establish a goal, I don't think of the goal in its entirety. I break the process of attaining the goal into small steps. Doing so makes the ultimate goal much more attainable. Most people look at the goal as one giant leap from here to there. It's easy to see why such people fail. They become impatient. The goal seems beyond their reach. Dissect the goal into a series of "mini" goals. For example, if you want, say, $1 million by age 65, you may want to break that goal into a series of smaller victories -- $250,000 by age 50, $500,000 by age 57, and so on.

SMART Goals

Paul J. Meyer, a noted expert and lecturer on goal setting, summarizes the goal-setting process in one acronym — SMART. The goal must be:

		Specific. To set a specific goal, you must answer the six "W" questions: Who — Who is involved? What — What do I want to accomplish? Where — Identify a location. When — Establish a time frame. Which — Identify requirements and constraints. Why — Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.
		Measurable. Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set. When you measure your progress, you stay on track and post minor victories. It is those minor victories that spur you to reach your final goal.
		Attainable. When you identify goals that are most important to you, you figure out ways to make them come true. You see new and previously overlooked ways to attain your goals.
		Realistic. To be realistic, a goal must be one toward which you are willing and able to work. Don't be afraid to set your goals high.
		Tangible. Goals should be tangible. If you can experience a goal with your senses — what you taste, touch, see, smell, or hear — it becomes much more real and attainable. It also makes it easier to visualize the goal, and visualization is extremely important. The more you can visualize attaining your goal, the better chance you have of actually achieving it.

Conclusion

Goals are an integral part of successful financial planning. If you don't have a goal, get one. If you have a goal, make it more compelling by focusing and simplifying it.

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