By J.P. Dahdah, Founder & CEO of Vantage
January is an inspirational time of the year. People feel motivated to start over with a clean slate. New financial goals. New habits. New mindset. But how much of that carries into February? March? Beyond? Now is the time to prioritize your goals for 2022.
The answer depends.
Did you say your goal was a priority? Or did you make it a priority?
Often, we talk about our priorities, but we don’t always act to turn them into realities. It’s even harder when we have competing interests, like family, fun, and saving money. Fun activities usually cost money, and it’s hard to save money when you’re spending it on fun. Or family and work.
Typically, as a young person, the priority is having fun with friends and starting a career. But as you lean into your career and your relationships deepen, focus tends to shift. Starting a family, saving for your first home or retirement become more prominent priorities. We show what’s most important to us through how we spend our time.
Which leads to the question: how will you spend your time in 2022?
It isn’t enough to simply say I’m going to do this. Actions go hand-in-hand with goals. Now is the time to set your intention and outline the steps to get there. With that in mind, I want to share the three steps you can take.
1. Identify what is important to you. What are your priorities?
2. Detail the actions you will take. Get specific.
3. Schedule it. Build the actions into your calendar or budget.
To give you an example of what that might look like:
Priorities/Goals:
1. Spend more time with family and friends.
2. Work towards a new role at work.
3. Save for your retirement.
Specific Actions:
1. Which family members and friends? How often do you want to see them?
2. Take on special projects outside your current role. Become a mentor to a new teammate.
3. Determine annual goal then how much per month, quarter do you need to put aside.
To Do:
1. Date night with my partner every Saturday, starting at 1:00pm.
2. Family dinner with my parents at 4:00pm on the last Sunday of each month.
3. Meeting with my direct report on the first Friday of every quarter to see where I can add value to our team.
4. Lunch with a teammate who works outside my department on the 15th of each month to get to know them.
5. Contribute $250 per paycheck to max out my traditional IRA.
In this example, by adopting this system, you can set expectations with family and be purposeful in your career and retirement saving.
Your actions are saying so.
Aside from being a great goal and time management tool, using these steps can be a great budgeting tool, too. If you have financial goals you want to achieve each year, it’s time to plan them out. How are you going to balance vacation, daily spending, and long-term investment?
Set your intention. And align it in a way to keep you moving forward all year long. Block and protect your time and money.
If you choose to complete this exercise, you’ll walk away from it with clarity of how your year will look, personally, professionally and financially.
It’s a new year. And with it comes the opportunity for new and impactful goals. Make sure you are taking the right steps to turn your goals into realities. Write them down. Plan for your actions. Make them happen.
Prioritize what’s most important to you, and you’ll end 2022 the way you started it. Inspired and successful.
At Vantage, we’re here to help make the Self-Directed IRA easy to understand and even easier to take advantage of. If one of your goals is taking control of your investments, give us a call at 866-459-4580 to learn more about your investment options through a Self-Directed IRA.