Financial Goal Setting - Are You Planning Your Life As You'd Plan Your Vacations?

When you go on vacations, do you just leaveare not capable of maintaining their standard of
your home one day and see how far you canliving once they retire.
go?Analyzing all the reasons for this alarming situation
Probably not.goes beyond the scope of this article, but one of
Most probably you'll plan beforehand how manythe main problems is lack of planning. Most people
days you'll leave, where you will go, what youjust don't plan for their future as well as they
have to take along and how much money you'llshould.
need.Back to our vacations. If you have ever planned
Strangely enough, while most people would find ita vacation, even if it was just a two day
absurd not to plan their vacations well, they hardlyweekend camp by the lake, it wasn't a difficult
plan for a much more important journey, that oftask, was it? You estimated your budget, planned
our short stay on this earth: our life.the transportation and the food and then you sat
Most people live from paycheck to paycheck.back and enjoyed the experience.
Their goal is trying to keep the bills paid andPlanning for your life should be just like that too.
getting as much out of life as they can in theThe problem is that most of us don't have the
meanwhile.adequate financial education to manage our
Statistics show how poorly people prepare formoney on the long term. Credit card debt levels
the future. Of every 100 Americans over 65show that most adults cannot even budget for a
years of age, 36 are dead, 54 depend on themonth.
government or on their relatives for support, 5That is why it is more important than ever to
are still working because they have to, 4 are wellacquire financial literacy. We have to learn to
off and only one is wealthy.exploit our God-given talents successfully, to
Only 5% have managed their finances well andmanage our money well and to set financial goals
more than 50% are dependent on others forthat will ensure our standard of living once we
support.retire.
Something is wrong. The vast majority of people