Visualize Wealth
What does it mean to 'visualize' my future?
I think everything starts with a vision. I'm a huge supporter of figuring out where you are today, but even more importantly, figuring out where you really want to be in a year or five years or ten years. It's the vision that really propels us, that gives us the inspiration and the motivation to move forward. We have to get crystal clear on what it is that we truly want, because once we know that, getting there just a whole lot easier. That's what visualizing your future is all about.
How can I visualize my future in a way that helps me plan financially?
The Six Day Financial Makeover' is about finances, but in it I talk about getting a balanced life. I talk about life zones, and life zones are really the areas in your life that are most important to you. Some common ones are family and relationships, maybe financial health and physical health, spirituality - just the major areas that you really identify with that are important to you. Within each of those life zones I talk about answering three questions and the three questions are: What do I want to own? What do I want to accomplish? and Who do I want to be? For example, let's say in your family life zone you decided, "I really want to spend more time with my family; more quality, engaging time with my family." Ask yourself, "What do I want to own and how can that support my vision to really want to have quality time with my family?" Maybe you could own an RV or a pool. By having an RV you can take family trips, you can go all over the country and spend quality time with your family. Maybe for your physical health life zone you decide, "I really want to get in shape, I want to slim down five or ten pounds." What can you own to help you do that? Maybe a treadmill, maybe a personal gym, to make it easier for you to work out. For each of these life zone, think about what you want to own, what you want to accomplish and who you want to be. By doing that, you really will become crystal clear on what it is that you want.
What are some common mistakes when setting financial goals?
I think one of the biggest mistakes some people make in setting their financial goals is that they just don't! There's so much talk about setting goals, but I think there's a lot of talk but there's not a whole lot of doing. That's the first mistake. People just aren't thinking about what it is that they really want. That's the first hurdle - coming up the things that I want from life: what I want to own, accomplish, and be. Another mistake is not coming up with really specific goals, and goals that are attainable but not easily attainable; things that move you and push you and really inspire you. If you have a list of goals that are really easy to do, you're going to look at them and think, "Big deal" - you're not going to be motivated. You need to have challenging goals, things that make you want to get off the couch and do something. That's the thing that separates mediocre financial goals from good, powerful goals.
What holds people back from setting financial goals?
What makes a financial goal effective?
How can I set effective financial goals?
Let's say that one of your life zones is a family. You want to spend more quality time with your family. One of the things you want to accomplish is to take them to Disney World. Maybe you want to drive cross country with them, spend a whole lot of time – not sure how much quality time that is, but let's just say it is – quality time with the family driving to Disney World. The question is, "How can we make that more of a specific financial goal?" Well, what's it going to cost to rent an RV? What will it cost you to take time off from work? What will it cost you to get into Disney World, and to pay the way for all the rides and the food? All of these things have a dollar sign associated with them. They all cost money. For each of those areas - the RV, the admission tickets, the food, the other entertainment - figure out how much that might cost. Once you have that total dollar amount - let's say it's two thousand dollars - figure out how much time you have until you want to achieve that financial goal, and then you can start to figure it out: "If I want to do this in a year, I should start saving a couple of hundred dollars every single month from my paycheck. If I do that, then when the next summer rolls around, we'll have enough money in the account so that we can take the kids to Disney World."
How many financial goals should I set?
Everyone should have sixteen and a half financial goals. No, there's really no set number. It's like asking someone, "How many calories should I consume a day?" It just depends. I've seen people with literally hundreds of financial goals. It's a beautiful thing. I truly think the more financial goals you have, the more in touch you are with your vision for your life. The more you have, the merrier, in my opinion.
How can I prioritize my goals?
Sometimes you can almost put yourself in paralysis thinking, "Where do I start? All these different things I want to own, and accomplish, and be - how do I even start?" You have to prioritize your financial goals. What's more important? For each of the life zones that you've created - the family, the financial health, physical health - pick the top one or two from each of those areas and then get started. Pick the financial goals that are most important to you.
How can pictures help me achieve my goals?
I love using pictures for motivation towards financial goals. In the book I talk about a dream board. With a dream board, basically what you do is you come up with all of your financial goals, all of your family goals, all of your physical health goals, just every single goal that you have. Then what I want you to do is get a picture - maybe from a magazine, or from the internet - and cut it out. Paste it on a poster-board. When you look at this poster board every single day, up on the wall, it's amazing what happens. What you're looking at represents everything that is important to you, everything you want to own, everything you want to accomplish, and the person you want to be is staring right back at you. To start your morning like that, by looking at all of the things you want to do and provide for, is truly amazing. I highly recommend pictures in order to achieve your financial goals..
