writing down goals

[Sultan of Swing]

My second is a boat about 15 to 18m long, on my way to work each day I pass a marina & each day I can see it comming closer & closer, I have promised myself that in the next few weeks I am going to stop, hop aboard one of these boats

Hmmmmm.....

Two guys just stole a $350,000 yacht from Melbourne and are apparently heading toward Tasmania sparking a rather largish police search.

Where were you yesterday, Brizzy Boy and are you sure you're not just saying that to throw us of your trail....?????

 

[Brizzy Boy]

LOL Sultan,
but a yatch is not my thing, now if it were a cruiser then I might be in some trouble.

 

[<KS>]

In short I am too lazy to write goals etc down, and dont feel I need them.

Why?

Because I never stop thinking about the next way to boost my empire and what the consequences of fulfilling my dream will be.

Heck I even dream about Funds and RE, and chat about my RE ideas when I am drinking a beer with my mates! (ok I occasionally stop to talk about footy and cars, but then I am reminded about the mercedes I want and hence I am back to thinking about business again!)

So I figure its no point me writing it down, because every working moment I am not making someone else money I am doing something to do just the same for myself - even more so now my motivation is at an all time high.

But dont get me wrong, If your not VERY good at mind mapping then there is no better way than planning on paper - yes paper, coz writing aint typing - believe me 4 years in university taught me that. And it was the difference between a credit and distiction.

<KS>

 

[Aceyducey]

I like having written goals - though not always on paper (some in this forum).

It makes a goal more real for many people to have it physically readable & the act of writing (or typing) them is a good reinforcement.

Even if you think writing down goals is embarrassing or try-hard stuff it's worth trying. The effect can be much greater than the effort.

Cheers,

Aceyducey

 

[kissfan]

Hmmmmm.....

Two guys just stole a $350,000 yacht from Melbourne and are apparently heading toward Tasmania sparking a rather largish police search.

Where were you yesterday, Brizzy Boy and are you sure you're not just saying that to throw us of your trail....?????

Hmmmmm.....

I believe the yacht was found in a cove in Tasmania.

Where were you yesterday SOS, maybe at the handoff point.

Have a good day.

Regards
Marty

 

[Pete]

KS,

One consequence of defining goals is to know when you've reached your goal.

Simplistic examples.

Goal $10,000,000 equity (or "a V12 Mercedes coupe"). When you get there, you've achieved your goal. Simple. Time then for other goals.

Contrast that with "I want to be really rich" or "have a Mercedes". You might be wonderfully successful and get to $1,000,000,000 wealth or "a base model Mercedes". You might keep aiming for more because the goal was indefinite, open. This can leave you unsatisfied. There will always be more to achieve.

I haven't explained that really well, but hopefullly the idea comes through.

regards,

 

[quintets]

After the goals, then discipline!

I was just thinking this morning that I must get a specific notebook to write down my goals with a set timeframe.

Who does this? You have success with it I'm sure. Anyone willing to share to inspire others.

Wish-ga, I think it's great you've taken the first step to write down your goals and set a deadline. Everyone has different ways of remembering what they want to do. If a list works for you, then keep it in a visible spot, Y-man's idea of the fridge sounds like a great idea. I think I might need to do that.

Our battle on goals is working out "After the main goals, so what are the next steps?". For us, we discovered it's a bit of renewed financial discipline and integration with medium term goals. After two frenzied IP purchases in 2001 and 2002 and a forced first PPOR in 2003, we've hit a wall. And the wall is in ourselves. We can't budget well and don't seem to have control on spending. Well, actually, I'm the guilty party here. My wife is very good at this stuff.

So right now, we're on a six month investment hiatus where we re-establish a savings pattern and monitor the spending. I'm itching to get into the sharemarket and looking again at property, but I promised I'd stick to the six months. Once we've re-established the internal patterns, then we'll go back to looking at the external buying/renovating/selling.

I hope this works for us.

My 1.5 cents (discounted for untried ideas)

 

[simonjulie]

Hi Qunitets
Budget is an UGLY word. Prctice tracking your expenses instead. Look where you have been so you can see where you are going. You will get a better picture of your financial situation. Remember you get good at whatever you practice(positive or negative)
Kind regards
simon

 

[quintets]

Hi Qunitets
Budget is an UGLY word. Prctice tracking your expenses instead. Look where you have been so you can see where you are going. You will get a better picture of your financial situation. Remember you get good at whatever you practice(positive or negative)
Kind regards
simon

Yes SimonJulie, I agree. Budget is an ugly, UGLY word. And when my lovely wife kept hassling me that we had to do a budget I couldn't understand what she was on about. "Let's just make sure the income cashflow keeps growing and then we won't have to worry about it!!". I would say. GROWTH!!! Bless her soul, she kept at me and gave me information until I "got it".

This isn't for everyone, but this is where I am. And because it's where I am, it's where "we" are. I'm the lowest common denominator in this learning path.

My wife is a big FlyLady fan and she pulled out these essays on good financial management. It's a series of articles called F.A.C.E. or financial empowerment continually empowers. FlyLady writes about FACEing your financial situation, and I took it as IPs, groceries, credit cards and all. The goal is to envision your house as a well-run quality hotel and run it that way. It's all about good household and financial management.

http://www.flylady.net/images/FACE2004.pdf

So what's this got to do with budgets? The section on budgeting is actually the smallest part. The most important part is, as you say, awareness. Once you have awareness of what you're spending, then you can set goals with a level of control. I need to learn how to be more thrifty, seeing as I didn't come from that kind of a background.

I guess we needed to do this because we seem to have an internal serviceability problem. The bank is willing to lend us more money, but our internal cashflow can't seem to support more properties right now. Hence, a look at internal cost reductions.

I must say it's amazing how good it feels to set weekly spending targets and actually MEET them. It's the arranging of all the other goals to take advantage of the disciplines that's the next thing.

Cheers!!

 

[simonjulie]

Hi Quintets
After you have established a sound tracking routine the next step is to start building financial safety nets(time buyers) eg.1/ If you are running some of your finances on two credit cards then clear one and keep it only for a back up.2/ live off 70% of your net income and divide the rest into strategic plans for saving,debt reduction,lifestyle improvements or whatever.
As these financial safety nets start to appear you might start to experience a cushioning effect from the unexpected financial pressures of day to day life(new tyres for the car,school excursions or other unexpected financial slugs)
Having sound financial safety nets in place help us to feel more relaxed in moving forward with investing simply because we have something to fall back on if something goes wrong.
Kind regards
Simon

 

[quintets]

Hi Quintets
After you have established a sound tracking routine the next step is to start building financial safety nets(time buyers) eg.1/ If you are running some of your finances on two credit cards then clear one and keep it only for a back up.2/ live off 70% of your net income and divide the rest into strategic plans for saving,debt reduction,lifestyle improvements or whatever.
As these financial safety nets start to appear you might start to experience a cushioning effect from the unexpected financial pressures of day to day life(new tyres for the car,school excursions or other unexpected financial slugs)
Having sound financial safety nets in place help us to feel more relaxed in moving forward with investing simply because we have something to fall back on if something goes wrong.
Kind regards
Simon

Mmm...good advice Simon.

We've already started reducing the number of credit cards we have. There's just one for day-to-day purchases and the bank even has a different number for myself and my wife, so we can see on the statement who bought what.

Even though one low-interest credit card is purely for sudden investment purchases, we don't have the revolving LOC to move the purchases into.

There's many other little things that we're doing and the exciting thing to learn after 15+ years of living away from home is just which "big rocks should go in the jar first".

Living off 70% of our income is one of those big rocks. I'll have to remember to ease this into the conversation the next time we talk about the budget.

We've got a reasonable buffer around the IPs (months ahead on mortgages, building and landlord insurances). Now we just need to get the buffers and "time savers" (I think this is what you meant) for ourselves.

OURSELVES!! Hah hah. Just to think I love those IPs more than I do myself. Hmmmmm.

Cheers,

Jireh

 

[simonjulie]

Hi Quintets
Here is a link to a website that has a number of interesting articles on wealth creation,debt reduction and saving.
http://www.the-richest-man-in-babylon.com
I hope it may be of some help.
Simon

 

[Kiwi Investor]

Hi All, my main goal is to not rely on the Government and retire as early as possible !!

'Don't play by the rules, invent your own game'

 

[Teresa]

I use MS Word in Outline View as I look at my PC every day. I have a file called 'Plan for 2005'.

With headings for -

• Must do Today
• Must do This Week
• Must do This month
• IP stuff to do this year
• Shares stuff to do this year
• House Reno stuff to do this year
• Social stuff to do this year
• Outdoor stuff to do this year
• Kids stuff to do this year
• etc

And under each heading there is a list of items, each with a preface of

• TODO
• WIP (work in progress)
• Done

When things get a 'Done' status I move them to the bottom of the section (with a date) so I am constantly reminded of how much I have acheived so far today/this week/month, and how little I've actually got left to do.

I've tried notebooks, PIMs, even MS Project, but keeping it as a simple text file has worked for me.

Hi keithj,

I like this idea - it keeps it all in one place and it can be easily updated. We usually have scrappy pieces of paper here and there and sometimes we stumble across them.

Thanks for sharing

Teresa

 

[Melrose pl]

Notes...

All i know is that i have the desire to accomplished with all the things that i want/need out of life!

Evryday is a challenge to me,and happy to be alive too
so i just take each day at a time and do my best. If things dont happened to work out,hey, i just try again and go forward...


Life it self is a journey

MeLs Plce

 

[quiggles]

...but maybe you'd like to try it with a map?

Goals are not only useful, they are satisfying and liberating. It's nice being fancy free, but's it's exhilarating driving down the highway towards the place you want to go, feeling the engine going faster all the time.

My personal view, but strongly held.

 

[rambada]

I think goals are essential BUT they must be linked to action and clearly defined results in a clear time.
So many people set goals and have no action. Whats the point of having a Ferrari with an empty tank! Action is the fuel of goals.
We link all our goals to our age. Its a speedo you can not turn back or alter. And believe me if you have a goal set for age 45, and 45 looms and you haven't achieved it - it is absolutely powerful.
Funny though, as you move towards and achieve your given goals, they change. I think they change from being self centered (financial) to being what can I do for others, for the planet. We have been fortunate enough to achieve our goals ahead of time - and we are know thinking more globally.
The other thing is that there must be continuing of goals. This sounds silly but I remember a Gold Medalist crying at the serimony and every one thought it was for joy. But it was tears of anguish as they had achieved there goal and now what? Their life was empty, directionless and meaningless. We achived our primary goals ahead of time at age 42, 3 years early. It has taken us 12-18 months to restabilise, become comfortable with our success, and to move forward.

Absolutely love this topic.

 

[Melrose pl]

...but maybe you'd like to try it with a map? What map do i need to prove it just for you ?

Goals are not only useful, they are satisfying and liberating. It's nice being fancy free, but's it's exhilarating driving down the highway towards the place you want to go, feeling the engine going faster all the time.

Liberating and exhalirating every day that im alive and positive that i have achieved alot in life!

My personal view, but strongly held.

My personal view....I dont need to explain or prove to you what i hve and hvent achieved ...who named you Donanld Frump anyway?

 

[Monopoly]

who named you Donanld Frump anyway?

Frump??? Our quiggles??? Hardly!!! Both he and his wife looked pretty shmick in the Feb API mag earlier this year!!!

 

[quiggles]

Frump??? Our quiggles??? Hardly!!! Both he and his wife looked pretty shmick in the Feb API mag earlier this year!!!

You'll turn my head, you will! (Most of my mates reckoned it was a good thing I was in the background, in fuzzy focus )