[vc_row][vc_column font_color=”#3d3d3d”][vc_custom_heading text=”GoalsMapping” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]We have developed a financial planning process known as GoalsMapping, which is designed to help you realistically achieve ALL of your life’s financial goals within the time frame that you want.
The most essential part of GoalsMapping starts with setting the right financial goals. As with most important ventures in life, planning is key to success. When it comes to managing your money, planning at the very beginning of the process is critical because the goals that you choose will be the basis for the whole financial planning process. What assets you decide to invest in and the specific products you eventually buy will be determined by those goals – whether it’s how much you need for retirement or at what age you hope to retire at.
The GoalsMapping process aims to align your savings and cash flow with the goals you want to achieve. It will involve all the steps of the financial planning process that we have explored in our earlier articles. You will need to have a clear vision of what your goals are, manage your cash flow effectively, take advantage of the compounding effect of interest, find the right balance of risk and returns, and have adequate insurance coverage so your plans are not derailed by an emergency.
It is important to understand that all your goals are connected, as you only have a limited amount of financial resources to achieve them. If you must own a big car, then you might have to settle for a smaller house, for instance. Likewise, if you plan to send your kids overseas to study, then you might have to do without a car. Hence, it is important to take the time to put together a holistic plan of your financial goals. Only then can you start the GoalsMapping process. If you have a family, it is important that you do this together with your spouse.
Here are the steps needed to effectively use the GoalsMapping process:
Step 1: Identify your Financial Resources
Everyone is different. Income potential and spending habits differ from one person to another. So the first step is to calculate and identify your available financial resources are. At this stage, the most important two numbers we are interested in is your Cash Savings in the bank and the Annual Surplus you are able to save every year.
The aim of this step is to find out how much funds you can realistically allocate for the future. If you already have some existing investment assets that can be used to achieve your goals, do list them down separately. During this phase, you can also identify areas where you can cut down on your spending in order to save more money for the future.
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Step 2: Map out your Financial Goals
Goals is at the heart of this process. Most importantly, you have to put a price to each of the goals that you want to achieve in life. You should start writing down the goals in chorological order, starting from the nearest one. As you write down each goal, check if it’s within your means by looking at your available financial resources.
The rule is that you have to plan your goals based on affordability and your current financial circumstances. For instance, if your financial resources are not sufficient for you to buy a landed property in the next three years, then you should either extend the timeframe to achieve this goal, reduce the amount of cash needed for it, or start saving more today at a higher interest. That said, as your income and ability to save changes, your financial goals can change accordingly too. That’s the reason why it’s important to review your goals every year.
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Step 3: Allocate Resources to each of Goal
After you have identified your financial resources and mapped out all your financial goals, the next step is to allocate your Cash Savings and Annual Surplus towards each goal. The idea here is to plan for all your financial goals simultaneously instead of one at a time. As you start allocating, another consideration is to look at your existing investments and decide when you would like to liquidate these investments to help reach your goals.
You will also realise that it’s much harder to achieve your goals If you take a linear approach to financial planning, as you might end up overspending on an earlier goal, and hence not be able to achieve the next one. However, with a complete picture of all your financial goals, you can allocate different amounts for each goal and place these funds in separate bank accounts, or different investment instruments.
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Step 4: Use the Power of Compounding to your advantage
Once you have completed the allocation, you will realise that keeping your savings in the bank will not get you very far towards achieving your goals. And if you can’t make adjustments to the time frame to achieve these goals, or cut your expenses any further, the only thing you can do is to increase the returns that you receive from your investments. This step requires you to find the right investment instruments to grow your savings to the desired level within the timeframe set.
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Step 5: Test out the Resilience of your Plan in the event of Emergency
Once you have completed the GoalsMapping process, the last step is to test if your plan is resilient enough to cope with different types of scenarios. For example, in the event of retrenchment or disability, do you have enough emergency funds or insurance coverage to cover your expenses? Test it out and ensure that whatever life throws at you, you are well prepared and are able to withstand the impact. Request for a Goalsmapper demo today!
Step 6: Follow through with your Plan
Coming up with a good plan is key to successfully managing your finances, but it is only a starting point. Carrying out the plan and making sure you stick to it to the end is just as critical ls. It is easy to plan, but taking action is the more challenging task. Most of us may not have the discipline to stay on track. It is very important that you regularly review your plan with your financial consultant as your financial situation changes.
Just as a gym trainer would remind you to keep up with the required number of repetitions of a particular exercise, a financial consultant’s job is to ensure that you remain committed to saving for your financial goals. Having these regular checks will help you to stay on track and not veer too much from your original plan. And if you do have to deviate from the plan due to unforeseen circumstances, checking on your financial goals will help you to understand what else do you have to do to get back on the right path.
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