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Retirement Q&A: Financial Goals For 2020

by | Dec 9, 2019 | Retirement, YouTube

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it’s very hard to be happy when you’re not at a place financially that is comfortable to you.

It’s almost the end of 2019 and it’s that time of year where everyone starts thinking about New Year’s Resolutions.

In Today’s video, I’m sharing the 5 Types of Financial Goals to help you on your way to achieving your 2020 New Year’s Resolutions!

Click here to watch the full video or read the full video transcript, below.

Financial Goals: Saving

The first idea for a financial goal or resolution, is a Saving Goal for 2020. It could be saving for retirement, emergencies or setting aside 3-6 months of living expenses in liquid funds in the bank for the inevitable emergencies of life.

If you have already satisfied that, then you want to think about moving on to the 401k or contributing to your retirement plan. Most people, even most business owners, are not on track financially. In order to help you catch up, there’s several things you could do:

  • Max out your 401k plan,
  • Adopt a cash balance plan,
  • Save 1% more of your income in 2020, then you were saving in 2019.

Financial Goals: Planning

The next type of New Year’s Resolution for 2020 is a Planning Resolution. Let’s say you want to figure out how you’re going to pay off your mortgage in the next five years. The first step that you would want to do is gather all the information about your mortgage. Your mortgage statement should tell you what your outstanding balance is, what your interest rate is and all the key terms that you’re going to need to know about your mortgage.

The next step is, figuring out what the extra payment amount that you would need to add to your mortgage in order to pay it off on the timetable that you set up for yourself. You can plug all that data into an amortization schedule to figure that out.

Financial Goals: Giving

The third type of Financial New Year’s Resolution for 2020 would be a Giving Financial Goal. I love this one! There are several things that you can do to be more generous in 2020. You could give away 1% more of your income in 2020 than you did in 2019.

I would also encourage you to find the charity that really tugs at your heart and set up automatic payments. By automating a certain amount each month, you are consistent and intentional with your giving.

Financial Goals: No New Debt

The fourth type of financial goal that you could incorporate for 2020 would be a Debt Reduction Goal. There are number of methods that you use to reduce debt. My personal favorite is the one that Dave Ramsey popularized, which is the Debt Snowball Method. You take the smallest debt and pay that one off first and then you move onto the next one. The snowball gets bigger and bigger and gains more momentum, the more you pay off debts. The bonus is, you get quick wins when you use the snowball method because you’re starting with the lowest debt first.

The other thing you could do related to debt reduction is, commit to taking on no new debts in 2020. It’s like the equivalent of cutting up your credit cards. But if you either pay off your existing debts and then combine that with a commitment to take on no new debt in 2020, you’re going to set yourself up for success.

Financial Goals: Learning/Teaching

The last type of financial resolutions for 2020 would be a Learning/Teaching Goal. People are genuinely interested in investing in the stock market and understanding how the bond markets and the stock markets work. Just having good, basic knowledge can be very beneficial because it can help you make smarter decisions. At the end of the day, even if you have a financial advisor (like myself), a CPA or attorney, your life is your life and you still have the ultimate say in those financial decisions.

Alternatively, if you’re at a place where you feel confident about your knowledge set, one thing you could do would be to teach. Especially if you have kids or grandkids at home, there are so many things that you can do to teach them about money.

Here’s an example of a teaching moment. I just started giving my daughter an allowance. We went on Amazon and bought a piggy bank that has four slots: saving, giving, spending and investing. Every week she gets a dollar for her allowance. I know I’m breaking the bank ? giving her a dollar but I give her a dollar in dimes. She has to put one dime in to giving, one into saving and then she can split the rest of the money however she wants.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ASHLEY M. MICCICHE, QPFC®, CRPC®, CEXP®
ASHLEY M. MICCICHE, QPFC®, CRPC®, CEXP®

Ashley helps business owners exit their business and retire with financial security. As a Certified Exit Planner she specializes in helping business owners navigate the maze of decisions that need to happen from full-time running their business to retirement.

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