Still Trying To Figure Out What To Do With Your Money? Here Are Some Suggestions

"If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal. Not to people or things."
- Albert Einstein

I came up with a realization this weekend. As I have been sitting down with friends, family, clients and couples, I realized that I am actually not a financial adviser or a financial planner. As I reflected on all the sessions I had with people, I realized one important thing that I didn't realize before. I've been advising on money now for almost a year and this theory just clicked recently. This is my realization:

I'm not a financial adviser, I'm a life adviser. I'm not a financial planner, I'm a life planner.

As I reflect back on the sessions I had with people, I try to quantify the the type of conversations we have during our sessions. Most of our conversations are about goals, dreams or about the things we want out of life. The main reason I see people struggling with saving, debt and budgeting is because there is no clear vision to what they want in life. There is no plan. When there is no plan to follow, no goals to accomplish, the money just disappears. Before your money continues to disappear, I want to dedicate some time to hopefully help you discover what you want to do with your money. 

Everything we do in life has a price. Most of our goals and dreams have a price tag. However, most people don't take the time to calculate the actual price of their dream or goals and many people don't set plans or personal targets for themselves. I write with the hope that this can help you figure out a few things. 

Ask Yourself A Few Questions
Take two hours of your day, of your life to ponder about your life and your future. Grab a piece of paper, a notebook or a diary and a pen or pencil and start answering these questions:

• Where do I see myself next year? In 3 years? In 5 years? Where do I want to see myself?
• What have I accomplished these past 5 years? What do I want to accomplish in the next 5 years?
• What are my goals in life?
• If money wasn't an issue, what would I be doing with my time?

There is no right or wrong answer here. There are no limits to what you can dream or imagine. There is nothing that is impossible when doing this exercise. 

Do Some Research
When I ask people what they want to accomplish, I get a few typical answers: 'I want to open up a 401k to retire' or 'I want to get out of debt.' I definitely respect the goals of my clients, but my goal is to make them happy and to really think about what they want out of life. However, I personally think that there are other accomplishments to think about than just getting old and paying off bills and creditors. I take my time to educate and help people think things through. For example, I ask the question, 'do you know that a 401k really is and how it works'? Or 'do you know how much money you'll need to retire for 20 years?' What about 'Have you thought about how you could potentially retire younger and what it takes to make that happen?'

I propose that everyone goes online and just does some research. You can google pretty much anything. Here are some questions you might want to google:

• What's a 401k?
• What should I do when I'm 30?
• How to start a business
• How much is a farm?
• How to invest in Real Estate?
• Where should I travel?
• Where should I take my family?

You'd be surprised how attainable your goals might be after doing some research. I recommend you research about things you love, you wish to do, and things that matter to you the most. 

Set A Few Goals
Goal setting is key to life. I would personally prefer to be 70 years old and not retired but knowing that I accomplished 95% of all my life's goals and dreams than be 70 years old, retired and not knowing what the heck I did with my life. I set daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals. We've all done this to some extent. We typically call these 'New Year's resolutions.' Here are some suggestions to get started:

• Choose a deadline that is realistic
• Make sure that your goal is measurable
• Hold yourself, or have someone hold you, accountable

If you want to learn more about goal setting, research this: SMART goals. Start with a goal for this week. Begin to gain discipline. Discipline is one of the key factors to accomplishing goals. 

Be Encouraged
Does this blog seem draining? Too bad. We can't expect to be encouraged every single second, or to have someone push us on every single time we encounter hardships. I suggest that you develop the discipline to be self-motivated. If you've never been the self-motivated type, then you should hang around very driven and motivated people. If you think it's impossible to travel to Europe because it's a lot of money, then talk to someone who will encourage you. If you hang around people that always tell you that you're doing things wrong or that you can't do something, then it's time to start hanging around a different crowd. Encouragement comes a long way.

Stay the course and believe. The biggest obstacle is yourself. If you can overcome your personal barriers, then you can accomplish anything. Any thoughts?

Don't forget to share this blog so you can encourage others: family, co-workers, friends. Give them something to get motivated! You never know what they might be going through. A few words of encouragement can go a long way.