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How To Be Rich 101 - Part 3 |
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Written by Caroline Chinungo
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First, the bad news: you’re not going to reach all your financial goals. The good news: not all at once anyway. So, identify your goals clearly and decide which are most important. By focusing on one thing at a time, you have a better chance of reaching your goals. Focus first on the goals that are most important. Then narrow it down even further by putting equally important things on the backburner for a while. Decide which to start with. Seriously, you should not have more than 3 things on your list.
When putting together your goals list, look for things that will help you feel financially secure and/or fulfilled. Some of the items that may be on your list may include building an emergency fund, getting out of debt, and setting up a college fund for yourself. Hell, if you make enough, you might even be able to buy yourself some happiness!
The longer you wait to identify and begin working toward your goals, the more difficulty you’ll have reaching them. You’ll be pissing all over the place. (My column, I can say whatever I want!). Keep your spending in check without depriving yourself of the occasional treat at Nando’s. Whenever you have too make a big payment, ask yourself whether it will be taking you closer or further away from your ambitions. If a big expense doesn’t get you closer to your goals, put it off, reduce it or avoid it. Not a lot of us have that sort of discipline, but I guess, that’s why most of us are always broke right?
Focus on the big things. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Most of life is lived in the here and now and most of what you spend will be for daily expenses. That’s ok – providing your long range needs are also provided for. Your goals will invariably change as you grow older so you should re-examine your priorities every 5 years. It’s also a good idea to start with items that you will need regardless of how old you are or what’s fashionable at the time. Like an emergency fund or a house.
Most importantly, remember that you goals will not be achieved overnight. Make peace with this. Time is one thing you have on your side. As long as you are under 40 anyway! At 21, I felt I should have had a high paying job, my own car and my own accommodation. I am a Capricorn and we are known to be over achievers. I now realize that unless I inherited some mega big bucks, there was no way to have those things. I was not being realistic and was setting myself up for failure. I obviously did not achieve any of my goals and ended up frustrated. Then to make myself feel better, I’d go on outrageous shopping sprees at Truworths, where I’d blow my whole salary in one day (the equivalent of 2 shirts!).
If you realize that you do not have to be a millionaire overnight, then, you’ll feel better about putting twenty thousand a month into that emergency fund as opposed to fifty thousand. In 5 years, you’ll have 1.2million. Because it’s such a small amount of money, we are being realistic and it should not hurt you to put it aside. If it does, you are in deeper trouble than we thought, please contact me for one on one counseling.
p.s: In case you have not heard, Oprah has finally made the billionaires list! Go girl!
Quotes - One man has enthusiasm for 3 minutes, another for 30 days; but it is the man who has it for 30 years who makes a success of his life. – Edward B. Butler.
- Hardships, poverty and want are the best incentives and the best foundation for the success if a man. – Bradford Merrill.
- Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. – Goethe.
- Without haste, but without rest. – Goethe.
- “Do, or do not. There is no ‘try.’” – Yoda (“The Empire Strikes Back)
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