Setting financial goals - A knowledge base

You have a pretty big choice to make.

There will always be things, pretty awesome things in fact, that you really want to buy.

There will always be places you want to visit. Exotic and wonderful trips to spend lots of money on.

On the other hand, you have five more fingers. Also on the other hand, you think of the future and you always picture yourself having enough money to pay your bills. You picture the future you having some money in a savings account, for your kids' college, or a house you want to buy. You picture money being something that's not a huge stressful problem for you month-to-month.

Well the truth is that these two separate thought processes are often fighting each other. You want a secure financial future, sure, but you also want to buy all that awesome stuff now too.

You can't have both. What to do?

In order to get where you want to be, you have to set financial goals and then you'll be way better equipped to work toward hitting them.

So how do you do that? Here's a few tips.

1. Define your goals. Financially, where do you want to be in 5 years? in 10 years? Figure that out, and you'll know where to work toward.

2. Collect all your financial data. This means track your spending, track your debts, track your income, everything. You don't know what to fix, until you know what's broken.

3. Make changes in your money habits now. That might mean sacrifice. It's hard now, but you'll enjoy it later when you're financially secure. It may mean looking for a better job, consolidating debt, switching where you shop and what brands you buy. No Pain, No (Financial) Gain.

What are you waiting for? Set some Goals and go for them!

This article provided by : National Payday, the web's trusted payday lender since 2000.