What is a Goal Planner?

A goal without a plan remains just a goal. Many people have visions, intentions, ideas, dreams which never happen, because they are not planned. In order to achieve our goals we need to plan it in a better way.

There are many important and intuitive characteristics of any goal, which makes it SMART .

Specific : Your goals should be specific and not a very general one, It should contain detailed information and should not leave a room for further questions.5 “I want to buy a house” is a very general goal , however “I want to buy a 3 BHK Flat in Karvenagar area in Pune costing around 35 lacs within next 5 yrs” is a more specific goal which gives a clear picture to you .

Measurable :  Your goals should be measurable in terms of “How many” or “How much”. It should not happen that you have a rough idea of the goal. Many people I talk with; say “I want to buy a big house”. It’s a great thing to dream for a big house, but at some point in life you will actually decide the actual size and how many rooms and what will be the area.

Achievable : This mainly means that your goals should be achievable given your current situation. When financial planners start working with some client, one of the major issues is targeting unrealistic goals in life. Just because you are hiring a financial planner does not mean that he is a magician and will somehow create a strategy for you .

Relevent : What will happen, if you always wanted to become IAS officer, whereas your goal is “To crack CAT exam” ?

If this happens , you will start with some enthusiasm in start but at some point, it would be tough to sustain the enthusiasm and energy, because that’s not you really wish to and even if you some day achieve that goal which you planned, it would not make sense because it’s not aligned with your life objectives.

Timely : Imagine your goal is like “I would like to buy car of 5 lacs”, Fine ! . Now what do you do ? Do you save 5,000  per month or 20,000 and for how long , It’s important to set a time line so that you have a clear idea of how much does it take to achieve some goal.

Why is it important to plan your goals?

Even though it looks nonsense, you need to understand its importance and its impact. Financial Planning is all about achieving goals in the best possible manner by considering your current situation. If you do not have a goal set with some target amount and target date, then you don’t have a clear idea of reaching there.

Imagine a goal of “Child Education” which costs Rs 10 lacs in today’s value. If your target date is after 25 yrs, then considering a 10% education inflation (historically it stands at 10%), the target amount will be 1.08 crores { 10 X (1 + 10% ) ^ 25 }.

Example of "Goal Planning"

Very simple way of doing this is to categorize your goals in Short Term , Mid Term and Long Term and each of them will have “High Priority” and “Low Priority. This way you have a clear idea of what is important and first preference in all the time frame.

For Example –

“I want to buy a Car worth 6 Lacs in next 5 yrs, which can accommodate around 5-6 people” can be a High priority , Mid Term goal.

“I would like to take a 2 weeks vacation in Kerala with my family worth 50k , can be a Low priority, Mid term goal .

Advantages of Goals Planning

1. Planning our goals helps us to manage our finances successfully.
2. It provides us the right direction and motivation in achieving our goal.
3. It also helps us to measure our progress on how far we have reached towards our financial goals.
4. Nonetheless it also helps us to bridge the gap between “where you are” and “where you want to be”.
5. Goal Planning also helps in preventing ourselves from spending more money.
6. One already knows the next expenditure on our agenda.
7. It also helps you to keep you away from the vicious cycle of credit card debt.

A Short Video on Goal Based Investing

To read more about Goal Planning, Click the link Below

• Goal Visualization or Goal Setting, Which is better?
• What is the goal of financial planning?