It's time now to look at the goals you established in the last chapter and decide what steps you must take to make them a reality. In the first tutorial you looked at your finances as they stand right now. In the previous tutorial, you spent some time thinking about where you would like to be in a few years and setting some concrete goals. We talked about the concept of “enough” and how there is such a thing as being satisfied with what you have at a certain point, despite the marketing messages we hear all the time. We talked about setting your personal priorities and trying to make your finances reflect your values and your goals. Then, we discussed some concrete goals like homeownership, business ownership, education, paying down debt, and cleaning up credit. At the end of the last tutorial you put those goals in writing and broke down the monthly spending steps that are required to achieve those goals.

In this section, we're going to begin to connect “where you are” with “where you want to be.” This is when your dreams and goals meet the reality of your budget. This step in financial planning is often the trickiest, because you have to begin to make choices and really sort out what is most important to you. Most of us have lots of fabulous goals but are less enthusiastic about making the sorts of sacrifices needed on a daily basis to make it all happen. For this reason, you must examine the relationship among your priorities, goals, budget and timeline. Once you've created a budget that reflects your priorities and goals, you may find it easer to save, knowing that you are working toward something important. In this tutorial we are going to go from budget to goals to timeline, round and round until we come up with something we can live with. We are also going to discuss some saving strategies and money management tips that will help us find the resources we need to meet our goals. With a little attention, you will be surprised at how easy it is to scrape together a few extra bucks from your budget every week.

Remember that this is not a matter of what you can and can't afford…it's a matter of your choices and what you choose to afford. It's all up to you.

Many tutorials are accompanied by worksheets that can be read with Acrobat Reader. These worksheets will appear as links directly under the page title. Please print them in order to complete each section. If your computer does not already have this free software, you may want to download it before beginning.

Download FREE Acrobat Reader

   [ Next ] Why Save?