A robust financial plan involves assessing assets, setting SMART goals, strategic investment, diligent implementation, and regular reviews to adapt and optimize.
Assess Your Current Financial Situation
It’s important to know your minimum financial basis. Start by making a list of all your assets – your savings accounts, inheritance, retirement savings, stocks, real estate, and any other investments. Add your mortgage, car loan, 50% of your current home debt, and other debts, then subtract that from the total. Your net worth is your assets minus your liabilities, and it’s one of the most important initial data points when assessing your financial health.
Complete an itemized list of your assets
First, you’ll want to create an exhaustive list of your assets that includes your checking, established savings accounts, investment accounts, real estate, cars, and any other high-money systems. This helps keep the valuation of each category in check based on current market conditions. If you have a $50,000 stock portfolio today, you’ll use that number, not your cost basis.
Analyze your sources of income
List all your sources of income – not just your job. Add part-time work, freelancing, rentals, or any passive income sources to cover these expenses. This helps determine your income-to-expense ratio for the month. For example, if your gross monthly income is $4,500, you should plan your spending and savings around this amount so you’re always living within your means.
Assess Your Debt
To do this, write down all your debts (amount, interest rate, interest rate, and monthly payment). If you owe money on credit cards, pay those off first, as they carry a high interest rate. Sort your debts by the interest rate on each debt so you can prioritize paying off the most expensive debts and save thousands of dollars in interest over time.
Determine Your Monthly Expenses
Keep a monthly log of your monthly expenses, including categories like rent, food, travel, utilities, insurance, leisure, etc. Use this analysis to determine which expenses can be reduced, for example, if you eat out 30% of the time, you will have to make sacrifices and choose cheaper dining solutions to increase your savings rate, which will be factored into your new budget plan.
Build an Emergency Fund
It’s a good idea to have three to six months’ worth of living expenses (or even more) saved up somewhere you can quickly access them. This fund is an emergency fund, so you don’t have to go into further debt if something unexpected happens. If your total monthly expenses reach $3,000, try to save between $9,000 and $18,000 in an emergency fund.
Set Clear Financial Goals
Set Financial Goals Financial planning starts with clear financial goals. The first step is to separate short-term goals from medium- and long-term goals. You can think of short-term goals as one-year goals, such as saving for a vacation or paying off a small debt. Medium-term goals are saving for a home or education — usually two to five years from now Many long-term goals are about saving for retirement or building wealth over decades.
Clarify your goals
List each goal and be detailed. In other words, don’t just “save for retirement,” but “have $500,000 saved by age 65.” This level of detail not only makes it clearer what you’re working toward, it also makes it easier to see progress.
Apply SMART criteria
Each goal must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. An example of a SMART goal is: save $10,000 to buy a used car within the next 18 months. This framework literally helps you put your goals in perspective.
Prioritize your goals
Determine which goals are most important to you and tie your goals to your values, resources, and budget. Because of the scarcity of these resources, we need to understand the importance of prioritization. In other words, if you plan to start a family, buying a home may be more important than taking a lavish vacation.
Set Milestones
Break each goal into smaller, achievable steps. For example, if you want to pay off $24,000 in debt in 4 years, your annual milestone would be to pay off $6,000. These become clear goals, which help make the end goal seem more manageable.
Review and Adjust Regularly
Life changes, and your goals may change too. Your goals need to be reviewed and adjusted regularly to stay relevant. For example, a new job may mean a pay raise, giving you the opportunity to increase your savings goal.
Create a Strategic Plan for Achieving Goals
Strategic planning is about creating a path from where you are now to where you want to be. This means using the right financial resources and financial means to achieve the desired results most accurately and in the most timely manner.
Choose the Right Investment Channels
Rely on The Balance to help you choose investments that fit your risk tolerance and time horizon. For example, stocks and mutual funds may be suitable for long-term investments because they promise better returns over time, despite their market risk. Look at high-yield savings accounts or CDs with short-term goals; they may offer lower but steady returns for some of the safer savings options. If your retirement is 30 years away sooner or later, a 70/30 mix may be both a boost and a buffer against risk.
Budget for Success
Prepare a thorough budget that includes every penny of your life, treating contributions to these goals like any other monthly bill you have to pay. For example, automatically transfer 15% of your monthly income to a retirement savings account and 5% to a financial emergency fund.
Create a Contingency Plan
The last thing you want is for some unforeseen financial hardship to throw your strategic plan off target. So make sure your emergency fund is well-stocked! Three to six months of expenses (ideally, longer is better) will keep you from having to exit your stock investments too early, potentially incurring losses or penalties.
Use technology to work for you
Use financial management tools or apps to monitor your investments, watch your spending, and stay on track with your savings goals. Many of these tools have helpful analytics and notifications that can keep you on track and help you make quick, smart decisions.
Revisit and revise your plan regularly.
Not to mention that the financial world, as well as your personal finances, changes. Aim to review your strategy at least once a year or when a major life change occurs, such as getting a new job, getting married, or having a child. This will keep your strategy in line with where you are in the game and what you want to achieve.
Implement the Plan
You write these down, and then your financial strategy becomes a business goal. It takes discipline, habitual consistency, and a way to stay on top of your money.
Set up automatic savings
Set up automatic savings so you hit your savings goal every month without even thinking about it. This could mean automatically transferring money from your checking account to your savings and investment accounts once your paycheck is deposited into your checking account. It could mean transferring $500 a month to an IRA and $300 to a savings account for a down payment on a home.
Adjust your spending habits
Regularly check in with yourself to see if you’re on track with your strategic financial goals. Use a phone app that allows you to track your spending in real time, and set alerts so you’re alerted when you’re approaching the limits of your budget categories. For example, if your monthly entertainment budget is $200, getting a notification when you hit $150 can help you manage your spending.
Increase your income streams
Research ways to increase your income by working part-time, freelancing, or acquiring new skills that could get you a promotion or a higher-paying job. Making an extra $500 a month from freelancing could get you out of debt faster or allow you to save more in your investments.
Audit Financial Instruments Regularly
Stay informed of any new financial products or changes to existing ones that could benefit your plan. This could include refinancing to a lower-cost loan or switching to a better rewards credit card. It’s also important to compare policies frequently to ensure you’re getting the best deal for your insurance needs.
Exercise Strong Financial Discipline
Stick to your plan and resist the urge to stray from your budget. Discipline is especially important during a recession or period of personal financial stress. For example, continuing to invest regularly during a market downturn can benefit from dollar-cost averaging, often leading to significant gains when the market recovers.
Monitor and Review the Plan Regularly
To be effective, a plan must also be able to adapt to changes in your financial situation or economic environment, and without an effective monitoring process and regular reviews, it’s easy for a plan to go off track.
Schedule Regular Reviews
This is a routine where you review your financial plan on a regular basis. A comprehensive analysis should be done annually or after any major life changes, such as a job change, marriage, or having a child. For example, choosing an expiration date, such as your birthday or the end of the financial year, can help keep everything on track.
Track Progress Toward Goals
Set up financial tracking tools that allow you to measure your progress toward each goal. For example, let’s say one of your goals is to save $500,000 for retirement by age 65 – in this case, review your retirement savings every year to make sure you’re meeting your savings goals. If your current savings is $250,000 and you have 15 years left, calculate whether your current savings rate will make the cut.
Review Your Financial Health
Check key indicators of your financial health: credit score, debt-to-income ratio, asset growth. Getting better terms for financial products (e.g., a cheaper loan because you have better credit) can often energize your financial journey.
Adapt to Economic and Personal Changes
Expect to change your plan to reflect changes in the economy or changes in your personal life. Consider protecting assets in the event of a recession. Just as if you get a big promotion or a pay raise, determine what you will do with the extra income, whether it’s to increase your investment level, pay down debt faster, or add to your emergency fund.
Utilize Feedback Loops
Set up feedback loops that will tell you what’s working and what’s not. An example is if a particular investment is consistently underperforming, this may be a sign that you want to move money. If spending in a certain category is repeatedly over or under budget, adjust those categories up or down to better match your actual spending.
