Balance wheel: setting financial goals for the new year

A simple but effective Balance Wheel technique will help you set your goals for the year.

1. Identify 4-8 areas in which you want to achieve goals in the coming year. They can be anything: travel, health, home, career, education, financial well-being – whatever is important to you.

2. Write down at least one goal in each area. For example, make repairs in the bathroom, create a financial airbag, buy a gym membership.

3. Formulate a goal. To make it as specific as possible, answer the following questions:

• What is this?
• When should it happen?
• How much does it cost?

For example, a goal in the “home” area may sound like this: “In April 2018, complete the renovation in the bathroom, 50 thousand rubles.” In the field of “financial well-being”: “By July 2018, create a” financial airbag “of 100 thousand rubles.” Goals should be realistic, uplifting and achievable within a year.

4. Rate the degree of satisfaction with how the goals in this area are achieved, on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is “not satisfied”, 10 is “completely satisfied”.

Divide the budget needed to achieve the goal by the number of months until the desired date for its implementation. As a result, you will get the amount that you need to allocate every month. For example, to achieve the goal “Vacation with the family in August 2018”, you need 80 thousand rubles. There are 7 months before the trip, which means that about 11 rubles should be set aside every month in order to go on vacation at the end of summer.

Now that you’ve identified areas, set goals, and clarified the amounts needed, highlight three priority areas. What steps have already been taken in these directions? What can be done in the near future? What resources and capabilities do you have to achieve what you want?

This view of the goals will allow you to see a broader perspective, assess opportunities, prioritize and bring plans to life.