Money is a very complicated topic. Those who have it struggle to keep it, and those who don’t are constantly trying to get it. This is a fact and the story is not likely to change anytime soon. With this in mind, everyone needs help with their finances at some point in their lives in order to reach the dreams and goals they have. 

Your goals are the desired end toward which your efforts are directed. Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future and motivating yourself to turn your vision into reality. In general, people don’t spend enough time thinking about what they want from life and haven't set themselves formal goals. Rather they have dreams that they have no idea how to achieve. 

The activities you do should bring you closer to achieving your dreams. So setting goals marks the beginning of your financial planning journey, and helps you to achieve your objectives at various stages of your life. 

What are Financial Goals? 

Financial goals are perhaps one of the most important types of goals you can set. They help you to achieve a debt-free life, have the lifestyle that you desire and allow you to achieve financial independence. By identifying something you want to buy, pay for, or simply experience in the future you need to engineer a plan to get the money it requires. Thus the monetary target is your goal. 

Financial goal planning refers to the setting of goals and developing plans to achieve them. Your financial goals can be short-term, medium-term or long-term. Each goal is differentiated with a timeline to achieve. 

• Short-term goals can be achieved within a span of one to three years. Examples would be building an emergency fund or investing and saving for an international holiday.
• Medium-term goals can be achieved within a span of 3 to 5 years. Examples could be settling all your debts or buying a new family car. 
• Long-term goals usually take a longer span of 10-15 years or even longer. Examples would be buying a house, saving for your child’s education, planning for retirement etc. 

While it is easy to know what you want in life and easy to set goals, the hard work comes in when you need to start planning how you will achieve them. You need to plan and invest your money to achieve these goals over a long period of time. While financial planning helps you to get more organized with your money, let's be fair that most of us are not good at managing our finances as we were never taught this as youngsters. To achieve our financial goals we need to understand where to invest, understand how to invest and understand our risk profiles this is where a financial advisor comes in. There are many ways to find a financial advisor online and we need to make sure that we use a good advisor to help us achieve our goals. 

Role of a Financial Advisor

Now that we have established that everyone on some level has financial goals and dreams. We need to then work out a plan to achieve these goals, this takes a bit of research and simple maths to work out how much we need but there is more to it than that. 

A good financial advisor will offer advice on how to set a budget, and save money effectively according to your needs. They will also be able to assist with creating an investment portfolio that not only meets your needs but also looks at your degree of risk tolerance. In essence, the role of the financial advisor is to act as your guide, someone who understands your situation and can help you to make plans that will allow you to reach your goals. 

What does a financial advisor do? 

A good financial advisor will take the time to collect and understand your personal and financial information. Once they have done that they will use the data to help you plan for your current and future financial needs. With the understanding of your financial situation and your goals, they will then formulate a long-term plan to help you reach those goals.  They do this by following the below processes. 

• Evaluates the state of your finances and develop a risk-aware strategy to help you meet your goals.
• Provides an objective and independent voice that is genuinely interested in your financial well-being. A financial planner isn’t a salesperson or a product pusher.
• Financial uncertainty triggers a lot of fears and questions. A financial advisor should be able to provide long-term practical answers.
• Gets you started on your strategy by educating you about risk and return, asset allocation, the merit of discipline, and diversification.
• Builds a deep-rooted wealth management strategy to match your risk appetites and long-term goals.
• The advisor turns into a coach during hard times, strengthening your principles while keeping you on track.
• Scans the horizon for problems likely to affect you and keeps you informed.
• Additionally, a financial advisor will give advice on: savings, mortgage, all types of insurance, emergency fund, your tax situation, seeking out the best investment interest rate, etc.

The Role of a Goal Manager or Tracker 

Once you have set your goals and formulated a plan with your financial advisor it would be advisable to invest in a goal manager or tracker. It is vital to be able to keep track of and update your goals because in life anything can happen. For instance, there could be a change in your financial position or life situation which could result in having to adjust your goals. If you are not tracking them you will have no idea how much of an impact changes in your life or lifestyle could have on your goals.  Having the ability to track your investment portfolio against your goal of let's say buying a house enables you to see if you are still on track to meet your deadline or if you need to make some changes. If the interest rate goes up you might reach your goal sooner but if you have had a sudden expense that has come up, you may have to adjust for that and extend your timeline. 

Conclusion. 

Setting your goals marks the beginning of your journey to financial independence and helps you to achieve your objectives at various stages of your life. Once your goals are set, then planning your course of action with your financial advisor helps you to take control of your financial situation and ensure that you have the correct strategy in place to meet your goals. And finally having a goal tracker keeps you accountable and ensures that you know how close you are to achieving your goals or when you need to adjust your course to get back on track. If you are looking for competent help with your setting your financial goals and planning your financial future we can connect you with a relevant financial advisor online to assist with your tax, wealth risk management and investment needs.