The Danger in Setting Financial Goals. I just got off the phone with a client, he and his partner had been working through setting some financial goals! Just to be clear I am 100% in favour of setting financial goals, but they were in danger of making a serious mistake! They were talking through what they had so far on their list and there was one goal that I stopped them on. “Get out of Debt” Now I am sure most people are familiar with this goal, I mean it might even be on your list but before we went any further, I had a quick question to ask. “Do you guys have goals for your marriage? ” “Of course we do, yeah” “Well is one of them to ‘not get divorced? ’” There was silence for a little while… “I mean of course we don’t want to get divorced, but it isn’t actually a goal on our list” “Exactly! ” They both were a little puzzled by what I had asked so I went on to explain something important… To have the goal of “not getting divorced” for your marriage is silly. Just like having the goal of “getting out of debt” These are NOT goals! They are by products to achieving other goals. Maybe you have the goal of “increasing your income” which would have the outcome of helping you get out of debt. Maybe you have the goal of “100% service to my wife” which would likely have the outcome of not getting divorced. It is like a race car driver who is speeding around the track, if his one goal is to not hit the one tree that is next to the track… guess what, he is going to hit it! I hope this brought some value to you and helped you to reconsider your financial goals.
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