Financial goals you can stick to

Do you find you get excited when setting your goals, but feel disheartened when you go off track and don’t achieve them? Planning for future setbacks can help you stay focused on your goal and allow room for life’s ups and downs.

Having a plan for when you go off track can help you to be realistic with both your goal and your lifestyle. This can also boost your confidence in your ability to achieve your goals. Here’s how to create financial goals and stay on track. 

1. Plan for future slip-ups

Think about what might stop you from achieving your goals, so you can put a plan in place to account for it. This means thinking about what might get in the way of achieving your goals and when you might need to make adjustments.

For example, let’s say you have decided to bring your own lunch to work to cut down on costs and put that money towards your goal. What will you do if you leave it at home, have a team lunch or just have a busy morning and don't have time to prepare it?

Planning for moments like this might mean allowing extra slack in your budget or making a trade-off.

2. Allow for flexibility with your goal

You are more likely to achieve your goal if it is realistic. Setbacks are part of life and knowing this could help you stay confident in your ability to achieve your goals.

Questions to ask yourself are is there a time by which you need to achieve your goal? Or if you’re aiming to make a purchase, is there a top and bottom figure to aim for?

If it looks like you won’t be able to achieve your goal, think about whether it’s worth making sacrifices from your spending money. Otherwise, you may need to adjust your goal. 

3. Set your savings plan so you don't forget

When it comes to managing money, there’s often a lot to remember. Setting up automatic transfers can take out some of the mental load. Plus, this means you won’t miss a chance to save and if you set up an automatic transfer on or soon after pay day, it’s likely you will be less tempted to spend it.

If you use the CommBank app and have a GoalSaver or NetBank Saver account you can set up a goal using Goal Tracker.