New Goals 7/9

I have been working the past few weeks on a few financial goals I would like to achieve in the next few years. I really want to develop myself as an investor, and am taking interest in the types of investments available. My ultimate goal is to achieve financial freedom, but at this point there are too many variables to put a timeframe on that. Once I achieve some of my short-term goals, I will have more of a sense of when I will achieve that date. Otherwise I would just be using an arbitrary, possibly unrealistic time period which would defeat the purpose of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-Sensitive) goals.

So without further ado, here are some more goals:

Goal 1: Trade my first stock option. I have been learning about different investment strategies and I hear stock options are an effective (albeit risky) investment. However, since I’m not married, young, and don’t have a lot of money to invest, now would be the time to make the investing risks and make the mistakes since I don’t have much to lose.

Target Date: October 31, 2011

Goal 2: Purchase a home. Buying a home has been one of my dreams over the past few years, and I think I will finally be in a position next year to take that leap into home ownership. It’s a bit scary, I must admit, but I’m excited about it. Although it may not be my dream home, I would like to take advantage of a foreclosed home and use it as a starter home/fixer-upper until I can afford a nicer one.

Target Date: August 30, 2012

Goal 3: Accumulate $50,000 in liquid equity in 5 years. Yikes! This is a really ambitious one for me! This does not include personal home equity or retirement accounts, either; simply cash and investment value. I don’t exactly have a detailed plan of how I will do it, but if I meet my goal of paying off my car and make sound investments in the next 5 years, it will go a long way towards stacking up this amount of money. I just have to imagine the position I would be in if I were to attain this goal, and it will all be worth the sacrifices I would have to make. I would surely be able to set my financial freedom goal at that point!

Target Date: December 31, 2016

So there you have it. Those are a few of the challenging, if not formidable, goals I have set for myself. I may set the bar pretty high, but even if I don’t make any of these goals, the work that I put towards achieving these goals will definitely put me in a better situation than if I hadn’t set these goals.

Again, if you have any goals you would like to suggest or goals you made for yourself (financial, health, or otherwise) please leave a comment below!

Remember: think it, speak it, DO it!