When talking to most millennials about their financial goals within the High 5 Banking Method, the conversation seems pretty unbalanced. The list of short-term goals seems to be at the top of the list and very rarely does long-term goals even come up other than buying a home. In many ways, it does make sense to focus on the goals that can be achieved sooner to get that burst of accomplishment. But at what point are we going to focus on our long-term goals other than just our short-term ones?
With social media and commercials always trying to sell us something, our attention span is getting shorter and shorter. And our time frame of achieving our goals is getting shorter as well. Meaning, most millennials are looking for the fast route for long-term success. You can see this with the number of millennials who have turned a long-term goal of buying a home into a short-term goal. Consequently, 63% of millennials who rushed into homeownership are now regretting it mainly due to unseen maintenance costs. A lot of these unseen costs could have been manageable expenses if our focus is shifted from short-term to long-term.
Actionable Change
So, how do we stop this cycle of living short-term-to-short-term goal? Well, it comes with balancing out our mindset towards how we achieve our goals. Here are a few actionable tips I want you to practice to get out of this funk.
- Update your old childhood goals
- Get out of debts
- Create goals with your present and future in mind
- Get a balanced list of short-term and long-term goals
- Gain knowledge
1: Update your Old Childhood Goals
As a child, we all imagined adulthood to be fun, easy, and most of all liberating. Well, that’s not quite how adulting has felt for most of us. With most Americans actually living paycheck-to-paycheck with our dream Porsche coup is way out of sight. But don’t beat yourself up, we all had expectations of life as children that don’t fit our current situation. Try to focus on letting go of those old childish goals and focus on making goals that fit your present and future.
Start by listing out our goals and make sure they’re not influenced by your childhood mindset. You have to make sure that your goals are functional for your real-life now and not just your past. For instance, let’s take a mom of two toddlers who set a goal of getting her dream Porsche coup. As a mom of two toddlers, you have to realize that you need something that’s less delicate and small. You have to give that goal a reality check and be at peace that your life has changed. Your new goal needs to be something more functional and safe for your current role as a mother. It’s all about letting go of the expectations that don’t flow with where you’re at and where you’re going.
2: Get Out of Debt
Being in debt feels like your dragging a 100 lb luggage with two broken wheels. Bahhh what a drag! The process of getting out of debt isn’t fun. So, start by un-teaching yourself all of the bad financial habits that got you into debt in the first place. By actually replacing those habits with positive financial habits like budgeting, cutting expenses, and living below your means. And most importantly, creating a debt repayment plan and calling your lender to lower your interest rates. This is you positioning yourself to move forward in life, without having to drag that 100lb any luggage anymore.
3: Create Goals with your Present and Future in Mind
You should create or re-create your goals to consider your present and your future. By making conscious goals that actually help you become successful now and in the future. This could be paying extra on your home’s loan principal. This lowers how much interest you pay in the present and gets you closer to owning your home in full. Create goals with your mindset looking at the whole picture, that way you keep your eyes on the prize.
4: Create a Balanced List of Short-term and Long-term Goals
As millennials, we’re being bashed for not hitting these huge goals quick enough and it’s complete BS. We’re already being names the burnout generation for a reason, we’re killing ourselves to achieve everything. We need to stop listening to the noise and start spreading out the expectations of our goals. That means, switching our mindset from constantly turning every goal into a short-term goal and creating long-term balanced goals as well. This creates a better balance and appreciation of what these two types of goals can achieve.
5: Gain Knowledge
You want to gain as much knowledge as possible in the areas you’re trying to achieve in. This can be learning more about personal finance, investments, and real estate. You want to prepare yourself on what to expect and be ready to ask good questions. Take it upon yourself to do your homework one step at a time, without feeling rushed like someone is waiting on you. Trust me, no one wants to rush into making mistakes that will cost you thousands of dollars.
Ending Thoughts
Please do take the time to put some action behind these tips. You want to set goals in a forward motion mindset to see big results in the future. Embrace your childlike ambition to achieve all of your present and future goals.