Making plans
After you take the first step toward establishing your financial independence by getting a job and nailing down the way you handle your money from month to month — budgeting and paying your bills — you’re ready for what independence is all about: setting goals and meeting them. That’s where real financial planning starts. Living month to month can only get you just so far. For everything else, you need a clear vision of where you want to be six months, two, ten, or even 30 years from now.
Then you can make a plan, or a set of plans, for achieving each of those goals. The thing that makes the biggest difference is your time horizon, or how long you have. An effective strategy for realizing an immediate goal is much different from a strategy that helps you make progress toward a goal that’s ten years or more in the future.
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