Financial planning

Once you’ve got budgeting squared away, it’s time to graduate to the next phase of financial independence: financial planning. Some of the things you want to be able to afford are going to take time to achieve — and they likely won’t happen by accident or a run of good luck. Whether your goals are something as simple as buying a car or as complicated as getting married and raising a family, your chances of getting where you want to be are much stronger if you’ve planned for them carefully.

Planning is more than just keeping mental track of what you want and when you want it. Rather, planning requires being specific. And one way to be specific is by getting your plan on paper: what your goals are, how long you’re giving yourself to achieve them, what steps you’ve already taken, and what steps you have yet to take. When a plan’s on paper, you can easily take a look at it once a year or whenever a major change in your life makes you rethink your goals. You can review where you are, where you want to be, check your progress, and revise as necessary without having to start from scratch every time.