Blog
Setting personal goals and making them happen
At a glance
- It’s important to set personal goals based on your values and beliefs.
- Your personal goals may change over time, and your adviser will help you adjust your personal financial plans to track and match your goals.
- A financial adviser can help you achieve clarity on your goals, and create a financial plan which aims to make them happen.
How do you imagine your future? Cruising the Norfolk Broads by narrowboat, or relocating to the Bahamas? Maybe you’ve decided that you’d like to start that micro business you always dreamed of, or move closer to family?
As humans, we’re hard-wired to live in the present – it’s part of our survival instinct. But we all need to be clear about the future life and lifestyle we want if we’re going to get there.
As we get older, our priorities and our goals often shift, and getting them clear in our head can be elusive. You don’t need to make a split decision, and you will want time to reflect. But you don’t want to go into retirement without thinking about how you want to spend the rest of your life.
After all, if you’re not sure where you’re going, you may end up somewhere you don’t want to be.
How do I set my personal goals?
Some personal goals are linked to life milestones: stopping work before we’re 60 or starting a family. Others are based on our dreams and ambitions; learning to fly or starting a small business later in life. We might want to give our children the best education we can, go travelling with them, or leave them a good legacy.
Some people have the good luck to see their goals quite clearly. But for most of us, goals change the more years we live. What we’ve learned through helping people achieve their life’s ambitions, and goals, is that the really important personal goals that you set should be rooted in your personal values.
For example, many of us are passionate about protecting the planet, fighting poverty, or investing responsibly.
Understanding what you believe in, makes it simpler and clearer to set goals. Those goals are the foundation of every personal financial plan. As financial advisers, we spend a great deal of time listening to our clients, helping them decide what’s important to them, before even starting to create the plan that will get them there.
We all have different goals, which is why any financial plan should be individually tailored to you.
Putting a plan into action
Talking those personal goals over with us is just the first step.
The next step is to look at your current financial landscape – what cash, savings, ISAs, or investments you have, and what different type of pensions you have. Whether you have a workplace pension or a Self-Invested Personal Pension or SIPP, for example.
Achieving personal goals is all about putting the money and assets you already have to work, so you can grow your wealth.
What if my goals change?
We can anticipate the future, but we can’t predict it. A break-up, an unexpected change of job, or medical bill might put a spanner in the works. Our personal goals may change over time and it’s much easier to fine-tune a financial plan that already exists, rather than start from scratch.
The longer your relationship with us, the better we can work through those changes together, and help you achieve financial wellbeing – and your goals.
If you’d like to talk through your own personal goals, or review your existing ones, please get in touch.
The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be linked directly to the performance of the funds selected and may fall as well as rise. You may get back less than the amount invested.
SJP Approved 22/12/2023
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