In today's video,
we are going to talk about
which is the best way to
achieve long-term financial
goals.
Whether it's saving up for a
down payment on a house,
investing for retirement,
or starting a new business,
these financial goals are
going to require a long-term
strategy and consistent
effort.
I'm going to talk about
different steps that I've
actually taken to achieve
long-term financial goals.
All right,
let's dive right in and talk
about the best ways that have
worked for me to achieve
long-term financial goals.
And I'm definitely going to
share the step that was a
really big game changer for
myself.
All right,
the first thing that I like to
do is to actually set up my
financial goals.
What is it that I want to
achieve?
And when I'm setting these
goals up,
I want them to be very
specific and measurable,
and I want to have a deadline
associated with them.
I'm sure you've heard of the
smart goals,
specific,
measurable,
attainable,
reasonable,
and time bound.
So figure out what it is you
want to achieve financially
and be really specific with
that.
For example,
if you want to save up for a
down payment on a house,
we don't want to just say,
oh,
I'm gonna save up for a down
payment on a house.
We want to say,
all right,
I'm going to save $30,000
for a down payment on a house,
and I'm going to save that
within six months.
That way we have a deadline
with our goal.
And of course we can change
our goals over time,
but we need somewhere to
start.
And as we are setting our
goals,
we can set milestones along
the way to help keep us
motivated and keep us going to
achieve that longer term goal.
For me,
when I wanted to achieve
financial freedom,
I figured out exactly how much
money that would take.
I had a marker board and I
wrote down all of my financial
numbers.
So I have different accounts
like a Roth ira.
I wrote down the exact amount
I had in there.
I have different investment
properties.
I wrote down the values and I
wrote down the cash flow that
I was receiving from those
properties.
I also had roommates,
so I wrote down the cash flow
that was coming in from my
roommates.
I looked at all of those
different financial numbers
and I determined,
okay,
I need this amount in order to
retire.
And by doing that,
I determined that I only
needed to purchase one more
property and I would be at
financial freedom.
I would've had no idea I was
that close if I did not
actually look at my numbers
and set a specific goal to be
working towards.
Comment below and tell me,
do you have a specific
financial goal that you are
working toward?
The second thing that I did in
order to achieve my long-term
financial goals was to set up
a financial plan.
So I had income coming in,
I had my expenses,
I had my different properties,
I had my different
investments,
and I looked at my whole
financial picture,
right?
So I had my spending plan or
my budget set up in my Google
Sheet.
I also use Empower.
It used to be called Personal
Capital,
but I could track my net worth
in there.
If that's something you're
interested in,
I will leave a referral link
below.
You can click on that and set
up a free Empower account.
But that helped me to really
track things along the way,
track my progress,
because I could see how much
my investment accounts had
gone up,
or if they went down,
I could see how much cashflow
was coming in and where I was
spending my money so that I
could make adjustments.
Since I had already determined
my goal of financial freedom,
I created my financial plan to
purchase one more property.
I wanted to save up in order
to purchase that property.
So that was included in my
financial plan,
and by doing that,
I was able to purchase that
property and become
financially free.
But if I had never set that
goal and made the plan on
actually how to achieve it,
that would not have been
possible.
The third thing that helped me
achieve my long-term financial
goals was to live below my
means.
I wasn't overspending.
I wasn't maxing out all of my
credit cards and spending way
more than I was bringing in.
I had extra money to save up
for my down payment,
and I still had money to
invest.
And the reason I knew all of
these things is because I had
my spending plan set up.
I knew how much was coming in
and how much was going out.
To give you an example,
I was talking to a friend a
while ago.
He was telling me that one of
his friends,
her husband,
had ended up passing away and
left her quite a bit of money
in their investment accounts,
and she decided to redecorate
her entire home.
And she did that and then
decided,
oh,
I don't like certain things.
So she did it again.
And what she didn't realize
was that she was spending a
lot more money than she should
have been if she wanted those
investments to last a lot
longer.
We really want to pay
attention to how much money is
coming in and how much money
is going out and live below
our means.
If we aren't doing that,
we can accumulate a lot of
debt and become very stressed
about our financial situation.
And of course,
if we are in that situation,
we can always change that
situation by doing these exact
steps.
And then step number four that
helped me achieve my long-term
financial goals was to invest
consistently.
Whether you decide to invest
in real estate and the stock
market or just one of those,
make sure that you are
investing consistently over
time,
this is going to make a huge
difference because you'll be
able to take advantage of
compound interest if you are
investing in the stock market,
or you can increase your cash
flow with your rental
properties.
For me,
I wish I would've been even
more consistent with this when
I bought my first property.
I didn't buy my second
property until 10 years later.
And once I did that and saw
the benefits of having that
second property,
I was anxious to buy my next
property,
which I did a year later.
And then my next property,
which I did shortly
thereafter.
So I started later on
investing consistently in real
estate,
and I also was investing in
the stock market,
and I started doing that
consistently later on as well.
But by doing that,
I've been able to see
exponential growth on my
investments.
So while it may feel really
small in the beginning,
that is the first step we need
to take.
We need to at least start and
then we can become consistent,
and then we can start to see
higher and higher returns on
our investments.
And if you want help investing
in the stock market,
I have a free masterclass
about investing in the stock
market.
I will leave a link below in
the description.
You can click on that and
watch the free masterclass.
And then the fifth thing that
helped me achieve my long-term
financial goals was to
diversify my investments.
I didn't just open up one
account in the stock market
and invest in one single
company.
I was contributing to my 401K
when I had my nine to five
job.
And I also set up other
investment accounts and put
money inside of those
accounts.
And I diversified.
I have about 10 different
individual stocks,
and then I also invest in an
index fund,
which has a whole bunch of
stocks inside of it.
But I didn't want to be just
investing in one single
company because if something
were to happen to that
company,
I would lose my entire
investment.
And I also like diversifying
by investing in physical
properties in real estate.
So determine what is going to
work best for you and make
sure that you are diversifying
your investments.
And when you are diversifying,
you can actually switch from
one investment to another.
For example,
when I bought my fourth
property,
I took money from the stock
market and I put it toward my
down payment on my property.
So I was able to switch
investments.
And then the sixth thing that
helped me achieve my long-term
financial goals was being
disciplined and being patient.
And honestly,
automating your investing is a
game changer because you take
yourself out of the picture.
You don't have to think about
it anymore.
It's completely automated.
So it makes it super easy.
It actually gets done without
you having to do it.
Being patient when you are
investing in the stock market
is very important because over
the short term,
the stock market will go up
and down.
It's not just a smooth ride,
but over the long term,
your investments will rise.
So you really have to be
patient.
I had to be patient with my
stock market investments.
Those just didn't grow
overnight,
and I had to be disciplined
and continue to contribute
money to my stock market
investments.
One thing that really helped
with that so that I wouldn't
have to be as disciplined is
automating that investing.
I have an automatic transfer
that goes to my account and
gets invested inside of the
stock market.
And if that is something
you're interested in,
I do mention that in my free
masterclass.
So make sure and click the
link below and watch the
masterclass.
But also,
I just didn't give up when
things weren't working out.
When I was looking for another
property to buy,
there were a number of
properties that I looked at.
I put in multiple offers,
and if I just gave up on the
first offer that didn't get
accepted,
then I wouldn't have purchased
my next property.
So make sure that you have the
patience and the discipline to
continue to work on your
long-term financial goals.
Comment below and tell me one
way that you've been able to
achieve your long-term
financial goals.
And if you found this video
helpful,
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Thanks so much for watching.
I'll see you in the next
video.