Many people think financial planning is for people of a certain age or income bracket, but the truth is, everyone should have some sort of a financial plan.

What many people forget is that part of financial planning is working out your longer-term goals.

Common goals are a dream holiday and a new car. Looking further ahead, you may be thinking you want the financial freedom to retire early so you can spend more time with family and friends, or perhaps perfecting an art or craft you love.

You may actually love your work, but are thinking you need some extra money for the kids’ education.

Every experienced property investor has clear goals. This gives them direction, keeps them motivated and helps with creating investment property strategies to help them reach these goals.

But how do you go about setting them?

Using the SMART format can help keep you focused.

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic (or Relevant) and Timely. Let’s look at these a more closely:

• Specific

You do need to clarify what it is you want to achieve. The more specific you are with your goal, the more chance you’ll be able to achieve it. For instance, instead of saying ‘I want a dream holiday’ make your goal: ‘I want to go on a European cruise and holiday in 2023’.

• Measurable

Establish ways for measuring progress toward your goal. Usually this involves a number. For instance, you may want to look at saving $200 a month for the next few years to make sure you can have a really good European holiday.

• Actionable

You need to be able to take practical actions to achieve a goal. For instance, are you going to do more over time, apply for a better paid job or buy a property and earn an income from it and have a tangible asset to use later down the track?

• Realistic

While it’s good to set your sights high, make sure they are realistic sights. ‘I want to be giving up work and living off a passive income next year’ probably isn’t a realistic goal if you’re just starting out. However ‘Buying a property to help me get to living off a passive income in 10 years’ time’ is a bit more realistic.

• Timely

Set timeframes for each goal so you can track progress, get a sense of achievement and keep you on track. Property is usually a long term investment, so set your goals for two, five and ten years.

Once you’ve established your goals, you need to develop a good property investment plan to help you achieve them. Write down your plan and track its progress. If you’re not so good with pen and paper, there are some great finance apps to help.

You can then establish what is bringing the best returns, what needs to be managed or changed and what time frames are involved.

Developing a detailed investment plan can see your property portfolio move from strength to strength, and who knows, you may reach your goals sooner than you think.

Our friendly and experienced team has helped hundreds of people realise their goals through property and we’d like to help you.

If you want to know more about investing in property, get in touch. Simply give us a ring on 02 4954 8833, send us an email to mail@newcastlepropertymanagement.com.au or pop into our Cardiff office for a chat.

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