5 Things That Could Be Holding You Back From Your Financial Goals is a post originally published on: Everything Finance – Everything Finance – Its all about Money!
We all have financial goals that are very important to us. Whether you want to have a huge house in a big city or live out your dreams of owning a homestead, we all have financial goals that we would love to one day reach.
However, reaching these goals is often easier said than done. There can be a lot of things holding us back. Most notably for many people, it’s the debt that they carry. However, there are a variety of other things that could be holding you back from your goals, and this article will go over a few of them.
1. Your Spending
There is no doubting it, most of America has a massive spending problem. In fact, around half of Americans are spending more than they make. Of course, if you are spending a large portion of what you make, you will be unable to pay off debts or save enough to reach your goals in a timely manner.
This large spending problem likely comes from the reliance that many Americans have on credit cards. Many people use these cards for just about everything that they buy, and this causes overspending because many people seem to think that a credit card equates to free money
2. Where You Live
Yes, the city you live in could have a big impact on how quickly you are able to reach your goals. For example, making $65k per year in a low cost of living area such as Kansas will go a long way. But that sort of income in San Francisco will barely be enough to get by with how expensive things like rent and homes can be.
While big city living is costly, there are some things you can do to help make it a little easier on your wallet. Budgeting can also be very helpful as it will be able to always keep you in the know about how much you are spending, and on what.
RELATED:Â 5 Ways City Living is Costing You (And How to Beat Them!)
3. Not Prioritizing Your Finances
In order to become more financially secure and meet your money goals, you need to have your priorities in order. When you prioritize saving more, earning more, and paying off debt, this will be reflected in your financial decisions. Maybe prioritizing a financial goal means you won’t dine out as often or that you’ll pay yourself first to ensure you meet your savings target.
If you’re serious about developing a financial goal, it should reflect how well you budget and manage your money. This year I have a ton of great financial goals and I’m going to be budgeting very intentionally to ensure most of them happen. Whatever your main goals are, they should come first. Poor prioritization bites us in the butt when we spend on dinners out, vacations, or things when we should be spending on beefing up a savings account, investing intelligently, or putting money towards a down payment on a home.
5 things holding you back from reaching your financial goals.
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4. Too Low of an Income
No matter how good you are at saving money and prioritizing, only so much is possible when you have a low income. If you only make $25k per year and have expenses that hit over $20k a year, getting ahead will be very difficult and you will consistently find yourself coming up short when it comes to your goals. I’ve been there. I had a low income when I started my personal finance journey and realized I could only get so far by cutting expenses and being frugal.Â
Instead of depriving myself and penny-pinching, I decided to start side hustling and working from home. This did wonders to my financial situation as I was able to earn an extra $1,000 to $1,500 per month
If this is the case, you need to look at ways to increase your income, or dramatically reduce how much you are spending. Increasing your income can come in many forms including getting a new job, getting more hours or a raise at your current job or finding ways to make side income such as selling a product or service.
5. Comparison Syndrome
This is one of the most under-rated obstacles that could prevent you from reaching your financial goals. You may set a great money goal and get all excited about your plan. Then, life happens and you get off track or worse, you start comparing yourself to other people.
They just bought a house so maybe I should too?
That vacation my friend took looks so nice. I would love to travel like that as well.
My friends are going to happy hour twice a week so maybe I should join as well?
Many of us do this. We compare ourselves to others and either start to feel inadequate with where we’re currently at or we try to keep up with them by changing our goals or financial habits. Realize that you set your particular financial goals for a reason. Don’t get distracted or focus so much on what other people are doing. This will only make you confused and slow your progress. Stay the course, it will be so worth it in the end.
Summary
We all have financial goals but reaching them may be challenging if you encounter any of these obstacles or setbacks. The key is to identify these situations early on and determine how you will overcome them.
5 Things That Could Be Holding You Back From Your Financial Goals is a post originally published on: Everything Finance – Everything Finance – Its all about Money!
Source: everythingfinanceblog.com