The Simplest Personal Financial Planning Process Ever

One of the major reasons why people are not able to manage their finances is lack of personal financial planning. If you have huge debt to repay, it’s because of insufficient planning. If you have saved enough for your retirement, you have not planned well. If you don’t have a penny in your pocket, you haven’t ever thought about financial planning.

Personal Financial planning is essential in one’s life, irrespective of the age he starts. So, the below mentioned planning process is for you, whether you are male or female, 20 or 50, single or married. Just get started right away.

Get Yourself a Financial Journal

Sounds foolish? Well, you have tried all your smart ways, why not this foolish one as well. And let me tell you, this is one of the most useful ways to have a plan. When you have your plan in writing, it’s more real, than a vague mental idea.

Create a Wish-list

After you finish with decorating the front page, list down all the things you want to achieve in your life on the next page. This list should, however, be pure financial. You cannot list down about having a new girlfriend, or improving relation with your spouse. If you want to do it, get a new journal. In this one, it’s just money.

Set Priority

According to your preferences, rearrange the list on next page, starting from the one you want to achieve first, then next, and so on. This would help you to know what you have to start working on, and what can be waited.

Set Target and Cost Price

The goals in your journal are your products. So, you are free to set your own cost price. If one of your goal says ‘want to buy a new car’, set the amount or your budget for that product, to be precise. Do it for each of them. Next, set a timeline to achieve it. If you don’t have a target to achieve in specific period, you would not strive to achieve it rigorously. Hence, based on your priority, set a practical time line for each goals.

Achieve

Start putting a tick, or cross, or strikethrough, or whatever you like adjacent to the goals you have achieved. You can do this by doing a small calculation and determining how much you will need every month to achieve the goals.

That’s it. Was that hard? Not at all. You can do it within a day as well. The only thing that kept you from doing personal financial planning is boredom and fear of loss. Throw all your fears, and start today. Live your life as you always wanted it to be.