Setting financial goals is an important step toward becoming financially secure. Your goals can be long or short. Maybe you want to save money for a down payment to purchase a house, pay down credit card debt, pay for a wedding, go on a vacation, or buy a car. Regardless of your goal, you will need a plan to achieve it.
Short-term financial goals:
Short-term financial goals help you stay focus and keeps you on track to achieving longer-term goals. They typically take under one year to achieve. Examples may include taking a vacation, buying a new refrigerator or paying off a specific debt.
Tips for achieving short-term goals:
- Create a budget. This will help you assess how much money is coming in each month, prioritize your bills (mortgage/rent, utilities, groceries, etc.), and discover where you could possible save. Get started with this fillable budget PDF.
- Write down your goals. This can keep your objectives clear and get you motivated to achieve them. A good tool to creating goals is using the SMART method. Your goal should be Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic and it should have a Timeline.
- Create an emergency fund. Don’t let your goals get derailed by an unexpected expense. Have money set aside acts as a safety net for unexpected events such as an illness or car repair. How much you save can depend on how much extra money you have available. Save what you’re able but as a general rule, it is recommended to put at least 10% of your income into emergency savings each month.
Long-term financial goals:
Long-term goals typically take several years to accomplish and require longer commitments and often more money. Examples might include buying a home, saving for a child’s college tuition or saving for retirement.
Resources for long-term planning:
Retirement planning at U-M:
- TIAA and Fidelity: Access investment services, free one-on-one meetings and retirement planning from one of the university’s authorized retirement savings investment companies.
- Attend a live webinar: TIAA's interactive sessions are designed to give you practical, useful information on personal finance and long-term investing. Visit the Live Webinar Lounge to register. Adobe Flash may be required.
- Planning for Retirement: Learn about how to determine when you are eligible for retirement, what happens to your benefits in retirement, and your income options in retirement
- Social Security Retirement - You can never be too early or too late when it comes time to planning for a secure retirement. There are many factors to consider when making that monumental decision and one of them is Social Security. We know that navigating a government program can be overwhelming, intimidating and daunting. However, you will be amazed at how easy it is to work with Social Security, to navigate their planning resources, get your questions answered and utilize the online tools to ensure you make the right decision.
- filing strategy options when it comes to spouses and divorced spouses benefits
- key factors to consider when determining the right time to file
- how you can work and collect benefits at the same time and how and when to file the application
- how your decision on when to file for retirement benefits can affect widow(er)s benefits
- learn about Medicare - when you must have it and when you don't need it