20 Second Advisor: SMART goals = intentional life

It’s that time of year when we clean out the junk in our house, take stock of where we are, and maybe make a few goals and plans for the coming year! I love to plan, but I’ve learned that nothing happens by accident. The best way to move incrementally toward the life you envision for yourself is to create SMART goals.
SMART goals are:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time Bound
SMART Goal | Not SMART Goal | |
Specific | I want to grow my retirement assets so that I can retire at 60. | I want to be rich |
Measurable | I want to grow my retirement assets to $2M to be able to retire at 60 by saving 30k per year. | I want to save more this year |
Attainable | I want to grow my retirement assets to $2M to be able to retire at 60 by saving 30k per year (which is 15% of my income) | I’m gonna save like 90% of my income |
Relevant | I want to grow my retirement assets to $2M to be able to retire at 60 by saving 30k per year (which is 15% of my income) so that I’ll have time and freedom to do the things I most enjoy (art, being outside, time with grandkids, etc.) | I want to be rich because more money is always better |
Time Bound | I want to grow my retirement assets to $2M to be able to retire at 60 by saving 30k per year (which is 15% of my income) so that I’ll have time and freedom to do the things I most enjoy (art, being outside, time with grandkids, etc.). I need to save $2500 per month to meet this goal. I will set up an automatic monthly contribution starting in January. | It’s only January, so I’ll start looking at saving more later in the year. |
What goals do you have for 2023? How can you incrementally move toward the life you envision?