What is a personal financial plan?
When we talk about personal finances we are talking about everything that concerns the management of our savings and money, as well as investments. It’s usually a term thatrefers to the sector providing financial services and offers its clients financial opportunities and investments. </span >
Every persona with an income is interested in setting personal financial goals to meet its needs. We talk about saving for short-term expenses, such as a trip or the purchase of appliances, or in the long term as a savings plan for retirement or to guarantee a university education for your children.
Well, if you also have goals and objectives to reach during your life, surely you have proposed yourself many times to try to save in order to achieve them.
But did you make a clear planning of your finances to know when and how to achieve your goals?
Well, if you have come here, you are probably looking for a guide to show you the right way and help you get the most out of your income and savings. In fact, when proposing objectives that involve the economic sphere, it is important that you have the financial knowledge to learn how to plan and follow some advice that will make you make wise and intelligent choices. For this reason, below we will show you what a financial plan is and we will give you some tips to help you create your personal financial plan and achieve your financial goals without having to put in too much effort.
What is a financial plan?
A financial plan is a document, or more precisely a roadmap, containing a person’s current monetary situation and monetary objectives that this person has set himself in the long term, as well as strategies to achieve these goals.
A financial plan is used to meet our current financial needs and, at the same time, offers a strategy for achieving future financial stability. Plus, it helps us prepare for any unforeseen events that might arise along the way and that could cost us a great deal of money (job loss, illness, among others).
The financial plan can be created independently or with the help of an experienced financial planner.
The first thing to do is to make an assessment of your current financial situation, your goals and future expectations, being clear where you want to spend your money and when you want to save.
And, of course, financial planning will help you reduce your money stress by helping you create a reserve for your long-term goals, like retirement, shopping. home etc.
How to create a personal finance plan
But, if you prefer to start doing it independently, we recommend that you follow a series of key tips that will help you reach your goals and milestones in the short, medium and long term.
You will see how creating a financial plan is not as complicated as it sounds.
Let’s see how to get started:
1: Write down your financial goals
Having well-defined financial goals is the foundation of your financial success. If you don’t know what you want to achieve, you can’t know how long it takes to achieve it and if it’s a realistic goal.
Giving yourself small, realistic goals will help you reach them more easily and allow you to measure your progress.
- Review your current situation
Before you start to create your personal financial plan, you will need to know how is your financial situation right now .
If you haven’t tidied up your statements, it’s time to start reordering and reviewing your last year’s expenses to find out exactly how much you’re spending each month, what your regular expenses are, and which ones are irregular.
Once the situation is clearer, ask yourself where you can reduce expenses, how much you could save and what amount you want to achieve within a certain time frame.
- Set financial goals
A good financial plan depends on your financial goals. Setting financial goals will give you more motivation to save .
So, ask yourself what would you like your life to be like in five, 10, or 30 years? What projects do you have for your professional career? When do you want to retire and how much money would you need to live?
Answering these questions will make your goals clearer and inspire you to achieve them.
- Pay your debts
It seems obvious, but many times we don’t think it makes much sense to implement a financial plan if we have a large amount of debt… especially if these debts jeopardize our credit score.
So try to follow a pending debt settlement strategy to get rid of debt before starting your personal finance plan. For example, if you have a credit card, learn to use it wisely.
- Track your money to redirect it to your goals
Keep your monthly cash flow in mind by noting your income and expenses.
Knowing where your money is going can help you develop effective plans in the medium and long term.
- Avoid spending too much and learn from your mistakes
Finally, keep in mind that achieving the goals you set in your financial plan is not always a path of roses and flowers and requires perseverance and sacrifice.
But following your financial plan with discipline will give you the expected results and what you get will indicate that it’s worth it.