Move on to Become the New You and Attain Financial Goals of 2020 

Back to 12 months ago, many people probably decided to move on with their financial goals. Some might choose to build from what they had, while some might only have an idea, but never be ready to go for it. 

Anyway, that’s ok…Just forget about it.

For this year of 2020, apart from being a new annum, it’s also the start of another exceptional decade, a splendid kick-off to move on and become a new person who eventually manages to achieve 2020’s financial goals.

However,…in order to move on this time, you need something to prevent yourself from getting distracted and wasting your time as you have ever been. And for that reason, let’s have a look at these 5 simple steps which you can adapt to achieve your goals this year. 

Focus on Targets
Everything we do is comparable to a journey, and financial goals are likewise regarded. We need to start by outlining our accomplishment, which can be divided into 3 stages as follows:

Short-term goals: These targets generally require to be completed within a period of not exceeding 1 year. They are analogous to checkpoints throughout our journey. For example, saving money for travels, rewarding yourself, or saving your first hundred thousand baht.

Medium-term goals: These targets require to be completed within a period of 3-7 years. For the most part, they involve improving quality of life, providing yourself with necessary comforts, or making a life for yourself. All in all, these goals normally align with both short- and long-term targets. Here are some instances: education savings, savings for a down payment on a house or a condominium, or achieving your first million baht. 

Long-term goals: These targets require to be completed within a period of longer than 5 years, 10 years, or even more. It can be compared to the finish line of your journey. Definitely, these goals are often overlooked and fairly vague sometimes, as they tend to be distant from where you presently are and seem to allow quite a lot of time to achieve. Nonetheless, these long-term goals are indeed the most crucial. Let’s look at this example: saving four million baht as soon as possible for your retirement.

Once we’re aware of our targets, we need some plans to attain them. Such plans can be sectioned as below. Starting from understanding your own behaviors, considering the knowledge you have, and the extent of your risk exposure. Afterward, you need to prioritize and allot a time frame for each target, as well as allocating your money in a meaningful way. You need to prioritize all of the three plans above concurrently with saving your money. To put it simply, while you’re saving to achieve any short-term goal, you need to save for your medium- and long-term goals as well. In due course, you’ll also have to review and adjust your plans to correspond to current situations. 

Looking for Extra Incomes/ Cutting Back on Your Expenses
Every so often, in achieving all targets, you need to rely on a huge amount of money. Those who don’t have enough incomes do need to lower their targets. However, you may offer yourself an opportunity by looking for extra incomes, such as making money online, working a part-time job, or cutting back on expenses, e.g. bringing your own lunch or making yourself a cup of coffee, instead of buying one.  

In any case, the part-time job must not affect your resting time or your full-time position. Considering such restrictions, another thought-provoking alternative is investments, which can be compared to something that allows your money to work for you. In the long run, it will lead to passive incomes. For instance, investments in real estate, stock exchange, or mutual funds, be they RMF or SSF, both of which are to be unfolded in 2020.   

Let Your Money Work for You
We need to accept that making a lot of money does not guarantee our security in the future. Anyway, we can lessen work exhaustion concurrently with enhancing opportunities to achieve our financial goals as well as establishing a secure life. 

Let’s have a look at this example. We set aside THB 2,000 each month for mutual funds or equity investments. Supposed that the return is 5% per annum (the interest rate for fixed deposit is approximately 1.75% per annum), if we stick to this manner for 4 years, when calculating based on compound interest, i.e. constant reinvestment, we shall obtain THB 106,030. That means we earn a profit or passive income of THB 10,030 (on the other hand, if you just keep your money with you with no investments, you’ll get only THB 96,000).
This, still, does not take into account an extension of investment period or augmentation of savings obtained from increasing incomes. In the long run, these investments will be extremely powerful. When you look back at the returns, you’ll notice that such a portion of money can be spent on rewarding yourself, or on growing your investments for even more returns. 

Choosing the Right Direction
When coming to this part, we now have goals to achieve and a direction to pursue investments employed as a tool to bring success. Nevertheless, such a tool must be properly brought into play.  

This can be done by learning about each investment plan to the extent that we understand each type of them. You’re not required to be an expert, yet you need to be aware of the funds your money will be invested in and the nature of the plans, e.g. fluctuation, liquidity, or even the greatest chance of loss. 

When we look into the overall image of investment, definitely, nothing can fit with everything. Likewise, we need to choose the correct investment. To put it simply, find an investment that is suitable for yourself. In the previous section, we have already earned a chance to get to know ourselves. 

Many of you may have a question in mind, “how can we know that such investment is suitable for ourselves?” After searching for an answer for a while, there is one that says an investment that best fits us is an investment that makes us “feel at ease with no concerns on the numbers in portfolios.” Therefore, if we can be exposed to only low fluctuations, we should go for the investments that are subject to small risks. For those who are able to take high risks, you can go for the investments that expose you to higher ones. 

When we found that suitability, you can be sure that we have walked in the right direction. Moreover, the contentment gained from this investment will invigorate us to harvest knowledge from other investment opportunities even more. 

Consistency is a Secret of Success 
Earlier in this article, financial goals were compared to a journey. However, it seems that this journey to success does not have any shortcuts. So, the only secret to success is undoubted “Consistency.” Let’s have a look at these experiences of tech experts who have carried out extensive and consistent practices.

To name a few, Bill Gates had practiced on software code writing since he was only 15-16 years old. He was so industrious that Microsoft came into existence. For Steve Jobs, he spent most of his time on circuits, electric wires, and monitors to the extent that he could successfully invent Apple I. 

When talking about consistency in the financial sphere, many of you may think about the DCA investment, which is a monthly investment plan. However, what’s beyond the consistency of your investment, no matter you’re a successful investor or an investment enthusiast who is on the way to success is consistency in self-development and reflection. Moreover, what we further need is consistent plan improvement to accomplish our targets, which can be aimed at on a quarterly, half-yearly, or annually basis. 

And these are all the 5 steps to move on to become the new you and attain the financial goals of 2020. Moving on this time may occasionally come across obstacles. However, the last thing those of you who aim for success should know is that it’s now the time to become a new person and never be afraid of failure because such failure will teach you how success looks like.