Self-Evaluation
Evaluating yourself is a good starting point to achieving your financial goals. You should ask yourself two questions. What do I have? And, What do I want? To expand on that topic, take a look at your debts. What responsibilities or obligations do you have? Take a look at the skills you have. How can you make your skills applicable in making money? How much spare time do you have? And do you have a strong outlook on what you want? Define your goal. When do you want to achieve your goal?
Planning
Planning addresses the question of how do I get from “what I have” to “what I want”. Start taking action. You can start by asking yourself what can I do this year that will help me achieve my goal? This can be something like, paying off a portion of your debt. Or getting a new job that offers a higher salary. Eliminating expenses, or even moving into a cheaper apartment, for example.
Self-Control
Understanding your impulses will be a big boost in achieving your financial goals. Take some time to look through your bank statements and see if you can eliminate any unnecessary spending. If you can stop fulfilling your desires, it will benefit your wallet greatly. Desires are endless, there will always be something you want and you can always find something to buy or “treat” yourself. However if you can control the difficult task of no longer fulfilling your desires you will position yourself in a good place to achieving your money goals.
Perseverance
Having perseverance is the fourth essential. This is a willingness to recognize your mistakes and learn from them. At some point or another there will likely be an inevitable setback that stops you temporarily from achieving your goal. Realizing that you have the ability to bounce back and continue on your original path is what perseverance is all about.
Patience
Patience is the key to success. For most people, achieving financial goals is years and years down the road. Doing small things each and every day will have a compounding effect and as long as you understand that it likely won’t happen overnight, you’ll do a better job of keeping your original goal alive.