Setting your goals
Money helps you to achieve the things you want to do in life. That's why the first step to getting sorted is to work out your goals – where you want to be financially and what your priorities are.
How to set your goals
Take some quiet time, when you are not under pressure, to set your goals.
Be specific, realistic and write your goals down. Your goals could be to get out of debt, save for an emergency fund, pay off your mortgage faster, or simply to have some money left at the end of the week.
- Set some big goals - like owning your own house in the next five years or saving for retirement.
- Set some smaller goals to help you get there – like saving for a deposit or paying off your credit cards.
Keep your goals within reach
Make your goals easy to remember. Ideally, the whole thing should be simple enough to carry around in your head.
Using the My Goals worksheet
Setting goals is easy with our My Goals worksheet.
Use it to write down your short, medium and long-term financial goals, then save them to My Plan to review later.
The worksheet will also help you work out your financial priorities and set actions to achieve your goals.
Next steps:
- Use the My Goals worksheet to write your goals – then save them to My Plan.
- Use the Budget calculator to create a surplus you can use to save for your goals or reduce your debt.
- Use the Cashflow calculator to track how well your budget is working in reality.
More information
In this section, you'll also find information on:
- Planning in a partnership
Key financial issues to consider if you’re in a relationship. - Net worth
The quick way to get a handle on your overall financial situation.
You can order or download a printed summary of this section in our Sorted booklet ”Set your goals - The first step to managing your money better”.
Review your goals
Each six months or year - on a specific date written in a diary or calendar - review how you've done. When you achieve a goal, celebrate. Then set yourself a new goal.
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