This foundation step is a lot of fun and something we have found to be essential for keeping our debt free journey on track.
Since graduating from college, Luke and I have learned how to set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time Bound) goals from our corporate jobs. At work, these goals keep our work focused on the company’s vision and also helps us to develop within our roles.
Luke and I love to dream about our future together and we know that by setting goals together, we are assigning plans to our dreams. By creating a written down plan, we are one step closer to that dream becoming a reality. We had several reasons for wanting to be debt free this year so we decided to create a SMART goal around it to bring it to life. Here is how we transposed our general dream: “We want to be debt free” into a SMART goal:
Dream: We want to be debt free
S= Specific- Narrowing the focus of a general dream.
In order to narrow the scope of your goal you should be able to answer a few questions:
- What exactly do I want accomplish?
- How do I want to achieve it?
- What tools are going to help us get there?
Here is what our specific goal was for our debt free dream: We want to pay off $57,000 in student loan debt by following a zero based budget and by living below what we make each month.
M= Measurable- The ability to track the progress of a goal
It’s important to set a goal that allows you to see changes along your journey. Tracking metrics such as: weight loss, weight lifted at the gym or the time it takes to run a mile, are great ways to track progress towards fitness goals. Keeping track of your metrics during set time periods is essential to tracking your progress.
At the end of each month, Luke and I took the time to write down how much money we paid on our loans and the amount that we had left. I’m a very visual person so our tracking sheet hung on our refrigerator to keep me motivated. 😉
A=Attainable- Making sure your goal is manageable and realistic
Before giving our debt free dream an end date, Luke and I calculated how much money we had been putting toward loans each month and how much more we could add to that amount if we really cut back our monthly spending. Based on that number, we had calculated that it would take us about 12 months to get rid of the loans So we knew that if we started paying more money toward the loans, we could definitely do it in 12 months.
Setting a goal that is unrealistic becomes discouraging when progress is not seen toward the goal as expected.
R= Relevant- Keeping your goal focused to your dream and vision.
This one is pretty easy. Really we just want to make sure that our goal is aligned with our dream.
T= Time bound- Setting an end date for the accomplishment of the goal.
The work done during the attainable step of goal setting can be applied right here. 🙂 Because we have calculated that we should be able to complete our goal in 12 months, we set our end date to 12/31/2018.
Without an end date, the goal will remain a dream that may never be achieved. Let’s face it, life gets hectic and excuses always find a way to creep between us and our vision for our lives.
So, our original dream: “We want to be debt free” has become:
SMART Goal: We want to pay off $57,000 in student loan debt by following a zero based budget and by living below our means by December 31, 2018.
By creating goals together we are learning how to dream out loud together and they can be created for any dream you want to achieve (financial, fitness/wellness, spiritual, relational etc.). Writing the goals down puts plans and actions in place to make these dreams come true. The goals help build the roadmap to show us where we are going and how to get there.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. “
~ Laurence J. Peter
