Planning for your financial future is by all means a difficult task and to make it harder you have to realize that any mistake may be a detrimental one. For so many aspects of financial planning there is no going back, at least not without some sort of penalty.
The goal is naturally to wind up with a secured future in which you can sustain yourself throughout your retirement.
One of the biggest mistakes, in every sense of the word, is sometimes one that is unfortunately unavoidable. It was one that is worth any possible sacrifice to try to avoid though. This is where people take out a longer mortgage than they really have to. A thirty year mortgage over a fifteen year mortgage winds up costing so much more then you should ever have to pay for a house. Paying it off quicker means you’ll have less money to invest in the first years of your home life but you will have a massive amount more to invest later.
That’s mentioned first because it is likely the biggest cost you will ever have to face. But another big mistake is to avoid doing what is really key in all of this planning and that is to set yourself a goal; more so, set yourself a realistic goal. Like any other aspect of life, without goals we won’t achieve much. Without realistic goals we will never be satisfied.
The goal is also something that keeps people on track with their financial planning and help them avoid some of the other common mistakes. It is also necessary to have a detailed goal so you have smaller steps to achieve. Not only is this practical but it is psychologically imperative so that you know each year that you have accomplished one more step in your plan.
Uncontrolled spending is something that happens with far too many people. With a goal in mind this is easier to avoid. That way you have a plan that reminds you that you have reached your weekly or monthly budget. Still, savings and investments can not happen if money keeps getting spent on unnecessary things.
This doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to spend money on pleasures, but not more than you can afford. A common example is eating out too much. Even at 200 hundred a meal that can easily escalate into spending thousands on eating a year where you should only be spending a few thousands.
When it comes to saving for retirement, far too many people start too late. This not only makes things difficult but sometimes impossible. One of the main keys to setting goals it to set them early in an effort for long term returns.
These are all important things to think over. Keep them in mind as you continue your journey into the world of planning for financial security.
Most of this post is borrowed from reallifedebt.com by Mika Hamilton who is an author and an editor at the Global Investment Institute.