You’re probably trying to figure out where I am going now. We were just talking about a new way of thinking was needed and now we are going into talking about financial goals.
Don’t worry we are not off track at all. I just want to use this to show you that indeed we have to look at things a little different than the ways we know.
If I was to ask you what your financial goals were in life, what are the first thoughts that come to your mind.
Usually, the answers I receive are things such as,
“I want security, knowing I have a good stable job so that I can provide for my family the best I can.”
“I want to be comfortable knowing that all my bills are paid and that I can hopefully have something to send my kids to college with and maybe even retire on someday.”
Those are the typical goals we have because that is usually what we have been taught as being successful in life. Or, that is all we knew or saw ourselves as able to achieve out of our lifetime of efforts.
We will come back to these ways of thinking in a few minutes but first let’s talk about what a financial goal really is.
You have to bear in mind that a goal is different from a wish.
Remember back in our talk about setting goals, I said that goals required action steps. Well, the same holds true for your financial goals. It requires effort and action to achieve your end result.
You may wish to be rich, but that doesn’t mean you’ve ever taken any practical steps to make it come true.
You’ve possibly even earned enough money to put some aside, but like most people, you’ve probably invested it with an eye toward security, since you can’t imagine yourself ever getting rich.
You need to understand the difference between these 3 financial goals before you can go about achieving them:
- Job security
- Financial security
- Financial freedom
Job security is the probability that an individual will keep his or her job; a job with a high level of job security is such that a person with the job would have a small chance of becoming unemployed.
Like job security, financial security is the same except for the fact that you may not be living pay check to pay check and you are able to maintain your bills and still manage to put something away for a rainy day and your own retirement.
Many people think financial freedom is being rich or wealthy. I disagree. 
You can be wealthy and still not be financially free.
Being financially free to me means one is not worrying about money.
Complete financial freedom would mean your income is automatic. If the economy takes a severe downturn, or for some reason your job was taken away, or you just stopped working for an extended period of time, your life wouldn’t make a noticeable turn for the worse.
It’s quite simple – aim for financial freedom!