Very rarely do I meet someone who doesn’t care about achieving financial success. Simply put, everyone wants to have more money than they know what to do with. Who doesn’t right? That’s why so many people waste their money on lottery tickets. Yet, as we all know, very few achieve this goal. But, it isn’t for a lack of trying. Everyday people go to work and do their best to earn a paycheck, pay their bills, and get ahead.

While there are a number of different reasons why people don’t accomplish financial success, I believe it has to do with financial goals. My obsessed loyal readers will know that I am a huge fan of financial goals. A year and a half ago I established some basic financial goals and before I knew it, I accomplished all of them. It’s not like they weren’t a challenge – it’s just that there is something special about setting and accomplishing goals, especially when you do it right.

financial goals

While I’m not trying to say the trick to become a millionaire is only to set and achieve goals, but I am saying that it is part of the process and that it can help you improve your finances. But, you first have to make sure you are doing it correctly. Here are five ways to achieve your financial goals:

1 – Set Achievable Goals that Will Challenge You

Most people give up on financial goals before they get started because they don’t set the right goals. There are a number of ways to do it incorrectly. You can set too high or distant of goals and it will affect your success rate because it doesn’t seem achievable. For example, I could say that I wanted to retire with 10 million dollars, but it wouldn’t mean much if I don’t know how I would accomplish it. At the same time, I could also set a goal that wouldn’t challenge me at all. I could say that I want to save $1,000 this year, but what’s the point. I’m already capable of doing this and it wouldn’t be a challenge.

2 – Remind Yourself About the Goals Regularly

Another mistake that people make when setting goals is that is the only thing they do. After creating the goal, they forget all about it. The set it and forget it strategy just doesn’t work. If your goal is anything of significance or worth, it should be something that you think about at least semi-frequently. For my recently-established goals, I have a sticky note on my computer so I can regularly ask myself if I have made progress on them and it’s working. I know that I still have a lot of work to do in order to max out our Roth IRA‘s, and that’s great. It reminds me to work my butt off to accomplish it.

3 – Accountability: Tell Someone Else About it

Another great way to accomplish some of your financial goals is to establish accountability. If you tell someone else about your goal, you are more likely to hold yourself to it. My wife and I don’t openly brag about our ambitious goals to our friends, but we do talk about them together so that we can accomplish them. The basic idea is to find someone who cares about you enough to ask you about your progress.

4 – Work Your Butt Off

At a certain point, you have to realize that stuff needs to get done. If you goal is to earn more money at your job, then you have to realize that you won’t get a pay increase without deserving it. Accomplishing your goals starts with work. Last year, I had a goal to make a little extra money on the side. I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that the extra money was going to fall into my lap. Instead, I spent a lot of my free time working on generating the income. I’m not trying to toot my own horn, but the essence is that you can’t expect things to be handed to you.

5 – Celebrate Your Accomplishment

Many people would often exclude this part of the process to accomplish your goals, but there is no reason why you can’t create incentives for yourself. Who do you think is more motivated to accomplish their goal: someone who gets to go on a nice vacation, or someone who accomplishes the goal just for the sake of accomplishing it? It’s that simple. If it means that much to you, why not make it that much better if you accomplish it.

What helps you accomplish your goals?