7 Ways to Accomplish Your Financial Goals

Change Your Thinking

 You may have to your thinking if you currently thinking negatively, have low confidence or doubt yourself. You must think positively and believe in yourself to achieve any goal. Learn at others who have successfully achieved their goals for inspiration.

List

Financial goals are what you plan to do with your money. Financial goals are important to you, within your power to make it happen, something you know you can achieve and are clearly defined and have a specific plan of action.  Create between 5 - 10 goals.  Spread the goals out over time. Create a goal sheet with a start date and target date along with details about the goal and benefit of the goal.  Use action words when creating each goal such as, “Complete” or “Study”, “Create”, “Generate”, “Assemble”, “Budget”, etc. 

Create SMART Goals

Specific (Who, What, Where, When, Why, Which) - "I want to go American University for college.” Measurable (How much, how many, how will I know when the goal is achieve) - "I need $120 for my school trip”. Attainable (develop or identify skills needed to achieve the goal, create a plan of action and timeframe) – “I want to buy a used car less than $15,000”. Realistic (an objective you know you can achieve and are willing to achieve) - "I'll save $50 a week from Thanksgiving to Christmas to buy a new pair of shoes".  Timely (set a timeframe when you will achieve the goal or set a goal that is tangible – taste, smell, touch, see, hear that you believe you can accomplish) – “I’ll save $600 by the end of the year to buy a new computer”. Visualize.  Imagine yourself achieving your goal and what your life will be like when you have achieved the goal.  

Start Small

Define short-term (0-3 years) and long-term goals (3 years +).   Create small goals that you know you can achieve.  Once you have achieved a few goals this will strengthen your confidence which will help you to achieve larger goals.  This will make it accomplish future goals and reduces stress and frustration when trying to achieve a more complex goal. 

Set Dates

When the target date arrives identify if the goal was achieved or set a new target date for the goal. Don’t create more than 1-2 goals with the same start and target date to ensure you can accomplish the goals so you don’t become overwhelmed.

Prioritize

Prioritize the goals by importance, start date and target date. Some goals may be eliminated or put on hold. 

Develop a plan

Develop an action plan to identify how you will achieve each goal.  Writing a goal down makes it easier to commit to it.  Write down an action plan to achieve a goal identifies the benefits and how you will achieve the goal. Do at least one thing each day to reach your goal. Update your action plan to track steps you have accomplished towards achieving your goal.  Avoid distractions and stay focused on your goal.  

Evaluate

Evaluate and review your progress. Track your progress with pen and paper, a smartphone or use an online tool.

Financial Empowerment Advice for African Americans

African Americans spend $1 trillion annually.  One dollar circulates in Asian communities for 30 days, in Jewish communities for 20 days, and white communities 17 days. However that same dollar in African American communities circulates every 6 hours. What this means is that a dollar earned in the African American community leaves that community before the sun goes down. In other communities it stays for weeks on end. 

In addition, a mere .2%, or $.02 of every dollar an African American spends in the U.S. goes to African American owned businesses. Ninety-four percent of African Americans have some type of debt: credit card debt, student loan debt, mortgage debt, or personal loan versus 5% of Americans who have some type of debt excluding their mortgage.

By comparison African Americans spend most of their money or credit on: clothing, appliances, alcohol, cars, electronics, computers, cell phones, clothing, travel, hair care, accessories, food, and household furnishings versus other communities who balance their spending with saving, investing and homeownership. 

Brand name products represent 82% of African American households’ total purchases compared with 31% of private labels and less than 1% of purchases from African American businesses. African Americans are a community of spenders and often times don’t balance their consumer spending with investing, saving and generating wealth the way other communities do.  It’s time to become a community of savers, investors and owners. 

Solutions to help African Americans effectively manage their money:

1. Generate wealth. Some ways to generate wealth are becoming a homeowner, starting a business, investing in real estate, planning for retirement, becoming a franchise owner, capitalizing on compound interest, and keeping debt low. Home ownership is 44% among African Americans, but should be much higher.
2. Hustle. Start a part-time business while working full-time to earn extra money. Use the money to contribute to a retirement account or pay off debt.
3. Do better. Do better than your parents or grand-parents. 
4. Save. Save 10% - 20% each money towards a retirement account.
5. Plan for the Unexpected. Create an emergency savings account to cover monthly bills and expenses for 9-12 months.
6. Passive. Find at least way to generate passive income.
7. Reduce spending. Reduce monthly spending by 30-50%. 
8. Mortgage. Pay off your home prior to retirement.
9. Retirement. Consult a financial advisor to ensure you contribute enough money to reach your retirement goals.

How Social Networks Helps Brand Your Business

Social networks have existed on the web for a few years in the form of chat rooms, discussion groups, online communities, bulletin boards, and matchmaking services. Using social networking websites can create mass appeal for your brand.  They are viable for businesses but it is much easier to build a network from existing social networks such as Facebook and YouTube.  

Social networking website help users find what they need by providing easy search features, ability to connect with other users, and various features customers can access.

Social networking emphasizes user reviews that users are the most concerned about, reviews from their family and friends. Allowing users to voice their opinions about your products or services and send to their friends, family or other users encourages users to return to the website. Social networking websites provides you with likes and dislikes of visitors.

Facebook has over one billion users. If you want to reach professionals trying using LinkedIn.  YouTube allows users to watch and share online videos on various topics such as current news events, social issues and political topics.  YouTube allows users to watch videos, share videos with friends and family, upload videos and connect with other users.

If you wish to target children or college students trying using Facebook, Instagram or Snapchart.  Facebook has a network of 17 million college students.

Bret Taylor, a senior product manager at Google points out that new applications allow more people to discover your website which can translate into greater revenues.

Wharton marketing professor Leonard Lodish points out, the cost of gaining new customers is practically nothing because users join voluntarily and provide their own content through their profiles.  In addition the cost of running the sites' web servers is relatively low.

Nitin Gupta, an analyst with the Yankees Group in Boston says, it's important to look beyond traditional forms of web advertising to see the real potential – which is leveraging the connectivity of the sites and using them to form communities around products, media or services to really be in contact with your users".

"Brands don't yet have credibility or community" on social networks, says Marc Schiller, CEO of ElectricArtists.  Thus you should "inject concepts in everything that you do".

Visitors can be fickle and when a new social networking website pops up they can possibly switch to that website simply because it is new or has feature that other websites do not.  The best way to increase sales is to do your research, think of innovative ways to capture your target audience and don't make the same mistakes your competitors made.