Setting Big Azz Financial Goals For College
- Crayton Koranda
- Jul 17, 2024
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 4
Your Guide to Smart Savings and Big Dreams – Because Who Said Managing Money Can't Be Fun?
Hey there, Scholars!
I hope your week is off to a great start. As we navigate our financial journeys through college and above setting goals is crucial. Today, I’m excited to share my top financial goals and how to create your own.
Goals are one of the most important things when getting your finances in order. It sets a sense of direction and purpose for your money. Having an end goal in mind along with how you will use your money will put you ahead of most other students. Today, I will be going over my three major goals and how to create your own goals.
In Today’s Email:
📌 My Three Goals
🚀 Why You Need To Set Big Goals
📝 How To Create Your Own Financial Goals
👁️🗨️ Make Them Visible
🌟Ways to Make Your Goals Highly Visible Please note that the links in this post are currently not running. Thank you!
📌 My three goals:
Graduating college with no debt: Read more about strategies to graduate debt-free
Having atleast $20,000 in liquid cash when I graduate: Check out this savings plan
Buying a Trans AM project car likely costing $4,000-$12,000: Here’s how to budget for fun projects
🚀 Why You Need To Set Big Goals
Wouldn’t smaller ones be more attainable keeping me more motivated?
Yes, and setting big goals will set high expectations getting you to think big. You hold yourself to a higher standard. Imagine if my goal had been to have only $20,000 in student debt. Does that even sound cool or challenging? yet how many people think like this in life? Many people shoot for a letter B grade or to just pass! But this is a terrible strategy. You will always fall short of your goal. Life gets in the way. But with a big goal, you will be farther ahead if you fail. On goal two I might fall short by $5,000 but that is okay. If you don’t have a high chance of failure then your goal wasn’t big enough. An ambitious goal pushes us to take risks. As a result, we aren’t thinking small. If we think small then the impacts will be small.
📝 How To Create Your Own Financial Goals
Do not set a vague goal such as spending less and saving more. How will you be saving more? For example, cutting your daily Red Bull drink saves you $2 a day or $14 weekly. Then the money saved is put into a savings account labelled college fund. This method allows you to see your progress tangibly keeping you motivated.
They need to be specific and have an end date in mind. Instead of saying I want to save money, say I will save $500 by December 31st from my side hustle.
These goals should also be your own. Don’t live the life of others. Ask yourself is this something I truly want? Is it important enough to pour hours of time and effort into it?
They should be measurable. This is easy for finances as the dollar amount goes up or down. For instance, I will reduce my grocery expenses from $400 monthly to $200.
Three is the maximum. Going over three can stretch yourself too thin. Setting too many goals will reduce your focus creating little gain in any goal. Remember less is more with goals.
Write it down and make it clearly visible. This will be touched on after the example below.
Example - By the end of the Summer I will have earned $10,500 from working. This goal will start May 20 when I get out of school and will end when I go back which is August 20 or 92 days. For each week I will have to earn around $807 which is a 40-hour week is $20 an hour. This is an achievable goal for most college students depending on the industry. Even at $16 an hour, you would earn $7,680 from work. The rest would be $2,820 or $235 a week.
This is measurable and attainable while still being challenging. How will you earn the extra $235? Working overtime or starting a side hustle? These big goals challenge you to be creative while stimulating progress.
Now this isn’t perfect considering taxes will be taken out. But as long as you don’t go over $14,600 for 2024 then you will get most of your money back.
👁️🗨️Make Them Visible
In the self-help world often you will read to “write down your goals”. Yes, you could take your goals write them on a sticky note then put them somewhere and forget. The best way to make your goals visible is to put them in a place where you will always see them.
🌟 Ways to Make Your Goals Highly Visible
set up a large poster of your goals on your bedroom wall.
set your phone’s home screen as your three goals.
put them as a sticky note right on your computer or laptop.
Setting a digital reminder to alert you to track your progress. An example would be an app called Gola.
Because these are financial then using budgeting apps like YNAB or Dave Ramsey EveryDollar would track and remind you of your goals.
One of the best ways to keep on track is an accountability partner. You could set a time for you to review your progress with your friend weekly.
I would recommend also reviewing your goals daily. You could just look at them but it would be better to write them down each day. This by far is the best and easiest option to keep on top of your goals.
I would aim for three ways such as a large poster, writing them down daily, and posting a sticky note on your computer. Life gets busy and some days you may not be able to work on your goals. But if you at least remember them then you will get back on the horse and ride.
What Are Your Goals?
I’d love to hear about your financial goals and how to achieve them. Reply to this email or share in the Community Forum!
How to Implement Your Goals (Next Newsletter)
The next newsletter will go into detail about achieving your goals. You have now set the bar and my next newsletter will teach you how to cross it.
Closing Notes
Scholars For Dollars is sent weekly on Mondays. If this was helpful then refer a friend to this newsletter. Thank you for reading my newsletter!😊
If you need anymore information or help email me below at - Crayton.scholarships@gmail.com
Lastly, we will end on the quote of the day.
“Lack of money is the root of all evil.” - G.B. Shaw
until next week,
Crayton Koranda
Comments