Tuesday
May172011
3 Mid Year Review Tips and Bonus!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at 11:55AM I'm still activley looking for advertisers for Financially Digital. I'm looking for reputable businesses who would like to enjoy the benefit of being affiliated with an equally reputable content producer. I've turned down a lot of less than adequate requests but I will be starting the next round of posted ads soon. Please email me for details. Thanks!
It is almost June and that means 2011 is just about half over. I know that the New Year has long past but what happened to the goals you set and the resolutions you made. Personally I’ve noticed that my gym has calmed down since earlier this year - which is great for me not having to wait for stuff. Personal fitness benchmarks aside, what’s going on in the plan you set for this year. Have you saved enough? Are you on track to save enough? Did you get the raise or increase your income like you planned? Do you even remember where you put your plan on your hard drive? All of these are quite valid questions. As I sit hear and reflect on my own plan I can think of a place or two where I’m not exactly where I wanted to be. A positive is that I am a whole lot busier - which I haven’t decided if it’s a good thing or not yet.
Today’s post is going to be punctual in the approach to help you evaluate where you are with your plans and how to make them relevant again. First off if you have complex financial situations where you use the input of a financial advisor, CPA, financial planner, or coach around now is the time to get in contact with them. If your investment representative has not reached out to you yet then pick up the phone and call to set a review appointment - it’s what you pay them for. If you are working for a company or municipality that offers you a retirement plan like a 401k or a 403b then you should also be calling your representative. Those guys can be notorious for being ghosts in the machine but it’s your retirement funds so it’s important that you check in with them as well. If you are a DIY investment person then find a friend or a coach/consultant who can give you a check up, talk strategy, and help you to stay on track. Now onto the how-to’s of plan reviews!
Time to get go-aling..see what I did there. - Now I don’t want you to pull out your old goals and look at them nostalgically, then think to yourself that those are the things you still want. What I want you to do is to take a few minutes and outline the things that are important to you now and through the rest of the year. If you break goals into short, mid, and long term buckets that’s fine to. Put some thoughts together about where you want to go from here. After that go back to what was important to you at the start of the year. If there are differences in the old one really evaluate if it’s important to you any more and if it is not just drop it. No point in allocating resources and attention to something that’s not really that important to you now. Life happens it’s ok to change your mind as you go.
Check your benchmarks. - Odds are when you started this years journey you had a bunch of lump sum type goals. Save some number of dollars, buy something, travel somewhere, drop some pounds. Which are all great! But how did you track them - it at all. First off how did you do each month and you find that out by dividing your goal by 12 months (if it was an annual goal) Then by weeks and even days if you want to drill down that far. This gives you an idea of where you are, how you did, and what kind of attention you need to give your goals to get to where you want to be. If you aren’t on track it’s ok there’s still time. It’s just time to get to work.
Strategy - Now you know what you want and where you stand. How are you going to get there? I’m not saying that you have to boil down every action to each hour of the day but a direction to move to is important. If you need support now’s the time to reach out as well and the same goes for research. For each of your goals you should have a loose To-Do list that you check and update regularly. I’m a huge fan of white boarding and it’s easy for me to track my progress as I go for my big goals. Starting with this review what do you have to do this month to get you on track and from there break your actions down. If you can do something like that every month you keep your goals in very achievable spaces. Set up deadlines as well to try to create a sense of urgency. Give yourself mini-rewards along the way for the things you’ve done well and even the stuff that you’ve done not so well. Failure as a result of a flawed attempt means you made some progress - any progress should be rewarded. What you want to avoid is inactivity.
Those are my thoughts on framing the next 6 months for success. Reviewing your annual plan is a very personal experience so it will be a little different for everyone. Make sure you consult professionals for the things you need help with, the same goes if you are a small business owner. It’s June for you too, is your business where it needs to be.
BONUS: Tools I use to keep me on track! (Seriously and daily)
Wunderlist - multi platform to do list/organizer. It’s on my iPad, Android, and PC
Focus Booster - Really keeps my focused at my machine and keeps me contantly moving forward.
Google - Email, Calendar, Cloud Storage. Need I say more.
oDesk - Hiring Jerese as my Virtual Assistant was probably the best thing I’ve done this year (super affordable). You should definitely check out the on demand global workforce
Today’s post is going to be punctual in the approach to help you evaluate where you are with your plans and how to make them relevant again. First off if you have complex financial situations where you use the input of a financial advisor, CPA, financial planner, or coach around now is the time to get in contact with them. If your investment representative has not reached out to you yet then pick up the phone and call to set a review appointment - it’s what you pay them for. If you are working for a company or municipality that offers you a retirement plan like a 401k or a 403b then you should also be calling your representative. Those guys can be notorious for being ghosts in the machine but it’s your retirement funds so it’s important that you check in with them as well. If you are a DIY investment person then find a friend or a coach/consultant who can give you a check up, talk strategy, and help you to stay on track. Now onto the how-to’s of plan reviews!
Time to get go-aling..see what I did there. - Now I don’t want you to pull out your old goals and look at them nostalgically, then think to yourself that those are the things you still want. What I want you to do is to take a few minutes and outline the things that are important to you now and through the rest of the year. If you break goals into short, mid, and long term buckets that’s fine to. Put some thoughts together about where you want to go from here. After that go back to what was important to you at the start of the year. If there are differences in the old one really evaluate if it’s important to you any more and if it is not just drop it. No point in allocating resources and attention to something that’s not really that important to you now. Life happens it’s ok to change your mind as you go.
Check your benchmarks. - Odds are when you started this years journey you had a bunch of lump sum type goals. Save some number of dollars, buy something, travel somewhere, drop some pounds. Which are all great! But how did you track them - it at all. First off how did you do each month and you find that out by dividing your goal by 12 months (if it was an annual goal) Then by weeks and even days if you want to drill down that far. This gives you an idea of where you are, how you did, and what kind of attention you need to give your goals to get to where you want to be. If you aren’t on track it’s ok there’s still time. It’s just time to get to work.
Strategy - Now you know what you want and where you stand. How are you going to get there? I’m not saying that you have to boil down every action to each hour of the day but a direction to move to is important. If you need support now’s the time to reach out as well and the same goes for research. For each of your goals you should have a loose To-Do list that you check and update regularly. I’m a huge fan of white boarding and it’s easy for me to track my progress as I go for my big goals. Starting with this review what do you have to do this month to get you on track and from there break your actions down. If you can do something like that every month you keep your goals in very achievable spaces. Set up deadlines as well to try to create a sense of urgency. Give yourself mini-rewards along the way for the things you’ve done well and even the stuff that you’ve done not so well. Failure as a result of a flawed attempt means you made some progress - any progress should be rewarded. What you want to avoid is inactivity.
Those are my thoughts on framing the next 6 months for success. Reviewing your annual plan is a very personal experience so it will be a little different for everyone. Make sure you consult professionals for the things you need help with, the same goes if you are a small business owner. It’s June for you too, is your business where it needs to be.
BONUS: Tools I use to keep me on track! (Seriously and daily)
Wunderlist - multi platform to do list/organizer. It’s on my iPad, Android, and PC
Focus Booster - Really keeps my focused at my machine and keeps me contantly moving forward.
Google - Email, Calendar, Cloud Storage. Need I say more.
oDesk - Hiring Jerese as my Virtual Assistant was probably the best thing I’ve done this year (super affordable). You should definitely check out the on demand global workforce
This is just something I found interesting: If you find yourself traveling through the Netherlands then you should check out Shopkortingscode.nl The popularity and competition between couponing sites like this give consumers some real value. Why not try to save money when you out that way too, righ?!
tagged Consumer Behavior, Goals, Planning, Resolution, Review in Behavior, Goals
Consumer Behavior, Goals, Planning, Resolution, Review in Behavior, Goals 
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