What to Do If Your Monetary Goals Plateau
You know how to handle your money: you have a budget, a savings plan, and you get rid of debt. But now what? This is the time when many people with a good understanding of money fall from the cart. Once you’ve hit a plateau in your financial goals, it’s important to stay on track and be motivated. Here’s how.
Why is this a problem
At first glance, the plateau doesn’t seem like a big deal. Everything is going according to plan, so what’s the deal?
The problem is, at this stage, many people get bored with their finances. Don’t get me wrong, your finances don’t have to be exciting – in fact, we’re big fans of automating them, so you don’t have to think too much about them. However, there are several ways that boredom can upset you.
First, it’s easy to forget about your goals at this stage. The excitement has passed and you have forgotten how much you want to fix your money. Your emotions have subsided and you are returning to your old wasteful ways.
Another problem: your goal may stagnate at the plateau stage: you do not allow the goal to develop. For example, not long ago I was on my own plateau. I optimized my budget, automatically saved some of my salary, and still got some fun money. Everything went according to plan and I didn’t have to think much about my finances at all. However, during this time, my income has increased. Instead of spending more money on my goal, I just spent my extra income because I used to not worry about my plan. As a result, I thoughtlessly spent my new income (a ridiculous amount was spent in a restaurant ). Basically, there is nothing wrong with that, but I would rather spend my money working elsewhere.
It is also easy to get anxiety during this phase. We want to improve our finances even more, but we know that there is still a lot to do. This is an uninteresting stage. To avoid all of this, you want to make the most of your plateau to get through it.
Set smaller exciting milestones
If your monetary goal, be it paying off debt or saving something, seems too far off, make it more relevant with smaller steps .
Let’s say you finally earn enough to pay off your student loan debt of $ 20,000 above the minimum. So, you come up with a long-term debt repayment plan . At this time, it is easy to set a target on autopilot and lose sight of it or forget it altogether. To avoid this, set a goal to pay off $ 3,000 a year in debt (or whatever works for your budget). This keeps the goal in place and makes you more willing to work towards it and even increase your payments if you have one. Just thinking about your goal in the short term will keep you from getting bored.
And don’t forget to celebrate. Once you have achieved your goal, indulge in a ritual that confirms it, whether it be a slitting of a tall boy’s mouth, a massage, or just an exchange of news with someone who is taunting.
Even if your goal is simply financial stability – to get to a place where you are comfortable with money – providing a reason to celebrate will help you keep your interest in your finances.
It also helps make your goal exciting . I know the words “ financial goal” will not make you jump up and down. When you think about it, however, get out of debt, saving for emergencies, and funding your retirement is designed to help you get control of your money, which is actually pretty exciting. Your goal should be to stimulate you; ask yourself why you want to achieve this at all . To get you turned on, your goal must also be specific and achievable.
For example, suppose your goal is “to get out of debt because this is a responsible business. “Well, that’s pretty uninteresting. Instead, try something like, “ Pay off the $ 1,000 credit card debt this year so I can finally start saving up for my trip to Rome. “It’s concrete, achievable and sounds a lot more fun. The plateau is not so bad if you know that there will be a trip to Rome at the end.
Problems here and there can also help you achieve your long-term goal. Maybe he saves a little more every week. Or asking for a raise. Or negotiate your monthly expenses. Either way, a random challenge can help you achieve your goals. Join us!
Beware of the question “Why am I doing this?” Phase
During the plateau phase, it is natural to face a mini-existential crisis, also known as “why am I doing this?” phase .
Again, the newness of financial security fades away, and you start to worry and start wondering what is the point of managing your money at all. To get rid of this thinking, focus on your own motivation, not on the results of the goal itself. Here’s how Avidium performance analysts put it :
Focus on why it is really important for you to achieve this goal. The reasons can be caused by a serious challenge, your pain, someone else’s pain, image, etc.
Think and make these reasons as emotional as possible, since we are all driven by our emotions, no matter how rational we are. Be careful not to focus on the benefits here … Instead, just list why it is important for you to achieve this result.
For example, if you want to get out of debt, yes, you will be debt free as a result, which is great. It’s financially responsible and smart. But why is this important to you ? Your answer could be like this:
- Because I don’t want debt collectors to call me for the rest of my life.
- Because I want to improve my credit in order to buy a house in a few years.
- Because I want to stop spending money on interest in order to finally save up for my dream vacation.
Again, during the “why?” phase, helps to make your answer specific and accessible. Find out why your goal is important to you.
Learn to love your daily routine
There are a few things you can do to make your goal more fun, but at some point you will run into the same old boring routine. When you save money for a retirement that is 25 years old, you can celebrate so much.
Instead of trying to fight it, learn to love it. We tend to focus on the end product of our goal and define success as reaching that end point. Instead, focus on the process and define success in these terms. Here’s how James Clear puts it :
But if you look at people who consistently achieve their goals, you begin to realize that it is not the events or the results that set them apart. This is their commitment to the process. They fall in love with a daily practice, not a single event.
Fall in love with boredom. Love repetition and practice. Love the process of what you do and let the results take care of themselves.
Focusing on the process is especially helpful when it comes to developing your goal. Maybe you will get a raise. Maybe you will lose your job. Maybe you have kids. Whatever changes occur in your life, develop your purpose along with them. This keeps the goal attainable and relevant.
Getting back to basics can also help you stay focused on the process. The art of masculinity explains:
Sometimes changing things can help us overcome the plateau, but in my experience, I just spend more time looking for that new, magical thing that will change my life for the better. So instead of wasting time looking for something new, I start focusing on the basics. When I plateau in my writing, I will put my composition skills to the test by doing a few of the exercises in the book. When I reach a plateau with weight lifting, I decrease the weight, focus on my form and slowly begin to gain weight again … In many cases, I find that even when you have made some progress, I again sink into In fact the basics can give you fresh ideas to help you move even further.
This applies to almost any purpose, but especially personal finance. The more you learn about money, the easier it is to overlook the basics. For example, I recently took a close look at my budget and realized that I was not as frugal as I used to be. And that’s okay – personal finance is more than just frugality , and for the last year or so I’ve focused on making more money, not hoarding it. At the same time, I was wasteful and thoughtless about my spending because I missed one of the simplest and most basic principles of personal finance: spend less . When I overestimated my budget, I realized that I could save a lot more money without even missing out on it. And now that I have more financial knowledge, I can also see the opportunity cost of lost profits.
Explore the next step
Finally, if you feel like you’ve learned all you can about your current financial condition, it doesn’t hurt to look into the next one.
When I was in the process of paying off my debt, I knew that my next goal would be savings for retirement. So I read a little about investing and 401 (k) s and how to build a portfolio . I didn’t understand a lot of this because you learn a lot about investing when you really start , but I knew where to start when the time was right. Researching the next step certainly helped me learn, but more importantly, I didn’t lose sight of the prize.
The next step may be to tackle the pending student loan debt . Perhaps this is due to the payment of the down payment on the house . Whatever your goal, a little research will get you started when you have achieved it.
The plateau can be boring and hectic. However, take this as a good sign – you want to move forward with your finances. Wonderful! However, it’s easy to forget about the journey when you don’t feel like you are climbing to the top. If it seems like all you can do is wait and can’t wait to get more done, these steps should keep you updated on your overall financial picture.