I’m proud and honored to be part of Women’s Money Week, a week that’s all about “encouraging women to speak up about money, take control of their finances, and reshape their financial futures.” Each day this week, I’ll be writing about a specific topic that relates to women & finances. Today’s topic is Goals & Taking Action.

I happen to love setting goals. Each month, I set a series of financial, household, and personal goals, and I make sure to re-cap my progress towards meeting those goals at the beginning of each new month.

I also set annual goals each new year. This year, in addition to setting my goals, I also created detailed timelines for how I would meet each goal. So what’s with all of the goal-setting love? Here are some reasons why everyone should set financial goals:

Why You Should Set Financial Goals

Goals give you a reason to manage your finances well

Much like you wouldn’t book (and pay for) a vacation and not go on it unless something out of your control happened, you typically don’t state your financial goals then ignore them completely.

Writing/typing/posting your goals makes them real and gives you an investment in working towards meeting them. Working towards your goals provides an automatic safety net of good financial management.

Goals allow you to see the big picture

Imagine if you wanted to save $1,200. While you might think that is a large sum of money, imagine if you made that an annual goal and broke it down into monthly increments. Now you only need to save $100/month. Break that into an even smaller goal and you only need to save $25/week.

Setting goals allows you to step back and realize your financial potential over a longer period of time. It allows you to think of the future as well as the present.

Goals hold you accountable

It’s much harder to fritter away large sums of money on meaningless purchases when you know you’re saving for that exotic vacation, first home, new baby, etc. By setting, reviewing, and working towards goals, you’re holding yourself accountable to their successful fulfillment.

Goals give you control over your money

Just as the habits of paying yourself first and spending less than you earn give you control over your money, setting goals does the same because you can choose from literally tens of thousands of ways to spend your money. Having a defined list of goals will help you avoid spending mindlessly, will give you structure, and will put you in the driver’s seat of your finances.

Goals motivate you

By continuously working to meet your goals, you will make progress that will motivate you to keep moving forward. Even if you face a financial setback, you can still slow your progress without giving up completely.

When I write my monthly re-caps, I’m able to actually see my progress which allows me to identify areas of improvement. Even if I’ve only added a fraction of what I’d originally hoped to send to savings, the knowledge that I’m making progress is enough to inspire me to keep working and improving.

Do you set financial goals? If so, what are some of them?