Suze Orman Recommends This Smart Strategy to Achieve Financial Goals in 2023

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There’s still time to set and achieve a big financial goal for this year. 

The start of the year is when a lot of people set goals and get to work on them. Money goals are especially popular, as two-thirds of Americans planned on making financial New Year’s resolutions, according to an end-of-the-year survey by The Ascent.

But setting a goal is just the beginning. Sticking with it and achieving it is the hard part. Research by Strava even found that 80% of people with New Year’s resolutions have quit by February.

While that may seem discouraging, a lot of that has to do with how people choose and go after their goals. If you know how to do this, you can almost guarantee success. Suze Orman recently shared great advice on exactly how to complete personal finance goals in 2023. Whether you already have a goal in mind or you still need to come up with one, this strategy will help you achieve it.

Suze Orman’s strategy for reaching financial goals

Suze Orman shared her advice on financial goals in a recent Tweet. It’s simple and effective. Here’s what she recommends: “Pick one big goal that you want to achieve over the course of the year, and then break it down into smaller monthly goals that you can accomplish over a shorter period of time.”

For example, let’s say you want to bolster your emergency fund this year after hearing so much talk of a possible recession. You decide your big goal is to save $3,000 for your emergency fund. That would break down to a monthly goal of $250 — or a little more if you’re getting started now and want to have it done by the end of 2023.

Orman also suggests making your monthly goal a mantra you can repeat to yourself. Using the example above, you’d tell yourself regularly, “I will add $250 to my emergency savings this month.”

This is a great way to set and reach a financial goal, and there are a few reasons why:

You’re focusing on one major goal. If you try to attack several big goals at once, you risk spreading yourself too thin. It’s easier to stay on track with a single goal to work toward, and this ensures that the goal you choose is something that really matters to you.Smaller monthly goals serve as stepping stones. These help with motivation, since you’re checking off a smaller goal every month. They also keep you on track to reach your main goal in the timeframe you want.Everything’s measurable. It’s not something vague like “save more money.” Measurable goals allow you to track your progress and give you concrete targets to aim for.

There’s one thing Orman didn’t mention that’s also very important: Be realistic with your financial goal. It’s good to set your sights high, within reason. Your goal should provide a challenge, but also be something you can reasonably accomplish without drastic changes to your financial situation, like needing to double your income.

What if you have more than one goal?

The question that may come to mind is what to do if you have multiple financial goals you want to pursue. Orman is adamant that you should pick one goal you’re passionate about that will have a big impact on your life. She believes that having too many goals sets you up for failure.

She has a point there. It gets incrementally harder with each big goal you add for yourself. It divides your attention and makes it more likely that you won’t keep up with everything.

This is up to you, but there’s merit to putting your attention on one high-impact goal, such as eliminating credit card debt, building an emergency fund, or maximizing retirement contributions. You can still follow good financial habits in other areas. For example, if getting out of credit card debt is your main goal, you can also save for retirement. The former is what you’re focusing on, while the latter is a habit you follow.

Lots of people have trouble with financial goals, but you don’t need to be one of them. If you want to have the best odds of success, give Orman’s method a try. Choose one big goal and break it down into monthly steps. As long as you work on it consistently every month, you’ll be happy with your results at the end of the year.

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