Having financial goals is important. I believe it is also important put financial objectives and goals in context of an overall personal mission or life purpose (used interchangeably in this article). The Wall Street Journal's article Touchy-Feely Finances - How to Find Out What You Really Want From Your Money provides more details on this concept.My personal mission statement is still a work in progress. Even though I feel that it already captures the essence, I expect to finalize the wording over the next 6-12 months. Thus, there may be changes to the statement during this time. Here is my initial draft of personal mission:
It would be great if we (spouse and children included) are highly productive and contributing members of society and have fulfilling lives.
For reference, society includes the elements of faith, family, work and community.
From this life purpose, several goals can be developed for the different parts of faith, family, work and community. Since this is a personal finance blog, I will focus only on the financial problem definition and goals. Specifically, the financial elements primarily impact the family and work aspects.
For family, I have the financial challenge of:
How might we create a level of financial security that enables us to achieve our personal mission?
Regular readers of My Wealth Builder have seen numerous posts on what I am doing to meet this challenge. My overall goal is to create a stream of income in retirement equal to my current salary. The recent post on 2006 Results and 2007 Goals provides a good summary of the current status.
For work, I have the financial challenge of:
How might I create sufficient income in a career that substantially contributes to society and is fulfilling?
To date, I have only had one post on this challenge, Making College Part of a Wealth Building Plan, which discusses how college can be used to access higher paying jobs. From my experience, achieving higher incomes is the result of conscious choices and tradeoffs. And having a overall personal mission can be helpful when making these choices. I will provide more details on this topic in future posts.
For more details on these and other Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday for the next segment.
Photo Credit: morgueFile.com, Carmem L Vilanova
This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.
Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC
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2 comments:
Wish you success in your mission. I particularly like your current personal mission statement....because it does not include "money" :). Most people get tied up by the money numbers and forget the big picture.
Golb Guru,
Thanks for the good wishes and the complement.
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