Once you’ve developed a long-term vision, it’s time to set short-term goals to help you get there. Effective goals tend to be SMART – specific, measurable, actionable, relevant and time-bound. Using one of my vision items from yesterday, here’s an example.

Vision – We have no credit card debt and our savings can cover 3-months of expenses. Our retirement savings will allow us to live well and visit friends and family around the world.

Goal – By March 31, reduce our credit card debt by 20%.

• Specific – reduce our credit card debt. (Before we moved back to the US we had none. The move and job changes were more challenging than expected, so here we are. Time to deal with it.)
• Measurable – 20% gives us something to aim at and know whether we are making progress.
• Actionable – we can stop using credit cards and make bigger monthly payments.
• Relevant – reducing credit card debt moves us closer to our vision of financial freedom.
• Time-based – Without a deadline, you can always put off your action until tomorrow. Give yourself 6-12 weeks; you have enough time to make progress and you need to take some action now.

It will take a while to achieve our vision, so we’re picking one thing we can do for the next three months. After we reduce our debt, we need to increase our savings. Each time we achieve a goal, we get closer to our vision.

Using your vision, what’s your goal for the next 6-12 weeks?