Goals

Financial Priorities And Principles

I think it’s important to focus on simple, achievable goals.  As such, here are my top five financial priorities and principles

Priorities –

  • I will maintain adequate cash reserves, sufficient to replace my income for 12 months.
  • I will remain debt free, paying upfront for all purchases.
  • I will save for retirement, focusing on both pretax and after-tax accounts.
  • I will teach my children sound financial principles, and help them pay for college.
  • I will look for opportunities to bless others, both with my finances and my time.

Principles –

  • I will live on a budget.
  • I will respect every dollar that I make, and the work that went in to making it.
  • I will look for opportunities to save more money.
  • I will look for opportunities to earn more money.
  • I will value people more than possessions.

As I work my way through each month, I keep each of these principles and priorities in mind.  I’m constantly asking myself –

Am I making decisions consistent with my priorities and principles?

It is easy to fell overwhelmed by the amount of information and financial noise.  For me, it’s imperative that I remain focused, keep things as simple as forward, and stick to my priorities and principles.

How about you?  Have you created or thought about a list of priorities or principles?  If so, leave a comment and share.

*This list does not include my regular giving to my church.

5 thoughts on “Financial Priorities And Principles

  1. Having financial priorities and principals is key to keeping your personal finances simple. Know your principals and priorities makes it easier to make short term and long term financial decisions. Simply writing done your priorities and principals is a great help. Nice post.

  2. I have a list of financial priorities (I do a list of goals each year that I check on regularly) but I think I need to revamp them so that there is only ONE priority at a time. I also love the idea of spelling out specific principles like that.

  3. I think a great priority would be to “reinforce” your financial principles by continuously reminding yourself of them.

    Often times you forget what your priorities are or goals even. “Forget” probably is the wrong term, but rather you “lose track of” and are led astray by bad habits that hold you back financially.

    Great post!

    Zen

  4. Succeeding financially boils down to having the right mindset, learning what you need to do, planning it all out properly, and then executing your plan.

    The execution part is fairly easy and straight forward – spend less than you earn, get/stay out of debt, and acquire assets that appreciate in value – in that order.

    Clearly this is easier said than done, but if you have patience and can focus on doing what you need to do to improve your financial situation, anybody can achieve financial success.

    Great post on the priorities/principles and incorporating them into your financial decision-making.

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