The first step is to figure out what’s essential to you and what you’re willing to spend time and money on. You should take some time to analyse and create your own financial goals before you really invest any money. Do you wish to retire early, for instance? Do you intend to start your business? Would you want to purchase or construct a new home? There can be many things we want to do with the profit from our investments. However, investors must focus on the key investment goals to turn this into a reality.
The 3 Core Investing Goals
To help you develop a stronger strategy for your short- and long-term goals, ask these 3 questions before to beginning your financial plan. It’s important to consider how your investments might aid you in achieving your financial objectives after you’ve identified them . While preparing your investment plan, take a look at your time horizon, risk appetite, and liquidity requirements may impact your goals.
You must analyse what an investment delivers in terms of three important investing goals when evaluating any purchase:
Growth: Growth, commonly referred to as capital appreciation in the context of investments, is a rise in an investment’s value; in other words, you may sell it for more money than you bought for it. Your capital is the initial sum of money you invest. If you purchase a stock for Rs.110 per share with the intention of selling it for Rs. 140 per share, the Rs.30 you receive in profit is known as capital appreciation or growth.
Income: Some investments provide dividends or interest on a recurring basis. Such payments are investment income, which may either be used for spending or reinvested. Income is a major investing objective for retirees, but it can also be significant for other factors. For instance, income payments might lessen the effect of an investment’s ups and downs that is growth-oriented.
Stability: This is often referred to as main protection or capital preservation. An investment that prioritises stability focuses less on boosting its value and more on attempting to prevent it from declining in value.Stability may be your main investing objective if you anticipate spending a certain sum of cash soon and wish to ensure that it will be available when you need it.
What Characterises a Solid Investment Goal?
The adoption of SMART Objectives is the method of goal-setting that experts advise the most frequently. It is an acronym that denotes the following:
Specific: Determining your intended savings amount and use is necessary for setting a precise financial goal.
Measurable: Financial objectives are frequently simple to gauge. You can easily see how close you are to achieving yours, which has a particular money figure associated to it.
Achievable: While it’s OK to set high standards for yourself, doing so at the expense of other, more attainable objectives will sap your drive.
Relevant: A solid investment goal should coincide with your larger objectives and core beliefs.
Time-Bound: Setting an end date for your goal not only gives it a feeling of urgency but it also makes it easier for you to determine how much you must save each month or each week in order to reach the goal.
Some Important Investment Goals Everyone Should Have
Here are a few investment objectives that are crucial to have as part of our financial planning.
Emergencies
It is important to have an emergency fund at all stages of life, whether it is for unexpected expenses, forced time off work, job loss, or another crisis. Saving three months’ salary is ideal, but any cushion is preferable to none. As a result, cash is usually the best option. To maximise the interest on your fund, keep half of it in non-instant access savings.
Retirement
Your retirement could be half the length of your entire career. As a result, you must consider what you will do for a living. There is never an undesirable time to start saving for retirement. The earlier you start, the better, as compound interest over time is your most valuable asset in this situation.
A Change Of Career
Finding out what you actually want to do with your life may take you a long time. How would you manage financially if you decided to retrain in the middle of your profession to pursue something that really inspired you? Before you find your new job, you have to handle a temporary decline in income alongside your training expenses.
Launching A Business
Why should you make an investment before launching your own company? Well, even if you can finance a firm by raising money, it’s wise to start with a sizeable amount of your own money.
Conclusion
Establishing goals aids in achieving life’s important goals, such as maintaining good health and retiring with a sizeable fund. When we allocate money to financial items like stocks, bonds, and ETFs, we give it structure and a purpose. Setting investment goals and investing go hand in hand with good personal financial habits like saving for emergencies and controlling expenditures.
