The power and benefits of stating your 'financial freedom' goals

Each week across the ACM network Ali and Gaby Rosenberg offer quick tips for big wins in understanding your money. The sisters are co-founders of the Blossom micro-investing app.

Vision boards, manifesting, #Lifegoals ... you may be rolling your eyes, but it's not all woo-woo.

It makes logical sense that it's difficult to hit a target if you don't know what it looks like.

There's loads of research on the benefits of goal visualisation - one by Harvard Business followed a group of MBA graduates, and 3 per cent of students who had simply written down their goals ended up earning ten times as much as the other 97 per cent put together.

Following this logic: Your chances of achieving financial freedom are reduced if you haven't defined it for yourself. So let's get started.

Financial freedom means your living expenses are all covered comfortably, and you never worry about money. It's different to financial independence, which means having enough savings, investments and other sources of passive income that you don't have to work. Financial freedom is broader, where you live the life you want and money is no object in your decision making. Sounds good to us.

What does your ideal lifestyle look like? In reality, most people are afraid to say what they want out loud, which is actually a primary reason so few achieve it. Is it your dream to cruise around the world indefinitely? (It's no pipe dream. Check out Life at Sea Cruises). Would you need beach access? Perhaps you want to host your extended family in a huge home where everyone is welcome? (Power to you). These are actually all real-world options, and the next step is working out what they'd cost, in real-world money.

Achievable goals are measurable and specific. Once you've figured out the costs of any fixed assets (like a property), consider what your annual living expenses would look like. By what age do you want to be financially free? Once we know these things, we can start to calculate what you need to have earned, by when. (Don't forget your current superannuation payout in this calculation - every dollar counts).

The common wisdom around financial goals is as familiar as it is effective. Paying off any expensive debt, following a weekly budget, setting up automated payments (wherever possible, always) and having an emergency fund are tried and tested formulas for protecting you and your plan for Financial Freedom against the humps and bumps of everyday life. Dream big, but also get the basics secured.

Your road to Financial Freedom may not be the easiest path to follow, but it's definitely the most rewarding. Whilst you may run the numbers and still be tempted to file Financial Freedom away with #Lifegoals, the activity of defining what you're aiming for has a power all of its own.

See you on the beach.

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Sisters Ali & Gaby Rosenberg are the co-founders of Blossom App.