Frugal Patti

Today we will review criteria for writing our yearly goals (or New Year’s Resolutions) so that they can be easily tracked and achieved. SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely) is the acronym that will help us in our writing. Each of the goals we set will meet these five requirements.

Specific: The more specific you are in your goals the easier it will be to accomplish it. Getting healthy or enjoying life sound nice, but they aren’t specific enough to track or know if you accomplished it. How do you want to get healthy? Add 1 yoga session to your weekly routine? That is something that you can track.

Measurable: Each goal needs to be measurable. The typical New Year’s Resolution of “lose weight” is not measureable. But, if you reword it to “lose 10 pounds” does meet the criteria.

Attainable: Each goal needs to be attainable. Do you have all the resources that you need to meet this goal (such as time or money it may take)?

Realistic: Each goal should be realistic. Are you (or anyone) really able to accomplish this? I don’t think losing 100 pounds in 1 month is realistic for anyone. The typical person can’t complete a 4 year degree in 1 year. You just need to be realistic here, and many New Year’s resolutions don’t meet this criterion.

Timely: This is a rather easy one. You just have to set a time to accomplish the goal by or a deadline. Do you want to lose 5 pounds by June 1st?

Tomorrow: Setting Financial Goals…