Quote:
Originally Posted by JinCO
jIM_OHIO - thanks so much for the detailed recommendations. Reading your responses have been very thought provoking and will help to provide a framework for some of our longer term planning. It is very timely as my wife and I have spent a lot of time lately discussing our financial state and goals. I am realizing that we have not had much of a financial plan at all to this point. We have been focused on increasing our income, paying off our debt, investing in our 401Ks, but not with an end game in mind. I appreciate your help.
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I appreciate the recognition. Taking action without set goals will lead to nowhere.
"You better know where you are going, or you may never get there" -Yogi Berra
One issue I know in our house is my wife does not talk about goals as specifically as me. I know that miscommunication is at the root of the few financial problems we have.
Remember my quote
"general problems get general solutions, specific problems get specific solutions".
It is OK to have a general plan for general goals. The issue will be if either of you have a specific goal or specific plan from something real general. Maybe a specific goal is $1 M by age 40 or debt free by age 45 or something like that... but if you only have a general plan (pay down all debts 5k per year) there is lots of details missing to know if the action meets the goal.
General goals I have:
1) retire between ages of 53 and 57
2) live on less than I earn (we save 16% of gross income for retirement)
Specific goals I have:
1) pay off mortgage before retirement
2) get secondary emergency fund to 12 months expenses (48k) as soon as possible.
3) be able to pay cash for a new car within 7 years.
I do not necessarily have a plan for each of the specific goals. I know the general plan for the first two does not cover the bottom 3.