Making Your Goals Automatic
I came across a motivational poster the other day that said: “It’s the start that stops most people.”
At first I thought it was cheesy.
Then I thought about it some more and realized the truth in this little proverb. It really is difficult to take action, especially on long-term projects or goals. Whether it’s paying off your debt, funding your retirement, working out at the gym, or something else entirely, why start right now when you can always do it tomorrow? The future workload of such goals seems too daunting to even initiate an attempt.
The secret to meeting your financial goals is quite simple: make them happen without you, automatically. There’s really no excuse for not starting an automatic process. The follow-through down the road won’t take any time or effort. Log on to your online banking system and set up a small extra automatic payment to your credit card debt every month. Start contributing to your IRA with an automatic monthly bank debit. (You can open a retirement account with as little as a $50/month commitment at T. Rowe Price.)
Whatever your goal is, set it up to happen automatically. You’ll reach your goal, whether you like it or not. Success doesn’t get any easier than that.
