Annual Financial Goals

The new year always seems to arrive faster than we think. But it’s never too early or too late to think about your goals for the year—there’s no rule that you have to make all your resolutions on 01-January! Figuring out your yearly goals can be an ongoing process.

The idea of setting goals for the year isn’t meant to lock you into a rigid mindset of success or failure; it’s simply meant to help you reflect on what you want out of life and create steps to get yourself there.

The best goals for the year will depend on where you are in your financial journey. It's always good to see where you stand and update your goals if needed.

*Emergency Fund*

A perfect first financial goal to have because this is the savings that will allow you to weather a job loss or other surprise expenses without going into debt. The recommended amount you should have in your emergency savings is 3-6 months of basic living expenses, but if that seems overwhelming, work on saving your first 1000 and build from there!

*Monthly Budgeting*

A foundational financial goal because this is what allows you to get a full picture of how much you’re making, how much you’re spending, and where there might be a chink that can be managed.

*Side Hustle*

We could all use a little extra cash, to pay debts, increase savings, achieve a financial goal, or retire earlier. No matter what it is, starting a side gig can help speed up your goal timeline.

*Retirement Planning*

The sooner you start saving, the sooner that coveted financial freedom will be within your grasp.

*No Spend Challenge*

While you pay for the essentials like rent, gas, utilities, groceries, and other necessary things, this is a chance to identify bad financial habits and go from usually a couple of weeks to a month, in which you eliminate all non-essential spending.

Do whatever, however, whenever you want and can, but be sure to break up your financial plans into achievable modular short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals. You should also outline the financial goals so that they are measurable and tracked for progress. Also, be sure to set weekly goals to help you make the big goals easier to achieve!

Cryptocurrency

Money is what money does. We are living through several concurrent financial revolutions, with the rise of crypto, Fintech, and Open Banking taking place simultaneously. Just a few short years ago, it seemed unlikely that crypto would enter the mainstream. But that’s exactly what’s happening today. Countries like China, the US and the UK are currently working on Central Bank cryptocurrencies, which would be digital versions of the Yuan, Dollar and Pound. Facebook recently launched a pilot of a crypto-wallet called Novi and is also developing its own stablecoin (a cryptocurrency pegged to another asset) which will be called Diem. Notably, MasterCard is about to give banks and merchants on its network the ability to integrate crypto into their products.

As crypto adoption grows at a rapid pace across the world, the big question on everyone's mind is - will cryptocurrency be the future of money? There is a growing intersection between the traditional financial world and the crypto world, particularly between banks and non-banks. Traditional banks are looking to offer more digital asset services and this will drive more interoperability because at the end of the day people, companies and governments need to be able to use different sources and mediums of money interchangeably and seamlessly.

The concept of currency is something that is constantly evolving. There was a time when currency was in in barter which got evolved to physical money (notes) which existed only in the physical form, but today, we can't imagine a world without digital payments. It may come as no surprise that at some point in the future, cryptocurrencies too will work as exchange currency. Many experts have estimated that the recent pandemic has hastened the decline of cash by almost half a decade, a few are asking whether digital currencies will actually succeed. Instead, it’s a matter of when they will go mainstream.