Have you ever asked someone what their plan is? Most people will deliver an elaborate plan that will describe their life goals, education goals, professional goals, travel goals and retirement goals. They will talk about what they want to do, the time frame they want to accomplish their goals and the specific details of that goal. But, on most occasions, those same people fail to financially plan for all their life goals.

Every established goal will have a financial sticker price attached to it; there will be a cost associated with accomplishing that goal. Regrettably, most plans will falter and the goal never reached because proper financial planning was never a key ingredient to the plan.

If you want to succeed at setting and achieving all of your life goals, you WILL need to cash flow the event into your plan.

This my friends is what we call a budget. It is a cash flow PLAN that will enable you to set aside monies on a regular basis that will be used to finance your life goals.

If you plan to go to school, it is wise to plan early so as to offset the high cost of education. My niece is about to go off to College in three weeks and will graduate in four years with an $80,000 student loan. This level of debt will seriously delay other goals she may have established because this 25-year debt payoff will suck up a large percentage of her professional income…and that is if she can find a job in her field of study.

Proper financial planning is the key ingredient to successful goal planning. Without it, goals are merely dreams.