Why Financial Goals Matter

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Hi, welcome back to The Money Brew. I am your host, Kylie Sultana, co founder of Creo Wealth with my husband Anthony. So actually, Creo Wealth is 10 years old this year. So we started the business in 2015. and if you’re watching this, it’s now 2025. It’s January. I can’t believe it’s 2025. and over the Christmas break, we celebrated our firstborn’s 25th.

birthday. I know I look amazing. I’m way too young to have a 25 year old son, but it’s true. so yeah, we’re the proud parents of two boys. in case you didn’t know, give you a quick recap because it has been a little bit of time in between. and I’ll be honest, I’ve actually made a little promise to myself that 2025, I’m not going to play small and that’s what I want for you [00:01:00] guys as well.

I don’t want you to play small. I want you to play big. so I thought it was appropriate that the first episode of the year would be all of our financial goals and why they are really important. financial goals, they’re, little targets that we want to set for ourselves to make sure that our money’s working really hard. and if, you don’t set goals, you’re going to end up being well, like me saying that I’m going to go to the gym, next Monday. and I, yeah. Been a long time. and just on another note, yeah, we’ll cover in another episode. But, yeah, cancelling those things that you’re not using.

So if I don’t, I’ve made a promise to myself, if I don’t go to the gym in the next couple of weeks, I’m going to go in there and cancel it because I’m, let’s be honest, I’m just not going to go if I don’t go in the next couple of weeks. but anyway, I digress. let’s get back onto our financial goals

So you know, we, Always have good intentions when it comes to, [00:02:00] setting goals and our money. there’s stats to say that we’re more likely to achieve those goals if we actually write it down.

So it’s like you’re learning if you’re just. I’m a, is it kinesthetic? I think it is. Oh, geez. I should research that before I say it, shouldn’t I? So I, like to listen and do, that’s how I learn. I can listen to something, but if I actually do it after I’ve listened or, done the theory, thenit’s more likely to sink in to my middle aged menopausal brain. and I know anyone out there with menopause, you’re going to totally get what I’m talking about because the brain fog is real. let’s get back to the financial goals and why they’re important. And I’ve used this analogy before.

It’s you get into your car, and you are going on a holiday, you research your holiday, you know where you’re going, you do your budget so you know how much you’re going to spend, you know how much you’re going to [00:03:00] take with you, you know how much your accommodation is, you know how much you need for fuel, that kind of thing, but, you get in the car and you don’t You know, have a GPS.

You don’t know how to get to your destination. So that’s what a writing down and having a financial goal is. It’s, you know what it is in your head, but you write it down and you give yourself a plan. So that’s why we try and map it out. so financial goals, they provide you direction. So they help you prioritise what’s important and they keep you on track. And so without goals, it’s really easy to overspend or let your money just drift away from you. And, I do it too. if I don’t have a set budget. budget. And if I don’t have a goal to save for, so if you’ve listened to any of our podcasts, you’ll know that I, Anthony and I both love to travel.

So if I don’t have some sort of a holiday planned, then I really [00:04:00] am just like, a ship drifting aimlessly out at sea. I just, no one’s punched anything into the navigation, and I just don’t know where I’m going. I need to have something to plan for. So let’s think of a financial goal as that, and it gives you motivation.

it could be saving for a house deposit. if you can afford a house, in Sydney, especially if you’re in Sydney, but it can be anything that you want. And the beauty of a financial goal is that it’s your goal. It doesn’t matter what it is. It’s got to be important and relevant to you.

let’s break it down so you can have a short term goal, short term goals could be saving for the holiday or paying off a credit card. Say, let’s get rid of that debt medium term goals, say, building an emergency fund or buying a car, but I’m just going to say, if you don’t need a new car, but it’s just an example of a goal, right?

Long term goals could be paying off your home or growing your [00:05:00] retirement savings or starting to invest. But starting to invest could also be short and medium term goals because we’ll cover this in another episode. You really don’t need a lot of money to start investing, in case you didn’t know.

 now once have got some goals in mind, you want to make sure that they’re smart goals. And look, I know that this is. Worn out, but it’s true, right? You want to have a smart goal, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. for example, you don’t want to just say, I want to save more money.

That’s just very generic and very broad. It’s you’re not likely to save money from that. Okay, you need to have something specific. So you want to say, I want to save $5, 000 in 12 months for a holiday. Yeah, so then you can break that down further. If you like, you can start researching for your holiday.

Looking to see how much it is. Look at airfare, see how much it is. Can you put down a down payment with a travel agent or things, little things like that, things that [00:06:00] you need to do to achieve that goal. Tracking your progress. there’s a lot of things that you can do. There’s so many budgeting apps out there now that you can use spreadsheets.

I’m married to a financial advisor, so he loves his spreadsheets. and with the old AI It’s pretty easy to find stuff. there’s so much free stuff out there. Just find something that works for you. I don’t care what it is. Just find what works for you. even a notebook, I’ve got a, actually I’ve got a little notebook here.

It’s I bought it when I went to the Philippines. It’s you look better than Beyonce today. So that’s my little reminder. I write little things down in that notebook. So even if you carry that with you and write it down and it’s something that you look at every day. and have regular check ins, your progress.

And even if it’s only little bits of progress, it’s still progress. appreciate that. It doesn’t matter. small steps, baby steps, that’s what they say. I’m just going to wrap it up there because I don’t want to, bore you with my ramblings. set yourself a [00:07:00] goal.

know what you want to achieve. And, it’s the beginning of the year. It’s a fantastic time to set those goals in motion. so write it down. I don’t think you can see, I’ve got a little cork board here in the office. Just get yourself something, just, even if it’s little post it notes where you sit and work at your computer every day or whatever it is, just remind yourself of something that’s important that you want to achieve financially this year.

set that goal. Is it short, medium or long term? make sure it’s a smart goal, that you’ve got, it’s measurable and that you can achieve it. You don’t want to set something, you don’t want to set a goal that’s not achievable, because that’s just gonna, make you feel bad about yourself, right?

That’s just going to put in your head that you’re shit with money and you’re not. Okay. and find an app if you need an app, find a free app, or a spreadsheet. you need a spreadsheet. I’ll send you a spreadsheet, a budgeting spreadsheet. Easy peasy. or get a notebook. [00:08:00] You can buy them for a couple of bucks from Kmart and some of them have got cute, cutesy little, sayings on the front of them.

So do something like that. So here’s what I’m going to throw out to you. Here’s a challenge. I want you to set a short term financial goal after listening to this podcast. It can be anything you want. Okay. it could be, saving $50 a month. It doesn’t have to be a massive amount of money. It could be skipping takeout and trying to eat at home.

Although that’s counterproductive because sometimes it’s cheaper to eat out, but so all the small wins add up. Remember that. So I hope you have found that helpful. And yes, I’m a little bit rusty cause it’s my first episode back, but things are going to get better just like you with your money.

So thanks for tuning in and I will see you in the next ep