The Top 10 Benefits Of Short-Term Financial Goals
Setting short-term financial goals is a key part of every experienced budgeter's plan. It's all too easy to become bogged down in big-picture objectives that take months or years to achieve, such as buying a house, funding your retirement, or paying off student loans. While these are fantastic goals to have, breaking them up into smaller steps proves advantageous for our mental and financial health.
In this guide from Wisconsin Auto Title Loans, Inc., we're divulging ten benefits of setting short-term financial goals after clarifying the differences between long- and short-term monetary objectives. We will also explain how online title loans in Wisconsin can help when a financial emergency threatens to ruin the progress toward your goals.
What Are Some Examples Of Short-Term Financial Goals?
A short-term financial goal is anything money-related that you can accomplish in a couple of weeks. This can involve saving money to pay for a luxury purchase or pay off debt.
How do long-term financial goals differ from short-term financial goals? The amount of time it takes to complete is the most obvious difference. Short-term financial goals take less time but are likely for less serious goals. However, they can also provide emotional relief as you can accomplish the goals in quick succession and feel elated to continue to accomplish your goals.
The following are some short-term financial goals:
- Buy a new bed
- Build an emergency fund
- Save money for investment
- Pay for a car loan down payment
- Improve your credit score
Top 10 Benefits Of Short-Term Financial Goals
Think of long-term goals as your North Star — it's the larger, overall objective you want to achieve (e.g., putting a deposit on a house or saving for retirement). Short-term goals help you reach your main objective by breaking it up into smaller aims across a shorter time frame.
Even if your near-term goals aren't directly related to your big-picture goal, the skills and benefits you attain from achieving them will ultimately help you reach your larger savings goals. You can benefit along the way by accomplishing more achievable goals that can put you on the path to greater success
The following are the top ten benefits of short-term financial goals:
1. Celebrate Small Wins
Buying a house or saving enough for a comfortable retirement may be a long way away, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to celebrate until you hit these mountainous financial goals. Short-term objectives give you plenty of chances to celebrate smaller (yet just as mighty) wins, which will boost your mood and keep you on the right path.
For example, you may wish to pay back the hundred dollars you owe to a friend. Owing that money can be a monkey on your back, but saving and eventually paying the money back can be a huge relief.
2. Provides Structure To Your Saving
You don't always know the way forward, especially when it comes to money. You may feel stuck or like you aren't getting anywhere. Short-term goals, however, flip that on its head, giving you something specific and (potentially) tangible to focus on.
Saving for an elusive time in your life is difficult, so having the next steps in front of you can help you stick to the big-picture plan. Giving yourself a structure to your budget and savings can help you become more focused and efficient with how you plan your life financially.
Instead of saving money just to save, you can have smaller goals in mind to keep you on the right path.
3. More Flexible Than Long-Term Financial Goals
Sometimes, life has different plans for us, and we can't stick to our original idea. Unfortunately, long-term money goals are relatively static, providing little to no wiggle room — houses won't get much cheaper, after all.
However, short-term financial goals are different. Whenever curveballs occur, you can adjust them to suit your new situation, negating an otherwise stressful endeavor. For example, buying a new bed isn’t such an important goal that you have to focus all of your energy on it. When a financial emergency arises, you can easily pivot to saving money to handle that first.
4. Boosts Self-Belief And Confidence
Achieving short-term goals is powerful for your mental health and self-esteem. If the goal you want to achieve is realistically in sight, you'll be more emotionally motivated to hit your target. This sets you up for success, giving you not only a dopamine hit but also a boost in self-belief and confidence.
For example, let’s say you are close to the end of paying off your credit card debt. You only need to pay $800 more. By focusing all of your energy on paying off the debt, you can experience a significant confidence boost because you focused your energy on one financial task and achieved it.
5. Enhances Focus
Short-term financial goals provide a definitive direction and clear focus — you know what you want to achieve and when you want to achieve it, increasing your productivity toward the end result.
Moreover, near-term planning helps you filter out the noise and prevent the sometimes nauseating feeling of being overwhelmed by long-term money planning. You can give yourself something to focus on that you can accomplish quickly, making it seem more attainable. This can provide more motivation to accomplish the goal and keep you focused on your short-term financial goal.
6. Increases Time Management Skills
It's hard to keep working toward a big-picture goal when there isn't an end date in sight. That's where short-term goals come in to save the day. By setting actionable goals with week—or month-long deadlines, you'll effectively manage your budgeting and save time to meet the end date.
Setting time-sensitive short-term goals can also help you in other facets of life. By proving you can meet a short-term financial goal, you can use the time-management skills you learned to help with your work or social life.
7. Measures Progress
There's little worse than not knowing if what you're doing is actually making progress. Short-term financial goals give us actionable, measurable progress, particularly when they come with deadlines.
Seeing the strides you make toward your goal will help you keep pushing toward the bigger picture. You can even establish multiple short-term goals that funnel into a longer-term goal if you wish to see your progress along the way.
8. Builds Motivation And Momentum
Seeing financial results in a shorter timeframe motivates you to achieve your larger goals. As previously mentioned, near-term goals display your progress, building momentum to keep you on the right path for longer.
As you continue to accomplish short-term goals, you may desire to continue chasing the dopamine you get from the accomplishment. This can keep you on the path of setting financial goals, which is a healthy way to structure your economic life.
9. Limits Procrastination
It's easy to put off larger goals and save for them another day. It isn't so easy to do that with short-term goals that demand your attention immediately. They give you a necessary push toward making smarter decisions with your money.
For example, saving for a house can take a long time. When your paycheck comes in, and you wish to use the money that should go toward the house on a night out, you may think it’s okay to miss saving the money one time. With a short-term goal like paying off debt, you can see the end in sight and are less willing to wait to save.
10. Helps Build Emergency Funds
One short-term financial goal that can benefit you is building an emergency fund. Most financial experts recommend you save enough money to afford 3-6 months of living expenses in case you lose your job or an injury or illness renders you incapable of working.
You can set small, short-term goals to build up your emergency fund over time. For example, every so often, you can set a goal to build up a month’s worth of living expenses for your emergency fund. This can help keep you secure in case of an emergency. If you don’t have the time to build up your emergency fund during an economic crisis, auto title loans online can help.
Borrow Online Title Loans In Wisconsin For Financial Emergencies
Setting a short-term goal is ideal for building emergency funds, but despite it being "short-term," it still takes time to grow. Unless you started saving months ago, you're unlikely to be able to cover significant urgencies without a little helping hand. That's where our Wisconsin Auto Title Loans, Inc. team can help with our auto title loans online.
Quick cash loans like online title loans in Wisconsin are available when dealing with unforeseen circumstances (such as home repairs, funeral costs, etc.). These quick cash loans allow you to borrow up to $15,000 if you have fully paid off your car. Your title loan amount depends on the value of your vehicle, as determined during an inspection.
Here's how our auto title loans online process works:
- Complete the online form on this website
- Speak on the phone to a loan representative about online title loans
- Bring your driver’s license, lien-free car title, and vehicle to the Wisconsin store location nearest to you
- Have your required items verified and your vehicle inspected for its value
- If approved, sign documents to complete the approval process
- Receive your title loan cash the same day or the next business day
Those struggling financially can get title loans for bad credit because you use your lien-free car title as collateral to secure the loan. You can begin the process on this website and finish it in person in less than 30 minutes. Contact us for financial assistance today!
Get Online Title Loans In Wisconsin – Borrow Up To $15,000 Today!
Short-term financial goals can help provide focus, motivation, and confidence, but financial emergencies can ruin your progress. Wisconsin Auto Title Loans, Inc. can help when you face an emergency you cannot afford with our online title loans. Get approved the same day you apply for title loans for bad credit with our simple, speedy approval process.
Ready to get fast cash today with title loans? Start the process today by filling out our online form or calling us to discuss the title loan process with a friendly representative.
Note: The content provided in this article is only for informational purposes, and you should contact your financial advisor about your specific financial situation.