How To Maintain Commitment In Your Financial Goals

If you’re like many people, you’ve set one or more financial goals for yourself. You might be trying to stick to a personal budget, save more for retirement, pay off your credit card debt, build an emergency fund, or buy a house. There’s just one small problem: You want the reward, but don’t want to do the work it takes to get there. So you procrastinate and continue to spend and charge and dig yourself deeper into debt. What you may need is a commitment device, a way to keep yourself accountable in reaching your goals. The earliest known example of a commitment device comes from “The Odyssey.” The hero of the tale, Odysseus, knows there is no way that he can resist the Sirens, the classic femme fatales who lure sailors to their doom. So he has himself lashed to his ship’s mast, making it physically impossible to leap overboard and succumb to their temptation. Though it’s probably not a good idea to lash yourself to your recliner to keep from heading to the mall, you could try more modern ways to stay on track. Commitment Devices to Help You Reach Your Goals 1. Make It Public If you’ve ever set financial goals for yourself, you may have also put them in writing. But how do you hold yourself accountable? If you’re the type of person who doesn’t like to be outdone, try posting your goals on Facebook. You don’t need to describe every last detail of your plan, unless you want to. For example, you could say something like this: ”I’m going to pay off my credit card debt in 12 months, and I’ll be posting monthly status reports. If you don’t hear from me on this goal, please feel free to ask about it.” By doing so, your friends and acquaintances know what you intend to accomplish, and you’ll make a commitment to share your progress with them. Embarrassing? Perhaps. Does it require swallowing some pride? Of course. But there’s a good chance you’re going to get waves of support, while also feeling pressured to perform. Plus, it’s possible you’re going to inspire others to make their own goals public. 2. Write a Check to Your Least Favorite Cause You know you have one: a nonprofit organization, political group, or movement that you really can’t stand. It represents everything you find revolting and wrong in the world. Now, write a check to that specific group and place it in a sealed envelope. Hand it over to a close friend or relative and tell them to drop it in the mail if you fail to meet a monthly saving or spending goal. This tactic not only puts your pride on the line, but your sense of morals as well. Choose a friend or relative you don’t want to look bad in front of, and one who shares your feelings about the organization you choose. Then, they’re invested in your success, and you may get a motivational coach out of it as well. enlist online help 3. Enlist Online Help Some enterprising economists and psychologists have started websites to help you stick to your goals. For example, stickK offers commitment contracts that are monitored by a referee. You can optionally back your commitment with money to fund a friend, your favorite charity, or your least favorite charity in the event that you fail. Beeminder, another commitment-geared site, helps you map out your progress and only charges you if you fail to achieve success. If you’re more motivated by peer pressure and encouragement, consider Goalmigo. This site can help you set, track, and share your goals with other users with similar goals. 4. Reward Yourself for Failure Though counter-intuitive, this commitment device serves to amplify your failure and can be an effective way to meet your goals. Ordinarily, if you don’t pay enough toward debt this month, you might intend to make it up next month. Or, if you don’t save enough this month, you might plan to save twice as much the next. The problem is, most people can’t enforce their self-imposed punishment, so they get discouraged and quit.

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Why Pinoys Like To Shop More Than Save Money

MANILA, Philippines - There's little doubt many Filipinos love shopping and spending, as seen with the crowds that flock to the many malls around the metropolis every day.

Unlike most Asians who are stereotyped as frugal savers, it seems Filipinos like to spend their money, not save it.

In an interview on ANC's "On the Money," Benedicto "Poch" Cid Jr, chief brand advisor of Mansmith and Fielders Inc., gave some insights on why Filipinos like to shop and spend.

"We like to enjoy ourselves. Some cultures value sacrifice, frugality and giving up for the future. We are not quite one of those. We like to live," he said.

Cid explained that this hardwired emotional need affects most of the country's consumer population, differentiating the Philippines from other Asian countries where sacrifice and frugality are valued.

"We like to be noticed. We like to be fashionable. We like to be in style. We want to be 'pogi' or 'maganda' and its a characteristic of ours," he said.

According to Cid, marketers have managed to tap into this need and suggest that buying their product will enable Filipino buyers to live a dream, especially in products which are consumed publicly, like brand name fashion items.

"Today, compared to 10 years ago, people are definitely more brand-conscious. Filipinos have more money. The Philippines is going through a phase in where as income rise, people appreciate brand names more," Cid noted.

The Philippine economy has shown strong growth in recent years, backed by rising consumer spending fueled by remittances from overseas Filipinos and young Filipinos employed by BPO companies. Many foreign brands such as Gap, Uniqlo, Forever 21 and Zara have set up shop in the country, in hopes of attracting Filipino shoppers.

"We have a young population growing to buying age and falling in love with a lot of brands. But as they grow older, they will make mistakes and learn," Cid added.

Cid said young Filipinos should ask themselves how buying makes them feel. "Because you probably would start to understand what emotional reward you're getting from all this buying. But once you've got that understood, see that if you can satisfy those needs by doing something else. It all comes to down to delaying that moment of decision," he said.

So before you hit the mall and buy something, Cid offers this advice: "If you want to safeguard yourself, back away and don't make a decision right away, especially for a big-ticket item... Just ask for a little time. Back away from it, breath, move away and let your mind, sleep on it. What that does is that it allows you to bring up your other needs and you can choose to balance them."

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How Your Behavior On Money Affects Wealth Creation?

It is difficult to believe that in most formal education systems today one of the most important aspects of our lives is not taught. Money! 

Money is sought after and traded by individuals, companies, governments, and countries; but still we are taught little about money in school. How we make money, how we manage it and how we invest it will determine our place in society, our lifestyle and our freedom to make the choices of how we want to live our lives.

Most individuals do not realize the void in their practical education until they are well into their careers and realize that their current or projected salary are not going to provide them with enough funds to achieve the lifestyle that they would like to enjoy and to provide for their families. Many people are willing to accept this and give up on reaching their financial goals, however, others seek new avenues and means to advance their economic positions.

Most people can not afford the time or money that is required to go back to college or university to educate themselves, enabling them to advance in their careers or switch professions totally. This means that motivated individuals have to take the initiative to educate themselves through short courses or by the advice of mentors that can help them to achieve financial freedom.

Most wealth mentors will agree that one of the best ways to get on the fast track to financial independence is to create multiple income streams. The way in which you create the multiple income streams of course will depend a lot on your financial position and interests. However, Sunlife Financial Wellness  is very attractive in this respect as it can be conducted after regular office hours (enabling you to hold down a regular job), involves only a couple of hours per day, and can be done from anyplace or in your office with group of  friends as if do conduct free Financial Wellness Seminar for free, you just have to contact us for scheduling of course.

Why should individuals be concerned about furthering their financial education?

If you are not concerned about money or how to make more of it….who else is? Even high net worth individuals who may not have the time to practice the strategies themselves should learn about options, the market, and about managing risk. By doing so they equip themselves to be able to question their fund managers regarding what decisions they are making with their money. It is never too late to take the initiative of educating yourself so that you can achieve the financial freedom that you seek. I think the bigger question is, 

“Can you afford not to educate yourself about money?”

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