Ask yourself ‘why?’

Sketchnote explaining how behind every financial goal there are a number of rational and irrational reasons for why the goal is important to you. By understanding these reasons it's possible to prioritise financial goals and plan the steps to reach them.

When mapping your path to financial independence, it’s good to stop and think about the goals you want to achieve and to ask yourself why they are important to you.

Why do you want to get out of debt? Why do you want to buy a bigger house? Why do you want to start a business? For each of these goals there’s a range of reasons (both rational and irrational) that make them appealing.

By understanding the real purpose behind your goals, it becomes easier to question the need and to judge which ones are the priority to focus on.

Take for example the conflicting goals of becoming debt free and wanting to buy a bigger house.

Becoming debt-free helps to remove a degree of financial stress and means you don’t need to stay in a well-paid, but unsatisfactory job to cover all your bills.

At a practical level, buying a bigger home provides more space, but the real reason might actually be that it makes you feel more successful in the eyes of your peer group.

If it is not practical to pay off all your debt and buy a bigger house at the same time, then you need to decide which one to focus on first.

There’s no right or wrong decision to the scenario above, you just need to decide which is more important to you, so you can map out the steps in your plan to get there.

Thanks for reading 🙂