Contrary to popular perception, financial planning involves much more than mere budgeting and is definitely an exercise which requires expert attention. Given the immense complexities of life, a complex financial marketplace, multifarious investment instruments, multiple short term and long terms financial goals, planning for a safe and worry free financial future is not an easy job.
There are many steps that go into the making of an efficient and truly effective financial plan. Proper goal setting and assessing one’s correct net worth are two of the most important principles of any financial planning process.
The first step is often the identification of the short and long term financial goals. One thing that should be kept in mind while deciding on financial goals is that the more tangible and precise the goals, the easier it is to plan for them.
Short term goals can be the things that you want to accomplish within a shorter time span say 3-5 years, like buying a car or a vacation etc. The long term goals have to be achieved over a period of 10 to 20 years or more like planning for daughter’s marriage, kids education, retirement planning, buying a house etc.
