Leland Gross (00:01.642)
Welcome back to What Works Wednesday and happy new year, y'all. This is the first episode post new year. And it's that time of year where we're all going through what are our goals. The but the buzzword of the season is New Year's Resolution. And everyone's joining gyms right now. So that's wonderful. If you're a gym person, don't worry, they'll be cleared out in like three weeks. But today, I want to talk about that. I want to talk about goal setting.
because in finances and business and in finance, it's all about your goals. Your goals are your compass, they're your North Star. And oftentimes this time of year, we're creating goals for our business, we're creating goals for our personal finances. And so often, just like our fitness goals this time of year, they're bad goals, they're upheaving everything, they're not realistic.
and we don't actually put systems in place to achieve those goals and we get burnt out and then we don't follow them. We all know it. We've all done it every year for our whole adult lives. But in financial planning, it's innately goals based. What are we working towards? What's the goal? Where are we going? And then how do we put systems in place to be able to achieve those goals? What are the things we need to do? And so for you, if you're sending...
goals for your business or your personal money this year, I want to talk about what are some things to think about and ways to actually achieve goals, to set goals that are smart, which I can't remember. Sustainable, measurable, actionable, look up smart goals, they're a thing. But how I view it.
is with financial planning, with finances, if more money is your goal, which so many people is, I want to make more money this year, I want to save more money this year, I want to save money this year in general. Those are bad goals. They're not going to happen because if more money is your goal, you'll never have enough. You'll never feel satisfied when you achieve that goal. Sure, you saved more this year, but you don't feel like you saved enough.
Leland Gross (02:24.534)
Because that's the weird thing about money. It's never gonna be enough. It's a psychological trick it plays on us. So when you're setting goals, when I'm setting goals with business owners or with clients or people with their personal finances, I always continue to ask them why. And it's an annoying exercise, but we're gonna drill down. I want more, I wanna save more money this year. I wanna make more money. Why? Well, because then I will be able to buy a...
a bigger house or I'll be able to buy a car. Okay, why do you want that? Well, because I want more space. I wanna be able to, you know, have a room for my kids to play in. Great, so you want more space, more quality of life for your family. Why is that important? Well, because I want them to be free, to be creative. I don't want us to be on top of each other so that my wife and I can have a space where we can connect in silence that's tidy and the kids can have a playroom. Okay, so you want connection with your wife. You want your kids to have their own space.
Why do you want that? Well, ultimately we have this vision for how our family is gonna be raised. We wanna live closer to these people with more space that our kids can go to this school so they can get this education. Okay, now we're painting a picture. Now we're painting a picture of what you actually want out of your life and why this goal that you're setting of just saving more money is important.
Other than just the principle of sometimes you ask me why and they're like, well, I don't know, because I feel like I should. Well, if you feel like you should, that's not going to get you anywhere. That's a stupid reason to set a goal. But if it's I want to be responsible, why do you want to be responsible? Because I want to I don't want to make the same mistakes I saw for my parents or I don't want to have to be dependent on my kids or my parents or someone else. I want to be independent. I want to be.
a contributing member of society. Like we can keep going down the why, even if you feel like you should. So continuing to ask yourself why and giving yourself space to say, why do I wanna lose 10 pounds at the gym? Well, I wanna feel more confident in my skin. Well, why do you wanna feel more confident? Because then I feel more free, feel like I can use my voice better. I feel, you know, like I'll be more desirable by my spouse. Whatever it may be, these things, if you keep asking why, you'll get to the core.
Leland Gross (04:42.706)
of these things and let that be your goal. My goal is that I want to buy a bigger house in a different area of town so that we can, our kids can go to the school and get an education that we really value so that they've got more space to play so that my wife and I can have, our bedroom can be like an oasis away and whatever it may be. That's now your goal. And then
we can work that backwards to say, all right, now what needs to happen in order to achieve that goal? If it's the house goal, great. Well, what do you need to have as a down payment for that house? What kind of income do you need to earn to have that house? Okay, great. Now we can work with, well, you need to make more money or we need to save X amount of dollars. So my goal for this year is to save $10,000 because I'm gonna do that this year and next year and we're gonna need $20,000 to buy this house.
whatever it may be, but beginning to ask yourself why, to get to the core of a goal, like to actually figure out what you want out of life, and then work that backwards to set realistic, attainable goals. And then once that's set, hey, I wanna save $10,000 a year this year so that I can achieve this house in three to five years. Now I can say, great, how are you gonna do that?
Do you have that much surplus income right now? Oh, you don't. Okay, well now one of our goals for this year needs to be, well, I wanna cut expenses by $300 a month to free up money that I then will be able to save. And in order to save that much, we need to automate it because if you're left to your own devices, you're gonna spend it. So when we start with our why, when you start with why you have these goals, the initial surface level goals,
we can paint a picture of a bedrock of this is actually what you want. Then we can work that backwards to actually set milestone goals to say, what's actually going to get you there? Just saving more isn't going to get you there. Saving X amount in X amount of vehicle, a high interest savings account, an investment account, a Roth IRA, whatever it may be that can actually fuel that goal better.
Leland Gross (07:09.754)
and we have a vision for what we're gonna use that money for. That's a goal, that setting vision, that setting milestones, that setting things along the way that you can say, great, well now my goal is to cut my expenses by April. By April, I want my monthly expenses to be lower so that I can save more. Wonderful, that's not a year long goal, that's a goal we can achieve in the next three months. Then in April, now that my expenses have been lowered, now I wanna increase my savings and I wanna automate it into a high interest savings account.
at this location because it's given the best interest rate and we're going to do that every single month and that's going to get us to our goal in 18 months. And in 18 months I want to have the house or I want to have the car or whatever it may be. I want to be independent. I want to be able to move out. I want to change jobs. Whatever it may be.
But this is how in financial planning, we really set systems in place to help you actually build the business you dream or get the most money out of your business. Hey, if your goal is to buy the house, well, maybe it's in your business. We need to increase revenue down to the bottom line and we need to distribute it tax efficiently to you so that your personal income is higher so that you get approved for the house. Maybe that's the goal. That's gonna change our action items.
What are the action items that you're going to do in Q1 in order to increase your revenue by X amount? And now we have a vision for why we want to do that. It's not just growing to grow, it's growing with purpose. So often we create goals that just flip everything on their head. They're unrealistic. You know, I want to save $30,000 this year. You make a hundred, that's 30% of your pay. That's not...
totally unreasonable, but currently you live off 80. So like, I don't know how you're going to, the numbers aren't adding up. And it's not unachievable, but it's going to take a whole flipping of lifestyle and quality of life in order to achieve that. So instead, how about we get to the why you want to save that much? Why, what are you building towards in your life? Cause more money will not satisfy you. It just won't. Having a bigger number in your bank account, it just won't. There are billionaires out there.
Leland Gross (09:30.434)
be billionaires who don't feel like they have enough, they don't feel satisfied. They have more money than they could ever know what to do with. It's what is this money actually doing for you? So as you are setting your goals, as you're joining your gym, as you're losing your 10 pounds, if you're making finance goals or business goals, start with why, keep asking yourself that question, boil it down to find out what your real goal is.
and then create a plan, work it backwards. What do I need to achieve that goal? How much money? How much income? How much revenue? How many clients? How many customers? Whatever it may be. And then work that backwards into an annual goal that you can then break into quarterly goals. So, okay, if I'm gonna have this by this year, well then in the first quarter, this is what I need to do to be on track for that. Okay, well that means each month I need to do this.
which means now every week I need to do this. And now you have a weekly activity that's a baby step. This is my weekly baby step I need to do to achieve my annual goal. And that way we're creating now sustainability and furthering your quality of life. Because if you ask the question why, of why you're starting a goal in the first place, it's because ultimately that's what you want. You want to better your quality of life. You want to lose weight so that you can better quality of life. You want to get...
significant other this year to better your quality of life. You want to save more money to better your quality of life but what does bettering your quality of life look like and how do we create sustainable metrics to do that. So with that I will leave you that is my goal setting tip right there. So go forth build the life you want and prosper.