Like anything else, you should approach investing with clear goals in mind although you may never have thought of it this way before. You might have just been diverting some money from your paycheck each month into your retirement fund without really considering whether you were aiming for some particular amount, or maybe you put a certain amount into savings regularly but you don’t have any real plan. Setting goals can help ensure that you maximize your strategy and get the results that you want.

Choosing Your Goals

Goals that you can reach successfully are specific ones. Are you more motivated by the idea save up some money or by save up $10,000? The latter gives you something specific to work toward. You can see progress and see how far you have to go and reward yourself to get to the end. Work hard to fight imposter syndrome and resist the urge to talk yourself out of your goals. Create a plan and follow it, believing you can succeed is a huge component of actual success.

Now, to make it even better, give yourself a time limit. It should be a reasonable one as this isn’t about pressuring yourself to cut all expenses to the bone to reach some arbitrary number. Instead, it gives you another yardstick to measure and adjust your progress. Examples of investment goals include saving up for a house down payment, saving up to put your children through college or saving for retirement, whether you want to do it earlier or later in life.

Questions to Ask

There are a number of questions you should ask yourself before deciding how to proceed. First, what do you want to do with the money and when do you need it? The answer to this will affect both the type of return you will need and the liquidity of your investment. You should also ask yourself what kind of risk you can tolerate. While there are general rules regarding risk, particularly pertaining to your ability to tolerate it dropping as you get older and have less time to make up for losses, your own temperament will also determine this to a certain extent.

Strategies

You can choose your strategies based on your goals. A conventional strategy that has served many well while saving for retirement is to diversify and avoid getting caught up in short-term fluctuations. In contrast, if you want to learn a lot about the stock market and have the potential to make a lot of money, you may want to look into a day trading strategy. This is a risky but also potentially rewarding approach for those who have the time and inclination to take it on.

Tips for Meeting Your Goals

You do not have to be an expert or even very knowledgeable about investing to do it successfully. You can work with a financial professional or set up your own brokerage account with a roboadvisor that can do a lot of the work for you. Be sure to make a note of your goals and refer back to them from time to time, adjusting your strategy as needed.