Do you set financial goals? Unless your financial situation is absolutely flawless, you should be setting realistic goals each year. When it comes to becoming financially stable or even reaching financial independence, there is so much that needs to be planned out and achieved.

This is why annual goals are crucial if you ever want to succeed or move on to the next step in your life. Here are some of the best methods and strategies for setting financial goals that you will actually keep and reach each year.

Try to Focus on a Few Specific Areas

Having a 5-year or 10-year plan in mind is great for setting goals because it allows you to focus on your timeline and decide which specific areas should be a priority each year.

It’s nearly impossible to focus 100% on improving every aspect of your life in just a few months. You’ll burn yourself out that way.

Focus on specific goals that are going to help you get to the next level. For example, if you have high-interest debt to get rid of, but also want to invest more and buy a house soon, you will have to take it one step at a time.

First set a debt-free date and aggressively pay down your debt for a while. When you debt is gone, then you can use that extra money to set goals to contribute more to savings and invest more.

Set Goals in Smaller, More Attainable Chunks

One of the biggest factors that contributes to failure when it comes to setting goals is unrealistic, large goals. It’s best to analyze your situation, your current income and your needs at the time.

Then, try to set smaller, more attainable goals or break your large goal up into chunks. That way, you won’t psyche yourself out with an extremely large goal and become intimidated.

For example, if you and your spouse want to save up $20,000 for a down payment on a house, you can break that goal up by splitting the amount so that you are responsible for making sure $10,000 is saved and your spouse is responsible for making sure the other $10,000 is saved.

You can give yourself a deadline of two years so that leaves you with a goal to saving $5,000 per year which is mess less intimidating than coming up with $20,000.

You can use this method for almost every financial goal you have by breaking it in half and choosing a reasonable timeline so the goal won’t seem so far away.

Don’t Be Afraid of Hard Work and Sacrifice

Do you feel like you’ve been working hard enough to meet your financial goals? This could be an issue as well. It’s important to understand that people who reach their goals don’t do so by avoiding hard work.

It takes a lot of effort and sacrifice to get your finances on track and the best thing you can do is embrace the dedication and work that is required and surround yourself by family and friends who will support you and encourage you along your journey.

This doesn’t mean that you can ever take a break or reward yourself. Breaks are actually a great way to recharge your motivation for reaching your goal even if you just give yourself one night or a weekend off.

Follow Up on Your Progress Monthly or Quarterly

Tracking your progress is important. You need to tracking your goals in writing and become accountable for your own success.

Write down details about each goal in a notebook or type it up in a document on your computer. Check back in every month or quarter to record what has gone well and what hasn’t gone so well. Your goals might even change throughout the year so feel free to set new goals or change your direction.

Accountability is one of the best ways to make sure you are staying on track and actually seeing progress.

Don’t Give in to Defeat Too Early

Staying motivated about reaching your financial goals can be hard. When you sacrifice and budget strictly for months at a time, you can start to feel burnt out and unmotivated to go on.

Realize that this is a journey and you’ll encounter ups and downs along with good days and bad days. Try to pace yourself and not give in too soon. If you have a few bad months of budgeting or have to fall back on your emergency fund for a an unexpected expense, try not to let it defeat you and keep going.

Again, surround yourself with a strong support system of people and you can even get an accountability partner who has similar goals so you both can help each other succeed.

Determining the best way to meet your financial goals can be tricky, but you should find reassurance knowing that you are working to improve your situation and have an amazing end result to look forward to.

There is still time left to keep progressing with your financial goals for 2015 and develop a new plan for 2016.

What were some of your financial goals for this year?