Lance wrote recently with some questions about goals. First, he's worried that he should have more than just one. Second, his only goal seems daunting. He's looking for advice:
I wanted to get some help on setting financial goals. Growing up, I did not have many luxuries, so items such as vacations, new cars, televisions, clothes, furniture, etc do not mean much to me at all. The only personal goal I really have is to own a small farm where I could raise a few cows each year or maybe setup a tent to camp during the fall. Yet I feel like I'm not setting enough goals and that I am strange for not wanting to travel or own nice clothes?
At the same time, I know that owning 25+ acres and purchasing it in an area where you can have livestock on the property can be expensive. How do I disassemble my personal goal into smaller sections? Any advice for someone with just one goal?
I don't think it's strange to not want to travel or to not covet nice clothes. Nor is it strange to have just one long-term goal. Many folks have none at all.
I was discussing goals with my friend Michael today, and he mentioned that his wife doesn't set long-term goals. She focuses on the now. As long as her immediate needs are satisfied, she's happy. When something seems wrong, she tries to change it. But she doesn't look ahead five or twenty years to map out an eventual destination.
That's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. But it's important to realize that without a specific destination, many people get lost. I found myself deep in debt primarily because I had no other purpose for my money. I didn't have financial goals.
But Lance does have a goal. He wants to own some land and some livestock. The trouble is, that's the sort of big goal that can seem overwhelming. Here are three basic techniques I've used when pursuing large goals:
- Keep your goal in mind. One way to do this is to advertise to yourself, perhaps using the techniques described at Take Back Your Brain. Regularly remind yourself of why you're doing the things you're doing, but don't obsess over the Big Picture.
- Take one step at a time. It's vital to break large goals into smaller ones. Rather than just dreaming about getting your MBA, decide that this week you'll research online MBA programs and next month start 3 courses. If you focus too much on the Big Picture, you may become intimidated and give up. You eat an elephant one bite at a time. So too with goals. Once I decided to pay off $35,000 in debt, I shifted my focus from the big number to the smaller steps along the way. I made incremental progress. If you're pursuing a big goal, break it into small components.
- Be patient. Persevere. Progress toward your goal can seem slow at first, but will accelerate with time. Things will get easier. You'll learn new techniques. You may receive support from unexpected sources. Together, these things will help to accelerate your success.
I've accomplished three major financial goals in the past few years — getting out of debt, building an emergency fund, buying a car — and I've been successful because I followed these three simple steps.
What about you? Do you set long-term financial goals? How many do you pursue at one time? What methods do you use for tackling a seemingly insurmountable task? How do you break big goals into smaller pieces? What advice can you offer Lance as he pursues his dream of buying a farm?
Photo by kwerfeldein.
Author: J.D. Roth
In 2006, J.D. founded Get Rich Slowly to document his quest to get out of debt. Over time, he learned how to save and how to invest. Today, he's managed to reach early retirement! He wants to help you master your money — and your life. No scams. No gimmicks. Just smart money advice to help you reach your goals.
Consider relocating. We live in an area where $160,000 will buy a nice (1700 sq ft) home and 15 acres. Property taxes on a reasonable size home and that type of acreage will cost about $1000 each year.
Rather than thinking about saving for the acreage, why not break it down to first save for the cost of one of the cows? You can call it the “Have a Cow, Man” fund.
If saving up the cost of the first cow will be slow, then mark off your progress in terms of cuts of meat… Once that is accomplished, then move on to the next cow, as you build up your “herd”.
I break apart a long-term goal into a series of steps , and then further break those down. If I can see small incremental progress towards a long-term goal, I can stick to it.
I’m probably closer to the place that Lance is at rather than having much advice from my own experience. I do have multiple goals and currently I’m working on breaking them into milestones and coming up with a plan to get to each milestone. I found that the concepts Carl Richards talked about in your guest post a couple of days ago to be solid concepts for most things that require long term planning. Figure out where you want to be, where you are now, then come up with the steps to get there. As you go, check to make sure you’re on the right track.
Margo: I like you’re idea of figureing out the price/sf or whatever smaller unit of the whole and base your progress on that. I’m not sure what smaller piece of student loans I can come up with but I’ll definitely use that as my wife and I save up for a house.
@Margo
You’re actually onto something. I just finished the book Made to Stick, Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, and in the book the author writes about how The Nature Conservancy has been trying to protect land by the easiest means possible, purchasing it. Instead of throwing a lot of abstract ideas out like “protect 9% of the endangered lands,” (which equated to 2 million acres each year) they broke the areas into something they called “landscapes” and challenged donors to purchase five landscapes per year. This concept was extremely concrete (one of the points the authors mention that an idea has to have to “stick”)and The Nature Conservancy could then tell donors and potential donors, “We have saved 3 of our 5 landscapes this year, help us purchase the other two.” As you can imagine the concreteness of this worked and donors went back to their pockets and recruited others to help reach their goal. As I thought about it does sound a lot better than, “You’ve helped us reach 60% of our goal to own 9% of the 2 million acres we need to purchase.”
I’m not sure how to make this work for a home. Maybe your goal is a 1500 sq ft home, or a home with an average of seven rooms. You could look at your down payment of say $20,000 needed for the home and divide your down payment by the number of rooms. So for a 7 room home, every $2800 saved bought you another room.
Okay I’ve got some good material for my site now, thinks for getting my creative juices flowing J.D.
BTW: If you are trying to communicate ideas to any group, this is a great book!
For real estate, I would definitely spend some time researching the market, because when and where you buy can have a lot of influence on the amount of money you’ll need. Also learn about cows, if you didn’t grow up with them, and land management, and if possible get to know some people in the area you’re interested in. Doing the research makes the goal seem more real and immediate, and makes you feel like you’re making some sort of progress, and will help you get a good deal. As for the savings, I’m a big fan of automatic transfers to a designated account. And I bet they make cow-patterned wallets, or you could put a cow sticker on your wallet, as a reminder when you’re thinking about spending money on other things.
I find backward planning to be a useful tool.
First, start with your end-state/target in mind, write it down. What is the state desired, in Lance’s case it’s “Owning a Farm”.
Now, imagine you’re right there in the moment of hitting that target(buying the farm). Right before this very last state is achieved, what is the last thing you’ll do(perhaps signed the mortgage/deed)? Imagine what you did right before you hit your target(maybe picked up big phat juicy cashiers check for down-payment).
Next, you keep going backward like that until you are exactly where you are sitting right now, reading my comment. :-)
As you do this, write down each step and by the time you’re done you’ve got your perfect personalized plan sitting right in front of you. All you have to do now is take ACTION to trace the steps in the opposite direction TOWARD your target.
Now that you know what steps to take, your long-term goal that seemed so fuzzy before is now clear. Each step becomes a short-term goal for you as you progress toward your long-term dream of farm ownership fun, Yippee-Kay-Yay,…or whatever your dream may be.
I like Lance’s thinking. If his goal leads him to do the right research while he is saving for his downpayment, he should have some insurance that his decision (when the time comes to buy) will allow him to get the right property, in the right location, for the right price. I agree that he should consider as many locations as possible, so he doesn’t overlook a wonderful place that could cost less. I wish him all the success in the pursuit of his goals!
Jerry
@Chett (#1):
“Consider relocating. We live in an area where $160,000 will buy a nice (1700 sq ft) home and 15 acres. Property taxes on a reasonable size home and that type of acreage will cost about $1000 each year.”
Chett, you’re describing residential land, while the reader was clearly asking about agricultural land. Is 15 acres sufficient for raising cattle? Is agricultural real estate priced differently than residential real estate? Are the property taxes different? Without addressing these questions, your suggestion isn’t terribly helpful.
Margo’s comment is quite funny (and good).
Your goal sounds like a neat idea but have you ever worked on a farm or do you just like the idea of it?
You might also want to consider just renting a farm or part of a farm or just helping a farmer look after his/her cows. This might get you “on the ground” a lot quicker, plus you can see if it’s something you really want to invest a lot of money in.
When I have a goal that seems big and far away, I try to come up with something that I can do now, that will bring me a little closer to that goal. For you, that could be to learn everything you can about ranching and managing a cattle based business. I would think that it’s pretty hard to make a living doing just that, so you’ll also have to figure out where you’ll derive an income from. You might also do research about what it takes to have your cows considered grass fed and organic – to give you a niche in the market that the big corporate farms don’t have. Read books, make plans, figure out how much money you’ll need to get started – then open up an (interest earning) account that’s just for that one thing. Start saving ASAP. Good luck.
@Margo: I’m in the process of paying off my mortgage right now and I love this idea! I’m going to draw a floor plan right now. So clever!
My husband and I are in the process of actually doing what this person was asking about… we bought our land last year, and are now in the process of clearing out a space… we have around 100 acres of trees, and the other 60 that are cleared are inaccessable.
I understand completely how overwhelming this project is. I’m pretty sure we spent the first year alternating between “What did we do!?” and “Whoohooo!” We’ve decided to spread the cost over a few years. This year we break land and put in a well, and next year we start building a house.
Take small steps or you’ll go crazy. Also, a good banker who understands these transactions is a must. A good accountant is also a need once you start developing. There’s lots of deductions and programs available (at least in Canada) and you’ll want to take advantage of them.
To the original question: If you’re buying land in an exburb that allows large animals, then yes, that will be more expensive to buy than if you buy in a truly rural area. Also, your taxes tend to be lower in the one-horse towns. Simply put, buying land in an exburb of Omaha will be more expensive than buying the same amount land in the middle of rural Nebraska. If you’re in the middle of nowhere, you must drive everywhere, but your taxes are likely lower and it’s less likely that the neighbors will complain about your smelly cows. (BTW I grew up on a dairy farm, which is better smell-wise than growing up on a pig farm or a chicken/turkey farm.)
So first, decide in what area you’d want to buy the land, preferably with a house and outbuildings. Then you’ll have a better idea how much you’ll need.
A great way to figure out how to get from here to there, especially for big goals, is to work backwards and create a “backwards flowchart”.
Start with the goal, and ask, “can I do this tomorrow? If not, what would I need to do first?” Then keep asking that question over and over until you’ve got something you *could* do tomorrow. When you’re done, you’ll have created a whole list of mini-goals *and* you’ll have an order to do them in (so you don’t have to worry about doing them all at once!)
Keep working on all those mini-goals in order, and because you’ve got your plan set for success, you’ll get there sooner than later :-)
It works for all kinds of goals, not just financial ones, and is a great way of making even the impossible seem possible.
I write down my long-term goals somewhere that I can see it everyday, on my vision board, or in my planner. Next I break down those long-term goals into monthly, weekly, and daily goals to make sure that I stay on track. The biggest hurdle will be remaining focused on your goals.
In order to achieve your larger dream, I think it’s important to break it into doable steps. I think a big part of successfully reaching a goal is to set reasonable timelines, and stick to them. This part is not always easy, since it’s hard to know exactly how long something will take, but if you thoroughly research and adjust your goals as you progress (like if you come into more money, or spend too much one month, or any other number of things), then anything is doable.
Know your expenses and how much you spend each month. Do a budget. Prioritize & don’t spend on unneccessary wants. Figure out your cash flow.
Figure out where you want this farm & the specifics like 1-storey or 2-storey house? How many acres? Etc. Research to find what your dream farm is going for in the area you want to live in. I’m all for visual reminders, so maybe make up a “dream board” – cut out pictures of farms, farmhouses, etc. and put it somewhere prominent in your home to remind you of your dream.
I have no idea what it takes to run a farm (or what you’d need exactly), but you need to make a list of all the things you think you will need to purchase eventually. So this could be:
-Cows + their food, vet bills, whatever else they need
-Farm machinery – tractors, milking equipment for cows, perhaps a farm pick-up truck for hauling things
-Tools/equipment
-Crop seeds
-Money to maintain farmhouse
etc. etc.
I may be way off haha (I’m a city girl), but you get the gist.
Figure out what portion you’re willing to finance, and a ballpark figure of what you’d need to have as a down payment, and save accordingly.
If a tractor isn’t all that important to you, make sure you save up for a used one vs. financing a new one, etc. Prioritize.
You could set up individual high-interest savings accounts for each component you need to save for, or you could use just one – and get the most interest. Save up the down payment first, then on top of that save for the other things you need to that you don’t want to finance.
Whether he knows it or not, it sounds like Lance has a number of goals already. Almost any big goal is actually comprised of many smaller ones. All it takes to break it down into such is a little shift in perception. It seems unlikely that Lance will simply save up hundreds of thousands of dollars, buy some land with a farm on it, and live happily ever after. Setting up milestone financial goals to achieve this will be only half the battle. Such a huge goal will likely require some personal development that could be incorporated into the plan, broken down into milestones like:
-Become an expert on home ownership
-Become an expert on farm management
-Learn about raising livestock
This is simplified and could easily be broken down into many smaller sub-topics. Basically, I think it’s important to note that you’re only halfway there by achieving a dollar amount. Without the knowledge and personal development along the way, all you have is a pile of cash.
@Kevin
I’ve lived on a farm most of my life. As a rule of thumb you need about two acres of land per head of cattle to ensure you can sustain the livestock without feeding a lot of grain, or supplementing hay. As you increase to around 5 head of grown cattle you may have to consider a larger water source like a pond, or creek that runs through the property.
Property can be listed as “agriculture” or “farm” and still have a home on the property. For appraisal purposes, most of the time, the house is appraised with 1 or two acres (depending on the size of the yard) and then the fair market value of land for the area would be considered. In this area (SW Missouri) farm land can be purchased for about $2500-$3000 per acre.
I was speaking of farm land on which a residential home resides, and the type of land and house I was suggesting is the type of land we currently live on and we have raised cattle here in the past without any problems. Maybe you can’t conceive home/ land prices like this in your area and that might explain your skepticism. I hope this a little more helpful.
@Lance,
Everyone is different and not wanting the latest fashions is nothing to be worried about. I’m probably happier in my torn jeans than many people in their $500 outfits. As for travel, give me a lake, my kayak and a tent and I’m a very happy man for the weekend.
Depending on the area, 25 acres is either plenty for “a few cows” or not nearly enough unless you plan to supplement the feed. I grew up on a farm and we easily kept 3 beef critters on a 2.5 acre parcel. The goats just got staked out on the front lawn (no mowing needed). Check with your County to see if they have a “right to farm” ordinance. One word of warning, if you’re going to be using them for your own food supply, DO NOT name them.
Most people I talk to think its a crazy goal but in 2003 I bought the land and convinced the prior owner to hold the mortgage (private mortgage) since I could not afford to buy the land outright (it is very difficult to get a bank mortgage on land with no house). So my goal has been underway since that time as I’m making monthly mortgage payments, I also pay taxes on the property.
Even though this is a long term goal I have a binder that I add construction, design, etc. ideas to when I see something that I like. I’ve never built a house so every year I try to do something to further my goal like meet with architects, builders, etc. This year I’m hoping to have the corners of the lot marked with concrete markers so I have a better idea of where my land starts and ends.
Our emergency fund is labeled in ING as Dream House fund which makes me less inclined to treat the fund as a regular bank account.
Thinking about the design, lay out, building materials, etc. of “my” dream house keeps me motivated. I also have a photo of my lot (just trees) posted in my office to keep me focused on my long term goal.
If I were this fellow I would want to start thinking about where I want to buy the land, keep track of prices, learn how to take care of cows, etc. long before I made the move. I might joing a co-op farm depending on if they are available where he lives.
Chett, thanks for expounding, that makes much more sense. Your initial comment belied any working knowledge regarding agricultural operations, and instead gave the impression that you were suggesting residential property could be used to raise farm animals (which is obviously illegal – land must be zoned “agricultural” to permit farming operations, and thus an entirely different pricing model applies to agricultural real estate).
Clearly, you know more than you let on in your initial post. :) Perhaps the confusion could’ve been avoided if you’d simply offered the detailed explanation in the first place.
Lots of good advice here on breaking the big goal down and celebrating the milestones along the way. I’d add three things for Lance:
1. Don’t knock your goal. If it’s what you truly want, then don’t compare yourself to others and what they aspire to.
2. The more excited you can get about your goal, the more energy you’ll have for all the action steps. Sometimes people are afraid to get excited because they worry their goal won’t come true and they’ll be disappointed. The funny thing is, you can’t trick yourself into thinking you don’t care about a goal. If it’s a goal, you want it to happen and you should allow yourself to feel that fully.
3. Get support. Tell trusted friends about your goal. Ask them to check in with you about it. The more people you tell, the more likely you are to receive help– moral support and even tangible assistance to get you closer to your goal.
Eight years ago I set out a few goals to achieve in 5 years time. I used a ‘your 10 financial priorities’ method that suggested by the msn.com financial people. I listed out what I most wanted to achieve. Paying off the car became my 1st goal. Then after that the EF, colleger funds, etc. 10 things. This list really helped put a focus on my zeal. Like you’ve mentioned before you eat your elephant one bite at a time. I’m happy to say I’ve achieved everything on my list and more. My next big goal is to payoff the mortgage in 2011.
With determination, with clear goal in mind, you can achieve it one step at a time.
Yes, breaking goals down into actionable items has been my biggest gain. Then, when you align your actions with your priorities, you start making progress. For example, forgoe the $200 shoes and save it towards your goal. At some point, if you’re making minimum wage etc. the faster option would be to discover new revenue streams or a way to increase your salary.
I quit my job and traveled for a year, by following this path. :) Cheers!
20+ acres is what my wife and I want, same as Lance. Key indgredient is to be patient. Pick a finance guru and follow the steps/plan.
Get out of debt, Save/plan a cushion for emergency (estate plan, wills insurance), Save/plan for retirement, plan for kids education, give and invest for your farm.
Stay focused/positive about your Big Goal and dont try to short cut the process so you get in over your head. Be patient.
@Sam – I like your approach. I like the way you’ve made a fairly nebulous long-term goal very tangible through your pictures, binder, plans, and savings account with a name. I can imagine (though you may not have done so) pictures on your wall of several areas you were considering before you bought land, savings accounts dedicated to travel in order to evaluate different areas, lists of things you’d look for in a community. You’ve given me a way to approach my own long-term goal (pretty similar to Lance’s) that I’d never considered. Thanks a bunch.
Twenty-five acres, and you plan to raise cows? What part of the country will these acres reside in?
In some regions, you figure as many as 40 acres of forage per cow. Some years ago, we owned a ranch above the Mogollon Rim in Arizona; as I recall, we were allowed to run one cow for every 20 acres of BLM lease land. It’s probably more acreage than that now, given the several years of drought we’ve seen.
Obviously, in rainier areas where pasturage is richer, you can have more cows/acre.
IMHO, a good first step would be to study where you could own 25 acres that would allow you to raise the number of cows you’d like to have. Once you know what part of the country would work for your desired goal, then you can estimate the cost of the spread. Remember you’ll need water rights, which in many parts of the country will significantly affect the cost of agricultural land.
Next goal: if you don’t already know farming pretty well, better get some larnin’ under your belt. Community colleges often offer courses in agriculture; consider taking a few while you’re working toward the financial goal.
There are all sorts of tax advantages for agricultural enterprises, and you may be able to find advantageous farm loans and government programs that will help you. See if you can defray the out-of-pocket cost through these opportunities, which may bring your goal a little closer than you expect.
Another possibility is to enter a partnership, where someone puts up some cash with you to buy the property. Personally, I don’t like to do business with friends, but if there’s someone you realistically believe you can work with, you might come up with a deal where they share part of the cost in exchange for being able to build a weekend home on the property or being able to use the ranch house for vacations. For vacation or weekend homes, a decent mobile home will do the job (of course, it will have to be connected to a septic tank and the well, but what the heck–you’ll need to do that for your own house, anyway, and once you’ve run the electric from the main line onto your property, it won’t take much to hook up an extra line to a second dwelling, so the cost may be nominal). This could be a reasonable way to speed progress toward the goal.
Once you know for sure how much you’ll need to buy and operate the enterprise, it shouldn’t be difficult to establish yearly and monthly savings goals.
Ranching is one of those lifestyles that…well, one tends to be land-poor. Small farmers and ranchers are chronically in financial trouble, and every now and again someone will sell off small parcels of a big spread so as to pay the bills. Sometimes you can get a pretty good deal that way; again, it could cost less than you think. Just be careful, and be sure you can buy or lease water rights.
Oh, yah: While you’re building goals…don’t forget to build an exit plan, too. ;-)
I think that the key here is your recommendation to “take one step at a time,” J.D.
Humans cannot process huge goals. They just do not provide motivation. Huge goals are essentially daydreams. Anything too far out is like make-believe. To make a goal an effective motivating force, you have to break it down into components on which you can act in the here and now.
Lance needs to sit down with a paper and pencil and figure out how long it is going to take him to achieve his goal. Whatever plan he comes up with will call for a specified dollar amount of savings that he needs to achieve this year.
That’s his new goal.
Once he has the one-year goal, he can forget about the long-term one. If he meets the one-year goal this year, he is doing fine. He can revisit the bigger goal at the end of the year, when he makes a new one-year plan.
Efforts directed to one-year goals pay off big. Efforts directed to goals too far off in the future rarely produce much, in my experience.
Rob
I am on my way to pay off a huge debt now. I have to admit that sometimes I do get stressed when I look at what I want to accomplish but in a bizzare way it fuels my drive.The more I get stressed about it the more I am making wiser choices with my money. I paid off 12,000 in 6 months..I think that’s an achievement and I have 26 thousand remaining. I always look back to what I have accomplished to keep me motivated to where I want to get.
All the best and I hope and pray that you fulfill your dream/goal
My name is also Michael, and my wife also never had any long-term goals, a behavior DEFINITELY learned from her parents. Though I think she’s starting to plan a bit further out, especially since her parents have no retirement plans and “assume” she is going to take care of them, something she does NOT want to do, and doesn’t want to put our future children in that same situation.
Why do you think it would be strange for different people to have different wants? If a farm will make you happy, go for it! I would just make sure you have enough experience with raising cows that you KNOW you would really like it. Should you have other goals? Maybe- are there things you are concerned about? Are there other wants beside the farm? Imagine that its a few years down the road and you have the farm, is there anything else you might want or need? Don’t look to what others want- or say you should want, look inside and figure out what you want.
As for reaching your farm goal- break it down systematically. First get a dollar amount: What do you need for the farm — how much money would that cost? Don’t just guess, get real prices! A farm is a business so you really need to have a business plan! It should make money- figure out how much it would cost to run and how much profit it will produce. Take the time to find the most accurate numbers you can. If you can make enough of a profit you could borrow some of the startup costs and pay the loan with the proceeds. If you are going to initially lose money you will need MORE to cover initial losses. Be conservative with your profit estimates! Look for other ways that you could reduce the dollar amount and still get what you want. Try a different area, or buying used but functional equipment, starting with fewer cows and growing over time.
Second you need a deadline. How much do you think you can save a year? Divide the two numbers and you have a number of years to reach your goal. If that is too far out… what could you do differently to earn more, save more, or require less for the farm? Change these things realistically until the date is soon enough for you.
Next break that big goal down into smaller goals that are more manageable. For example you could break your total savings amount into yearly and monthly saving goals. Track your progress- something visible like a graph is a great reminder and motivator. It doesn’t have to be complex- some graph paper and a pen is sufficient.
Do some work! Put the money away every month- it’s easier if you take it out as soon as you get paid so you aren’t tempted to spend it. If you get a raise or some windfall- how much of it could you contribute toward your goal? Do you have some opportunities to make more for some extra work? How much faster could that get you your farm?
When you have some unexpected expenses- can you handle them with some other sacrifice rather than taking from the farm? If not don’t get discouraged- life doesn’t usually follow our plans. Readjust your goals as necessary. Finally, make sure that you are still enjoying the life today. If you keep yourself on track that farm will be yours sooner than you think!
-Rick Francis
Start by saving for and buying one cow. If it stinks enough (and it will!), your neighbors will pay for the farm. :-)
Wow J.D. thanks for another excellent post!
If this were my goal, I’d start out by finding a cattle rancher/farmer in the area who is willing to take on an apprentice part-time (or full-time). In exchange for free labor for the farmer, I’d be getting a “free” education in running a cattle operation.
With that under my belt, I’d look into renting some land. Many farmers will rent out portions of their land for various endeavors. Find a large enough patch where you can raise a handful of cows. Invest in a couple of cows depending on what you can afford. Raise them.
From there… if your goal is to sell them for food, keep some, sell others, use the profits to add more cows, rent more land, and work up to it until you can afford to buy your own place. By then, you’ll have a good idea of whether this is for you, or just a romantic notion.
I think it’s a wonderful idea. One of my goals is similar, but substituting horses for cows.
Having one goal is fine — it can help you focus your energy. DH and I just had a conversation last night about how to deal with all the goals we have at the moment. Our personal goals are simple and few (FI, mostly), but our goals for life with kids are plentiful. :)
One of my favorite features of Your Money or Your Life (YMOYL) is the idea of thinking of money in terms of life energy for the purposes of trying to become financially independent (FI). That’s not your goal, so perhaps you can translate money into the various monies and opportunities you need to accumulate to make your dream come true.
Others have suggested converting saved money into an acre or part of a cow or a tractor. Good idea. The less-mentioned part of achieving your dream is making sure that you will have a bunch of income-producing opportunities or cash so that you can maintain your dream lifestyle given most foreseeable crises. No point in getting it only to lose it a few months later due to your worst-case scenario actually happening — losing a job, economic problems, expensive illness, etc.
Don’t mean to be a downer AT ALL — I just spent last night going over about 5 levels of “worst case scenarios” so that we could plan how to deal with upcoming expensive spending opportunities. I tend to make sure we are aware of the worst foreseeable case, but plan for the most likely worst foreseeable case. And our plan is to stay on track with our goals for ourselves and our children, no matter what — perhaps with fewer entertainments for a while.
There is some really great advice here for Lance! Thus, I’ll give a bit more general examples of setting goals and achieving them.
We walk our online coaching members through a simple series of steps, beginning with the Goal “Brain Dump”. Lance, as we all do, has many goals to accomplish in our lifetime, and the easiest way to start is to “brain dump”, and list every single goal trapped in your head…get them in writing. This alone increases the chances of success.
Next, our Members put an “S”, “M”, or “L” next to each one, meaning “short”, “mid”, and “long-term” goals. For our program, short is 12 months or less; mid-term is 1-5 years, and “long-term” is more than 5 years away. This step clears your mind of numerous “cluttered” goals, and makes the next steps easier and more practical.
After this, Members begin categorizing and prioritizing them. We provide a separate sheet now for each list of goals based on S, M, or L, whether there is only 1, or 50! Here you put due dates for yourself down, as well as estimated costs of achieving this goal.
*NOTE: if you find yourself with 30 short-term goals, each costing money, it also makes it clear you must prioritize, and re-think what is truly important to you.
A final story…at the beginning of this year, a friend informed me he would do 10,000 push-ups. I said, “Wow, that’s great!”. He said, “Yep, I broke it down and realized it’s only 28 per day…which is easy!”. Powerful…and I now use this same method with situps, and have lost 3 pant sizes in about 5 minutes each night of situps! 30 situps per night is much better than 210 once every Monday.
All the best!
Hello J.D.,
Great advice to Lance. I love, love, love Margo’s comment. I think I will use it.
You hit the nail on the head. People focus too much time and energy on the Big Goals and the “Big” Decisions, but in reality the big Goals are just a sum of the small decisions we make every hour of every day.
Am I going to be positive, smile? Am I going to make the hard decisions ever day consistently over time. The trend is your friend.
Lance’s question really made me think because I have been going through this too.
It can be hard when you have a big goal which is not what the people around you share. For years now, my big goal has been to own my own home. I have been saving hard which has meant I have had to make decisions about what is truly important to me.
Many of my friends want to travel and see the world for a few years, they tell me they don’t want to be tied down by a mortgage and that they couldn’t commit to home ownership. I sometimes feel second-best, like my dream is boring and I’m missing out on life experiences.
I don’t see giving up/postponing overseas travel or a new car as sacrifices because I don’t want those things as much as a home. But when I compare myself to others – my friends or people in the media – I second guess myself.
A couple of weeks ago I signed the contract of sale for my first apartment and I couldn’t be happier. The mortgage doesn’t faze me because my goal was right for me. You only get one chance at this life.
for the survey; need to include “housing coop” as a third option between rent and own;
Definitely make yourself a Vision board. Just take a bulletin board and start pasting up pictures of your ideal farm, your livestock, a picture of the type of tent you’d like to camp out in etc. Make it real and make it visible in your everyday life and don’t worry about what anyone else thinks of your Goal.
There is nothing wrong with having one long term financial goal. For me, it had historically been saving up a million dollars so that I could have a passive income to support myself while I engaged in writing, music etc. Then I realized that if I had everything paid off I didn’t need that much passive income. Subsequent to that, I realized that I could generate a fair bit of passive income without much of my money up front. That came from doing deals on rental properties and, now blogging. Then I realized most recently that I didn’t need to wait till I had “X” amount of passive income to explore and enjoy my writing and music.
So, to start enjoying your dream now, go find yourself some work on a farm. Learn the ins and outs and save your money. Every morning and every night, slow down for a few moments, live in the moment and breathe in your vision board. I’d wish you luck but if you do this, you won’t need it.
– Charley
One of the best things about the Internet is the way it empowers us to connect with people like ourselves regardless of location. For many years now, every time I’ve looked for information about something — from a hobby to a medical condition — I’ve found at least one significant online community around the subject.
Consider doing a web search for farming, cattle raising, and any other terms that evoke your dream. You may find a board or forum or email-list of people with goals just like yours. Talking with those people can not only help you feel less ‘strange’ but also might give you valuable advice along the way!
Check in with your local County Extension or USDA office. They’ll have a lot of useful information about farming in your area. They have soils maps so you can get information about the specific soils on the parcels you’re looking at, information about loan and financing programs, and pamphlets and information about various types of agriculture (silviculture!). They also tend to know the local farming community, and they may be able to tell you what’s worked (or not worked) for other small farmers in your area.
Incidentally, if you buy your small farm and it’s already farmland, you probably don’t want to just let it sit for a few years, like you could forested land, while you save the money for the cows/house/whatever. You’re going to need to keep farming it or it’ll grow over FAST. I’ve seen abandoned farms go to neck-high weeds and scrub in only a year or two. (This might not be the case out west, given the water situation, but then twenty-five acres out in near-desert isn’t going to give you many cows.) If you’re not going to farm it yourself right away, I’d suggest looking for another farmer who’ll lease it.
I agree with many of your readers who suggest breaking the goal down into smaller goals. Maybe you figure out the cost of each acre and set a goal to save for so many acres each year. That makes a large goal much less daunting. It’s also much more rewarding that saying, I’ve saved $10,000. Instead you can say, I’ve saved for 2 acres.
Good luck with your plan.
Lots of great advice here. I just want to add my support for Lance’s goal – nothing weird about wanting some land to farm. It’s the goal my DH and I are working on, too – and we have friends/family who have certainly expressed their disbelief that this is something we really want, so I can sympathize with the “am I missing something?” feeling.
These are all great suggestions. But with all this talk of goal setting, I am surprised no one has mentioned SMART Goals. All the thoughts previously noted are implied with SMART goals. This just adds a handy accronym to it.
SMART = Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely.
Specific – Ask all the “W” questions, Who, What, Where, etc. Saying “I want to own a farm” is not specific enough. Saying “I want to own a 25 acre farm, in wisconsin, by the time I’m 42” is a little better.
Measurable – The more specific the goal, the more measurable it becomes. Most big goals cannot be accomplished in a day, so be sure define how you will make progress. Measuring your progress will help motivate you and keep you on track.
Attainable – Now, I belive that almost anything is attainable. With enough planning and work a goal of “Having lunch with the President of the United States” is possible. The thing to check here is that each of your steps can be reached without depending on something completely out of your control. You can’t win the lottery without playing.
Realistic – Realistic should be defined as what you are willing to do, and what you are able to do. Define what this means to you by examining how much time you have to spend working towards your goal, and how much time it will required. If you’ll need to spend 4 hours a day to accomplish a goal, but you can only spare 2, something has to change before your goal is realistic.
Timely – I think this is most important. Set an end date for your goal, and for any small steps needed to get there. Without it, you’ll never get around to it. My current job deals with lots of deadlines, and while they do create some stress in my life, it is necessary to keep us focused and meet our goals.
If you search the Internet, you’ll find lots more information on SMART goals, and some different uses of the accronym. Anyways, good luck!
Tim, that’s awesome (SMART)! Honestly, it’s been so long since I heard of, or used that handy acronym, I forgot all about it.
Thanks, and great summation of so many of the good responses on goal setting.
In fact, I think I’m going to write a coaching article on just this for our members…thanks for the idea! So timely, and relevant.
Definitely look into property law/tax advantages in different states for your agricultural ideas. Vermont is a good place to start, the policies about land use are very friendly to small farms. You can definitely get screwed in a state that doesn’t prioritize small agriculture.
I like doing things like Margo does. Break it down into a fun way to track it.
For my retirement savings, I track my monthly income in retirement based on a 4% withdrawal rate. I also set benchmarks based on my current expenses. So instead of saving millions, I’m just trying to come up with enough monthly income to cover my phone bill or rent.
For student loans, how about paying off each class you took? That would add some other nice breakpoints of paying of a semester or year.
My wedding is broken out into what I’m purchasing. I start with the essentials, and work my way out to the less important stuff.