Free From Broke

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Goals

10 Things Similar About Personal Finance And Running The NYC Marathon

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It was a little over two years ago that I completed all 26.2 miles of the ING NYC Marathon.  This past weekend over 40,000 people ran the race.  Let me tell you running a marathon is an awesome experience!  There’s a lot of work and pain but it’s all worth it once it’s over.

Know what else is a lot of work and pain but well worth it?

Taking care of your personal finances! 

In fact there are a lot of similarities between running a marathon and personal finance.

Here are ten thoughts on personal finance and marathons:

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Ditch That Spending Plan?!?

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Have you drawn up a detailed budget and are struggling to keep to it? According to an article in the NYT*, it would be best to just give it up.  Well, not exactly.  But it does say that keeping to a strict budget might not be the best way to go about spending less or saving your money.  The money and pyschology experts they interview say that a budget can be like a diet — it doesn’t often last long and may just end up with you standing at the freezer late at night devouring a quart of ice cream right out of the container.

It’s human nature, they say.  We generally have trouble following through with our “best-laid plans.”  And after a long period of focusing on restrictions — we binge.  Compounding the problem is the abstract nature of credit cards and such.  Watching cold, hard cash dwindle is far more painful and thus more effective in reigning in our spending.
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How to Create SMART Financial Goals – Is It Time Bound?

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We’re reaching the end of our SMART goals.  We’ve gone through making the goal specific, being able to measure it, making sure it’s attainable, and looking at how relevant it is.  Now we’ll ask if your goal is Time-Bound?

A good goal will be time-bound or timely.  It will have a starting point, an end point, and measurable time or milestones in-between.  Time adds dimension to specific, measurable, attainable, and relevant.

By making your goal time-bound you give yourself a framework to focus with.  Without deadlines for your goals, it’s easy to let your goals drift away and be put off for other things that may seem more pressing.  You need to know when your goal will end.  A finish point can be a big part of whether your goal was a success or not.
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How to Create SMART Financial Goals – Are They Relevant?

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Having a goal is a great motivator but it still needs structure if you don’t want to be another statistic in the failed goals category. Making your goals SMART is one way to organize your goal to help ensure success.

We’ve looked at making a goal specific, making sure the goal is measurable, and looking to see if the goal is attainable.  Now we will look at how relevant your goal is.

When looking at the relevancy of a goal, we’re asking ourselves how important the goal is in the grand scheme of things?

Is the energy we’re going to put towards this goal the best use of our time and resources or is there something else that may be better?
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How to Create SMART Financial Goals – Are They Attainable?

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In this series on SMART goals, we’ve talked about being Specific about your financial goal and then making the financial goal Measurable.  Now we’ll talk about your goal being Attainable.

Let me preface by saying that I think a person, any person, is capable of doing many incredible things.  You may be truly amazed at what you can achieve if you earnestly put your mind and resources into reaching your goal.

But there are limits.
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