Well, first you have to ask yourself where do you want to be a 5 to 10 years. A financial planning consultant will not make your goals for you, they are there to create a clear plan to help you reach your long and short term goals as fast as possible. If your goal is to expend your family, you might need a bigger house or more income. Your consultant will help you with your questions about mortgage, investing for your child’s future and when and how to start a college fund. If your goal is to get out of debt, they will work with you to find a plan the fits you. Help you set up payment plans with your creditors and show you ways to stay on track while paying off your debt.

People that need financial consulting are those that live busy lives or find it hard to manage their money. If you find it challenging to put together a retirement plan or to choose the type on investments to fit your goals, then you may need the help of a financial consultant. When you are ready to hire an advisor, look for one that is both professional and easy to get along with. You will have to spend a lot of time both in person and on the phone, so it would be best if you work well together. Also make sure you check their credentials before you decide to hire them. You don’t want someone with little experience giving you advice abut your financial future.

Ridiculouslyextraordinary.com is a blog that a came across for the first time today. I am still not completely sure what it’s about, but I read a post on it that really had an impact on me. Here is my little story.

Let me start at the beginning. I have been having writers block for the last few days and have only completed 2 articles within that time. These articles took me more than 6 hours apiece to complete and I had to force them out onto the paper. Now, I came across this post on achieving goals and after reading it my writers block was gone (Took me 20 minutes to write this). I am not sure why it went away, but I am sure that the article had a lot to do with it.

Why am I talking about writing on a personal finance site? Well, because the advice in the article should be applied to every part of life especially your finances. If we just do what we have to, even if we had to force our way through it, we would be better for it. “ No matter what you want to do in life you can always make an excuse not to do it.” This is so true when the oh-so-boring subject of finance is at hand. I know many of you want to take control of your money and all you really have to do is… “Just do it.” Call the credit card company and negotiate a better rate, sit down and make a realistic budget (even if it take all day), take the time to learn about investing or what ever it is you want to do.

We love movies because we know that they will have a good ending, but in almost every movie there is a struggle. The character has to go through some crazy fight or something emotional to get to the good ending. What if they just quit 15 minutes into the movie? What if Neo had just walked out when Morpheus offered the red and blue pills? The point I’m taking so long to make is, I order to enjoy the being debt free, we have to just do what it take to get there. That is it, just do it!

Read the article on Ridiculously Extraordinary it’s short, but inspiring and this is what I have tried to build jinij around.

What some people fail to realize is, goals are the life blood of your dreams. Setting personal financial goals and striving to achieving these milestones will bring you closer to your big picture. You can “wing it” and see how far you get, but I think most of you have already tried that. Setting goals will get you to your destination much faster than not… Why do you thing banks ask to see a business plans before issuing a loan?

Your goals do not have to be extravagant, with all types of complex details. Your goals can be simple steps you need to complete in order to get you closer to your dreams. For example: you will need to have a certain amount of money saved to secure a mortgage loan for that house. Figure out how much you can save from your pay check each week and every time you get paid save that amount. Every time you put some money towards that account you will come closer to your ultimate goal.

People turn their dreams into reality everyday and you can too, you just have to be realistic and make your goal easy to reach. If you set unrealistic goal you are setting yourself up for failure. Keep you goals simple and easy to achieve, then make large goals as you become comfortable and remember to always keep in-line with your big picture.