I wrote in my previous blog about the things you can do to when you find yourself diverting from your financial plan in order to sticking to the plan (you notice that I didn’t say ‘if’ – at one stage or another, big or small, it happens to us all).  You can read the previous blog here…

3. Treat Yourself – Achieving longer term financial goals take commitment and focus.  I’d suggest that sometimes, for many of us, maintaining that commitment and focus is tough to do.

However, if you’re doing it (and I know you can) you deserve to set yourself little ‘treat stops’ on the way towards your destination.

For example, if you’ve got a 20 year journey towards achieving total financial independence and you hit your one, five or ten year target don’t be afraid to use a small amount some of the wealth you’ve accumulated to give yourself a little treat.

By doing this you’ll see a small taste of the benefits of the journey and it will motivate and encourage you to continue towards the larger vision.

4. Accept that there will be detours, bumps and changes – Have you every been on any form of journey when you arrive at exactly the same time as your GPS originally says.  Either you’re going to be lucky or, and this is more likely, things will happen where you’ll have to slightly alter your plan to put you back on track.

The important aspect of this is that whilst these things can, do and probably will happen it’s important not to lose focus on your goals.  It’s important that you keep your financial goals linked to what you truly need to achieve financial independence.

I had a detour in my financial plan when I initially found out my daughter Sophie was due to arrive (I wrote about it here) which meant that I had to look at my personal and financial goals and decide whether they were not relevant anymore, still relevant or now even more so!

I also needed to work out, based on my new circumstances, whether my route to achieving my goals needed to change.

5. Get some help – English Poet John Doone once stated “No man is an island” and never has it been so eloquently and succinctly said.  When it comes to achieving your goals it’s likely that you need some element of help to do this.

This is especially important when it comes to achieving your financial goals.  For most of us there are people who are not only reliant on us, but are also instrumental in us achieving our financial goals.

On a lot of occasions pride gets in the way.  Sometimes you feel you should be able to achieve your financial goals on your own.  Also, when it comes to talking about money we seem to have a certain stigma around talking about our finances, especially in the UK.  A lot of times this includes our nearest and dearest.

However if we committed to communicate more clearly, tackle the issues (and roadblocks) with people you trust you’re far more likely to be able to achieve your goals in life.