088 - 20 Reasons Why Your Goals Are Falling Flat And How To Fix Them

Last episode we outlined what a successful goal setting process looks like and all the things that you need to take into consideration.

But what happens when you’re struggling to stick to your goal or it’s not working?

That means it’s time to troubleshoot to figure out what’s off.

Today we’ve got 20 of the biggest reasons that cause goals to fail, so you can get unstuck and get back to making progress. 

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Ticker metrics change as markets and companies change, so always do your own research. The content in this podcast is based on personal experience and is for educational purposes, not financial advice. See full disclaimer here.

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Transcript

Welcome to Roaming Returns, a podcast about generating a passive income through investing so that you don't have to wait to retirement to live your passions. Last episode, we outlined what a successful goal-setting process looks like and all the things that you need to take into consideration.
But what happens when you're struggling to stick to your goal or it's not working? That means it's time to troubleshoot. So you could say, and figure out what's off. Today, we've got 20 of the biggest reasons that cause goals to fail, so you can get unstuck and back to making progress.
Let's dig into it. So the last episode, we talked about goal-setting and like pointers and how to do it. How it works, how to set up, the general process.
So now the question is, why is it not working? Why is it not working for average people? Like here's how you problem solve. Okay, there's 20 points. This is lengthy and I'm sorry.
But this is how- I'm sorry ahead of time. But these things, if you can figure out, because goal-setting is an essential part of all areas of life. So you need to know how to do this process.
For me, even like one of the humans first evolved at goal-setting. Like they didn't know at the time, but like every goal-setting- It's a natural process. So we've actually created it into a process that other people can apply and the successful people are the ones that contribute the most to this thing.
But if you're doing anything with money, trying to get your debt paid off, trying to get your investment account up to retire, secure your finances, all that stuff, like you need to be good at goal-setting. So- First one reason why it's not successful is your goals may be too big. I definitely have this problem.
Rather than breaking your shit down into like smaller pieces, you just have one huge encompassing goal. I want to save $1,000 in 2025. I want the condo done.
That may be too big. And if it's too big, you're likely to experience failure. Yep, demotivation.
That is exactly where I'm at. Emotional frustration. I get a expectation, like I get like melancholy from it.
I'm like, no, my expectations weren't met. So yeah, I get a little pouty. Then I have like emotional blowouts and he's like, ah, is it that time of month again? Seems to be.
I never met a woman that's on her period like two weeks a month, but- It's not that, it's the condo. It's the condo, man. So maybe I need to tap you for help with that.
Maybe you just, maybe that's our sticking point. What? You helping me break them into smaller pieces. Okay.
Not too small though. Because the second reason that goal setting fails is your goals may be too small. I know.
Do explain. Kind of conundrum, right? Do explain. If you set a goal that says I want to sort out my tax return, it's not going to take any effort whatsoever to sort this out and you're going to get no sense of achievement or motivation and it's not going to improve your life.
I don't see that as a small one. It's small. Okay.
Oh, you mean like stuff on the to-do list that you like write off and then check off? You get like those mini dopamine hits, but- I'm going to take the trash out today. Like that's too small. What's that fulfilling in your life? Yeah, does that actually aim for your big goals? I'm going to check my brokerage today.
Like what's that doing? Like your goal may be too small. That's the second one. The third one is your goals are too big.
If you really want to, if you're really serious about what we're talking about, you need to be specific and measurable. And if you're not, you're not going to solve it. Like I want to save money.
And if you're not sure how to do this, just start asking yourself better questions. Like how can I make this measurable? How can I make this more specific? Because how are you going to know if you actually reach your goal if your goal is I want to save money? Yeah. Because that's so vague.
And like, there's so many ways that you can actually wiggle around. Like, well, I saved money because I have $200 in my checking accounts in the year. Well, did you really save money or did you just happen to end up with $200 in your checking account? And I think some people do this as a way to avoid accountability.
I know sometimes I do it for that reason. Like I get vague on purpose, but it's like, if you really are committed to a thing, you'll be able to call yourself out on your own bullshit and be like, all right, I need to be more accountable for this. So I need to actually have measurable things and like whatever I can do to.
Now, listening to people, this is probably one of the biggest ones that people have a problem with. Number four? No, no, no, they're too vague. Oh, yeah.
I think vagueness is, yeah, that would be one I'd flag as like a top reason. I can't stress it enough. You have to be specific.
If you're not specific. Well, just like for an example, when we ask people, what would you do if money, like if you didn't have to worry about money and they just like deer in the headlights, it's like, okay, you have no like vision. That is like when I've said this before, when I first talked to someone.
But they're the same people that are bitching that they want a different job. When I go to help people, that is one of my first questions, if not the first question, if money was not an issue, what would you be doing? Because that's how you identify what you are meant to do. Or what your bigger vision is or what your why getting.
If you don't know that, I can't, there's nothing that we can do because that's like super important. Yeah, you need to go back to the foundation piece. You need to get into that.
But it's just like some people are very content being that nine to five worker, but a lot of people aren't. But then when you ask that question, they have no specificity. And you're just like, well, I can't help you if you literally have two opposing things and you're unwilling to like focus on the vision or don't, I don't understand.
I don't understand not having a vision. Like I've had a vision from like birth. And I was like that big.
I want what I want when I want it. Yeah, pretty much. Number four reason that goal setting is unsuccessful is you lack a compelling reason to achieve your goal.
Yeah, your why is huge. If you don't have a strong conviction or desire to succeed, you won't. That's just how humans are programmed.
And I will say there's a lot of us who are very individualistic oriented. And there's a lot of people who are very other people oriented. So if you're the kind of person that won't do stuff for yourself, you're like a martyr type person.
My mom is one of these. You might have to actually make your why tied in with other people. Like a lot of people do this with their children.
Whereas other people don't, like we don't have kids. So like we have to focus on what we want, but that's not hard. Like I don't consider that hard.
I've always known. I'm just like, I'm the type of person that's like if I'm trying to row my boat and you're like literally flailing and spazzing out on the side of it and causing water to go in the boat, I'm gonna like smack your hand so that you get off my boat. Like you're not gonna make me drown too.
I'm like, no. It's not gonna happen. That's a complete lie.
Depends who it is. She'll throw you overboard. It's a complete lie.
She wouldn't smack your hand. She'd just toss you over. They're already over.
They're hanging out. No, you sit here in the boat and they're like thrashing around and you just literally just grab them and throw them over. There'd be none of this.
I stopped doing that. You're screwing up my plan and my vision. Get the hell out of here.
But like, yeah, if you don't have a reason why. Tim would spot a boat that's sidelined and just like hop to a new boat and be like, screw that. You will never succeed if you don't have a reason why.
Like it's just human. Evolution. Yeah.
Number five. You may need to get more clarity around goal setting. Clarity is huge.
It has been found that there are certain people that need to tell people stuff. So if you set a goal and you're one of the people that needs to tell people about it, well, then you need to tell people about it. I'm not.
Like people never know my goals because I'm very, very introverted. But if you're one that has to always talk to people if you're super extroverted, be like, well, I set a goal to save money. If that's what you need to do, then you need to do that.
Well, I don't actually wonder if that's them looking for approval of the goal. I mean, some people just wanna genuinely have group success and group accountability. And then I think accountability is really important for a lot of people because it keeps you, actually it helps you achieve things faster.
I've been considering doing that because I also am one that I kind of like closet goal. So, yeah. So like what, how they- We need better communication between our goals.
How they phrase this whenever I was like, this is crazy. I don't even know what this is clarity, but so who are you telling about your goals? Who do they serve? And what are they trying to say? If those answers aren't clear, then now's the time to ask yourself hard questions. But I will say that if you're talking to somebody else about a goal, it is easier to give somebody else perspective than to like figure your own stuff out.
So sometimes I like to talk at people just to be able to externalize it. So I've actually been contemplating like recording myself and then just listening back to myself and being like, oh, what the hell am I smoking? Because for whatever reason, that different medium as it's like getting it out of your head definitely changes like the reality of it. And you're like, well, that doesn't even make any sense.
So if you need a person to do that, or if you want somebody to help bounce stuff or help you clarify, you got to figure out what works for you. I just don't like talking to other people because other people like aren't helpful. He literally does.
He just, he like walks over here and I'm doing stuff and he's like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, was I supposed to answer this? And he's like, no, I'm just thinking out loud. I think out loud.
That's how I get clarity. Other people might get clarity from introspect. They might sit around and introspect or they might have to talk to people about, okay, I want to save money.
How would I go about doing that? Or they might need to go on top of a mountain and meditate. Like whatever, whatever process you need to take clarity. When I come talk to you about my stuff, you're like, I'm busy doing other things.
Stop talking to me. I'm like, oh, it goes only one way, does it? So that's why I have to figure out how to do this by myself. So I'll talk to some other people, but they're just seriously not even helpful.
So I'm just like, people suck. So I just, I don't know. I'll do my own thing.
Number six, the reason why goal setting fails is your goals are just numbers and measurements and they don't really mean anything to you. You're starting to see like a consensus that you have to have a why, you have to have a desire. If you're just.
Even if you're a robot, you need to have emotional peace, which is the why. Because Tim wants the bike and Tim is going to go bike come hell or high water. That's your why.
It makes it, the numbers and metrics don't matter. Like you just blast through. And their example was something stupid.
Like you're losing 30. Use the money thing. Okay, so saving $50 in six months makes sense to one person who wants to actually have a plan in place to have an emergency fund.
But for another person that doesn't care, it doesn't make sense. So they're literally just numbers at that point. They say, I'm going to save $50, but they have no reason why.
They're like, well, this money now would be beneficial. So why would I bother saving it? So like that's, do you see the deal? Like I want to have $50 towards my emergency fund by the end of 2025, as opposed to, I just want to save $50. Like there's, you have to have a reason.
I honestly think this is why people can actually save for a wedding, but they can't save for their retirement. Or a kid's car or whatever. Like weddings, for whatever reason, people get like super emotionally invested in them.
Well, wedding and houses would be the two things I can think of people that have no problem saving for. Yeah, exactly. And both of those literally have no bearing on the individual.
So like, I don't understand why they do it. Again, the emotional component. They have a high vested emotional satisfaction or priority of that.
We both don't understand it because we just, like I think it's a waste of money when I'd rather be like skydiving, paragliding, like traveling, whatever. If your objective is to retire early and you spend $30,000 on a wedding, that makes zero sense. Like logically, explain this.
Well, again, it's a prioritization. Then you can have obviously like a couple twos, but if you're planning for the wedding, you're obviously not planning for the retirement. And then that 30,000, I actually have a sneaky suspicion that a lot of people regret spending as much as they did on their wedding.
And even a follow-up, even a more illogical, if you can save 30,000 for a wedding, but you can't save 30,000 for a retirement, what the fuck's wrong with you? They don't prioritize their future, whatever. Is it gratification? I don't know if it's gratification. Like, do you see what I'm saying? Like, if they, like. I can't save $30,000 for retirement. I'm screwed. They could just be very people focused.
I spent $50,000 on a wedding. I don't know. What? What? What now? Anyway.
If you're in that position, ask yourself a bunch of questions. If you're in that position, tell me what the hell I'm thinking wrong, because it makes no sense to me why you'd save money for a wedding when you could save money for your retirement. And then have weddings every week if you wanted.
Playdates. Number seven, you have no idea how long it will take to achieve your goal. Well, that that one right here with the normal financial planning thing is 100% factual.
They say the million dollar thing because the calculations make no absolute sense. And if you guys haven't listened to the beginning of the podcast, I think it's episode two or four. I can't remember which one is talking about how to cut retirement in half.
And that's like the calculation that we use helps you save so much less money and get there so much faster. Whereas the conventional 4% rule, you literally have no idea when you can retire on how much really, because inflation and all that stuff is so far down the road. You have no idea the factors coming into play.
You have no idea how many years you're going to live. Like to me, that is just set up on this like what the hell pedestal. And it's no wonder people are so afraid of the unknown with that approach.
Well, and then the second, then there's the one approach is the 4% rule, which has been debunked numerous times. The second one is the invest in an index fund approach again. Which works if you're younger.
There's too many variables in that. What if like when you go to retire, the S&P is down for like say seven years, you're fucked. So if you don't have a plan in place, neither one of those makes sense.
Whereas if you're making money each month when you're investing, that makes more sense. Yeah, so that'll help you set that goal. But the thing is like you have a better idea when it's something like that.
Whereas the other one, you have absolutely no idea. And if you don't have a clear defined time frame, if you're just going through the grind and grind and grind and grind and grind with no success, no achievements, no milestone winnings, you're just like, why am I even doing this? And then a lot of people give up. So that makes a lot of sense.
Number eight is one that everybody's guilty of. Oh, I just said instant gratification, didn't I? Your goals are about instant gratification. Everybody's guilty of this.
We want everything now. Certain more personality types are worse with this. But like when you set a goal, it's super duper important to think about beyond the immediate effects.
I will say that I do have the instant gratification thing with the big goals. And I'm like, why is this not happening now? And it's because I'm not breaking them down into smaller ones. It would be more instant compared to what my brain is doing with the expectation thing.
So mine is somewhat tied into that. Insane. So like if you're like, I want tangible evidence.
Like I just it's instant gratification is like the devil's work. We both have this problem. I know.
And that's why I'm qualified to talk about it. We just talked about the hour cigarette thing. Yeah, it's the gratification.
But if your goal is about instant gratification, it's not really a goal at that point. You're just. Well, to me, if you're if you're instant gratifying, that means you've got other needs that aren't being met, which means you actually need to do some self exploration and figure out what you put no thought into how you're going to get there.
You put no planning into effect about the steps you're going to get there. Like it literally is instant gratification. There's no planning.
There's no thought. It's just it's just primal. Well, so what happened with me with instant gratification, with this whole retirement situation, I wanted to retire as soon as possible because I was in so much pain working at a job that felt like my soul was being sucked out.
And I wanted to be at ASAP. So it created this desperation. And then I got into day trading and I lost even more money because I was.
Are you laughing at me? I coughed. I had some num num down the wrong pipe. Uh huh.
He was laughing. I was not. But it made this thing where I was like desperate and then I was making stupid decisions because I was making rash decisions because I wanted instant gratification because I was trying to make that.
It's primal. Instant gratification is emotional and there's no like cognitive process to it. It seriously damages like you get bad outcomes.
Last episode, we talked about emotions being you need to avoid emotions and goal setting. Well, that's why. Like if you have too much emotion involved.
Well, it depends on what kind of emotion. Emotion for the Y is good. But the if it's the instant gratification because you have other stuff that's just like not happening, that is an unachievable, unrealistic like fat.
You're not going to become a millionaire overnight. It's just not going to happen. Slow and steady.
Having the system and the planning dialed in and then taking these steps is really the only way. The ninth reason why goal setting fails is the people aren't enjoying the process of achieving the goals like you have to have some rewards in place if you don't. Embrace the suck.
Very low probability that you're going to achieve your goals because as humans, we need like positive reinforcement. And if we don't have it. Yeah.
Well, and honestly, once you get a couple wins, I think it does start to become fun. But if you get good at breaking things down into bite-sized chunk and you are getting those small wins, like that's where you need to focus on doing that. See how that feels.
If it doesn't feel good, then change your goals. Back to our saving for emergency funds. So say like you save 50 bucks in January, 50 bucks in February.
Come like June, you're not like you're not enjoying the process of saving $50. Well, then you need to reassess your goal because it's determined what exactly you were trying to achieve with your saving money. Yeah.
You might not have a reason to save that 50,000 other than just putting it in a bank. But the bank isn't for like skydiving or paragliding or a wedding or retirement or like the lifestyle of, I don't know, saying becoming a potter, whatever the heck gets your juices flowing. Yeah.
You're not going to be excited about number nine, number 10, kind of tie into each other. And the 10th one is people might need a bigger vision of what's possible for themselves. Like if you're thinking too small about your goals, it might not.
You might have zero self-fulfillment, self-gratification. Well, OK, I want to interject this here because I'm really big in the personality thing. So some people are built for like the bigger vision component and other people have a really hard time visualizing things for themselves or wanting things for themselves.
So what they need to do is they actually need to tie themselves into somebody else's vision. So if you're one of those people, you need to go find somebody whose vision you believe in and then figure out how you can contribute or become part of that. And that's how you use that as your like vision goal.
You can supplement that because you might be bogged down by like, you just aren't good at like the system orientation or like the leadership component. Like you'd rather be like a support role type person. So if that's you, that's a way to do that so that you can actually still get the outcome we're talking about without having to have the vision yourself.
But it can still be very emotionally moving if you're doing it with somebody or for somebody or with the group or the collective. And that's where the charity thing can come into play. So just putting that out there.
Interesting. Interesting. Sarcasm? Yes.
I have big vision. So do I. So do I. It's irrelevant. But I've talked to a lot of people that struggle with that.
So I think I figured out how to do that. Like if you've zoned out, listen, number 11 is super important. If you zoned out.
You're not setting goals properly. Most people when they set goals, they focus on what they want rather than why they want it. And now it seems like a minimal difference, but that's a huge difference.
So like I want to save $1,000 by the end of the year. And that doesn't work for you. You might want to frame it as I want to save $1,000 in the year.
So that I have to stop worrying about something happening and then not being able to feed my kids or not being able to pay the bills or possibly losing my house. You have to put that emotional charge into it. The peace of mind.
Again, there's the carrot and stick thing. Sometimes some people can motivate better of the stick mentality. Whereas the thing where you have the peace of mind of not having to worry.
So it's like that's the emotional motivator. That's the why. The what's just $1,000.
I know. But like when I first read this, what I thought of instantly was budgeting. Like I want to have a better like whatever of my budget.
I want to be better control of my budget. That's the what. But like you're not focusing on why you want to have a better control of your budget.
So why do you want better control of your budget? Or is this just an example? Because I want more money to invest. Okay. Because you want more money to invest.
Why? So that I don't ever have to do anything I don't want to ever again. Okay. So I just had a brain thing.
One of the business starting books that's very relevant to this topic talks about going seven layers deep into your why. If you go deep enough and you start crying, like you found your why. Unless you're a robot like Tim.
God. I want to be able to do what I want. But no.
But if you keep asking why, eventually you'll get deep enough for a why that resonates hard. So just have somebody keep asking you why. And then you'll be like.
Oh my God. Strangle someone. Who? If you kept asking me why every time I said something, I'd be like.
No, not in general. But like that. Get out of my boat.
Get out of my boat. Get the hell out of here. Oh Jesus.
Number 12. Your goals are too close together in time. That's the one we said that you have to prioritize your goals like one through five.
And then you ignore everything below it. Remember, priority is a singular thing. But you can have say you want to save $50 by the end of January.
But you also want to cut your coffee expenditure by 5% in January. Like, I think a good one would be investing in an emergency fund and then saving for retirement. You have to get the emergency fund thing done first, at least to a certain point, before you really can effectively focus.
And I will speak from this. If you have a multitude of projects and you're putting in like a little bit of time here, a little bit of time here, you're not moving anything significantly forward. I struggle with that.
I think if you have too many goals set in such a short period of time, you'd have a difficulty being motivated. Difficulty being motivated. Difficulty being focused.
You get even less motivation because you're not actually achieving goals in a good time frame. So then you get demotivated because you're not focusing. It's just this like catch-22.
That's why I think five should always be the maximum. But I think three or two or one would be better. One's best.
But I wouldn't go more than three. Yeah. Because then you have a higher probability of running into this if you have more than five that your goals are too close together in time.
It's just the motivation factor is going to leave you. Yeah. Number 13 shocked me, but here it is.
You want something very different from what you've got now. That one's mine. Okay.
You might not even realize it, but perhaps you aren't very happy with the way things are going. Chances are that things can change. I mean, this is what they said.
Don't judge me. I am thinking things can change. What the hell are they talking about? They said things can change.
There's at least one pretty significant thing to worry about that's wrong in your life or whatever. Okay. Okay.
So this could be talking about like you may want that wedding or that marriage or whatever now. I think this might be that like not anchoring bias, but the cost sunk bias where you put a lot of energy and effort into this thing like this house, but you really don't actually want it. Like you need to allow yourself to change and pivot.
We're not stagnant beings. We fluctuate over time. So if you were really, really, really motivated to work on X thing.
And again, the condo is a really good example for me because I used to love doing construction projects. Like I'm talking love. Like I would literally come over here during work lunch and like stain my shelves and do all this crazy stuff.
Like I was super motivated, super motivated, super motivated. And then one day my mom like was house sitting when we went over to Greece and left the water on and reflooded the basement I had just finished. And I was just like, what is the point? Like ever since then, I've had motivation issues with the condo.
So it's like your desires can change. Oh, okay. I see what they're saying.
Okay. For an example of budgeting, if you want to save, say a hundred dollars in January, February, a hundred dollars a month for 2025. But like right now you only have $10 left over at the end of each month.
Having a goal of a hundred dollars is vastly different than the goal of say $25 because of how the circumstances are at the present moment. That's what they're saying? Yeah. So that's weird, but okay.
So it's saying, do you still want these goals? Well, like, yeah, if you're, if you're drastically changing your life or you're saving 75% more as opposed to. Okay. So they're saying like, if you have a goal of the hundred dollars, but you're only at 10, like the gap is so huge.
This is the willingness factor. This is the willingness. Are you willing? Do you still want that goal? Do you still want the goal of knowing that it's going to be a lot more pain, a lot more suffering? Yeah.
Okay. So 13 is kind of gay. So 14.
That's not gay. That's the willpower thing. That's a hundred percent true.
Like example, lady in the backyard out here, I'm out here cutting tile and she's like, oh, I wish there's the wish comment. She go, I wish I could do that. And I was like, wow, where there's a will, there's a way.
And she stopped and she's like, you're right. She's like, I'm not willing to do that. She's like, but I am willing to clean.
And I was like, I'm not willing to clean. I was like, so you got one up on me there. And she walked away with like a smile and she's bopping because she felt good about herself.
But it's like, if you use that comparative factor, you got to know what you're willing to put the work in on. Still gay. Number 14, you don't have a, you don't have a good enough plan of action to achieve your goals.
Like this comes back to the planning. The planning to me is almost more important than the implementation. If you actually think about who you are, what you have, what your current circumstances are, and you actually create a plan that's well thought out, well, well articulated, well researched, it's easier to achieve the goal than to something vague or something just like, this is why businesses have business plans and why lenders won't lend to businesses without business plans.
You've only thought about something for like 10 minutes and you said, I'm making a goal for 2025. That's going to be this, like the probability of you succeeding or very, very low. Whereas if you went through like hours of meticulous research and planning and writing.
Yeah, that's what I did with this whole detox trauma. Probability of success are so much higher if you've actually meticulous about your planning. Number 15, you're not ready for the task or responsibility that comes with your goal.
So the willing factor from 13 or whatever number that was can also just be a timing issue. For example, we want to build courses for this podcast and like the bigger thing. I really want to do that, but I really need to work on the condo.
I'm not ready for the external or the extra responsibility of customer service. The way that I illustrate this one in my brain is, okay, my goal is to run a marathon, but I can only walk a block. You're literally not ready for the skills and efforts that are required.
Okay. So I'm saying like if you want to run a marathon, like running a marathon is 26 miles. You can only walk a block.
You don't actually have the skills. It doesn't matter. You could plan all you want.
You don't have the physical capabilities to do it. So you couldn't have the foundational skills built in or you couldn't have like the specific time, whether it's time or whether it's skill. It's usually skills and knowledge.
You apply it to budgeting. Okay. I want to save $5,000, but you're $60,000 in debt.
You don't actually have the capability to do that right now. You have $60,000 in debt that you need to pay out first. Not ready for the task.
Yeah, I could see that. So that's what this one is. And that one's actually really important once you actually break it down.
If you come up with crazy goals, but you just can't do them. I don't like the word can't, but if you just can't do them. Well, can't has its time, its place.
So if it's physically impossible because of other circumstances, yeah, that is a thing. Your goals are not unique to you. I feel like this is just another thing I'm saying.
Number 16, if you set goals for like, say, I want to retire or I want to retire to like Portugal, but you don't even like Portugal. You know what I'm saying? I'm like that. I think this is more like going into an occupation.
But yeah, I mean, the retirement thing will be like, yeah, I'm going to retire and I'm going to play golf. I want to be like golf. I want to be a CEO of a bank.
We would have literally subscribed to the whole like retire in 30 years and then like sit around and freaking hang out with our grandkids, which we don't want kids. We're not going to have grandkids and then play golf like we'd be freaking miserable. We'd absolutely be like ours is specific to our personalities like we want to retire early so that we can travel in a van with the cats and see as much as we can.
Like that doesn't apply to everybody. And if you're listening experience, if you're if you're listening to this podcast and that becomes your goal, even though you don't like traveling or you like the comforts of at home, then that goal literally makes no sense for you. Exactly.
If you're a homebody and you just want to travel a couple of times a year or not travel at all, like that doesn't apply. But the security financial, like the process is still the same. You got to figure out what your why and what you're like, what is your vision of retirement financial security? Number 17 is, again, a planning one.
You haven't thought about the steps required to achieve the goals and knowing why you want to do something is super important. But knowing how you're going to get there is just as important. If you don't know the how time to think about it more and plan more and research more.
Just think about the table and the measurement of the door. Yeah, just think about that. He's still testy about that.
Yeah, you'll feel like you'll if you don't know how to get there, you're going to fail. Like that's just what I'm actually dealing with that right now. Keeping it real, homies.
I'm dealing with that right now with the whole tax planning thing. I need to understand stuff on such a nuanced level. And I'm actually contemplating talking to a lawyer and paying for a consult, even though I don't really want to.
But I think the only way to get the specific answer I need is actually doing that. No matter how many books I read, I'm still not clear. And in order to do that, I can't really move forward on quite a few things because that's my hang up.
So it's like that's the thing that needs to change. Number 18 is very interesting. This is I thought about this one actually a pretty long time.
Oh, do tell. You haven't thought about the consequences of not achieving your goal. Oh, that's a big one.
There are some goals in life that are super duper important. Super important. For just like living purposes.
Like so say in an example like our emergency fund one. What are the consequences of not having your emergency fund in place? So if some shit hits the fan and you have to say replace like a pipe or something. If you don't have an emergency fund in place because you didn't achieve your emergency fund goal, you're fucked because you're going to have to take that money out of something else.
So like this is how I approach things. Take that money out of something else. Take time off work that then is actually decreasing your income yet again.
And then you actually have to either take the time, pay the thing. And it's probably going to be an emergency type situation, which means you have to pay for a higher cost of gratification as opposed to a planned out like repair type thing. Like you can actually increase the cost of something if you don't have the thing set up.
That is definitely a thing. So that's like to me. But this to me is this isn't like an innate ability.
Like I just always know the consequences. So what I like to do, what I like to do here is like I like to project on my deathbed. I know this sounds super morbid, but it's like if you're going to regret something, that's actually how I give my goals of why a lot more meaning.
So like, for example, if I don't know, I'm trying to do this with the condo. If I don't get this condo done, I think I am going to regret it down in the future because it's like I gave up on this project when I didn't need to give up on this project. I couldn't overcome some stupid motivation problem, which just sounds like she said, like, probably I want to say at least 10 times we should just sell as is.
And it's like that doesn't make any sense to sell as is because we're not going to get the money that we would get from just fixing it up and selling it. It's the gratification I was copping out. If you sell as it's like, well, it's just so as is and just do you max.
Michael, that's really fucking risky for our future when we could just finish the condo and put like one hundred thousand dollars into good dividend growers. So what I've decided to do is like channel now the whole condo thing as a really good example for you guys on the podcast, listening as a way to come up with different money to seed the portfolio. So if we do do this, do do do do if we do this, we will have a lot of equity come in that we can then funnel into the retirement portfolio and we will be instantly financially independent, which sets a good example and a training expertise or whatever for the people listening.
Like it's an example of something that works. And it's like I want to have that example to help other people get to financial independence. So it's like that's actually become my motivator.
So if I project forward, like I would regret not having the opportunity to do that. So I'm like, all right, I'm committed. I finally committed.
I'm no longer talking about selling it. Another one that I could think of that actually pertains to this one a lot is you hear a lot about real estate. Real estate's the best investment.
Okay. So if your goal was to I want to have three rental properties and you take out the loans and you get everything ready, but you don't achieve your goal, you're on the hook for three fucking properties that you didn't have to pay for with your salary that you could. So you fucked for like a decade at least.
So you have to really be meticulous in the planning. Like I want to have three rental properties. How do I want to have the three rental properties? How am I going to afford the three rental properties? How am I going to flip the three rental properties? So that I'm not on the hook for $600,000, $700,000, $800,000 in like two years time.
So if you didn't like plan that one out accordingly, like not achieving the goal at the ideal thing, you're going to run into a lot of pitfalls and then you're going to be very stressed out and you're going to be very like whatever. But I think this was more talking about like not even achieving the goal at all as opposed to like screwing up in the planning phase. Well, like, but if you don't achieve the good, if you like, it's what I'm saying, like it actually pertains in my mind a lot to real estate.
But you're also going to be not happy in life if you don't achieve that goal because you're always going to consider yourself a failure. You're on the hook for three properties that you bought that you didn't actually plan for, finish. So they're not rented.
They're not sold. They're not anything. So you have, well, and actually the condos again, another good example where we have to pay holding costs for essentially me not getting this work done, which means we keep putting ourselves in a financial pinch, which means I have to keep working for my dad, which is driving me absolutely batshit to, to, to deal with the holding costs so that we don't have to tap our investment money.
We could, but I'm not willing to do that at this point. So I'm suffering in other ways. Like I was out doing snow removal last night.
I have to go here, do more parking lot spaces, but I could have enjoyed the snow. We could have went sledding. So it's like, there's a consequence of not achieving a goal.
I know. Sledding's not fun. I like sledding.
Number 19, humans by nature are group oriented. And if you have a goal that's going to damage or end relationships. Um, Tim has told me so many times that if I don't get the condo done by X date, he's just leaving and taking the cats.
And he will, he will. Because like, if you're a group oriented, you have your pack and like your, and what you have proposed is going to damage that pack mentality. You have to either rethink your pack or rethink the goal.
Well, I think this happens a lot with like marriage and spouses and stuff. But if you like, if you're the breadwinner and you say you're going to save for whatever date or put in that emergency fund and your wife's like expecting that to happen. And then when something happens, you didn't do that.
Like that could be the straw that breaks the camel's back and like causes the divorce papers. I'm just saying like, like this is important to most people. Yeah.
Money actually is one of the things that breaks up relationships. Money is the biggest thing that breaks up relationships. I've been talking to a bunch of relationship coaches and I think I am going to do a course at some point on that whole thing.
Because like one of the biggest things that's missing because money conversations are so taboo that people don't, don't communicate. And then they have frustration because the expectations are different, different pages. That's very sad.
And I don't know why there's such a taboo about money because it's like it touches everything. It's a tool. Yeah.
And it's a tool. The reason there's a taboo is because people don't view it as a tool. They view it as like lifeblood.
It's literally a tool. I think that's a societal ingrained bullshittery of you can't talk about money. It's not polite to talk about money.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Who cares? And then the number 20 goes back to the very first thing I said back in the last episode. How much are you willing to suffer? Because if you're not willing to do whatever it takes, there's really no point in setting goals.
Whatever it takes is my absolute favorite mantra. It's a good song. It is a good song.
Love it, love it, love it. Whatever it takes. But like that, that's why to me personally, in my opinion, goal setting is about suffering.
How much are you willing to suffer? And if you're an artist, I highly recommend reading the book Big Magic by Gilbert, Gilbert Lady. I think she wrote Eat, Pray, Love. That one's really good.
She talks about like being a writer and she's like, I love being a writer. She's like, I'm willing to eat the shit sandwiches. And that's essentially the other way of saying doing whatever it takes.
She basically said, if you're not willing to eat the shit sandwiches, like deal with the problems of whatever thing you're trying to pursue, like it's not the right thing for you. But when you are, she's like, I'll eat shit sandwiches all day long. She's like, because it lets me write.
Right. It's really funny. I really like that book a lot.
That's what I was listening to when we were in Juneau. Juneau. Juneau.
And I mean, I mean, if you if you want to know where I got the data for all this, just reach out, just reach out. I'll send you like the reports and the since Tim is the data driven studies and everything. You could be a nerd like Tim, which is fine.
Absolutely fine. Whatever floats everybody's boat. That's how I like to approach psychology because I feel like they've studied everything in psychology already.
What I would like people to do is if you have a goal that you are struggling with or you started a New Year's resolution that you didn't accomplish, run it back through this process of like the number of things that could potentially be wrong. Listen to last episode. Listen to this episode.
And if you figure out your problem, let us know. I'd love to hear about it. And if you can't figure out like where your sticking point is, reach out as well, because like getting if you don't have somebody else to reach out to, you can reach out to us as well.
We can help you get unstuck. So I know this wasn't very stock heavy, but this is like an important, so related to finance part of the financial. So related to finance.
Pretty much everything goes through the lens of setting goals when it comes to the financial planning for us. Yeah. With the portfolio, what we invest in, how we research it, like what metrics we use.
If the goal is to retire in five years, your metrics are going to be vastly different. You're willing to take on higher evaluations than you would for higher yielding stocks than you would if you have a 30 year time frame. So everything goes through the goal setting lenses when it comes to the finances for us, because that tool is so important for us to do what we want to do.
And I love planning because it helps you get what you want achieved. Next week is crypto. Yeah.
So Tim's readdressing crypto. That's definitely an episode you're going to want to tune into. He thought we talked about it recently.
It's literally been over a year and he's not happy about it. But we got some bangers coming up. It's a good year to be in the crypto market.
I've told you that before. You've heard us talk about the Trump thing, I think. And Trump apparently has his own crypto coin.
Trump has his own and his wife has her own. And I think their son has his own. The whole family's just benefiting from crypto.
I think we should have a crypto. So crypto, whether you like it or not, it's the future. So you might as well make money from it.
Exactly. And that's what we're going to talk about next week's episode. All right, guys, go set some goals.
Go kick some ass. Deuces, y'all.