Achieving My Financial Independence With 6 Simple Goals

Financial independence is one of the most common goals people have. Setting goals is easy because if you have a dream, then you have a goal to work towards. Many of us have come up with smart goals and written them down, with dates to start and finish, but that is as far as the goal-setting goes. I know I have been guilty of doing this many times.

Reasons we don’t achieve our goals

I watched a goal-setting course by Susan of Legacy Hub Ke about the mistake that makes us not achieve our goals. The below is the reasons.

• Our goals are too big and vague.
• We don’t plan for contingencies
• We don’t adjust our goals to suit the current situation
• We don’t have a financial plan for our goal

The basics of goals are that they have to be SMART. That means your goals have to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. However, this specific part of the goals helps you achieve the rest of the aspects in the acronym.

The more specific the better, the devil is in the details.

• Mindset: Being specific will help in putting your mindset to achieving your goal.
• Clarity: If you know exactly what you want it is easier to work on getting it.
• Tracking and measuring: It will also help in being able to track the progress, know when you are achieving it or not, evaluate the progress and adjust your goal along the way if you need to.

For example, one of my goals is to have a home so that am not paying rent anymore. This is a common goal with many of us, right? I quickly discovered that this was just a dream unless I make it more specific. I needed to know what, where, and how much the home will be so that I can start achieving the goal.

I had to visualize it in my mind and research the internet of the kind of home I wanted and where I wanted to live. I even visited such a home, took pictures, and researched what exactly I would need to meet the goal. I wrote down my goal and put all the details.

Main Goal 1 

• “Finish paying for a 4-bedroom townhouse currently worth 25 Million at Edenville off Kiambu road in 10 years”

At the time I was earning 100,000 per month and had 200,000 saved in the bank account which I felt can be used towards this goal. I intended to save 10% of your current salary of 10,000 per month so in one year I would have 120,000+200,000 =320,000.

When I did this calculation, I realized that to meet the goal with my current income, it will take you 80 years to get the 25M so I had to figure out how I will get the money, since my savings were not going to cut it.

I needed to adjust the goal to include how I would finance it. I did my research on local banks that would assist with financing the home. I asked,

• which banks gave 100% loan without requiring a deposit?
• who had the best interest rate?
• how long will the mortgage be?
• Are there penalties for early payment in case I got a windfall in the future?
• how much are the admin, insurance, and other fees?

Based on a blog by Vaal realtors, in Kenya, banks will give you a mortgage at 14% to 12% interest, some will need you to make a 10% to 20% deposit and the tenues are generally 15 to 25 years.

Goal 2- Financing my Goals

1. Finance 105% of the townhouse with a mortgage of 25M from the standard chartered bank at 12.9% interest for 25 years which I will pay 250,000 monthly.

Now I needed to figure out how I will increase my income so that I can afford to pay for the monthly payment on the mortgage. Currently, I only had 10,000 free for saving. I needed to adjust my expenses to increase the amount of money I can save monthly. I need to live a frugal life and make budget cuts. However, regardless of how much I save from my current income, it would not cover the 250,000 required for the loan. Therefore, I need to adjust and add on to the goal yet again.

I will need to get another income stream to pay for the mortgage. From my research, I discover that many people are making a lot of money selling things on the internet. Since I don’t have a lot of spare time I opted to get started an online business.

As the law of attraction would have it, the universe conspires and shows you the opportunities when you are focused on a goal. Suddenly I was finding new opportunities that I could not see before. Things I wouldn’t have thought of doing before the need to increase my income became reality. I had dismounted from the comfortable seat and was ready to venture into new territories and I was excited about it.

Starting New Business ventures

Goal 3- Sell physical products

I can import lipsticks at 700 per lipstick and shipping cost of 300 and sell to friends, family, and my online friends at 1,500 each. If I can sell 200 lipsticks per month, I will make a profit of about 500 each total of 100,000 if I complement this with other items I can reach my target of 150,000 per month.

I will scale this business up by posting more on my social media to increase my following and register into Etsy and Amazon to increase international sales.

• Start an online business selling lipstick, skincare, children’s clothes, and other small items that are not heavy and are easy to ship. This will be financed by my saving, with a target to earn 150,000 per month from the profit.

Goal 4- Writing jobs

I like to write; it has been my hobby when I was younger. I can write and learn new skills like copywriting and transcription and other writing jobs to complement my current income.

I will scale this business by getting retainer contracts to write blog posts, articles, and newsletters for small businesses that need regular and relevant content for their websites and customers.

• Get online writing jobs writing, blog posts, articles, newsletters, copywriting and date-entry, and other online jobs to get the 100,000 per month on Upwork and fivver

Goal 5 – Online Courses

Since I have experience in sales, digital marketing, and customer service, I felt confident that I can train people on these topics. However, I needed to take an online coaching course so that am creditable and it will also boost my confidence as I train my peers.

Eventually, I planned to scale up to groups of students per session and have 5 sessions a month which I can charge

Also, scale up to include social media and email marketing.

• Start sales, marketing, and customer relationship training online coaching business and have at least 10 students per month paying 2,500 per 1-hour session and earn 25,000 to 50,000 targeting small businesses.

Goal 6: Sell Digital Products

Once I have a following for my blog subscriptions and social media platforms, I will sell digital products like E-books, courses to training sites. I will need to increase my view on the website and social media by sharing valuable content.

• Sell digital products like E-books, affiliate marketing, and Low content books on amazon and Online courses in Skillshare, udemy, or other online training sites

 Conclusion Goals setting.

Going through the above steps will eventually ensure I meet my achievement. When you set your goals well it gives you a plan that you can follow and achieve goals. However, after you meet your goal then what? When I get the home that I worked so hard to achieve, will I feel fulfilled? I think it is good to set goals but the process of getting to the end goal is more worth it. I think it’s good to set goals but make sure the process of meeting the goal is fun.

“The purpose of a goal is to win the game. The purpose of a system is to continue playing.”

Atomic Habits by James Clear