Everyone should have some financial goals, perhaps you could call it a financial bucket list.
Having a goal can help motivate you towards that target. There are some goals that many people aspire to, but sadly never reach.
How many of these financial bucket list items can you tick off:
First full time job
Most people can't fast-track their financial goals until they have full-time work. Our time is financially valuable and until you're working for around 40 hours a week you may not be earning enough to unlock some of your other financial goals.
If you want your own roof over your head, pay your own bills and everything else, you need a decent full time job to get you going. SEEK Limited's (ASX: SEK) Seek.com.au is a pretty good place to look for all sorts of full-time jobs.
Net worth of at least $100,000
If you have a good mindset of avoiding lifestyle inflation, spending less than you earn and ensuring your superannuation balance is growing then you could quite quickly hit a net worth of $100,000 if you're also saving to buy a home.
Many younger Australians are jumping into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as a way to help their wealth compound quicker (but cash is still the best place for a house deposit). One of the best ETFs could be iShares S&P 500 ETF (ASX: IVV) for its global underlying holdings and cheap management costs.
I'd imagine nearly everyone reading this article has the ability to reach a net worth of $100,000 over the next decade.
Own a home
Owning your own home is the great Australian dream. Or at least it used to be.
Sadly owning a property might be out of reach for some people these days due to the high sticker price and the difficulty in building such a large deposit in cities like Sydney and Melbourne whilst also paying for all the other living expenses like rent.
Some people may choose never to own a home, or at least not living in their property and instead utilising the 'rentvesting' strategy.
If you manage to tick this owning a property off the list by saving the deposit yourself, finding a good property on the websites run by REA Group Limited (ASX: REA) or Domain Holdings Australia Ltd (ASX: DHG) and beating out the buying competition, then good on you!
Net worth of $1 million
Becoming a millionaire over the past decade has been pretty easy for many retirees – just own your property, pay off the mortgage and have a decent superannuation balance.
Going forwards it might be harder because of slow wage growth, lower inflation and lower investment returns. But it's still entirely possible to achieve this goal, it will just take several decades of hard work and fully taking advantage of compound interest.
Best of luck to you if millionaire status is your goal.
Have enough money to comfortably retire
It may take much more than $1 million to comfortably retire these days. It would take $2 million to make $40,000 a year from a good cash savings account.
Ticking this off the list before 60 could be the most difficult challenge of all. I think the key is finding good ASX growth shares and dividend shares which may mean you only need a portfolio of $1.5 million or $1.25 million for a good retirement.
