Quick guide to achieving your goals

Firstly, your larger, overall goal picture should answer the following questions:

•    How much cash and/or income do you want from your investments?

•    By when?

•    Why? (What will this money enable you to do?)

This will then help you create a personal 'business plan' for what you're intending to do with the portfolio. You should endeavour to include the following details:

•    The kinds of property deals most likely to deliver your desired financial outcome (e.g. long-term capital growth, quick renovations, property development, or positive cash flow deals)

•    The minimum profit you require from each property deal

•    How many property deals you’ll need to do to achieve your financial goal

•    What obstacles (e.g. lack of time, investment capital, finance, knowledge, etc) might get in the way

•    How you plan to overcome these obstacles

•    What you need to achieve within the next 12 months to be on track towards your overall financial goal

Throughout the journey, you should re-visit your goals, and analyse your progress, explains Think and Grow Rich's Stuart Zadel. While some peoples' goals can be taking a year-long track to Paris, or buying a fancy car, for many they can be quite straight forward.

“At the end of the day, it might be replacing your income and being comfortable with expenses,” says Mr Zadel.

Every six months, you should be asking yourself "Is this plan going to deliver what I want?” If it isn't, then it's time to re-assess and start the process again.

Consider the following tricks to help you stick to your plan:

1) Accountability Buddy
One way to help stay on track is to have an ‘accountability buddy’. A term common in fitness and weight loss circles, it is likened to having a ‘personal trainer’.

According to the American Society of Training and Development, having an accountability buddy is one of the most powerful ways to ensure you reach your goal.

-    Provide your ‘buddy’ with guidance about their goal as they do for you
-    Keep criticism constructive
-    Remind each other what their end goal is when you meet
-    It is preferable to pair up with someone who is also property-orientated, however support can be provided from anyone
-    Set regular meetings

2) Vision Board
Having a visual representation of your aims can be a good way to ensure you’re frequently reminded of what you want.

-    Get pictures from magazines and catalogues to add to the board
-    Keep it somewhere you can see it
-    Put a ‘two-sentence’ goal on the board

3) Checklists
Whenever you have a goal in the medium term to help you reach a larger goal, note down how it fits within your overall plan and add it to a list you can look at frequently.

-    Keep these on a three-month basis
-    Tick off items as you complete them
-    Ensure you can see how they contribute to the ultimate goal

Tell Smart Property Investment what your property investing plan is: [email protected]