Wednesday 9 March 2016

When Goals Collide

I have previously stated that my goal is to get out of town for each and every long weekend. This is a nice goal and one that I would like to achieve; “like” being the operative word.

As I look at my budget and working towards my very tight deadline and lofty goals, I am forced to rethink this policy.

In order for me to stay on schedule, I just can’t afford, at least for the immediate to Mid-Term, such an expense.  I need to conserve as much cash as I can as I move my goals and dreams forward.

In order to do that, dropping $120.00 on a weekend away right now just doesn’t fit with that plan. (It is good that I have already paid for my May Long Weekend spot in Waterton Lakes.)

That, my friends, is where the rub is, when two competing goals collide, you need to choose the one which is more important to you.

I could say that getting out of town is important and that I must still live and all that and just go camping.  That would put a hole in my budget and derail my plans to get that down payment in place in time to start my buying process.

I could also just stuff it on a credit card and pay it off “down the road”. This will lead to putting other things on the credit card only to pay it off “down the road”. We all know where that leads, and that choice conflicts with my goal of maintaining a zero balance on all of my credit cards.

So here we have the rub one moderate goal competing against a higher goal. While I do want to go camping at least on long weekends, it would conflict with and hurt my more important goal of saving for that down payment.

Life is never easy and full of difficult choices, when you are faced with them, look at them in terms of how this would help or hinder your goals.

Which goal would each choice help and/or hurt? Which goal is more important for you further? Once you have answered those questions, your choice should be made all the clearer.

As for me, any salvaged money that I can garner in my budgets will be put towards first building up my contingency fund and then that Down Payment Fund.

I still would like (and this is a Hail Marry, longshot) to have $13,000.00 in that Down Payment Fund for Aug 1. That would give me the downpayment for a property in the $250,000.00 range (as in 5% down).

As it is I will be lucky to stuff $11,000.00 in there, but that will get me close enough for me to work some magic from there. I have yammered and lectured enough, so for no reason at all here is your Sunrise Shot of this morning.
  

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