Your financial goals and how to achieve them

byMarcus WFHW

39.7K followers

Updated 7 years ago

One of the first things you get to do as a new member at Wealthy Affiliate is to set your financial goals. This is a great way to give you something to focus on and aim for as you set about building your online business.

I often like to look through the goals section and get a feel for what desires new members have, and how much money it would take to make a huge difference in their lives.

We are of course all different. Wealthy Affiliate reaches out across the globe and this creates a degree of diversity in terms of what people regard as their DREAM amount of money.

But it really doesn’t matter how big your DREAM goal is…what really matters is that you do have something BIG to strive for.

My goals and how they shaped my future

When I joined WA back in November 2006, my DREAM goal was a fairly conservative one.

If I could consistently earn the equivalent of $500 per week online, that would be enough to replace my 9-5 income of $26k per year at the factory.

I could then quit my job and be at home to help my wife bring up our two children.

These were not big numbers in the grand scheme of things…but they were HUGE to me.

No matter what…I was going to achieve that goal. What I didn’t know at the time was HOW I was going to do it.

So when I look around WA at the kind of life-changing figures that others are dreaming about and their reasons for wanting to achieve them…I can relate.

Putting financial goals into perspective within the online world.

If you are new to WA and maybe don’t yet appreciate what you can realistically achieve online, in the nicest possible way I’m going to suggest that your expectations probably fall well short of reality.

Unlike running an offline business that might only be open for 10 hours a day, 5 or 6 days a week, your online business will be open 24/7 - 365 days per year. This alone presents a lot of opportunity.

Also factor in that your online business will have a global audience and the people coming through your virtual shop door every single day are going to be specifically interested in the topic of your website.

When you combine these 2 factors you can immediately see the potential that you have with your own online business.

Let’s crunch some numbers…

To put things further into perspective, I’m going to look at average living costs and what it would take to earn those amounts online.

According to careertrends.com, the average living costs across the US in 2016 are:

$28,474 per year for a single person with no children.

and…

$65,616 per year for a married couple with 2 children.

Let’s break these two figures down into daily amounts and put them into context.

Single person with no children - $28,474 per year = $78.01 per day.

Married couple with 2 children - $65,616 per year = $179.76 per day.

Those living expense figures are very similar here in the UK, across Europe and in Australia. If you live in another country, the chances are your average yearly living costs are probably lower.

What you might have missed there is to calculate those daily figures, I divided the yearly figure by 365 because…you got it…your online business will be working for you all day, and every day of the year.

So in reality, to be able to earn enough money to cover ALL of your average living costs for one year, you would need to earn $78 per day for a single person or $180 per day for a married person with a spouse and 2 children to support.

Is this possible with an online business?

DEFINITELY.

Again, I will revert back to the offline and online business comparison…

In the offline world you have a lot of overheads so if you sell something for $78, it might only amount to $20 or less in pure profit.

You are going to have to put in some graft to sell enough of those things to cover your $78 or $180 per day living costs. You then have to go home, stress about the fact that you didn’t sell enough of those things and start all over again the next day.

But if you make an affiliate sale online and it earns you $78 in commissions…it’s pretty much going to be $78 in pure profit. And the chances are…you might not even be at your computer working when you made the sale. You might even be asleep!

Now imagine what would happen if, by some crazy twist of fate (wink), you took action and started building your online business the way WA teaches you to.

You create a niche website around something that interests you and gradually begin to get a regular flow of visitors to your website. Let’s say 100 people a day.

On your website you recommend a product or service that would benefit the people who are coming to your website with a specific interest in your content. Let’s say that product costs $50.

If you apply your WA education correctly, there is a HIGH chance that out of those 100 people that have stopped by, a couple of them might trust your recommendation and will make a purchase earning you $100 in affiliate commissions (enough to keep a single person alive!)

Heck, if you get good at what WA teaches you…you might even make 4 sales earning $200 and then you’ve got enough to go out and get yourself a spouse and a couple of kids – for the day :-)

I jest and digress.

I’ve focused mostly here on the relatively BIG goal of what it would take to cover your living expenses for a year.

Your DREAM goal might well be smaller…enough to cover your mortgage/rent, education expenses, pay for a vacation, Christmas etc. If that is the case, I hope you’re encouraged by the potential.

How to achieve your DREAM goal no matter how BIG it is

It’s a bold claim for sure, but I am confident that this will 100% help you to reach the point of realizing everything that you dream of achieving here at WA.

Earlier I mentioned my own DREAM goal when I first joined - $500 per week/$26,000 per year.

I found it difficult at the time to put that figure into context, and by that I mean I just couldn’t picture how my online business would be able to generate that amount of money.

So I took a step back and looked at in a very different way.

In my mind I imagined I was attempting to cross a stream without getting wet. There was I, stood on one side of the stream (just set up my online business), and on the other side of the stream was a patch of dry land a fair distance away (my dream goal).

How could I possibly get from Point A, where I was stood, to the dry bank on the other side (my goal) without getting wet (failing)?

STEPPING STONES!

If the path to your DREAM goal is made up of reachable and achievable steps, it is going to be a LOT easier to actually get there - and without failing in the process!

Allow me to explain.

If your ultimate goal is to earn $120,000 per year, or $328 per day, from your online business, you need to put that figure on the other side of the stream because we will worry about that later.

The first thing you need to do is to imagine a stepping stone right in the middle of the stream, so effectively halving your DREAM goal.

This becomes your NEW and most desired goal en-route to your DREAM goal. In this example, that would be $60,00 per year or $164 per day – a lot more achievable.

Next up you need to put a stepping stone right in front of your feet – so in other words your very next goal that is working towards your NEW target goal half way across the stream.

My very first stepping stone across my stream was a fairly simple one - to be able to pay for my WA membership fees.

I had a little side hustle in place at the time that earned me enough to cover these fees, so it didn't take long for me to feel secure on the first stepping stone.

By achieving this as my very first goal, I would no longer have to worry about finding my monthly fees and my WA membership/ongoing education would effectively be free.

I'm sure you would agree that when you consider the figures that I mentioned earlier, covering your WA fees first is a logical and achievable goal.

Don't forget that once you have your own first realistic step in place, you are instantly working towards something that is a lot more achievable.

You are not losing sight of your DREAM goal on the other side of the stream, or your NEW goal half way across…you are in fact working towards both of them.

Now depending on what your own personal goals are, you can now take as many incremental steps towards your NEW goal at the half way point as you want. Some examples might be:

• Yearly membership at WA ($359 per year or $0.98 per day)
• Percentage of your midway point goal – Example: 10%, 20%, 30% and so on.
• Actual money amounts - $10 per day, $20 per day, $30 per day etc.

Only you will know how they relate to you own personal aspirations.

Now this mindset has 1 very clear benefit:

#1 Achievable steps make it easier to reach your goals and they drive you forward.

It’s a lot easier working towards an extra $10 per day online than trying to leap to an extra $100 per day. It’s quite possible that just one well-constructed post on your website could earn an extra $10 per day ongoing.

Achievable steps also increase your self-belief and make you WANT to take action because you know that your next stepping stone is well within reach.

But here’s one BIG benefit of looking at your goals in stepping stone fashion, and it is to do with what happens between your midpoint goal and your end goal. The bit that I haven’t mentioned...yet.

By the time that you reach the halfway point stepping stone, something amazing is likely to happen.

To get to that halfway point, you will have taken a ton of action with your online business and you will have already accomplished many goals on the way.

You will be flying. You will know exactly what actions allowed you to hop from stepping stone to stepping stone, and you will therefore know how to continue hopping forward towards your DREAM goal. You are now educated, competent and VERY able.

As an additional bonus, something else is likely to happen…

Your income will start to SNOWBALL.

During the early steps of your journey, it might feel like financial progress is a bit slow. This is completely normal and is to be expected. That’s what the small steps are for.

Yet by the halfway point you will be the controller of a well-oiled machine that is now churning out earnings at a much greater rate…a rate that you will not have experienced before!

This happens because you have worked your butt off to get your business off the ground. You have applied what WA has taught you and now you have a successful business on your hands.

The amount of incremental steps between your midpoint goal and your DREAM goal will now be considerably less!

The income will be flowing, you’ll be taking the right kind of action with everything that you do…you will start taking much BIGGER and BOLDER steps because you know exactly what you are doing!

Eventually, hopefully, you will make it to the other side of the stream and achieve your DREAM goal.

You got there because you plotted your route with meticulous precision. You wanted to make sure that you actually achieved what you set out to do. AND YOU DID IT!

You're now ready for the next stream and your next DREAM goal :-)

There’s only ONE Mike Powell

For those of you who are too young to remember, Mike Powell broke the long jump world record in 1991 with an incredible leap of 8 meters 95.

Mike would have no problem leaping over my stream, or yours, but he’s a one-off. Don’t try to be like Mike.

This is EXACTLY what the shiny object brigade are always suggesting you can do with their inferior products outside of WA.

You know the kind…“Start Earning $1000 Per Day Online With No Experience!”

Or in other words…

Leaping over the stream like Mike probably would.

Yeah right!

You’re NOT here at WA to attempt the impossible…you’re here to achieve the possible.

I hope this helps to turn your financial goals into reality.

Keep on dreaming and achieving…one step at a time :-)