The importance of setting S.M.A.R.T. goals

The Smart Property Investment Show’s resident accountant Munzurul Khan talks about the importance having goals, and why property investors must learn to set S.M.A.R.T. goals: 

Why have goals?

Munzurul Khan: I’m a strong believer of saying that the energy that we have are quite unlimited. It’s about how do we divert that bit of energy with a very specific goal as such. Very often, the success comes in because of that mindset. It’s your mind. You build that bit of wealth in your mind before it becomes crystallised in the open world. Goal-setting is very important because very often, some people they are not as successful because they are not very clear in their own mind what they want to achieve. They’ve got a whole lot of diversity of different options. That’s why I’m a big, big, big fan of saying that you set up your goal. It’s not an accountant that sets up a goal. An accountant will facilitate you at setting up your goal, but you, as a client, you set up your own goal with your personal circumstances.

How do you set up goals?

Munzurul Khan: I’m a big fan of setting S.M.A.R.T. goals – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely. What is your goal? What do you wish to achieve? I ask that question all the time, and I hear from clients, “I would like to go on two holidays once in every year, and would like to retire in the next two years.” Then I sort of say, “All those good. Let’s try to quantify what does that mean?” What does that mean in terms of your net passive income that you need to reach into that bit of the lifestyle that you wish to? What’s the overall gross asset I suppose you need to achieve to reach into that bit of the net, the ongoing positive cash flow as such? What’s the time frame that you would like to achieve?

Then, we discuss a little bit, is it really realistic as such? Once we set up those goals, then it is very important that you write down the goals. Leave it somewhere where the goals stare at you, where you can’t hide away the goals.

As an example, I do yearly goals and I leave them in my office. Once in a while, I look at it and realise I’d better run a bit quicker. It makes you more accountable in terms of the goals. You write it down, you make it specific. Don’t make it overly complicated.

Is there such a thing as “too many goals”?

Munzurul Khan: I sit down with people who has got about 25 goals, then it becomes almost too many goals that he can’t remember what those goals are. Build a yearly goal, and build a longer term goal. And on a very consistent basis, go back to that goal over and over. Track it down – accountability. How are you achieving those goals? Then, once you have done it, you look back and you say, “Well, enormous what I’ve achieved, and I’ve achieved simply because I focused my energy.”

How does writing down your goals and consistently reassessing and refining them keep an investor driven?

Munzurul Khan: It’s about driving yourself a little bit faster, right? It’s about driving yourself a little bit faster, but at the same time it’s about having a little bit of fun as well along the way. The goals that you create, it’s not about someone else. It’s your goal, and it’s not a race with anyone else. It’s a race within yourself.

It’s about taking a step back, saying that, you know what, two things: one is that I have achieved the best that I could have done with my life, and at the same time, I had lots of fun as well.

Tune in to Munzurul Khan’s episode in The Smart Property Investment Show to know more about how building a reliable financial team can help you achieve your goals as a property investor.