Personal finance goals may be defined as a set of individual objectives to manage personal resources efficiently and effectively. Students are the most challenged people, when it comes to the personal finance management. Negative peer pressure and harmful social distractions are the main issues affecting students’ ability to manage their personal finances effectively. Therefore, the main objective of understanding the setting of personal finance goals is to assist students to manage their resources efficiently for effective satisfaction of their wants.

There are two main measures of personal finances: net worth and cash flow. Personal financial success can be effectively measured by the level of net worth of an individual with time. The trend of the cash flow is an important factor that influences the net worth of a person. Therefore, it is very crucial to scale down the cash flow and reach a logically acceptable level.

Evaluation of personal finance goals is a very important set after goal formulation. Goals must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. Therefore, personal finance goals that meet the aforementioned criteria may not only accelerate personal finance achievement but also help a student to have a more peaceful social life. In addition, evaluated goals help students to budget their expenditure accordingly and set a time frame for achieving them. Consequently, the combination of the benefits enables a student to achieve insurmountable academic success eventually.

After evaluation, the set goals and achievement plan should be written to enable easy assessment of a student’s personal finance management. The following is some of my short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term SMARTgoals:

1. I want to be residing in a drier, warmer and quieter climate with a beautiful landscape. The countryside will be the best location for a house. I will be able to hear, feel and see the beautiful scenery every day! There are plenty of beautiful locations in my country, and all I need is to fix my budget accordingly to achieve my goal before August, 2020. I will be saving $200 each month towards the achievement of this goal, and I am motivated, since others have achieved it, too.

2. I want to increase the profitability of my new business by June, 2014. My goal is to make a monthly profit of at least $1000 and I know people who have achieved the same in the same business. Henceforth, in the next six months I will be retaining $200 of each month profit for my business.

3. I want to have 500 items listed on eBay by December, 2013. Others have exceeded this threshold within a short time, and I am sure I am also able. Henceforth, I will be setting aside $20 for weekly internet data and allocate 2 hours for posting my items on eBay.

Some goals may not be appropriate for personal finance management for students. For example, some students may set a goal of having enough money at their retirement. However, this goal is not specific and is also not measurable because it does not have time limits and cash requirements that can help them set up a budget. On the other hand, someone may set a goal to have $2,800,000 at the retirement, which is set out for 1st Jan, 2045. This is a specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound goal which can be budgeted.

Effective budgeting requires proper understanding of the procedures and details of budgeting. A budget is a time-bound statement of expenditures and incomes of an individual. Thus, a budget is a goal-oriented statement expressing the nature of spending of an individual in comparison to his/her earnings. Budgeting helps in assessment of personal spending and proper financial planning. Inadequate budgeting makes financial planning difficult. Therefore, a budget helps track the turbulence in the financial life and also depicts possible problems.

In conclusion, setting of goals for personal finance management, evaluating their validity and budgeting accordingly is the best criteria for achieving financial success, especially for students. Even though it is difficult to budget sometimes, failure to do so may lead to extravagance and irrational spending. Therefore, to achieve success in personal finance, one should apply the aforementioned criteria in personal finance management.