Planning for 2021: Why you need to start now

I can’t believe it’s time to start planning for 2021! It’s kind of amazing that today is the last day of November 2020. This year has been interesting, hasn’t it? Moreso as we are in another lockdown here in the UK with continued restrictions when it is over. Like most people, I started 2020 with so much hope and lots of aspirations.

One of my goals this year was to start this blog. I had wanted to start a finance blog in 2017. I secured the domain name but for so many reasons, one being procrastination, I delayed starting it. The rest as you can tell is history. So for me, the year 2020 hasn’t been all doom and gloom.

I have started winding down for the year and commenced planning for 2021. It has been a very busy year for me despite the lockdown as I transitioned to working from home. The time saved from commuting was converted to getting the blog ready, sorting out the technical aspects, and getting posts ready for the launch in August. This was all after the first 3 months of lockdown as we needed to find our bearing with homeworking and homeschooling.

Overall, I am very grateful for this year. I started my planning for 2021 with a lot of gratitude for this year despite the pandemic. It’s been a good year, especially as I and my family have remained healthy to date. I say this with a lot of humility knowing a lot of people are coping with financial hardship and hardship generally. If you are reading this, it means you are alive and hopefully well. I have faith that the virus will be kicked to the curb come 2021 and we will regain some normality.

Why should we bother planning for 2021?

A lot of people get discouraged when their plans don’t work out and decide to stop planning altogether. Planning is good for the following reasons:

Sense of purpose – One of the reasons I plan is to give me a sense of purpose. Otherwise, the year begins and I wander about like a headless chicken. Planning sets you on course for something and gives you a reason to take purposeful action.

SMART objectives – Planning requires you to set your goals and break them down into SMART objectives.

Measurement– How will you know how much progress you have made without targets?. Having goals and plans gives you something to measure your performance against.

Why start planning now?

The Oxford dictionary meaning of plan is “a set of things to do in order to achieve something, especially one that has been considered in detail in advance”. So planning is something done in advance of the event. The best time to start planning for 2021 is now. We have a month to go, so you can take some time to finish up your plans. Then spend the last week or two on some quality time with family.

Starting your planning for 2021 now also gives you a lot of opportunities to reflect and take your time in making intentional plans. That way you are not one of the many people who wake up on the 1st of January and make some rushed goals. This is not a new year resolution process! This is a well thought out what do I do with the year 2021 process. According to this quote;

If you wait, all that happens is that you get older!

Mario Andretti

How to start planning for 2021

Reflect

I think it is important to reflect and count your blessings even if you think there aren’t any. I find that if I focus on what has not worked this year or goals that weren’t met that I will have a long list. While there might be some benefit to taking stock of what hasn’t worked, there is nothing that can be done to change the past. However, gratitude revives hope and increases your joy. It puts you in a ready mindset to forge ahead. I am always so grateful for health and never take this for granted. So even if you have not hit your money goals this year, don’t worry, let’s reboot and plan on making the most of next year.

Call a goal setting meeting

Set out time to start your planning and goal-setting meeting either with yourself or your partner. There are plans being made in the background and discussions constantly being had with my husband about our future plans. It is important to set some time aside to formally discuss them. This is because we need to both agree on what our plans are for different aspects of our lives. Examples of areas to consider include;

• Financial goals
• Relationships goals
• Career goals
• Business goals
• Personal development goals
• Spiritual goals
• Health and fitness goals

I do some of the above personally and share them with my husband, especially if some of my personal goals will mean time away from the family. It’s important we are on the same page.

If you have children who are old enough to understand, involve them. My children are young, but one of them is old enough to understand goal setting and planning. You can involve children by:

• Getting them to write things they are grateful for.
• Talking to them about your financial goals, especially if you need to make sacrifices for what you are trying to achieve. No need to alarm them if situations are tough. However, for example, If you are canceling foreign holidays to save money, you can all come up with fun activities together to explore your area better or make the best of the school holidays.
• Getting them to talk about and write down their hopes and aspirations for 2021.

For younger children, a shortened version of the above is enough . The importance is for them to be aware of this tradition you are creating and learn it’s importance.

Agree on priorities

This is important. You need to plan how to achieve the goals you have set out as mentioned above but some will fall into a long-term plan. Start with a list of goals with timelines, then break them down into yearly targets. For instance, if you are hoping to save for a house deposit/move, decide how much you need to save. Create your budget and arrive at your savings rate/total budgeted savings. Based on your yearly savings how long will it take to achieve this? If you want to achieve this sooner, are there changes you can make in your spending that will help? Focus on the action for 2021 and work out the plans to achieve it.

Set SMART objectives

You have to break down your priorities for the year into Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time bound objectives/action. For example, if you have a goal to change your job in the new year, write down all the actions that need taking with deadlines. Do you need to refresh your CV? When do you want to start talking to recruiters and putting fillers out to your network? Write all the SMART actions needed and timelines to do them. Another great example is fitness. This is one aspect that SMART objectives can be helpful. Say you have a goal to be fitter in 2021

• Specific – state exactly how you want to be fitter? Is it by regular exercise, healthy eating, weight loss?
• Measurable – determine the frequency of exercise, how much weight? what healthy eating habits?
• Achieveable – for example, do you set out to lose 30kg in 3 months or a realistic 2.5kg every month? This totally depends on how much weight needs to go but make sure they are achievable based on the time and your approach.
• Relevant – Does becoming vegan help achieve my fitness goal or is this a totally different thing altogether? Make sure the objectives you outline work towards achieving the goals.
• Time-bound – Set deadlines and targets. An open ended goal like ” lose 30kg over a period of time” is counterproductive. Instead, include timelines e.g. I will aim to lose 12 kg in 12 months, that way you work towards shedding at least 1 kg a month.

Create your budget

I create an annual budget by building my spending plan month by month for the year. I know most of my recurring expenditure and review as we go along. Some important things to decide upon when planning is our financial priorities for the year as this helps in deciding how much we can apportion to our wants versus our savings. You can read all about budgets here as well as download a copy of my budgeting spreadsheet.

Agree on follow up and responsibilities

If you are making plans for yourself then this part is easy. You have complete responsibility for how you implement the plans set out and accomplish them. But if you are married or have a partner, either in life or business, when you have your planning meeting, agree on responsibilities.

Ensure you have a process of accountability. Responsibility for meeting your goals should be joint but if there is reason to assign a particular responsibility to someone due to their expertise, do so. However, plan regular meetings to catch up.

This will likely be my last post for the year. I have a lot of work to do sorting out the site and getting ready for 2021. So I will be working on some exciting plans for 2021. Stay tuned for announcements. I hope it’s not too early to say Merry Christmas and a happy new year in advance.

As always if you have any questions about planning or creating your budget email me at tolu@valuespeaks.com. Have a valuable week and cheers to an amazing 2021!