6 Financial Goals To Achieve In Life Bankrate.com Caret RightMain Menu Mortgage Mortgages Financing a home purchase Refinancing your existing loan Finding the right lender Additional Resources Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Bank Banking Compare Accounts Use calculators Get advice Bank reviews Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Credit Card Credit cards Compare by category Compare by credit needed Compare by issuer Get advice Looking for the perfect credit card? Narrow your search with CardMatch Caret RightMain Menu Loan Loans Personal Loans Student Loans Auto Loans Loan calculators Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Invest Investing Best of Brokerages and robo-advisors Learn the basics Additional resources Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Home Equity Home equity Get the best rates Lender reviews Use calculators Knowledge base Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Loan Home Improvement Real estate Selling a home Buying a home Finding the right agent Additional resources Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Insurance Insurance Car insurance Homeowners insurance Other insurance Company reviews Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Retirement Retirement Retirement plans & accounts Learn the basics Retirement calculators Additional resources Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Advertiser Disclosure
Advertiser Disclosure
We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. Our goal is to help you make smarter financial decisions by providing you with interactive tools and financial calculators, publishing original and objective content, by enabling you to conduct research and compare information for free - so that you can make financial decisions with confidence.
Bankrate has partnerships with issuers including, but not limited to, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi and Discover. How We Make Money
The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including, for example, the order in which they may appear within the listing categories. But this compensation does not influence the information we publish, or the reviews that you see on this site. We do not include the universe of companies or financial offers that may be available to you. SHARE: sportpoint/Adobe Stock July 31, 2018 Taylor Tepper Bankrate logo The Bankrate promise
At Bankrate we strive to help you make smarter financial decisions. While we adhere to strict editorial integrity, this post may contain references to products from our partners. Here's an explanation for how we make money. Bankrate logo The Bankrate promise
Founded in 1976, Bankrate has a long track record of helping people make smart financial choices. We’ve maintained this reputation for over four decades by demystifying the financial decision-making process and giving people confidence in which actions to take next. Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. All of our content is authored by and edited by , who ensure everything we publish is objective, accurate and trustworthy. Our banking reporters and editors focus on the points consumers care about most — the best banks, latest rates, different types of accounts, money-saving tips and more — so you can feel confident as you’re managing your money. Bankrate logo Editorial integrity
Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. Here is a list of our . Key Principles
We value your trust. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers. Editorial Independence
Bankrate’s editorial team writes on behalf of YOU – the reader. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information. Bankrate logo How we make money
You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey. Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers. We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money. Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and, services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service. At the end of life, your final thoughts won’t be on bad financial decisions. But before you approach the hereafter, you’ll likely have more than a few regrets about poor money management. Fiscal distress often results from a lack of long-term planning. Failing to save enough for retirement — a decades-long endeavor — is the biggest financial regret among American adults, , followed closely by not having an adequately funded emergency . Much like your physical well-being, financial health requires both good habits and a bit of luck. By setting up financial goals and working hard to accomplish them, you can focus your energy on the more meaningful parts of your life. 1 Maintain a top-notch FICO score
You’re going to need to borrow a large sum of money at some point in your life. Want to ? ? Chances are you’re going to need to go to the bank first. The more creditworthy you appear to a financial institution, the less interest you’ll end up paying. Guarding a super prime score, generally around 740, should be an important financial goal. Most Americans fall short. The average FICO score hit an all-time high last year, . You should aim higher. Although don’t stress over trying to get a perfect mark of 850. Life’s too short. How do you improve? Pay off all your bills in full every month, on time. Use no more than 20 percent of your available credit and keep your oldest accounts going even if you don’t need them. 2 Have a 6-month emergency fund
Amassing six months’ worth of spending in a is really hard. Depending on where you live and how much you earn, you’re looking at a stash of somewhere between . Only 39 percent of Americans would be able to pay for a $1,000 emergency with cash, according to a Bankrate survey. Wages have mostly stagnated since the Great Recession, and low interest rates are a headache for savers. But this is a fundamentally important step. An emergency fund is a hedge against disaster. If you were laid off, it would let you take your time picking your next role. If you got sick or the roof caved in, you wouldn’t have to got into debt. If you’re starting from scratch, place any windfall you receive into a . You can even name the account “break in case of emergency.” 3 Become a 401 k millionaire
How much you need in retirement savings depends on your current standard of living, but you may face some adjustments after calling it quits. Half of all households are at risk of spending their golden years with less spending power than they are used to, according to the . The old rule of thumb suggests you need eight times your final income in retirement savings (there are more detailed measures you can use, or you can hire a financial planner). Still, retirement saving is relatively straightforward. Save 10 to 15 percent of your income, including a company match in your 401(k), and invest in low-cost diversified funds. One quick and easy way is to pick a target-date fund that gets more conservative (i.e., more bonds) as you age. 4 Pay off your mortgage
Even if you have a — mortgage rates have been muted by historical standards since the onset of the housing crisis — owning your home outright is one of the most financially liberating steps you can take, and a sure way to save money. Let’s say you put 10 percent down on a $262,500 home with a at 3.88 percent. You’ll end up paying $164,000 in interest alone. Taking out a 15-year loan, instead, would save around $90,000. Even if you stick with the average loan length, consider contributing extra to your monthly payment whenever possible, and join the . 5 Make a major purchase with cash
Despite an improving jobs picture and stock markets ascending to new heights, Americans are struggling with savings and debt. The personal savings rate has dropped dramatically over the past few years, while the percentage of families with jumped by nearly six percentage points to 43.9 from 2013 to 2016, . The average indebted household owes $5,700. With poised to raise multiple times in 2018, taking on debt is an ever more expensive proposition. The next time you need to make a big purchase, like a family vacation or a new car, try to make it completely with cash. You’ll not only enjoy the thing you just bought, but you won’t face the anxiety that accompanies new debt. To ramp up your savings rate, automatically siphon a small percentage of your biweekly paycheck into an earmarked . Saving automatically is the quickest way to build up your cache. 6 Pay off student loans
afflict people of all ages. Nearly 1 in 6 Americans have student debt, with a median amount of $17,000. If you took on loans for postgrad studies, you owe $45,000. Meanwhile senior debt has quadrupled over the past 10 years, according to the . If you’re already putting enough away for retirement — generally 10 percent of your pay, including any employer match — and have a fully-funded emergency fund, start working overtime to pay off your student debt. Put any raises, or your , to chip away at the mountain of debt. SHARE: Taylor Tepper Related Articles