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SHOW NOTES FOR EPISODE 361: LET’S GET REAL ABOUT GOALS
Setting obtainable goals is critical to effective planning and successful real estate investing. But, as Bruce Lee put it, “A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.” When factors beyond your control hinder your ability to reach a goal, it’s not the end of the world but an opportunity to learn, re-engineer and plan better. In this podcast, Bill shares how important setting goals is to your success as a real estate investor but how not hitting your goals is okay, too.
Introduction
This time of the year, I’m always talking to you about planning for next year. Just a few weeks ago, I talked about putting together your 2020 Strategic Real Estate Investing Plan. Having a plan is critical to your real estate investing success. It’s also a great way to track what works and what doesn’t work. It also allows you to revise, adjust, re-engineer and move forward.
Your plan helps you to achieve your goals.
Goals are important. One of my favorite quotes is “Without a vision, people perish.” – Proverbs 28:18. Here are a few more:
- Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there. …
- Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. …
- Stay focused, go after your dreams and keep moving toward your goals. …
- People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going. …
- One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.
- “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” – Henry David Thoreau
- “A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.” – Bruce Lee
I believe in setting goals and I believe in having a plan
“But don’t ever let your goals become more important than what’s more important.” What are the most important things to you?
- God
- Family
- People
- Integrity
- Honesty
- Ethics
- Morality
- And on and on
And For Us Old Dawgs
It was Warrant Buffett who said, “I do know that when I am 60, I should be attempting to achieve different personal goals than those which had priority at age 20.”
And if age says something about wisdom, it’s no surprise to know that 90% of Buffett’s wealth was made after he was 50 years of age.
Colonel Saunders (Harland David Sanders), the founder of Kentucky Friend Chicken, was a late starter too. He began at 65
Why am I so Focused on This?
Well, for those who have followed this podcast from the start, I set a pretty high goal of 1,000 units in 6 years. A rather grandiose goal but one that, nonetheless, I felt was obtainable. After all, all I had to do was to double the number of units I have each year. Sounds possible. Still pretty aggressive but, at the time I set the goal in 2016, with the market booming like it was, it seemed doable. But, I wanted it to happen even faster, so I thought I would set the goal from when I first started investing in real estate –2014. That way, I could have a catchy phrase and it that would push me even faster – 1,000 by 2020!!! Wow!
But Stuff Happens
Plowing forward, I started making offers, sent out LOIs, did direct mail, was regularly calling brokers…
But as I’m doing that, my existing properties hit some bumps and I needed to poor time and money into stabilizing the properties I already owned:
- Poor property management
- High capital expenditures
- High vacancies
I was not finding the right deals
Syndication
As I enter 2020, I am at 557 units (counting my co-sponsorships). Will I pick-up another 500 units before the end of 2020? I don’t know. I knew that it I was to reach 1,000 units, I would have to syndicate at some point. So I decided to partner with someone else, who had more experience and a proven track record. Coming in as a GP (General Partner) would position me better for putting my own syndication deals together.
9 Tips for Setting Goals
1. Setting Goals
I want to challenge you to start setting some goals and building your plan to achieve those goals, but remember if a goal is not in writing, it is simply a conversation. It must be in writing and it must have a deadline. Here are a few guidelines for setting goals. Oh, by the way… you need a will also.
2. Goals Must be Specific
I want you to be specific and include details but start rough. When you start rough for example, you may say I want $10,000 in monthly income from my renatl properties. You do not have to get into the details, just write it down. Make your list huge, what kind of home do you want, where do you want to live, what do you want for your family – college education, spend more time, travel, anything you can think of. You can come back later and prioritize them and set them up as to what you want in one month, three months, six months, twelve months, then three, five, ten, twenty year goals. The more goals you have, the happier you will be, the longer you will live, and the more prosperous you will be.
3. Goals Must be Believable
Remember this, your goals must be believable, by you, or you will not pay the price. They must be believable, they must be just out of your reach, but you must know you can reach them, if you really strive to do it.
4. Goals Must be Measurable
You cannot set a goal to be financially independent. There is no way you can measure that. You need to set a goal for the amount of income you want per month, per year, the amount of equity that you want in properties – one, three, five, and ten years. It must be measurable. That way you can break it down to what I call “reduce it to the ridiculous”. If you know you want to earn $100,000 a year, you know that is $8,333 per month. How many doors will that require?. One of the things I have learned is, successful people set their goals quickly and they make adjustments as they go along. Just like successful people make decisions quickly, they do not vacillate in indecision or analysis paralysis.
5. Goals Must be Congruent
Your goals must also be congruent with your actions. You cannot set a goal to work harder, longer hours AND a goal to spend more time with your family. Those are not congruent. They must be congruent with your actions.
6. Work Your Goals
The next thing you want to do is work your goals, work on the priority that moves you closer to your goals every day.
7. Prioritize Your Goals
Number your goals in the order of importance. Not only is the goal important but so is the reason. Sure you want a car, but why do you want the car? Sure you want more money, but why do you want money? You want to be able to spend more time with your family, you want to be able to travel or send your children to the best college. Your “WHY” is very important. We’ve talked about that before and there will be a link in our show notes to our podcast on The Importance of Knowing Your Why. Whatever it is, the reason must be there. The WHY is more important than the goal itself.
8. Review, Monitor and Make Adjustments
Another thing you need to do is review, monitor and make adjustments on your goals. You have to be flexible. Some things are not going to happen, you have to face that; but you need to continuously strive to get better every day until you end up with tested and true strategies that generate results. If you will work harder on yourself than you do on your job then you will always be growing. Remember that last sentence and write it down as it is worth repeating.
9. The Goals Must Have a Deadline
As I mentioned first, your goals must have a deadline. A goal without a deadline is just a conversation.
Your Goals – Bigger Than Just Business
When beginning to set your goals, consider setting your goals in four basic areas:
- Financial – You will set goals based on income, equity or net worth and cash flow. All of these are financial goals.
- Fitness – This is your health. If you don’t feel good, chances are that you are not working at your maximum capacity. So, I want you to set some fitness goals to stay healthy. Remember “an apple a day”? What if this is right and you are not doing it? Start small though, you don’t try to tackle all of these at once; but you need to be healthy not only for you but for your family as well.
- Family – Set family goals. What is an example of a family goal? Maybe you want to take four vacations a year. Maybe you want to visit a new state, three times a year or five times a year. Maybe you want to go see the Grandparents two or three times a year; but maybe not. Anyway, you get the point.
- Faith – You need to set some spiritual goals, some faith goals. I am not going to get into a lot of detail about that but that will help you along your way.
Reaching your goals is not just about buying up as many rental properties as possible. It’s about keeping your expenses in check, while building as much passive income as possible from multiple sources. Keep your eye on the big picture even as you strive toward smaller milestones, and soon enough working you’ll see you goals achieved.
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