Doing the math: How are you getting to where you want to be?

Do you have a goal of where you want to get to financially in 2016? Do you know how you are going to get there? Do you know how to do simple math or at least know how to use a calculator?

If you answered yes to the questions above I want to share with you something I learnt this year that I have found to be very powerful in my life as I plan my short term and my long term goals. It’s a simple math exercise of working backwards.

This will work whether you are flat salary, commission only or a mix of both it does not matter.

Note: As you go through Step 1 below take some time to seriously think through where you want to be, not some made up number or a number someone else gave you but a real number of where you want and need to end in 2016.

The 3 steps:

Step 1: Write down an honest to goodness number of how much you want to make in 2016.

Step 2: Write down the difference between what you make or made in 2015 and where you want to finish in 2016

Step 3: Take the number from step 2 and divide that by 12 months to figure out how much additional income you need to make every month.

Example: You are on a flat salary and you want to make $100,000 this year. Your salary is $50,000. You need to make an additional $50,000 this year. That works out to $4,167 (rounded) a month. Now that means that you need to come up with a side hustle or side business to make that additional money. You find a product that you think you can sell that will make you $800 a sale. That means that you need to make 6 sales (rounded) a month.

Now that you have done the above exercise you need to figure out where that extra money is going to come from every month whether it’s a bonus from work, more commissions from your job or maybe it’s time to start a side hustle!

I want to hear from you, what are you going to do to make 2016 financially great?