Do you have a clear set of financial goals?

In order to accumulate wealth, buy a beautiful house, and have an early retirement, the first question you must ask yourself is if you have clear financial goals. In happens that almost all millionaires have set up those goals in order to get rich. Stanley and Danko, the authors of the book The Millionaire Next Door, have analyzed these questions during their studies. They asked themselves the question after they interviewed a decamillionaire (a person who accumulated over $10 million in net worth). The man began to work at the age of nineteen in a wholesale food business and had never finished high school. Nevertheless, he succeeds. Here is what he said to the authors:

“I have always been goal-oriented. I have a clearly defined set of daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, annual goals, and lifetime goals. I even have goals to go to the bathroom. I always tell our young executives that they must have goals.”

This millionaire is goal-oriented as are most of other millionaires.

The authors of the book add more explanations:
For every 100 millionaires who answered “no” to this question, there are 180 who answered “yes.” Who are the “noes”? any of the high income and inherited-wealth types discussed in the last section. Many senior citizens and retired millionaires who have already reached most of their goals also answered “no.” You may wish to reflect for a moment on the comments made by an eighty-year-old multimillionaire:

Authors: The first question we always ask is about goals. What are your current goals?

The decamillionaire: My goals. I’ve accomplished what I’ve tried to do… My long-range goal was, of course, to accumulate enough wealth so I can get out of business and enjoy life. I’ve been down the road… I’ve got an international reputation. Mine is one of the greatest welding companies in the world. I never want to retire. But now my goal is my family and self-satisfaction about what I’ve accomplished.
(Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko, The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy, LongStreet Press, 1998, p. 45.)

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