You Should Automate Your Financial Goals – Financial Planning For 2023

Many of us started 2023 with the best intentions about saving, financial planning, and making real financial progress over the year. However, unless you have set up a proper process and goals, you may be finding that your savings and good intentions are already beginning to slip.

The only way to ensure that you are going to meet your goals for 2023 is through using financial planning tools and strategies – and automated processes will remove a lot of the effort and organization required.

Below we will look at how an automated financial planning process will help to meet your saving and finance goals for 2023 while removing the stress and extra organization which sees many good intentions fail and fall by the wayside.

What Is Automated Financial Planning?

While other resolutions involving diet or exercise require constant commitment and huge lifestyle changes – it is a lot easier to change your financial habits than you may think! There are a variety of automated financial planning tools which you can set up quickly to ensure you are meeting your savings and retirement goals without having to think about it!

By assessing your budget and automating investments and savings, you can take the worry out of financial success and keep up with your goals automatically. You’ll also free up time each month that you would need to spend on repetitive tasks such as bank transfers and investments. For each type of savings, you’ll only need to set up the payment once, rather than having to repeat the process every 30 days.

How Do You Use an Automated Financial Process?

The majority of your financial goals can be automated or (partially automated) through the use of banking apps or third-party financial apps. You most likely already have automatic payments set up for bills and utilities such as your rent or mortgage, insurance bills, phone bill, and credit cards. However, you need to take this one step further by using financial planning tools to automate monthly contributions toward a secure future.

Here are some financial planning areas you should consider automating for 2023:

• Your 401K
• Other long-term savings accounts such as those for a mortgage, car, or college.
• Short-term savings for vacations, home improvements, and other projects.
• Long-term investments which will give you a strong return in the long term.
• An emergency savings fund that you can turn to if you meet an unexpected crisis such as job loss or extra medical bills.

This may all seem a little overwhelming at first and you may be wondering how you can cover all of these on your salary. But regular smaller payments are a great way to start building up savings in each of these important areas – and automated financial planning means that you won’t have to worry each month about balancing a budget as it’s already been planned out in advance!

How Should You Use Automated Financial Payments?

Using online financial planning tools in your banking app, you should be able to set up automatic payments for the majority of your goals. However, you do need to assess your incoming funds each month beforehand to make sure that you space out your payments according to the available money in your account.

Spacing out your automatic payments will help you to avoid an instant withdrawal of funds on the first of every month. Here is a sample breakdown based on example financial goals for you to follow:

2nd of the Month

If you are paid on the 1st of each month, then you can set up an automated payment from your account to your 401K for the following day, (aim for 10% of your salary if possible.)

5th of the Month

Set up automated payments to your Roth IRA, and saving accounts for your long-term, short-term, and emergency funds.

7th of the Month.

Set up your utility, miscellaneous, and credit card payments so they are automatically covered each month.

Not only will setting up these payments automatically help to ensure that all of your important savings and costs are paid each month – you will also get a clearer idea of your overall monthly budget and become more organized about your everyday spending as a result.

Once you have automated all of your payments, you should check on your banking app to make sure that they have all been completed successfully. You will soon become familiar with the dates and amounts being paid into your various savings and utilities and become a lot more knowledgeable and confident about your current financial status.

Saving is an Essential Part of the Financial Planning Process

A key benefit of using financial planning tools and processes is that you will usually be able to identify spending areas that are costing you more than you thought. Streaming subscriptions and online food ordering can end up costing you a lot more than you may think, and the money you save can be redirected to important essential savings areas.

A clear financial planning process will also make you aware of exactly how much you can afford to spend on leisure and fun activities each month and make you more mindful of exactly how you want to spend that money to get the most benefits.

Assess All of Your Incomings and Outgoings

If you are going to make real progress with your financial planning for 2023, your first step before automating payments is to open up your banking app or use a third-party financial planning tool to assess exactly how much you have going in and out of your account.

Once you have a clear idea of how much money you have available, then you can start setting realistic financial planning processes which will allow you to make sensible savings and investments each month without breaking the bank.

Then all you need to do is set up your automated financial planning processes to get started on your financial goals with as little stress or worry as possible!