Manish & Shikha, a couple from Mumbai plans to join for mountain expedition together this summer vacation. They have undergone a professional mountaineer training, purchased / rented trekking equipments, hired a professional group for expertise en-route, etc.

We understand training and equipments are important things before joining for expedition. But the most important thing is to decide the mountain to climb i.e. Nilgiris in South India or Himalayas in North India. The couple needs to have a clear goal before stepping out for mountain expedition.

Similarly, there are many couples/friends and family getting obsessed with selection of best trekking equipments, training and hiring professional group but have no clear goals of climbing particular mountain. Understand best training and equipments will be of little use if mountain to climb is not decided.

There is a lesson to be learnt from above story of climbing the mountain. A family needs to set clear goals in life with specific timeframe. Just random investment of monthly savings in any asset class won’t help to achieve corpus for children education and your retirement goals.

As per, Thinking Man, “Benefits of Setting Your Goals” are as follows:

• Identifying your goals gives a sense of purpose for investments
• You become a discipline investor
• You work hard to enhance income and keep a track of cash outflow to control impulse shopping, dinning / party on weekends
• You take an interest in reading personal finance blogs, periodicals, etc
• You would seek an advice of experts such as financial planner to assist your family in identifying goals and discuss on diversifying investments to build a portfolio

Find your own mountain i.e. goals in life. This could be the first step towards transforming your whole life. Thinking Man recommends, go ahead and jot down your family goals today to achieve it.