Christian Financial Perspectives

Click below to listen to Episode 216 – Goal Setting Ideas for 2025

Goal Setting Ideas for 2025

Learn about the importance of setting up clear, intentional goals that are also written down.

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Have you started setting goals and resolutions for the upcoming new year? Whether they are big or small, setting an intention for the year is a great way to start off 2025. Bob and Shawn discuss various ideas for goals for the new year, as well as the importance of writing down your new year’s resolutions.

Setting clear, intentional goals that are written down can increase success rates tremendously, and Harvard business studies have shown just this. Bob and Shawn also recommend setting up categories for your new year’s resolutions, like physical, mental, relational, spiritual, financial, and even charitable goals.

Mentioned In This Episode

Shawn (00:00):

Only about 60% of people make New Year’s resolutions or set goals, but only about 8% successfully achieve it. Welcome back to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. I’m Shawn Peters. This is Bob Barber, and today we’re going to be doing our annual episode that we typically do on goal setting. So these are goal setting ideas for 2025. And to start this off, we’ve got Proverbs 16:3, “Commit to the Lord, whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”

Bob (00:40):

Shawn, this is one of my favorite programs. We do it at the beginning of every year. I want to start today’s program with kind of a comment or a saying that I’ve heard for many years when it comes to goal setting. And goal setting is one of my favorite things to do, and I’m a big goal setter and look at my goals constantly. But I want you to think about this question or comment. Have you heard the definition of insanity? One of those definitions is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Shawn (01:16):

That’s right.

Bob (01:17):

Now, the reason I say that for today is because if you’ve not set goals and you’re not writing them down, but you’re expecting different results, you’re not going to get them. Because life is a lot like this. As humans, we expect different results from doing the same thing repeatedly, but it’s not going to happen.

Shawn (01:36):

Nope, nope. What’s going to happen is the same thing that’s typically happened each time.

Bob (01:41):

And it’s interesting to me how some people excel in many things across many areas, while others don’t seem to excel in most anything. But yet, you could take two people with the same intelligence, the same physical attributes, same type of upbringing, and one’s going to excel over the other. And I believe a lot of it has to do with goals.

Shawn (02:09):

Not a promotion or anything of any particular companies or products. But I’ve heard in different media outlets that attack Elon Musk because he sets these goals and then the company doesn’t deliver on it. But what’s interesting is if you look back, there’s a lot of things that at the time people thought, “Oh, there’s no way they’re going to hit that target.” There’s no way you’re going to hit that goal. And then they hit it or exceeded it. And I think again, it comes back to that. Okay, well yeah, maybe sometimes he overshoots. But it’s a good example of he sets goals not just for himself, but he tries to set these goals for his company, big goals for his own companies. And then people are like, okay, well we have a target. Let’s try to hit that. Let’s try to hit that goal. But if you didn’t set any goals at all, well, how do you even know if you were successful or not?

Bob (02:59):

There’s an old saying that I’ve used for many years, and you know that what is it you aim for?

Shawn (03:05):

If you aim for nothing, you’ll hit it every time.

Bob (03:06):

Yeah, exactly. If you don’t have a target out there to hit, you’re not even going to hit it at all because you have nothing to aim for.

Shawn (03:15):

So I guess the question then, Bob, is do you want to hit some of your goals most of the time or do you want to always have 100% accuracy? If you want 100% accuracy, then just don’t set any goals.

Bob (03:28):

We’re going to point out later, I got my goals right here.

Shawn (03:30):

I forgot to bring mine, but I was actually really happy for this last year. I had a few things that I think maybe I was overshooting or I had that I thought, “Oh, within a year I’ll be able to hit this.” And I didn’t quite hit it, but I hit about 60% of my goals, which compared with a lot of the statistics, it is actually really good.

Bob (03:52):

It is. I look at mine, they’re on my mirror. I’ve got a set in my car.

Shawn (03:56):

What’s a mirrah? Is that the thing? You look at yourself?

Bob (04:00):

Somebody’s listening from north and they go, what is,,,

Shawn (04:04):

That’s the reflective glass that people have in…

Bob (04:06):

sometimes my southern accent gets me. Okay.

Shawn (04:10):

Alright, well, it’s a new year. 2025 is here. So let’s discuss how to make this year different.

Bob (04:16):

I want to say I love the mission statement of the Christian men’s fraternity that was started by Pastor Robert Lewis in Arkansas many years ago, and this is a good one. I’m going to put this one on my goals next year. It’s reject passivity, accept responsibility, lead courageously, and invest internally. I love that. I think that’s a good one to go with the goals. I just wanted to mention that because that’s part of it right there. And one of the ways to do this is to write down your goals. You’ve got to put them in front of you every single day.

Shawn (04:55):

And be able to see them in multiple places definitely helps as well. So most people never set solid goals for all of the different areas of their life and write them down so that they can see them. But 2025 can be different.

Bob (05:11):

That’s right. You got it.

Shawn (05:12):

And we have a formula for this. So for those of you who have not seen one of our goal setting programs before, there are a lot of different categories from spiritual to mental, physical, relationship, financial goals. Since this is Christian Financial Perspectives, we obviously want to make sure you include some of those spiritual goals, things like that.

Bob (05:34):

And financial.

Shawn (05:35):

Examples of financial goals could be giving to more worthy causes, saving more for an emergency fund.

Bob (05:43):

Shawn, I’m amazed at how many, even my retirees, they don’t have the emergency fund. I mean, that’s a good goal for retirees because they will end up using their old 401k rollover as an emergency fund, and that’s not what you’re supposed to do. You should have an emergency fund that’s set aside of three to six months of expenses in a local bank account, and it doesn’t have to be making a lot of interest.

Shawn (06:07):

If you’re not currently in retirement and you still have an income and you are looking at, “Well, should I open up this investment account or should I add to the…” okay, the question I would ask you is, “Do you currently have an emergency fund of at least six months of necessary expenses in some sort of savings account?” If the answer is yes, then you may proceed to try to answer the question of what kind of investment account you should open. If the answer is no, don’t even consider putting money in that investment account. Get your emergency fund up to at least that six months. I would say 12 months on the high side then, okay, now if you have extra each month, now you can look at different investment options.

Bob (06:47):

Another good example would be just getting out of debt. I mean, get rid of that credit card debt this year and next beyond that, once you get rid of the credit card debt, get rid of the auto debt. I mean, when you think about it, automobile is depreciating and at the same time you’re paying interest. I mean, you’re just going downhill with that. And then a very big goal for a lot of people about debt is getting rid of mortgage debt eventually. And that’s nearly an impossible goal, but it’s not impossible, but it’s hard to do because homes cost so much today. Another one…

Shawn (07:20):

Investing more for the future, which again, you’ll notice that we have giving than your emergency saving for emergency fund, getting out of debt. Now we get into the investing side of it, which I would argue if maybe you have a car loan and most people have a mortgage, it’s okay if you’re obviously starting to invest, but that credit card, get rid of that balance. If you’re carrying a balance, get rid of that because the fees on that are just so high. If you don’t have your emergency fund and you’ve got a bunch of credit card debt you’re trying to pay down, you shouldn’t be looking at putting money into an investment account.

Bob (07:51):

You should get rid of that first.

Shawn (07:51):

And the final one.

Bob (07:53):

Now, if you have a 401k where they’re going to match you up to 6%, put $50 in it.

Shawn (07:58):

And that would be the exception. You don’t move out on that company match.

Bob (08:02):

The last one that we’re mentioning as far as financial goals, but it’s really part of all of it, is getting a complete financial plan in place, and that should be one of your main goals financially for 2025. So we’re going to give a couple more examples, and we’re not going to get into examples for all of these,.

Shawn (08:21):

Like spiritual goals.

Bob (08:22):

Yeah.

Shawn (08:22):

Okay. So some spiritual goals could be enrolling in a small group Bible study, spending more time alone with God in prayer and meditation, getting back involved in your local church if you’re not in one, and reading the Bible daily. And I would say for the prayer, meditation, and reading the Bible daily, our Kingdom Advisors group that we were in recently, Ron Blue was talking on the video and he was talking to, I think it was a doctor or something who just said, “I just don’t have any time. I’m so busy.” And Ron asked him this many years ago, Ron asked him, “Well, what are you doing in the morning before you wake up?” He said, “Sleeping.” He goes, “Okay, so sleep 10 minutes less. Start there.”

Bob (08:59):

Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. It’s interesting that one of these goals is getting back involved into your local church. Do you know, Shawn, there’s still a very large percentage of people that have not gone back to church since Covid?

Shawn (09:10):

Yeah.

Bob (09:11):

They got out and they never got back in that habit. And I think that’s a great one. Another example for 2025, of course, this is the one that while all the gyms are so busy and about to be very, very busy, physical goals, we’re coming out with this on the last day of the year. First day of the year is the physical goals. And some of it can be as simple as just taking a daily walk. I’m amazed at how many people don’t exercise today. So just a simple start with 5 minutes and 10 minutes.

Shawn (09:39):

And that one would cover, as some of the kids say, “Go out and touch grass.”

Bob (09:44):

Yeah.

Shawn (09:45):

Or concrete. If you don’t have a whole lot of grass where you’re at, you can walk.

Bob (09:48):

On the grass versus a computer. iPhone. Okay, do something aerobic three to five times a week. I put this one, the new one in here this year, playing pickleball three times a week because pickleball is so big.

Shawn (10:01):

Yeah, I’m not into pickleball yet.

Bob (10:03):

Golly. It’s big. And some people really like the cream you, by the way.

Shawn (10:08):

Another one could be weightlifting, maybe weightlift two or three times a week. You know what, if you don’t get out other than maybe the daily walk, you don’t go to a gym, do a daily walk and just overall, eat healthier, balanced meals.

Bob (10:20):

That’s a really good goal. That’s a really good goal. Especially after all the Christmas holidays and all that junk food. So there’s other areas, we’re not going to give a lot of examples, but there’s relationship goals. This is one that I have. There’s professional goals. There’s the charitable and giving goals, how you want to help charities, not just financial, but giving of your time, talents, and treasures. But the main thing is with these goals is that you’ve got to write them down on a piece of paper and look at them every day of the year. Now those of you that are listening, you’re not going to be able to see this, but those of you you’re watching on YouTube, this is what I do. This is about the size of it right here. These are my goals. I I write them down very small, like 10 point, and I’ve got spiritually, physically, medically, all of them.

Shawn (11:09):

You also, Bob, you’ve gotten a little bit longer on your stuff, but one of the things that I would encourage our viewers and listeners for each of these categories, don’t try to pick five things for every category. I’m going to work out this much. I’m going to eat this. I’m going to do that. Maybe just for each of the main categories, pick one goal so that way it’s easier to write that down. And you have in each of these main categories, you’ve got something you can try, especially if this is your first time trying to do this method. You don’t have to do everything all at once this yea. For physical, pick one goal that you can stick with. For spiritual, pick one goal. For mental, for work. Keep it simple. Now Bob’s a little more advanced. He’s got multiple…he’s been doing it for a long time.

Bob (11:53):

And I put one this morning, I saw it. I have one on my mirror in my closet where I get dressed. So when I’m putting on my shirt and looking in the mirror, making sure I’ve got it on right, I’ve got the buttons right. I see my goals. When I brush my teeth, my goals are right there, again, by my mirror in front of my sink. When I get in my car, there are my goals. When I open up my desk drawer, there are my goals. I’m seeing them all the time all year long.

Shawn (12:24):

Which is extremely helpful.

Bob (12:25):

It really is helpful.

Shawn (12:27):

We’re going to hit you with some numbers as we get closer to the end of this. Research has shown that only about 60% of people make New Year’s resolutions or set your goals, but only about 8% successfully achieve them. A famous Harvard business study, business school study, from years ago found that 83% of people do not have any clearly defined goals. And of the 17% that did, only 3% of them write them down.

Bob (12:57):

You hear that? Out of a hundred people?

Shawn (12:58):

Only 3%, only 3% that even had goals wrote them down.

Bob (13:04):

Does that mean if you’re listening to us, only 3% is going to write? I hope it’s higher than that.

Shawn (13:08):

Well, that’s obviously from when they did the study. And so hopefully, we’ll have a higher percentage. But when Harvard concluded the study, the 3% that had written their goals down, this is some of the interesting facts on this. So that 3% that wrote their goals down, they were earning on average 10 times more in income and tended to be in better health and have happier marriages compared to the other 97%.

Bob (13:33):

Wow. That’s the reason why it’s so important to write those goals down. It’s like a blueprint in looking at it.

Shawn (13:41):

Put copies all over, like Bob said, closet, mirror, from when you’re brushing your teeth in the car, in your desk drawer or something like that. Just have it in multiple places once you set it up. But the overall form for this, we have spiritually and then you list, okay, well what’s the goal that you want to accomplish physically, financially, relationally, mentally, professionally, and charitably?

Bob (14:06):

And there you go. We hope that helps you a lot. I know Jenna is probably flashing one of those up on the screen where you can see that goal form. If you want a copy of the goal form, give us a call. And we want to help you to have a good prosperous 2025 in all areas of your life, not just financial, but relationally and spiritually and physically, all those different areas of your life. We hope that you have a good 2025. We’re looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to it. And if you want to give us a call with any help that you may need with this or any other thing, give us a call at 830-609-6986. You can also text that number as well, or find us on the internet www.christianfinancialadvisors.com.

Shawn (14:48):

And as always, you can always hit us up in the comment section as well. So thank you so much for joining us and God bless.

[DISCLOSURES]

* Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc dba Christian Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Comments from today’s show are for informational purposes only and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts, Bob Barber and Shawn Peters, and their guests. Bob and Shawn do not provide tax advice and encourage you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Financial Advisors believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.