Goal Setting: Holding Ourselves Accountable

This whole buying a house process is taking longer than I thought/wanted… but patience has never been a virtue of mine and we should own our first rental property tomorrow. Which means I’m only about 1.5 months behind my goal. I would have preferred to have reached my goal on time but at least we got there. Now you may be wondering how I know I’m a month behind and what is this goal I keep talking about. In May of last year, Ken and I sat down, talked and (importantly) wrote down our goals for the next 6 months, 1 year, and 5 years. We did not limit this to real estate investing but that did feature heavily in both of our goals. May + 6 Months is January and we did not close until March, therefore I am late. Why does this matter? It is important to know what goals you are working towards, so you can check in, however frequently, to make sure you are moving in the direction you want to be going. As such, 6 months into it, it’s time for our check up. I’m going to have Ken write down his goals for the next 6 months, next year, next 5 years and overall goal with REI. I will put his answers exactly as he writes them, I promise to only fix grammar if necessary (I just can’t help myself!). We can compare it to my goals and see how they align. My goals for REI: 6 months: One to two more houses 1 year: One more house that we can manage as a short term rental, right now I’m liking Arizona for this but we shall see where we land 5 years: Ideally we will have at least 5-6 properties and can start selling our first one or two (that we’ll own, because tomorrow will have passed) and buying more/more profitable properties. Overall: 10 properties and close to $10k a month in passive income. Ken’s goals: 6 months: I have reincorporated exercise into my weekly routine. We have squirreled away enough money for a down payment on another LTR investment. 1 year: I have penetrated deeper into my earning potential and am using the surplus to reinvest in rental real estate. We continue to fund our traditional retirement vehicles at the same time. 5 year: We have built up enough passive income to afford a big remodel on our house by leveraging a HELOC and paying it off via the passive income.  We attain our dream house. Overall: Our kids have the freedom to pursue their passions without the burdens and shackles of making a buck to survive.  We have built generational wealth that both serves us in retirement and our family in years to come. [I promised I would leave Ken’s goals as he wrote them and if deep penetration doesn’t show that I did just that, I don’t know what would.] Seeing the overall goals to me is overwhelming. We expect our first property to cash flow $300 and I’m hoping for $10k?!? Generational wealth almost feels like a pipe dream. But buying another house in the next 6 months? That seems totally doable (remember, this house is not in Southern California). It’s important to look at both the overarching goal and the incremental ones so that you have the stepping stones to get you to your destination.  I wrote this post with my goals clearly written to give examples of how specific your goals should be. It will also help us continue down the road we’re heading. Finally, those who are reading this, can help hold us accountable. They say if you write down your goals, you are more likely to attain them. They also say you have to manifest the life you want to lead. I don’t know how strongly I believe in manifesting, but I figure it can’t hurt (just like it didn’t hurt to wear the same socks and eat the same dinner before every race in college…). So in honor of this post about goals, I also made my first vision board. Let me start manifesting the life I want now and attain my long term goals. Wish me luck!