Setting wise and realistic short-, mid-, and long-term financial goals is an important step in becoming financially secure and financially independent. As an adult, you likely know how important it is to be working toward something specific so that you don’t spend more than you reasonably should.
When you’re working with a child with unique learning needs, it’s even more important that these goals for financial literacy are clear and actionable.
As we’ve discussed in the past, you can use the SMART method of goal setting to accomplish this task – and you may even find that you learn more about your own financial goals and ideologies in the process, too!
Here are some tips on setting reasonable goals for financial literacy with your young person with unique learning needs.
What are SMART Goals?
The phrase “SMART goals” is a mnemonic acronym that is often used in project management and personal development. First used in 1981, this term is a great way to help you and the young person in your life make goals that are easy to understand and easy to meet.
SMART goals are identified as being:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
They can be used for any aspect of goal setting, but they are particularly useful in the context of financial literacy.
Why You Should Set SMART Goals
Setting SMART goals is a great way to make a plan and make sure your child is fully prepared to set out on his or her own in “the real world.” While goals of all kinds can be beneficial, SMART goals are much easier to set and meet when it comes to working with a child with unique learning needs. They’re clear, actionable, and come with specific results or consequences.
Not sure what kind of goals you should be setting? When it comes to setting financial goals, these are some of the most common for individuals with unique learning needs:
- Making a budget
- Opening a savings account
- Saving “x” amount of dollars
- Applying for a part-time job
- Saving money for college
- Living independently
As the parent or educator of a child with unique learning needs, you will want to set goals to help your child become financially literate based on whatever their goals might be. You can use their goals to help guide you as you set and make plans for the future. However, as the adult, you may be the one responsible for prioritizing and determining which goals are actually in reach.
How to Set SMART Financial Goals
1. Identify Short, Intermediate, and Long-term Goals
Dreaming about goals is one thing, but in order to actually achieve those goals, you are going to need to sit down with your child and identify the goals that they want to achieve. You also need to identify a timeline and objectives for meeting those goals.
Write everything down. Include every aspect of that goal imaginable and prepare for obstacles along the way. For some individuals with unique learning needs, it might be more helpful to make a chart, graph, or other visual representation of the goal rather than simply writing it down. You may also find social stories to be helpful in the initial goal-setting process.
You need to identify short, intermediate, and long-term goals. We’ll get more into the ins and outs of those goals, as well as how to phrase them and what sorts of objectives they should have, a bit later, but for now, shoot for three achievable time slots of the short-term, mid-term, and long term.
An example of a short-term goal (within the next year or so) might be to teach your child about and come up with a savings plan. A midterm goal might be to learn about how to apply for a job and then apply for that job. A long-term goal might be to plan for and execute the process of moving out of the house.
Work with your child to identify a goal in each category. You can certainly identify more than one goal in each category, but know that it will likely be impossible to work toward all of those goals at once. You’ll need to organize this list based on what should be accomplished first.
2. Be Specific
Begin by identifying a goal for financial literacy and clearly define it. The “s” is essentially the what, why, and how of the goal-setting process.
Now, when you’re working with a child with unique learning needs, the “s” could be in relation to a specific skill you want to teach them, or it could be the “s” in their own goal. For example, your goal might be to teach your child about how to open a bank account – or it could be the actual act of opening the bank account.
3. Make Sure It’s Measurable
The financial goal you select should also be measurable. If it’s a large goal, consider setting multiple smaller, short-term goals to hit as you reach the final financial milestone.
Try to avoid lofty goals like “become financially independent.” Instead, your goal might be to understand savings well enough to open a savings account and save $500 by “x” date. This is not only more manageable for a child with unique learning needs, but it’s also more measurable.
4. Achievable Standards
That ties into the next part of the SMART goals setting process, which is that the goal should come with achievable standards. Yes, you want to work with your child to develop goals that are challenging, but not so challenging that they seem impossible to overcome. Make sure these goals are based on the interests, abilities, and cognitive levels of your child, and not your own abilities.
For instance, saving $10,000 for a house down payment might be a realistic goal for you – but for a child with unique learning needs that doesn’t yet understand how down payments work, planning to save $1000 for first and last months’ rent might be more realistic (as might a goal to understand how these concepts work in the first place).
5. Relevant Outcomes
Ancillary to the last point is the need for a financial literacy goals to be relevant to your child’s unique situation, interests, preferences, strengths and needs.
For example, it wouldn’t make sense for a goal to focus on saving for a car if they plan to utilize public transportation.
While this is a more obvious example, determining relevance isn’t always so cut and dry. As you go through the process, you’ll be able to fine tune what “relevant” actually looks like at a more granular level.
6. Time-bound Objectives
Last but not least, your goals need to be time-bound. Help your child calculate the amount of time needed to reach certain goals and be sure you factor in your time commitment in helping him or her get there, too.
Remember that this part of setting SMART goals also needs to be tailored to your child’s unique abilities and cognitive level. A goal that might take you only two months to achieve could take him twice as long – or more.
However, make sure each goal has a “deadline” attached to it. These deadlines should be specific, but they can always be flexible and adjusted later on as both of you see fit.
Revisit and Adjust As Needed
There are always unforeseen circumstances that can arise and completely derail a goal – don’t let them discourage you or get in the way of the ultimate goal. Helping your child achieve financial independence should be the primary goal that both of you have in mind, but the path to getting there is full of bends and curves and is different for each and every person.
There’s no one-size-fits-all pathway when it comes to goal setting, nor is there a standard protocol you must follow when teaching your child how to become financially literate.
You may find that your child needs to temporarily stop focusing on one goal in order to focus on another. For instance, the goal may have been to understand how to open a savings account and to successfully do so – but in the interim, the two of you have realized that knowing how to apply for a job is actually more important at the moment.
Don’t be afraid of changing things up along the way. Rigidly sticking to a goal or plan won’t help you or your child if there are other, better, or newer steps you could take instead. Don’t be afraid to adjust your SMART goals if you find that they are taking too long or aren’t as important as you once thought they were, but do remember that achieving goals can take time and energy.
With your help, your child will be able to set realistic goals for managing his or her own finances – and by following these tips, you’ll be able to set goals for yourself to help him or her along the way!
Further Reading
- George T. Doran: There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management’s goals and objectives
- 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy: Identifying Goals
- Eric Braun and Sandy Donovan: Helping Students Set SMART Goals for Financial Literacy
- Investopedia: Setting Financial Goals for Your Future