Welcome to Money Week. I wouldn't mind shouting "Show me the money!" through the phone at some financial adviser this week, actually. Hopefully they wouldn't take it personally. Maybe I'll just do it to the mirror in the end. After all, everyone can use some more visibility: both of ourfuture and where the money will come from.
On Sorted this week, there's an easy way to get started on plotting our goals for the future: an entirely new goal planner. Fire it up and swipe some goals you may have into the short, medium, and especially long terms. From the holiday you're planning in January to the Mediterranean cruise three decades from now, it can all be part of the plan.
People have never really needed to plan ahead as much as they do now. When hardly anyone reached the age of 60 and the average retirement was just two years, as it was 100 years ago, you simply didn't have to. Now we've got a lot more future to keep in mind than we've ever had.
As I write this, my daughter has pointed out that there are 1,427 days, 20 hours and 59 seconds until the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Still coming off that Rio Olympic buzz, it's easy to picture other 13 year olds like her, their generation's star athletes, now training like mad and dreaming of gold. And there will undoubtedly be even younger kids shooting for 2024 and further ahead. (Or perhaps it's more their parents' dream right now.)
Olympians aren't just champions; they're world-class goal setters. The way they shoot for the heights and make everyday choices that get them ever closer is nothing short of inspiring.
Watch: Money Week - do you have a plan?
Most goals in life take money and a plan. Great Britain showed this spectacularly this time around by funnelling lottery money into their Olympic efforts - particularly those that would result in medals - and wound up taking home more than China! Impressive indeed.
It's absolutely amazing what can be achieved not just globally, but locally in our lives as well. Don't let this Money Week go by without hanging some ambitious targets of your own for you and your whānau. It's the first step to take in order to hit the bull's eye.