Financial Vision Boards: a fun way to achieve your personal finance goals

This week, we’re taking a look at an idea that puts the fun in personal finance (personal fun-ance?): making a financial vision board.

Money management can be a little — erm, how should we say this? — less-than-exciting.

It’s great to get all your ducks in a row, work out your budget and tuck money away for a rainy day, plan to buy that  house or go on that dream holiday.

However, it’s easy to lose sight of why you’re not going out for that meal or heading on that holiday…

After months of tucking away a little bit of money every month, it’s not unusual for those annoying little voices to come back:

Why don’t you just treat yourself to something?

Why are you taking lunch to work every day? I want to buy a nice lunch from that place down the road! 

You’ve got all this money tucked away, why are you still budgeting?

Those voices are perfectly natural. We totally understand that it’s really, really hard to work towards a long-term financial goal, especially when they’re so long term that they don’t feel quite real.

That’s why we think Financial Vision Boards are so awesome! 

So, what is a financial vision board?

A vision board is a collage of images, words and ideas that you can look at to make your financial goals feel a little more real.

They can be a shot of inspiration when you’re thinking about giving up; a daily reminder of what you’re working towards or just a daily visual reminder that you’ve got this.

Plus, they actually help you save too. 

Studies have shown that writing down your goals (or, in this case, gluing down your goals) helps you achieve them 42% faster. That means that if you’re aiming to save enough for a holiday over the course of the next year, writing it down could help you achieve it by August!  

What should you put on your financial vision board?

Anything!

If it’s something you’re saving to achieve — or just want to achieve in the future — put it on there.

And don’t limit it to one thing either, think about anything and everything! Dream big! 

You could have pictures of your dream house to encourage you to save for a deposit. 

Photos of your dream holiday. 

A renovation project that you’ve always wanted to do. 

Your dream car.

Or maybe your dream wedding…

They don’t have to be things either. You could put non-material goals on there like “work less” or “spend more time with my family”.

Whatever you put down, make sure they’re things you really want to achieve. This way, your board will always get you super pumped up to get to work on your goals.

Once you’ve worked out what you want on your financial vision board, you’ve got two options: get crafty or use Pinterest.

For the time-pressed among you, Pinterest is much easier option. 

It’s online and doesn’t involve getting glue and glitter everywhere. As well, you can do it on your commute and your lunch break. 

However, unless you use Pinterest every day, it might defeat the main purpose of the financial vision board, which is keeping your goals in front of you at all times and your motivation sky high!

So, if you’ve got glue and some scissors, it might be time to embrace your inner Neil Buchanan and make some Financial Vision Board Art Attack.

Grab some magazines, cut out the images that speak to you and stick them on your board.

Google those things you’ve always wanted to do but have never had the money to. Print them off and stick them on your financial vision board! 

Maybe even add some photos of your last holiday to give you those motivational hits of “oh, I want to do that again!”.

But most of all, dream big! 

However, make sure you’re only sticking down things you really want and you’ll spend all year fired up to hit your goals.

And if you want to go the extra mile…

Now, some people like to work out facts and figures to add to their financial vision board to show how much each goal is going to cost so they can work towards hitting these goals.

If that motivates you, then that’s fantastic! Stick them on there! 

But remember, the main goal of the financial vision board is to keep you fired up and on track to tuck away the money you need to achieve your dreams. 

If staring at a big number all year makes you feel anything less than fired up, don’t include them! 

Instead, have those numbers in your head as rough figures while you get started. Once you’ve got a decent chunk saved, then start working towards a real figure.

Have you tried a financial vision board? We love them here at Bamboo because they keep us on track to stick to those big and bold personal goals! 

If you’d like more information about budgeting and personal finance, check out the Bamboo Blog for lots of tips, tricks and techniques!  (And if you make your financial vision board, don’t forget to show us! Tag us on social media, we’d love to see them.)