Your hopes and dreams: How setting financial savings goals can help you reach your career potential in Canada

Credit to Author: Guest Author| Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2023 18:19:06 +0000

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One of the most important parts of overall financial health is saving and planning for your future goals.

That can certainly be challenging in a newcomer’s early days in Canada. Those working survival jobs can attest to the difficulty of simply making ends meet. However, taking steps to reflect on what you’re saving money for and creating savings goals can help you come closer to realizing whatever those goals might be.

This is particularly true for new Canadians trying to launch their careers and save money for the costs of accreditation, education or professional development. In Canada, these costs can easily total in the thousands of dollars meaning any amount of financial savings you can engage in will help you get closer to your goal.

Windmill Microlending is a Canadian charity offering affordable loans help immigrants and refugees come closer to reaching their career goals in Canada. Windmill’s newcomer clients use the charity’s microloans to pay for the costs of licensing and qualifying exams, training or professional development courses. Many newcomers set education or training as a top financial savings goals and the different uses of a Windmill microloan can empower you to reach those goals, faster..

Key questions to ask yourself

Windmill Microlending, in partnership with Prosper Canada, has identified a number of helpful questions you can ask yourself to enable you to set your financial goals and track your progress toward reaching them. These include:

What are your reasons for wanting to save more money?

Some examples might be education, owning a home, retirement, paying for children’s education or saving for an emergency fund.

Think further into the future, what hopes and dreams do you have?

It may help to think about the wishes you have for your life, work, education and family. You may consider the kind of job you want; the kind of home you’ll want to be living in or where you want to be in a couple of years. Prosper even encourages you to draw a picture to help you visualize these goals.

Why is this savings goal important to you?

Connecting the goal to your values can help set you up for success.

How much do you want to save toward your goal(s)?

Consider how long you can save toward that goal and when you want to use the money.

What are some challenges that may get in the way of your savings goal?

Reflect on the things you can do to prepare for and overcome those challenges.

How often will you check your savings?

With this question, you should consider how you’re going to track your progress toward your financial goal and consider what savings habits you’ll want to institute. For example, setting up automatic transfers to put a small part of each paycheque into a savings account. Others use a round-up debit card that rounds the amount up on every purchase and automatically transfers the spare change into their savings. As well, you could ask a friend or support person to help you stay on track towards your financial goals.

Reprinted from Windmill Microlending. See the original article here. 

The New Canadian’s Financial Pathway to Prosperity, an informative guide presented by Canadian charity, Windmill Microlending, shares tools and tips to help you build a financial foundation in Canada while setting you up for long-term prosperity. As a charitable organization, Windmill focuses on supporting immigrants and refugees in establishing their lives and careers in Canada, offering affordable loans to pay for the costs of training, education and professional development. Learn more on Windmill Microlending’s website here.

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