Maria Melchor discusses financial goal setting (Part 2)

Like that. But I was always thinking about it in the back of my head, like, oh, again, this paycheck isn't just a paycheck that I can like spend on whatever it is I want, but it's something that at some point is going to have to also help my parents. So like, how do you, how do you put the boundaries around the support that you are willing to extend given the fact that you do believe in, you know, making sure that you're good first? I talk about this in the book, but I really recommend that when people sit down and think about what they want their money to buy, like what they want their money to add up to at the end of the year, at the end of the next five years, that they break up their list into goals that are exclusively and almost selfishly their own. So something like, you know, I want to buy myself a co op apartment in New York City. I want to be able to travel at least once a year internationally, and I want to be able to like buy myself a nice purse whenever I want. So you have your goals. And then in your list, I also want you to have goals that are shared so that, you know, are not just your responsibility, but are you and someone else's responsibility. And so you want to start that conversation with that other person asap. So for example, if one of your goals is, I want to travel with my family back to the homeland every three years, that would be a shared goal, right? Because unless you are already, you know, a millionaire, you probably can't afford to finance the whole family trip and vacation, right? So set that as a shared goal. And then the third step is to think about goals that are exclusively other people's. So things like your parents retirement. I know I want to help my parents, but at the end of the day, their retirement is ultimately their responsibility. And so how I approach that is, hey, parents, I understand that you want to retire someday. I'm thinking about it, I'm worrying about it. Can we sit down and talk about, like, what your plans are, how I could support you, but ultimately remembering that it is their goal. And so this is really helpful because it just reminds you that the.