A fellow blogger who I enjoy reading over at Cash Money Life has come up with a new carnival, the Carnival of Financial Goals, where bloggers can participate by sharing their financial goals in the SMART format (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timely).

Patrick is also giving away a free iPod and 3 books to 4 random winners who enters the 1st edition of this carnival.  That is quite an incentive for you to participate, is it not? 

It got me thinking though, I have so many various goals I set for myself, whether it is for my website or for my finances or for my personal goals.  I realized the key words here were “SMART Financial Goals”.  This helped me crystallize one of my financial goals by bringing it to the forefront.  So here is my financial goal for 2008.

To secure 3K in my emergency fund by September 2008.

In order to explain my goal, I will break it down using the SMART format.  Before I do that, I want to take the moment to explain why September 2008.  That is the target date I have set for my relocation to York, PA which means I must make sure I achieve this goal of having 3K in my emergency fund to cushion any impact from making a major relocation effort.

Specific - 3K is equivalent to 2 months worth of emergency expenses at 1.5K per month.

Measurable - September 2008 is the target date of my relocation to York, PA.  This means I need to put away $375 a month to ensure I meet my target goal.

Achievable -  This is certainly achievable with a plan.  I know I will need to put away $375 per month.  To put this plan into action, I will set up a monthly transfer from my primary account into my ING account.

Realistic - If I made the goal to be 6K, it would be unrealistic since I do not have the extra income to support this goal.  6K is my comfort zone for my emergency fund which would translate into 4 months worth of emergency money at 1.5K per month.  By breaking it down over 2 years, I am able to make my goal more realistic since I do not know what my situation will be like until I settle down in York which is still several months away.

Timely - I believe this is a timely goal because it is measured in months with September 2008 as a target date.

As you can see, while I do have a greater goal in mind, by taking this first step to make sure I can achieve 3K in my emergency fund in 2008, then I know I would be halfway to my ultimate goal of achieving 6K in emergency fund which can be done in 2009.    

I just had a thought, if I was one of the random winner of the 1st edition, and I won the iPod, I could sell it and use the proceeds towards my goal.  Wow, I like this carnival already.

Be sure to head over to Cash Money Life to check out his website.  I have been subscribed to this guy for a while now.  Terrific blogger.