Top financial goals !

Here follows five top financial goals everyone should have

1. Pay off your debts:

If you have any outstanding debts paying this off should be one of your main goals. While saving is great, any interest rate you earn will be less than the interest you will have to pay on any loans you've got so the golden rule is to pay off debt before saving.

2. Sort out a rainy day pot:

While it is tempting to spend all the money you've got on specific goals such as going on holiday or sprucing up your home, it's important to build up a savings buffer to cover for any unexpected events.As a minimum, this should be equivalent of three months' salary but ideally it should tie you over for at least six months.

3. Start a pension to ensure you can retire:

Even though this might be far away for some of you, when it comes to saving for your retirement the earlier you start the better. If possible you should start as soon as you start work as long as you haven't got debts to pay off. The longer you leave it the more you will have to pay in each month to be able to enjoy your retirement.

4. Get onto the property ladder:

While we've seen the property market drop over the last couple of years, buying a property is still an investment so long as you consider it a long-term one, and you get to live in it too.

5. Protect your finances:

While buying insurance is not the most exciting financial goal to have, it could be one of the most important decisions you ever make.If you have dependants make sure you've got life insurance, should something happen to you and if you are relying on your income to make ends meet it could be worth taking out income protection insurance that will cover you in the event of getting ill or injured and unable to work.

The most common reasons we fail to meet our goals:

1. The more grandiose your goal, the less likely you are to achieve it. At the end of the day, we're unlikely all to become millionaires by the age of 30. But we might be able to pay off our mortgage by the age of 45.

2. Our goals don't reflect the 'real' us. Sometimes you don't need much money to achieve a particular goal. For example, one adviser found that his clients' long-desired goal was to attend the Chelsea Flower Show, which only cost a train ticket, a night in a London hotel and a few pounds for admission.

3. We don't plan thoroughly enough. It is possible that you will never face redundancy. But experience suggests it makes sense to factor potential job loss into your goals, as they determine how much you may want to spend of your income right now and how much more you set aside for a rainy day.

4. We fail to review our goals regularly. Circumstances change, what was important five years ago may not be today. Stockmarkets can fall sharply, or mortgage rates may have gone up, or an annuity - the annual income paid from a pension lump sum - may be worth less now than it was.

5. We don't take expert advice. Good independent financial advisers can be worth their weight in gold. They can find the cheapest mortgage, the best pension, the most appropriate insurance policy and help choose the best investments - all allowing you to meet your goals more quickly and more easily.