Do you have them? Was your family involved in making them? Did you write them down? How often do you check with them to see if you are making progress towards achieving them? And, last but not least, do you think they help?

Yes I have them, I'm a planner of course I would have them LOL!

My dh was involved a little in making them, but I'm the one who handles everything so I understand better than him how much we need and when and he's not they saver in the family so he's content with what I decide.

I do have them written down in my finance notebook.

Everything is automated, meaning money is transferred where it needs to go on payday so I don't have to do anything (after the first time scheduling it all of course). I check investments oh maybe once or so a month, go over the 401K every quarter or at least every 6 months and savings accounts monthly just to check to see how much they are at b/c it motivates me to see the balances rising. But I really don't have to check them since I know how much is going in every month, that makes is so much easier!

And finally, yes I think they help. If you don't have a goal, why be motivated to save? Meaning, if I didn't know where I was headed or what I wanted out of life, why would I be so motivated to save as much as possible? Without them written down you can't see a concrete picture of where you want to be. I also read somewhere that people who actually write their goals down are MUCH more likely to actually achieve them. So yes, they help me, they motivate me.

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

I have "generic" goals...I eventually want my money to work for me so that I can live off of it; I want to be "comfortable" in a few years (I'm not greedy, I don't need millions) enough to take 2-3 trips a year and always have a roof over my head; I want to beat the dow every year. Our investments have taken a big "paper" hit this year...reminds me of 2001...I mean it practically took all this time to make that up, so its a little depressing. We are very frugal, and financially, we are on the same page. We are both pretty good with finances (and we both just love math!) so I think we have made some good choices and have a solid footing. Long term goals are good to have, its something to strive for. If you can't even envision yourself in the future a bit, doing something, I guess I don't see why bother getting out of bed in the morning at all.