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How to Use the Goals Sheet in the Finance Planner for Creatives
The Goals sheet in the Finance Planner for Creatives helps you reflect on your personal and financial aspirations—whether it’s saving for a new laptop, focusing on your health, spending more time with family, paying off debt, or hitting a revenue milestone. Unlike the Planned Budget, which tracks what you expect to happen, this space is for what you’re working toward.
💡 Use this section to clarify your direction, stay focused, and track progress toward the financial life you want to build. If you want to dive into your expected income and expenses, check out the Planned Budget guide.
✅ Current Goals
The Current Goals section helps you monitor your financial progress each quarter with detailed breakdowns and visual insights—perfect for staying focused and motivated.
This is where you’ll set short-term, measurable goals for:
Income
Business Expenses
Personal Expenses
Once you enter your target amounts for each quarter, the sheet will automatically calculate:
Actual totals (based on your itemized logs)
Differences in dollars and percentages
Net profit per quarter and year
Year-to-date goal vs. actual comparisons
You’ll also find:
📊 Quarterly Category Breakdown Charts
Donut charts show how your income and expenses are distributed—helping you compare your money coming in and going out.
📈 Insights & Progress Tracking
Includes highlights like:
Whether you hit your net earning goals
How much you’ve surpassed or fallen short of your targets
Bar charts comparing goal vs. actual for each metric and quarter
🎯 Annual Overview
At the end of the section, you’ll see annual totals that compare your year-long goals to what actually happened—making it easy to reflect and course-correct.
💡 Think of this as your financial dashboard—see what’s working, what’s not, and where to adjust.
🌟 Top Goals
This is where you can zoom out and focus on your big-picture vision—financially and beyond.
This space is structured around four future timeframes:
1 Year
3 Years
5 Years
10 Years
For each timeframe, you’ll find prompts to help you define:
💰 Income Goal – What do you want to be earning by then? E.g., "Earn $150,000 annual income"
🏡 Personal Goal – What personal milestone(s) do you want to reach? E.g., "Buy a home"
🌿 Lifestyle Goal – What do you want your life to feel like? Think balance, freedom, wellness, relationships, etc. E.g., "Semi-retire or take 6 month sabbatical"
All fields are fully customizable, so feel free to rename the goal types, change the timeframes, or add extra context that’s meaningful to you.
(Note: you may get a warning when modifying goal types, etc., and it’s okay to ignore these specific warnings. See more on popup warnings here.)
Each goal has space for:
A goal description or specific target
Notes or action steps to help you move toward that goal (E.g., "Full-time freelancing", "Save for down payment", "Build passive income streams")
💡 This section isn’t tied to any calculations—it’s purely for reflection and direction. Use it to reconnect with what matters most, outside of spreadsheets and dollar signs.
🧠 Goal Prompts
Not sure where to start? The Goal Prompts section is here to help.
Browse through customizable prompts designed to get you thinking.
Add your own responses and tailor the prompts to your goals.
Use the action step columns to outline what you’ll need to do to get there.
(Note: you may get a warning when modifying goal types, etc., and it’s okay to ignore these specific warnings. See more on popup warnings here.)
✍️ This is a thoughtful space—don’t stress about filling everything out at once! Use it when you need inspiration or clarity.
