Making Necessary Changes

You probably won't feel much pressure to change your wealth-building plan if your planning computations show that you are on track to reach your goal at the desired time. If you'll end up with more money than is needed to fund your plan, you can redirect excess savings for other purposes, or merely "let it ride" against the eventuality that somehow the goal will turn out to be more expensive than you thought. In any case, you probably don't have a situation that needs to be addressed in a big hurry.

If, however, the amount of your projected investments is less than the amount of your projected cost of the goal, something must be done or it's unlikely that you will be able to achieve the goal. If this is the case, you can make one or more of the following adjustments to bring your plan back on track:

• Save more money toward the goal.
• Look for investments with higher yields.
• Give yourself a longer period of time to attain the goal.
• Reduce the cost of your goal.