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This post originally appeared on RyanWaggoner.com, but I thought it might be interesting to Bounteo readers, so I'm reposting it here. I'll be posting a few more items from RyanWaggoner.com over the next few days. I'd love your comments and feedback...thanks!

For the last week or so, I've been working on reviewing, streamlining, and unifying my goals across different areas of my life. I'm building a comprehensive goal plan for the next ten years, and I'm calling this effort Project Goalpost (cheesy, I know). One of my guiding principles that I'm employing while working through all these goals is to ensure that each goal is SMART, which is a useful mnemonic that says goals should be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Time-bound

I have found this device to be a useful one when devising my goal plans, as it helps avoid nebulous and ill-defined goals like "get into better shape" or "prepare for the future". How would you have any idea when those things have been accomplished? Currently, I'm dividing my goals into these different life areas:

• Personal
• Physical
• Financial
• Entrepreneurial
• Real Estate
• Spiritual

I'm doing pretty well with most of these, but it's the Spiritual category that's giving me the most trouble. I'm just not sure how to write specific, measurable goals for matters of the heart, especially for several years out. For one thing, faith is about the journey, not really the destination, and much of that journey occurs in ways that don't lend themselves to metrics. For example, it doesn't really make sense to say that you want to be 35% closer to God, or have your prayer life be twice as good. The destination doesn't really exist, either, as I don't believe that Christians can ever really say that they've accomplished their mission as a Christian, at least not in this life. Second, I'm not entirely sure that our faith is something that should get a category of its own. Shouldn't our faith undergird all that we do, rather than being put into its own bullet-point list of todo items?

And why does this bother me at all? I guess because my goals should reflect a lot about who I am, but when you look at my list, it seems so shallow and materialistic, because a lot of my goals revolve around financial gain, real estate, and other items in that vein. Those things just lend themselves to measurement. But they aren't what matter most in life, and I know that. What matters most in life are things like relationships, contentment, and faith, but can you really create SMART goals for those things? I have a few ideas I'll explore in a future post, but I would love to know what you think.

It has come to my attention that my RSS feed was experiencing some issues over the last week, for which I'm very sorry. All should be resolved now...please contact me if you continue to experience any issues. Thanks!

Image by Zach Klein

One of the most annoying types of financial articles and blog posts that I see on a regular basis is the "If you had invested in these stocks 20 years ago, you would have made $14 million by now." I just saw another one by Intuit: Pennies to Millions. These articles are nothing more than shallow linkbait that play on the human tendency to reevaluate our decisions now that we have the benefit of hindsight and manufacture artificial regret.

"If only" scenarios are a waste of time. The fact that you could have made $xx dollars by investing in whatever twenty years ago is meaningless today. If only you had started Microsoft instead of Bill Gates, you could be the richest man in the world today. Thinking this way is just a distraction that will keep you from moving forward.

This whole subject does raise a good point though: this site focuses on what young people can do to prepare themselves for future success, but what if you haven't done everything you could have? Or what if you're no longer that young and you're stressing out about all the chances you missed, and all the opportunities that are no longer available?

My advice is simple: get over it, and fast. Every second you spend thinking about what might have been is even more valuable time wasted. The fact is that you can't go back and change the past, so stop kicking yourself, and just move on. If you're having trouble, here's a few things you might want to consider:

Transform mistakes into a strength

Think of it this way...every mistake you make and every missed opportunity is a chance to learn and grow. You may not have seized a great chance ten years ago, but by recognizing it, and learning from it, you'll be better prepared the next time around.

Remember that you're not alone

There are few successful people who didn't go through periods where they failed, where they missed great chances, where they felt like giving up. Some of the most successful people in the world spent years toiling away with no reward or recognition until they finally broke through. It may be helpful to read some biographies of successful people that you admire; you might be surprised to find out some of the trials they've gone through and mistakes they've made.

Pass on your experience

This one relates back to viewing this as a learning experience. Because you've learned something, don't be afraid to talk to other people that you see making the same mistakes you did, or missing the same opportunities. Perhaps you've got a younger sibling who is graduating from college and getting their first job; talk to them about investing and preparing for their future. Or maybe you know someone who really wants to write a book, but is afraid of failure; encourage them. Whatever the circumstance, if you can see that someone might make one of the same mistakes you've made and learned from, say something. You'll feel better.

Finally, the most important thing you can do is stop stressing and start doing something. As the saying goes:

"The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is today."

So get out there and do it. Today. Right now. Go.

The last few months have been incredibly busy, but I'm ready to dive in again and get back to Bounteo. I wanted to highlight a few of the great articles I've read recently around the web:

The College Degree is Not Dead - Good post over at Free Money Finance about how the value of a college degree, while declining, is still very high.

Should You Look For A New Job? - Blueprint for Financial Prosperity gives some reasons why you might want to look for a new job, and some reasons why you might not.

Simplicity and being cheap - Philip over at Wise Bread has some great thoughts on simplicity and how living a life without a lot of stuff will help you attain financial freedom.

In a recent blog post, Seth Godin posts some good advice regarding personal finance. Check it out!

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/06/urgent-personal.html

Here's a few good articles and posts on other sites that I thought readers might find interesting:

How to recover from a (big) mistake at work
Jay over at Dumb Little Man has a pretty interesting post about getting past a mistake at work without letting it do too much damage. The advice is basic but helpful and could be applied to other areas of life beyond just work.

How to Determine the Amount of Life Insurance You Need
Good post from Free Money Finance about how to determine the optimal amount of life insurance. I know that when you're 25, life insurance isn't at the top of your priority list, but there are times when it's important, depending on your circumstances. Take a quick look at the article and see if it's something you should look into further.

You must file a tax return to get economic stimulus tax rebate
Finally, Wise Bread has a post about the upcoming economic stimulus package rebates and how you need to file a tax return to get your cash. I'm posting it here because some college students may not make enough to need to file a tax return, but should definitely consider filing anyway this year. The post also has some good info about the dates that you can expect to receive your rebate.

And that's it! Please send me any links you might have and I'll try and include them in the next Links post.

Now that Bounteo.com is up and running (though we still are working on a design for the site), I want to start things off well, so I'm looking for post ideas and guest bloggers. Please contact me with any ideas you might have for posts and if you're interested in posting a guest post here, please send in any ideas you have. I would love to get some perspectives from other bloggers and authors about how young people can make good choices and make progress towards a life of success.

This blog is about the pursuit and attainment of success for young people, so we should probably determine what that means. Too often in our society, we think of success only in terms of money, power, fame, sex appeal, stuff, etc. The truth is that none of those things are success for everyone. We each have a different definition of success. But what can we say about success in general? After some reflection, I propose that success can be described as follows:

Success is the process of defining goals, developing plans and strategies, and working hard towards the fulfillment of those goals. It is a journey of self-discovery and transformation towards the ultimate goal of a more meaningful and fulfilled life.

Note that I have defined success as a process; in other words, the journey counts as much as the destination. For example, if your goal is to retire at 45 and you develop a plan to get there and spend 20 years diligently working towards that goal but end up retiring at 47, would you define that as a failure? You may not have achieved your original goal, but the process you underwent of setting and working towards that goal is a success in itself.

Since this blog will focus heavily (for now) on the topics of personal finance and development, a fair question to ask is that of the relationship between money and success. Are they the same thing? Do you have to be wealthy to be successful? Do you have to be successful to be wealthy? I think the answer to all three questions is a resounding no. Experts tell us that happiness tends to increase with more money, but only until people have been lifted out of extreme poverty. When you're starving and homeless and sick, money absolutely can buy happiness. However, once you have a certain amount, adding more usually does not increase your happiness.

Bounteo.com is site that explores the pursuit of a life more abundant, particularly as it applies to young adults in their twenties.  However, readers of every age are certainly encouraged to interact and share their opinions and perspectives.  In subsequent posts, I'll explore a bit more about my own definition of success, the topics that I think are relevant to its pursuit, and why I've chosen to focus on young adults.  But first, a short introduction is in order.

My name is Ryan Waggoner, and for some time I've blogged at my personal website about personal finance, including a 12-part series for young adults on how to start investing for the future.  That content will form the genesis of Bounteo, but as we progress, I hope to add content in areas other than personal finance and investing, such as career development, entrepreneurship, time management, personal development and motivation, and other topics related to the pursuit of success in our lives.

Finally, I would like to say that I myself am a young adult (25 years old) and possess little in the way of credentials and professional experience that would qualify me as an authority of many of the topics we'll discuss.  I'm just a guy with a burning curiosity, a passion for learning, and a willingness to see others succeed.  I will do my best to ensure that I provide sources and solid logic and reasoning for the content on this site, but I hope that my readers will do their part to scrutinize my words and conclusions and challenge me where my own reasoning or research has fallen short.  In this way, perhaps we can actually accomplish something in our pursuit of the truth and a life more abundant.

MSN Money had an interesting post awhile ago about an annual survey of millionaires. They classified the millionaires into six categories, according to how they made their money, their risk tolerance, attitudes about wealth, etc.

Satisfied Savers (24% of Total)

• Average age: 60
• Built wealth through hard work, by living below their means and taking moderate risks
• Financially savvy
• Lost relatively little in the bear market
• Know how to make their money work for them
• Enjoy making a difference through charitable efforts

Status Chasers (18% of Total)

• Average age: 55
• Achieved wealth through work and some inheritance
• Want it all but haven't been able to achieve their major goals yet
• Define wealth as a level three times their current net worth
• Pessimistic about their own financial future
• Less financially knowledgeable than their counterparts
• Think of financial situation daily as a source of concern

Altruistic Achievers (17% of Total)

• Average age: 54
• Achieved wealth through work, some inheritance, good investments, owning a business, and living below their means
• Self-made, driven to succeed, work hard, take risks
• Use their wealth to help the less fortunate
• Lack the time, interest and know-how to manage finances; rely on professional management
• Lost the most in the bear market
• Only one-quarter plan to retire completely

Secret Succeeders (17% of Total)

• Average age: 55