The start of a new financial year is a perfect time to reflect on the past, analyse the present and dream about the future.

What better way to bridge the gap between where your personal or business finances are today and where you'd like them to be than to use the information gathered to complete your tax returns to help you plan for the future.

Having goals and an overarching plan is one of the easiest ways to control your finances and reduce stress. Use these tips to identify your big and small financial goals and stay focused on achieving them in the next financial year.

1. Do a Year-to-Date review

No matter if looking back at the past year is painful or fun, you can probably learn lessons that will make next year better. Ask yourself critical questions about your personal and professional life, including:

• What, if anything, worked out well for my finances?

• Which of my investments brought me the most profit?

• Where are my best opportunities for financial growth?

• What did last financial year teach me?

If you’re a business owner, use an accountant or accounting software to run financial reports, such as your profit and loss statement for last year. Review what you earned and spent, and look for ways to increase your profit. 

And if you’re a wage or salary employee, consider creating a personal financial statement aka your household budget using an app or something as simple and free, like an Excel spreadsheet.

2. Analyse your finances as at EOFY

After you complete your year-to-date review, turn your attention to your current financial situation. By running a balance sheet or updating a personal financial statement, you'll have a snapshot of your financial health today. 

Your balance sheet shows what your business owns, owes and the owner's equity. Likewise, a personal financial statement shows your assets and liabilities and calculates your personal net worth. 

3. Envisage your foreseeable and long-term future

For financial goals to stick, they need to be meaningful to you and your family. Spend time thinking about how you want your financial future to look like. Consider what you want your life to be like in the near future. What business and personal accomplishments would you be proud to achieve between now and then?

If you’re not one for visualising what your new and improved future will look like, then work on identifying aspects of your financial life that worry you the most.

Do you need to accumulate a bigger home loan deposit to match the increasing property prices? Creating solutions that reduce your stress can be terrific goals to achieve in the new financial year. 

Check how your home loan compares

4. Create bite size goals

Once you've analysed where you are now and fully considered what you want to accomplish, it's time to incorporate your goals into your financial plan or budget.

Once you understand your cash flow, you may need to alter it to meet your goals. For example, if you want to quickly save a bigger deposit for a home loan, you can divide the final goal into smaller quarterly or monthly targets. 

If you don't adjust your spending habits to account for your personal financial goals, they aren't likely to happen.

5. Achieving your goals

After your tax return is credited into your bank account. it's easy to lose sight of your financial goals. One way to make sure you stick to them is through the use of automation. Here are some ways you might automate your financial goals:

• Create recurring transfers from your transaction account into a savings account to build your deposit.

• Set up recurring payments to send extra payment toward debt that you want to get rid of faster.

• Consider signing up to an app that automatically invest your spare change by rounding up purchases you make using your linked credit or debit card.

By having a realistic plan to turn your financial dreams into reality, you will go a long way toward achieving success no matter what's happening to the economy.

Tell us: Enjoyed this article? Don’t forget to like and share.

And while you’re here, take our mortgage shredder challenge and discover how much you can save on your home and investment loans by using loansHub technology as your personal mortgage manager. To discover why loansHub and what we do, click here.

This article via Laura Adams does not constitute advice; readers should seek independent and personalised counsel from a trusted adviser that specialises in property, a tax accountant and property design specialist.