SMART goals are the best way to manage all of your financial plans. SMART is an acronym standing for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bound. Short term goals take only a few months to achieve. An example of a short term goal would be planning to pay off a low balanced credit card in three months. This is an achievable goal based on making manageable payments to pay off the balance of the account and accrued interest. An intermediate goal takes three months to a year to achieve. An example of an intermediate goal would be paying off car insurance for the entire year. Long term goals take more than a year to achieve. A long term goal would be to start saving overtime for a down payment on a house. Credit can affect your financial goals in many ways. Credit is the ability of a customer to obtain goods or services before payment, based on the trust that payment will be made in the future. If a long term goal is to save money for a down payment on a house, creditors and bank lenders can look into credit history. Payments made in a timely manner will result in a higher credit score. A higher credit score will make it easier to obtain a loan. If payments are not made and debt increases, a credit score will be affected significantly. With a lower credit score, financial goals will be less obtainable. Financial services offer vehicles for you to save and invest your money to earn interest for future goals. Such as credit unions, having checking and saving accounts. Investing means setting aside money for long term financial goals. Investing money has risks and can result in a rise and fall of value overtime an example would be to place money in a savings account. Investing sets aside money and allows one to be less tempted to use it. Overtime, the invested money will grow interest. Income investments consist of savings bonds, certificate of deposits, money market accounts, mutual funds, growth investments, and real estate. All of these financial services will help ones financial situation to be in order for short and long term goals. There are many situations that may affect insurance rates. For example, a car accident when you are at fault would cause an increase in car insurance premiums. Major illness could affect total health insurance coverage or insurance could be cancelled all together. Examples that would affect insurance five years from now are marriage, children, and home ownership. Having children causes health coverage expenses to increase. Also having children