How To Set Homestead Goals

We all know the saying “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” — Napoleon Hill. We also know that when you break that goal down into steps it becomes a plan. Then when you take action, you can make those dreams come true. You can think it’s a load of goat poop but it really is true. We had a dream of owning a homestead, we added a deadline, made a plan, and when we followed through? Our dream became reality. If your goal is similar to ours, or if you already have a homestead and you are trying to figure out your next steps, this is how we set our homestead goals.

The Dream

Our dream is to make the homestead as self sustaining and self funding as possible. We want to be able to pay off our mortgage in 15 years. We want our animals to not only provide food for us, but also an income. Lastly, we want the land to produce enough food and firewood that we decrease our dependency on outside sources by 75% in 5 years.

That’s a large order, right? But it’s really not when you can add a deadline like 15 years for the mortgage or 5 years for independence. It is overwhelming when you stop and consider how much work, money, and time it’s going to take. But again, bite size steps or actions can really make a difference.

Homestead Goals

• Pay off mortgage in 15 years
• Self sustaining and self funding
• Animals provide food and income
• Land produces enough food, and water and firewood to decrease dependency by 75% in 5 years.

By having clear and measurable goals you can then start brainstorming on what you can do to hit those goals. But the goals listed above are long term goals. And while maintaining a big picture is always a good thing, small steps are what we are after. My list of 2022 homestead goals are:

• Garden/ orchard
• Goat breeding program/ goat dairy
• Poultry
• Remodel master bedroom/bathroom/ hall
• Water Collection system

These small goals will help us reduce dependency, and start making a dent in our budget to allow us to put more money towards the mortgage or back into the farm.

Brainstorming

I like to list out all the possible things we can do to hit these goals. No matter how big or small, ridiculous, or crazy, I want to know what I can do to make sure we can get achieve our dreams. Get creative here.

Setting The Goals With A Deadline

• I am going to pick up one extra shift a month that will pay for the orchard
• I am going to practice incubating eggs for the next three cycles and use those chicks as meat chicks.
  • If successful I will sell chicks and prepare to start selling poults
• I am going to plant a better salad bar for the dragons to reduce our need to keep buying greens at the store.
• After our big vacation, we will round our mortgage payment to the nearest hundreds. That will pay our mortgage off seven years faster.

Keeping goals simple will make them easier to achieve. If you have never run a marathon, it may not be the most attainable to say you are going to run a marathon in three months. Could you do it? Sure, but the chances are that you are not going to be successful without a lot of hard work.

Just because this says for a homestead, doesn’t mean it’s only for a homestead. This same theory can be used for absolutely anything.

Understanding Homestead Flexibility

At the end of the day, you have to remember that all of your goals may be amazing, achievable, S.M.A.R.T, etc. But if you don’t have the flexibility to understand that life is going to pop up and change things? Your homestead could come to a grinding halt. So make sure you are allowing for plenty of time to achieve your goals. I wrote an entire post about homestead flexibility that you can find here.

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