Giving yourself ambitious (but reasonable) time limits for achieving your goals can be a great motivational tool. For example, let's say that you set a goal of being on your way to owning a house two years from today. In this case, you'd need to investigate the average home cost in the area you'd like to live in and start saving for the down payment on your new house (as a general rule, down payments are often required to be no less than 20% of the purchase price of the house).[3]
So, in our example, if houses in the area you're looking at are about $300,000 apiece, you'll need to come up with at least 300,000 × 20% = $60,000 in two years. Depending on how much you make, this may or may not be feasible.
Setting time frames is especially important for essential short-term goals. For instance, if your car's transmission needs to be replaced, but you can't afford the new transmission, you'll want to save up the money for the replacement as quickly as possible to ensure you're not left without a way to get to work. An ambitious but reasonable time frame can help you achieve this goal.