Saving and investing requires discipline, and as with most goals worth achieving, setting a few specific goals will help you get started and stay committed. This article aims to show you how investing goals can help you get started and motivate you to set money aside each month.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to make as much money as possible from your investments. That being said, you need to balance your desire to earn with the risk you're willing to take. You wouldn't take all of your retirement savings to Las Vegas and bet it all on one hand of blackjack—that'd be too risky. By the same token, you wouldn't stick your cash in a piggy bank and stuff it under your bed because that doesn't offer many rewards at all.

Hope is not a strategy. And while the obvious sidekick to hope is a plan, that too can leave you short of the mark without the third piece of the puzzle—commitment. You can have the best-laid plans to reach all of your financial goals and dreams, but without commitment, you'll find yourself spinning your wheels.