2014 Goals – March update of my 2014 goals
I made pretty good progress against my overall goals in March, improving my YTD position in most categories. However, goal 1 & 2 have made me feel a little like the goalkeeper in this picture:
You can check out my original goals which I started in November 2013 here:
2014 New Year Goals & Resolutions
2014 Goals – March update
In summary so far:
Year to Date progress
2014 Goals – Top 3 successes
Goal 6 – There has been some significant changes in the ISA rules in the UK following the 2014 budget. From July, the maximum contribution will be £15,000. Therefore, I have changed my goal to meet this target. In March, I was able to up my monthly contribution to £1,500 and therefore keep myself ahead of my goal.
Goal 7 – March, June, September & December are always going to be good months for dividends. With the majority of my investments in ETFs which pay quarterly dividends in these months, I am no exception to the rule. In fact, my dividend income was greater than this, but due to a delay in payment from my broker, this won’t be included until April. Given the dividend figures noted to date, I think I will revise this goal upward in April. This shows great progress, as the original figure was based on prior year dividends, so my contributions are clearly “paying dividends”, so to speak!
Goal 8 – And a good month for moneystepper. I hope you guys can see that I’m working hard on the site and producing content that is useful to my wonderful audience. My first adsense payment ever should be due in April and, due to my goals working on a cash-basis, this should push me even further towards achieving my overall goal. Whilst this is good news, I don’t intend to change my goal for the year, as I will reinvest any profits from moneystepper into making the site a more useful resource for you guys. If you have any specific ideas how to make the site cater even better for your needs, I would love to hear your suggestions.
2014 goals – Top 3 Failures
Goal 1 – Bummer. Goal 1 is goal 1 because its the most important goal for me. And I’ve had a shocker in March. 2.2% drop is not good when I’m hoping to average a 4% increase each month. But, inevitably it will happen. My income was minimal in the month (just my standard employment income plus a little from moneystepper), but some large expenditures combined with a 6% fall in my investment portfolio (which currently accounts for 50% of my overall net wealth) lead to a negative change in my net wealth in March.
No worries, its the first time that this has happened since the goals started in November, and hopefully we won’t see many more months like this.
Whilst my overall progress of 9.8% vs my YTD target of 20.0% doesn’t seem great, I’m not too worried as the summer months will include bonus payments, and hopefully my other income (dividends, rental property, moneystepper, etc etc) will improve during the year. If not, I’ll be working pretty darn hard in the latter months of 2014 to catch up!! 🙂
Goal 10 – Another month of failure. I’m going to give this one more month and, if I record another failure, I will consider changing this to another fitness focused goal – maybe running, yoga, circuits or something more varied like “play sport 3x per week”.
Goal 12 – Again, no trips abroad this month, but plenty of fun times had in France, so no need to feel sorry for me!! 🙂
Changes to existing goals
As per Goal 10 above, I have decided to change this goal to a diet based goal to reduce my bread intake. Putting on weight and eating a lot of bread and bread based products are surprisingly closely linked for me!! :S
Therefore, in order to improve my health, I’ve decided to reduce my intake of bread to two portions per week. This will be marked on a success/failure and need to achieve 9/9 months of success between now and the end of the year.
Being in France, this may not be too easy…
You’re doing good on many of your goals, don’t let a few stragglers get you down. With over 50% of your net worth in the market, you are going to see more swings both to the up and down than the smaller investor. I noticed this myself when my wife and I reached a certain point. When the market moves up a lot, so does our portfolio. The same holds true on the way down. I do my best to keep things in perspective – that I am looking at the long term here and not the short term month to month swings.
It’s pretty hard to hit 100% of your goals. Circumstances always change and things outside of your control change as well. I think you’re making great progress.
I’m impressed you’ve been able to focus on so many goals. I usually boil mine down to no more than six at any given time. Anything more than that for me and some of them tend to get lost in the shuffle.
Great job so far! It sounds like as the year progresses, goals 1 and 2 should improve as the market improves. As for fitness goals, I hear ya! I’ve been missing my fitness target so far as well. It’s not easy trying to squeeze in time for additional exercise.
I really like how you have set these quantifiable goals, and are now holding yourself accountable. Beyond that, you’re assessing what happened, and what you can do differently. I’m doing something similar, and it’s been a great exercise.
Looks like you’re making great progress overall. I like how your goals are so very quantifiable!