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:

Photo Credit: Steven Depolo

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

 Goal 1 – Increase net wealth by over 56% – FAIL – 9.8% compared to 20.0% required

 Goal 2 – Positive net wealth growth 12/14 months – FAIL – 4/5 months (-2.22% in Mar)

 Goal 3 – 60% net income saves 12/14 months – FAIL – 4/5 months (63% in Mar)

 Goal 4 – Pay £7,000 off mortgage capital – FAIL – £2,281 compared to £2,500 required

 Goal 5 – Make £700 profit from rental property – PASS – £289 compared to £250 required

 Goal 6 – Fill 2014 stocks & shares ISA – PASS – £5,500 compared to £5,357 required

 Goal 7 – Earn over £450 in dividend income – PASS – £244 compared to £161 required

 Goal 8 – £700 profit from moneystepper – PASS – £317 compared to £250 required

 Goal 9 – Save £6,000 for our wedding – PASS – £2,500 saved compared to £2,142 required

 Goal 10 – Do 41,600 sit-ups – FAIL – 3,190 compared to 15,214 required

 Goal 11 – Eat under 2,500 calories 365 times – FAIL – 123 days compared to 130 required

 Goal 12 – Visit 5 foreign countries – FAIL – 1 compared to 1.8 required

 

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…