Money and Finance
Hi Everyone,
Another day, another dollar. Another year, another opportunity to reach the American Dividend Dream! This is my first post with regards to setting goals but I believe these are necessary in helping to lay out a plan for the future. Without planning, we could sway off the path and hurt our ability to reach freedom from the 9 - 5 job. I believe goals need to be challenging, yet achievable. If you continually set goals that are too extreme, you will continually disappoint yourself which could hinder your ability to keep going. With that being said, lets look at my goals for 2015:
Goal #1 - Receive $4,500 in dividends!
This is a pretty steep increase from my 2014 dividend total of $2,766.66 but I also think its attainable. At a 3.5% average yield of new purchases, I would have to add an additional $50,000 to my portfolio throughout the course of the year to get the additional $1,733.33 in income... IF there wasn't compounding of capital already added. With dividend growth from my companies and compounding of those dividends, I am looking at adding around $40,000 to hit my goal. With my recent purchases this year, I have already added $8,000 of that $40,000.... $32,000 left! Phew, that's still a lot after writing it out.
Hitting this goal would mean I will average roughly $375 per month! It amazing to think that with that kind of income, I could pay for groceries, cable/internet and phone bills every month.
Going along with this goal, I want to have forward dividends of over $5,250 by the end of the year. Currently my portfolio is hitting an average of 9% dividend growth per year which means if I hit the $4,500 goal, my forward dividends would be around $5,000 without adding any new capital. I expect that I will make a few purchases in the November/December time period which will push this total over the $5,250 mark.
Goal #2 - Connect more with the blogging community!
I have just recently stepped into the blogging community after reading posts for years. So far, I love it! The support that this community has for one another is one of a kind. It is a great avenue to talk to people that have the same passion for financial independence that I do.
In the past year, I have felt this feeling of lonesomeness as I started to really embrace this lifestyle. My wife is my biggest supporter but beyond that, I don't feel comfortable talking to family members or friends about this journey. You can see their struggles with money or they want to live in the here and now so they go out and buy the next best thing or a new car. But, then I hear them complain of the monthly payments. I can't connect with them because when they ask "I'm sure you feel the same way" I really do not have an answer. Our main expense right now is our house but beyond that, we have no car payments, no credit card debt and my final student loan is less than $100 per month.
Our frugal lifestyle was joked about when we told people we did not have cable or internet (we do now though), we did not want center pieces or flowers at our wedding beyond the bouquets because they were too much or we could not go to a fancy dinner because it was too much. However, saving an extra $5,000 or more over the past few years by not paying for those things, added roughly $175 in dividends this upcoming year which is compounding over and over again. It may not be a lot, but every little bit helps and they just do not understand that.
My specific goals are: Comment on posts that you all write; Write a minimum 2 blogs per month; Reply to all comments on my site; and Stop lurking so much!
Goal #3 - Save as much as possible but live life!
The final goal for 2015 is a bit open ended. There are 2 reasons for this: 1. I'm not getting any younger and 2. We plan on having a kid in 2016.
I say save as much as possible because the goal for this year is to travel a bit more while we do not have any youngsters running around. Good news is that we have a lot of points saved up on our credit card to use towards costs for flights, hotels and rental cars. Once again, we have a ton of weddings this year so traveling could include going an extra day or two before the wedding to check out the town and relax. With that being said, our only vacation this year involves going to the beach for a week. I'm hoping we will get to go to Austin, TX and Brazil... but we will see.
As for living life, like I said ... none of us are getting any younger. I played baseball my entire life and it is something that I really enjoy. I have been so busy with work the last few years that I have not had the time to play in any leagues. I subbed in for a few softball games but I really want to join a league to play a whole year. The leagues only cost about $60 so it is a great low cost way to get a little exercise, network with colleagues and get the competitive juices flowing again! I would also like to get to a few concerts and say yes to more experiences, whatever they might be.
We only live once, but once is enough if you do it right. So, create lasting memories with friends and family now because once your old and gray, memories will be all you have.
Well there you have it. Three goals that are attainable yet challenging enough to make me want to keep pushing myself to greatness!
As always, thank you all for the support that you provide and I look forward to chatting with you all in 2015!
ADD
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Money and Finance
Goals for 2015
Another day, another dollar. Another year, another opportunity to reach the American Dividend Dream! This is my first post with regards to setting goals but I believe these are necessary in helping to lay out a plan for the future. Without planning, we could sway off the path and hurt our ability to reach freedom from the 9 - 5 job. I believe goals need to be challenging, yet achievable. If you continually set goals that are too extreme, you will continually disappoint yourself which could hinder your ability to keep going. With that being said, lets look at my goals for 2015:
Goal #1 - Receive $4,500 in dividends!
This is a pretty steep increase from my 2014 dividend total of $2,766.66 but I also think its attainable. At a 3.5% average yield of new purchases, I would have to add an additional $50,000 to my portfolio throughout the course of the year to get the additional $1,733.33 in income... IF there wasn't compounding of capital already added. With dividend growth from my companies and compounding of those dividends, I am looking at adding around $40,000 to hit my goal. With my recent purchases this year, I have already added $8,000 of that $40,000.... $32,000 left! Phew, that's still a lot after writing it out.
Hitting this goal would mean I will average roughly $375 per month! It amazing to think that with that kind of income, I could pay for groceries, cable/internet and phone bills every month.
Going along with this goal, I want to have forward dividends of over $5,250 by the end of the year. Currently my portfolio is hitting an average of 9% dividend growth per year which means if I hit the $4,500 goal, my forward dividends would be around $5,000 without adding any new capital. I expect that I will make a few purchases in the November/December time period which will push this total over the $5,250 mark.
Goal #2 - Connect more with the blogging community!
I have just recently stepped into the blogging community after reading posts for years. So far, I love it! The support that this community has for one another is one of a kind. It is a great avenue to talk to people that have the same passion for financial independence that I do.
In the past year, I have felt this feeling of lonesomeness as I started to really embrace this lifestyle. My wife is my biggest supporter but beyond that, I don't feel comfortable talking to family members or friends about this journey. You can see their struggles with money or they want to live in the here and now so they go out and buy the next best thing or a new car. But, then I hear them complain of the monthly payments. I can't connect with them because when they ask "I'm sure you feel the same way" I really do not have an answer. Our main expense right now is our house but beyond that, we have no car payments, no credit card debt and my final student loan is less than $100 per month.
Our frugal lifestyle was joked about when we told people we did not have cable or internet (we do now though), we did not want center pieces or flowers at our wedding beyond the bouquets because they were too much or we could not go to a fancy dinner because it was too much. However, saving an extra $5,000 or more over the past few years by not paying for those things, added roughly $175 in dividends this upcoming year which is compounding over and over again. It may not be a lot, but every little bit helps and they just do not understand that.
My specific goals are: Comment on posts that you all write; Write a minimum 2 blogs per month; Reply to all comments on my site; and Stop lurking so much!
Goal #3 - Save as much as possible but live life!
The final goal for 2015 is a bit open ended. There are 2 reasons for this: 1. I'm not getting any younger and 2. We plan on having a kid in 2016.
I say save as much as possible because the goal for this year is to travel a bit more while we do not have any youngsters running around. Good news is that we have a lot of points saved up on our credit card to use towards costs for flights, hotels and rental cars. Once again, we have a ton of weddings this year so traveling could include going an extra day or two before the wedding to check out the town and relax. With that being said, our only vacation this year involves going to the beach for a week. I'm hoping we will get to go to Austin, TX and Brazil... but we will see.
As for living life, like I said ... none of us are getting any younger. I played baseball my entire life and it is something that I really enjoy. I have been so busy with work the last few years that I have not had the time to play in any leagues. I subbed in for a few softball games but I really want to join a league to play a whole year. The leagues only cost about $60 so it is a great low cost way to get a little exercise, network with colleagues and get the competitive juices flowing again! I would also like to get to a few concerts and say yes to more experiences, whatever they might be.
We only live once, but once is enough if you do it right. So, create lasting memories with friends and family now because once your old and gray, memories will be all you have.
Well there you have it. Three goals that are attainable yet challenging enough to make me want to keep pushing myself to greatness!
As always, thank you all for the support that you provide and I look forward to chatting with you all in 2015!
ADD
- Loyal3 $500 Buy
In the past week I bought the following stocks in my Loyal3 account. Ticker $ invested Cost WalMart ...
- Dividend Income - December 2015 Update
Hi Everyone, Well there is its... 2015 is gone and 2016 is here. The year went by incredibly fast, that's for sure. But, I know for a fact that I had a ball this year! My wife and I didn’t hit nearly all of our financial goals...
- 401k Update - July 2015
Hi Everyone, Hope all is well. I continue to embrace the blogging community and I continue to love it. Just a quick post tonight about my 401K Portfolio. I said that I would post about the 401K when big changes were made or about twice...
- Smart Goals - Update On 2015 Goals
Hi Everyone, While at work today, my employer sent out a corporate email stating that our performance review meetings are coming up. Performance reviews are basically a way for the company to tell you what you are worth to them. Every year...
- 401k Update - February 2015
Hi Everyone, Hope all is well. I continue to embrace the blogging community and I continue to love it. Just a quick post tonight about my 401K Portfolio. I said that I would post about the 401K when big changes were made and I'm...