Over the last few weeks, we all have spent many hours preparing tough/challenging goals for the year ahead of us. Why not? It is fun and exciting to think about the future and map out where you want to be a year from now. Before I fully shift modes and focus on knocking out my 2016 goals one by one, I figured I should take a cold hard look at my 2015 goals and see how well (or poorly) I performed during the year. Even though it was not articulated as well as it could have been in my article, the results of 2015 were a major influence in setting the table in 2016. So now, let’s have a look at my final 2015 goal review and see where/how I can improve in 2016.
Bert’s Goal Review
- Invest
$15,000$20,000 in “New Capital” in 2015 – ACHIEVED/FAIL – If you recall, I caught a lot of breaks during the year and was able to knock out my initial goal of investing $15,000 in “New Capital” during the year. To define it quickly, New Capital represents money that I have transferred to my brokerage account from my savings account. This does not include 401k contributions or re-invested dividends. Most of the breaks were related to my two job switches that occurred during the year, which landed me a lot of extra capital. When I switched jobs initially, I saw a significant bump in my annual salary that allowed me increase the amount of money that is automatically deposited into my broker from my paycheck. Then, when I switched back to my old job, I received a little extra capital up front, half of which went to investments and the other half went into my wedding bank account. With those headwinds, I was able to achieve my initial goal in August. I became ambitious and set a new goal of $20,000 in 2015, forgetting that I had some major expense coming in the final third of the year (As discussed later). In the end, I fell short of the $20,000 mark and invested $17,536 in New Capital in 2015. Even though I was short of my adjusted mark, I couldn’t be happier that I was able to add over $15k in one year to my portfolio, which was a major driver of the increased dividend income figures I experienced in the final quarter. - Projected Annual Dividend Income of $2,750 – FAIL– I was on pace for a photo-finish at the end of the year and heading into December I had slightly over $2,600 in projected annual dividend income. Then….WHAM….KMI happened and they announced their dividend cut, which rippled through/impacted nearly every dividend growth investor in this wonderful online community and reminded many of us that dividend investing does not come without some risks. I own over 100 shares of KMI and the dividend cut reduced my annual dividend income by $150! At that point, I accepted defeat and began seeking out Dividend Aristocrats with low debt levels in an effort to avoid investing in another company with high debt. After receiving my final dividend check in 2015 and adding the few fractional shares to my portfolio, I ended the year with $2,453 in forward projected income, way below my mark. One other thing, I forgot to mention that my year began with another massive dividend cut. I owned shares in ARCP, which provided me with $170 in annual dividend income only to see their dividend reduced to $0! So two massive, unexpected dividend cuts set me back $320 in annual income….man! Folks , let’s just say I learned a TON from those two experiences and while they may have been expensive lessons, I am a better investor because of it.
- Max-Out My Roth IRA Before 12/31/15 – ACHIEVED – I spent the first portion of 2015 playing catch-up, rushing to max out my Roth IRA before the April deadline because let’s face it, there are a ton of benefits to maxing out your Roth IRA while you are young. It was an annoyance to me and I was forced to place some lower yielding stocks in my Roth that I would typically place in my traditional account. A great example of this is Schlumberger, which historically yields around the 2% mark, and is a proud member of my Roth IRA since I had to play catch up. Because of this, I made it a goal to max out my contributions evenly throughout the year and reach my maximum contribution amount prior to the end of 2015. I made my final contribution last week, which was supposed to be invested in a certain stock until they decided to appreciate out of nowhere! Regardless, I officially achieved this goal a few days before the 31st with that final contribution and purchases in JNJ and IBM throughout the year! Success. Even though I would have liked to invest in this one stock and add to my current position, I have changed sights to either ADM or TGT, the two stocks on my last watch list. I’ll keep you all updated with which stock I end up selecting!
- Make $1,001 in the Dividend Diplomat Brand – FAIL – Man this was a fun goal to try to achieve/knock out during the year. I won’t dive into too much detail here as we will most likely discuss this in detail in a later post. But during the year, we earned $221 from Media.Net and $494 from Google Adsense. While we fell short of our goal, the earnings really began to gain steam at the end of the year as we blew past our one year bloggiversary. Couldn’t be happier with the progress Lanny and I are seeing here. Each day we learn something new about running/managing a website and it is fun/motivating as heck! But most of all, thank you all so much because we couldn’t have done this without you and the others in this community. Seriously, thanks a bunch!
- Make $1,000 in Other Income – FAIL – In total, I made $525 in Other Income in 2015, way below my targeted goal of $1,000. IT sucks. My income came predominately through the sale of some high dollar electronics at the begging of the year ($500) and a fun effort to flip video games in August, which netted be $25 in profit. My biggest takeaway from this goal is that in order to successfully flip items and pursue other income opportunities outside of my career and blogging, you need time. And as the end of the year approached, extra time for these fun ventures was the one thing I started to run out of. So this year, as discussed in my 2016 goals article, I am going to increase the amount of time I spend on the website Swagbucks (referral link here) which requires minimal effort and is an easy way to earn additional income. Earning Swagbucks and ultimately gift cards will be a nice complement to en-devours such as flipping that require time to be successful. With revenue coming from both sources, I should be able to knock out my goal of $1,000 in Other Income in 2016.
- Defeat the Dividend Diplomats Savings Challenge in 6 Months – FAIL – Here we go….another failure…. As you all know, Lanny and I strive to save 60% of our monthly income to we can invest as much money NOW as possible. What’s even more aggravating about failing this goal is that I was in great shape when I completed my Q2 goals review, having saved over 60% of my income 3 of the first 6 months of the year. Then, the wheels kind of fell off the wagon as they year went on. What contributed to this? Well, first off, the wedding expenses really began to pick up as we locked in different services for the special day. An expense I gladly incurred. Then, in September and October, we took two separate trips to St. Louis and Florida for a wedding, respectively. With these forces going against me, I haven’t been able to achieve the coveted 60% mark for the remainder of the year. So when I was setting my goals for 2016, I thought long and hard about including a similar goal in 2016. Should I take another stab at it or am I just setting myself up for failure with all other things that will be going on in my life during the year? After days of debate, I ultimately selected the latter. With a wedding and honeymoon coming, I don’t want to set a goal that I know I am not going to be able to achieve. I’m all for setting up goals that will push me to achieve greatness. However, the critical piece of the goal setting process is to create goals that are achievable and after I assessed my current situation, I just didn’t think this type of goal being achievable during the first part of 2016. That’s why I left it out of my goals for next year. Maybe I’ll revist this goal after my wedding a see if I should add it for the second half of the year.
- Watch One of My Sports Teams on the Road in 2015 – FAIL – Alright, I am going to say it….this goal becomes increasingly more difficult when your sports teams are terrible! I was getting excited about seeing the Indians on the road this year and they got off to a slow, miserable start to the season. At that point, I made the decision that I wasn’t going to incur the expenses that would have easily crossed $150 needed to see the team on the road. It wasn’t it worth it to me. Same story with the Browns as well. The only two teams worth seeing, the Cavs and Ohio State, did not have any games close enough to Cleveland at the end of the year that would have allowed me to drive and see them on the road. Plus, the tickets to see those two teams would not have been cheap. Truth be told, there was one day in September when the Indians made a late season push where my buddy and I almost bought tickets to an Indians game in Detroit for the weekend. However, our plans fell through and we never ended up going to see the team lose 5-0 that day and see their playoff dreams slip through the cracks. One other thing, similar to my other income goal, time got in the way of achieving this goal, especially when I was traveling nearly every week for my 3 month job during the summer. In the end, I really wanted to achieve this goal, but the benefit was not worth the cost. I would rather invest the few hundred dollars in one of my five “Always Buy” stocks than travel just to see a losing sports team on the road just for the sake of doing it. There is a famous saying in Cleveland sports that applies here…”There is always next year.” Maybe I will knock this goal out in 2016.
SUMMARY
Reviewing my 2015 goals was bittersweet. I am happy with the progress made in my portfolio and knocking out my “New Capital” and Roth IRA goals were huge catalysts for it. What is disappointing to me was failing the other goals, which focused on diversifying income streams, improving my finances, and achieving a life goal of mine. I kept citing lack of time in this article and it bothers me that I couldn’t do a better job fitting these goals and activities to defeat this goal into my schedule. That shouldn’t be my default excuse and I’m going to do more this year to make sure that is less of an obstacle in 2016. Regardless, my failures in 2015 taught me some important lessons and I am a better investor because of it. Plus, the failures have re-junvinated my passion for websites like Swagbucks and I’m determined to use this as a source of supplementary income. I’m looking forward to moving on to 2016 and working to knock out all of my goals next year.
What are your thoughts on my goal review? Any suggestions for generating other income? If you were me, would you have incurred the cost to see one of your sports teams on the road? How do you manage lack of time/achieving goals that require additional time? Were you successful in achieving your 2015 goals?
-Bert
Mr. and I are rooting for our university NCAA team! I’m a super sore loser :), I don’t behave when my team lose 🙂 We took a weekend a few years ago going to NYC to see our team played. It was very cool seeing NYC for the first time. Gone were the day where 5-6 of us would share a room or standing inline to watch our college team play LOL 🙂
Bro,
All you wrote was: “fail, fail, fail”, but but I saw from following your blog everything was close to be successful. Take your saving rate, an average American only set out to save 10% of their income and hope that they can retire at 67 or 70, here you are saving close to 60% of your income each month. It’s not failure. Maybe you should list how many month you’re above the 10% American Average threshold. 🙂
Wow. Seeing your team in NYC and travelling there for the first time had to make the experience that much more fun. I’m similar to you, I tell myself that I will not get upset when my team loses….until the game is over and I am furious that they lost. Weren’t those the fun times? when you were packed like sardines watching the game with your best friends. I miss being at Ohio State and hanging out in that atmosphere to watch the game. For one day each weekend that city would turn red.
Thank you so much for the kind words. I really appreciate it. That’s a great point. I want to save as much of possible that I perspective of where I stand compared to others. I’m sure it has everything to do with this online community that focuses on saving a huge sum of their income and more specifically, Lanny. We are all in a great position and are setting ourselves up for wonderful futures. I’m definitely going to keep your suggestion in mind and averaging for an above average American threshhold for this year when I am expecting a lot of expenses from a wedding is a great starting point target.
Again, thank you so much. As always, thanks for stopping by.
Bert
Goals….. they are such a double edged sword! On one hand they can be very motivating (especially if you want to outperform!), on the other end frustrating if you don’t have direct control over the input to get to the desired outcome (KMI?).
Overall, we think you have done rather well regardless of the noted “fails”. Primarily because you did not fail with considerable margins. The magic words here are: expectations management 😉
We only have one goal: be happy! The rest will follow if we just you keep doing what feels right.
Take care!
They really are a double edged sword. I think something to take away from all of this is not to put too much emphasis on goals you can’t control, such as the dividend income as you pointed out. However, that didn’t stop me from making it a goal this year hahaha That’s why I picked investing “New Capital” over a target market value. I can control how much money I put into the market; however, I can’t control Mr. Market and its crazy swings. The goal review process can definitely be humbling though, that’s for sure.
I appreciate your assessment, it is much appreciated. I can’t really be upset at the end of it all because I am in a better financial position at the end of 2015 than I was at the end of 2014. Could it have been better? Sure, based on my goals results. But I still took a leap forward and I’m so pumped about that.
And you are right. None of this matters if we aren’t happy and enjoy our time with ourselves and our loved ones. That’s the key to it all and that’s why we battle to retire early. Why beat yourself up when there are so many great things going on around you?
Thanks so much for stopping by. Take care!
Bert
A lot of fails Bert lol… But one question: Did you have an enjoyable life in 2015? Don’t get down on yourself by just barely missing some “not so important” (in the grand scheme of things) goals. Like a poster said above, the average savings for people is 10% and this community strives for 50+%. Our numbers are already incredibly ambitious and constant reading of blogs such as this leave us numb to the “real life” of many folks. Most important is family, friends, health and fun in no particular order. As long as you had fun, stayed healthy and enjoyed your life with other people throughout the year, I call it a success!
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 like we would have liked, but looking back… Who Cares! We went to 7 weddings, 6 of which out of state. Hotel rooms, catching up with old friends, multiple vacations (Austin TX, Fenwick Island DE, New Orleans LA, Pensacola FL, Gulf Shores AL, Pittsburg PA, Connecticut) and time well spent with family. We work our ass off and play hard, that’s all you can hope for. I can tell you one thing that when I’m old and gray I’ll be telling our kids about all the places we traveled when younger and could actually still get around in all those locations. Good luck surfing when you are 75! lol.
So as a goal for this year, you should make an effort to see two different sports teams in two different cities! Make up for lost time! Enjoy the heck out of wedding planning and your honeymoon as well! Don’t fret so much about financial goals because I know you’ll be just fine! Plus, combined income when you are married!
I’ll be looking forward to seeing your progress in 2016!
ADD
You are right. All that matters is that we have enjoyed our lives and created those memories we are never going to forget. What’s the point of saving and building this income stream if we don’t take the time to enjoy it and pursue the things we love. I would agree with your comment about reading other blogs and feeling numb to reality. We are in a community that focuses on frugality and saving to invest. We are in a higher percentile than the average American and we are comparing ourselves against one another. This is the norm for us, and in the end all of us are doing amazing things. We can’t ever lose sight of that, even if we miss our targeted mark. We must not forget to take the time to enjoy ourselves, and I have left the last few comments tonight feeling inspired. Thanks you and everyone else her e haha
Man you have travesled. Holy smokes… 6 out of state weddings. We attended one this year and it was expensive but a blast. It sounds like you have the perfect mindset for this. I love how positive you are about the experience and how you wouldn’t even hesitate to attend 7 more weddings this year if they popped up. This is the mindset I need as I plan and book my honeymoon and I’ll be thinking of this inspiring comment from you as we are having some nice drinks in Hawaii. Work hard…play hard. I love that motto.
Thanks again for the inspiration. It means a ton to me and it will make for a fun 2016. Hopefully the Indians don’t suck again this year so I can become motivated to chase them around the US. Again, thank you so much and take care!
Bert
I foresee you guys taking out that $1,000 for this blog this year. I used to exclusively just visit Dividendmantra every day, but since the changes I’ve forced myself to branch out and view multiple different blogs. Right now its mainly financial samurai, however you guys fill the void in a manner that Jason used to with personal updates that are closer to my current portfolio.
I relate a lot with this blog as I am also a Ohio State alumni, however I live on the other side of the state and have to deal with Cincinnati sports futility. I’m mainly a fan of the players when it comes to the NBA. I always liked Lebron, but when he returned and I noticed Delladova was with the Cavs I became a huge fan last year. I followed St. Mary’s and Delladova pretty religiously from 2010-2013 as West Coast betting was easier to handicap (IMO) and I was working part time until late evening during those years so it was one of the few teams always on TV for me to watch.
I find myself visiting you guys more often than I normally did. So keep it up and I’ll be following along.
Wow…Thank you so much. It means a lot to us and we are pumped as heck that you stumbled on our website after branching out and hopefully you decide to follow along and comment. Would love to get to know you better and help fill the void. Jason was a major influence for us at the beginning of our website. Some of the things that stood out to us was his full disclosure, how personal he was, and how he took the time to get to know his followers/comment back to everything he could. It is something we strive for here as well.
I can’t believe I haven’t said it yet… but O-H! It is not too often that I get the chance to interact with a fellow Buckeye on the website. It sucks that the didn’t show up against Michigan State and won’t play for the championship, but how can you complain with how well they played versus that school up north and Notre Dame this last week. Dellavadova is a cult celebrity up here in Cleveland and how could you not love him? He hustles and gives it all every second he is on the floor. It is infectious and it has been fun watching him develop in the NBA. Great guy to root for. I lived with a bunch of Cincinnati fans in college and watch the Browns/Bengals each Sunday was an experience. Both teams loved to find different/new ways to lose games. Luckily the Bengals have snapped out of it. Maybe they can beat Pittsburgh this year and move on; however, the Steelers had to be the last team they wanted to face in the playoffs.
Have you always been big into sports betting? Did you stick predominately to College sports or have you bet on all events?
Take care and thanks again for stopping by/commenting!
Bert
We have a similar goal to try and see a baseball game in a different park every year. We just build it into our budget and plan our vacations out in advance. That’s why I prefer to look at our budget on an annual basis rather than month to month. Sure some expenses recur monthly, but a lot don’t.
If it makes you feel better we got to see the Cavs on the road in 2015 several times. They lost to the Warriors though. Wait…maybe that doesn’t make you feel better?
Actually that is an idea for making extra money. We have Warrior’s season tickets but they don’t cost us anything. We couldn’t go to all the games if we wanted to. But the sales of the games we can’t attend offsets the cost of the games we go to. The last two years we’ve actually made a profit (10% this year already and that’s just on the regular season) on top of going to a bunch of games for “free”. Of course if the team isn’t any good, you just reduce the cost of the games you attend (that’s what happens to our A’s tickets…for now anyway. It’s like any market…it goes up and down.) I’ve been thinking about getting King’s tickets for when they open their new arena next year…the King’s are up and coming. Don’t count out George Karl.
Bron bron should have a couple more years in him, you just signed K. Love for how many years? Cavs should be a profitable season ticket investment for a while at least I would think.
I’ve been enjoying the blog. Agree with TayDiggsMoney. You guys will probably see a lot more traffic this year. Good luck with your 2016 goals.
Catfish,
Thanks for stopping by here! Glad to see you around and hopefully we will here from you more this year. I love that goal and man, one day I will hit every baseball stadium. There are so many cool and unique stadiums out there. Did I mention that the food in each stadium is amazing. What’s stadium are you planning to visit next? Have you had the chance to check out Progressive Field yet? It is my home stadium and I would highly recommend it now that they are finishing up the renovations. I’m jealous that you got to see the Cavs! I actually didn’t get the chance to see them last year and trust me, tickets were not cheap here. What’s funny is that I was just happy the team made it to the finals. After Love was injured, I figured they were going to get eliminated early. It was crazy watching LeBron put the team on his back and single handily carry a team to a championship. However, now this year, I want to see a championship and will not be as understanding if they don’t win haha
I know a few people that have flipped season tickets and it has worked out really well. Not a terrible idea, but can definitely be risky. However, as long as you have Steph Curry and I have LeBron, i am sure we would be able to make a nice profit on the game. I think my friend sold the opening night game this year and broke even form just that one game! However, you better sell them early because if there is an injury….watch out! There is no way I would be able to make a profit on the lowly Browns or Indians right now, so the Cavs are really my only shot. Great idea and I’ll have to consider it for next year. The Kings may represent a nice buy-low opportunity. I’m sure they are running all sorts of promotions to get fans to sign up for season tickets and build the excitement. However, they are definitely riskier investments. Keep us updated if you decide to pull the trigger on those tickets. I would love to see how well you perform in a less popular team.
Hopefully this isn’t the last time we see you here! Thanks for leaving the comment. Take care.
Bert
The Jake is definitely on the list. Haven’t had the pleasure yet.
Technically we don’t have one lined up this year because we double dipped last year. Since the NL West played the AL West in interleague we got to see the A’s at Dodger’s Stadium and Petco Park.
We are going to spring training in AZ this year though, and we’ll get to see their new facility in Mesa…so I count that as meeting this year’s goal even if it’s not a major league park.
Wow…which one of us is the passionate Indians fan. I’m so pumped right now that you just called it The Jake. I cna’t believe I insulted it in my comment. One of my favorite shirts at home is a picture of the loge saying “It will always be the Jake.” Man it was tough to watch the stadium change names like that and it felt like the owners were ripping our identity away from us. However, over time the sting has gone away.
Spring training will be a blast…always a goal of mine and I can’t wait to go once I leave the public accounting industry. It definitely counts. You are watching your team in a new stadium. Who cares if it is an exhibition game. What a fun goal you have. Always gives you something exciting to look forward to.
Bert
Bert,
All in all a very good year for you! Maybe you didn’t make every goals you set out to achieve in 2016, but you got pretty darned close with almost all of them. 🙂
Best of luck in 2016!
NMW
NMW,
Thank you very much. as I have said with other comments, even though I missed some goals I can’t be too upset. I left 2015 in a much better and stronger financially than I entered the year. Plus, we had some amazing trips. What isn’t there to like and how can you be upset with those results? Let’s enjoy all of the good times and keep on learning/building each and every day.
Take care!
I think you did quite well considering a number of them are marked as “fail.” Although they are “failed” goals, you made a great attempt at accomplishing them and you made some great progress. Most importantly is that you are so close on all of them. I wouldn’t fret too much over this.
Thanks Tawcan! Fail was probably too harsh of a word. A better description would have been something along the lines of “Progress made” or something less black and white. Okay, let’s be honest, Progress Made sounds really lame but it was the best thing I could come up with on the spot. I shouldn’t focus so much on the one number but instead take a step back and realize that I was able to make some great progress during the year and I created some great memories with friends and family. That’s what really matters.
Thanks for stopping by and take care!
Bert
Well, congrats on having a great 2015 Bert!
Firstly, $15,000 is a fantastic amount to invest. In 40 years that’s $600,000 alone (and we all know according to those growth graphs it’s not the capital that makes up the main portion of the end portfolio). Even though you didn’t achieve your $20K that’s still amazing, you could aim for $100K, but just doing what you’ve done is great.
Over $2K dividend income is really good. You didn’t get there (nearly), but it’s much better learning those lessons you learned now than in 20 years when there would be a lot more losses. But when I look at https://www.dividenddiplomats.com/dividend-income/ I see $1K extra income compared to the previous year, that’s the main thing that counts.
You didn’t earn website or other income of $1,000 but you’re not doing this ultimately for the website income. Any extra money to put towards your goals is great. The longer you do this the more income you’ll get.
Congrats on the wedding and honeymoon, those are definitely things you should do what you want to do, they’re once in a lifetime. I think you made the right choice.
With your sports teams..heh. Go watch a game closer to Cleveland, sounds like a good road trip to Chicago.
Good luck for 2016!
Tristan
Thanks for sharing, Bert! Despite some fails, it still was a solid year. The KMI dividend cut sure stung for me too! The fact that you picked stretch goals is good. It is easy to slack off if the goals are too easy.
The online income your site generated is/was incredible! I’m at only $87 a year so have a lot to learn in that regard. Any suggestions? If I had to guess I would say it is just the regular well written articles that you and Lanny put out. I’m trying to get Johnny, the other owner of Two Investing, to contribute some posts as well. It’s been difficult due to his job. What’s your secret?!
Scott