2017 Goals

It is that time of the year.  To me, the end of December and the Christmas holidays mean finishing out the year strong, racing towards the finish line, and setting the table for a successful year going forward. We take the time to reflect upon the year and goals achieved in 2016. We review our net worth and the growth achieved.

For the last few weeks, I have been thinking long and hard about my life, investing, and our goals going forward.  Three years ago I was sleeping for a few months on the floor, had no furniture and lost more than 30% of my net worth. Do you know your net worth? Read this how to calculate it.

What are your goals or good intentions? Stop smoking, more sports or healthier eating. When creating new goals, most people focus on health or their hobbies.  Do you have personal finance goals? Do you save money for a dream world travel plan or a city break? My goals are focused on two topics: my passive (dividend) income growth and my travel plans. I also have personal life goals and objectives at my job but I will keep those for myself, if you don’t mind. My defined personal finance and travel goals need to be SMART. Read here what a SMART goal setting process means. But now it’s time to dive in.

Our 2017 Financial goals

If you read our Financial Strategy, you know that we apply a methodical approach to dividend investing. We go for dividend! A lot of dividend! 2017 will be no different and somebody who wants to earn average 8 to 12% dividend return on his portfolio, needs to do this on a consistent basis. We would like to achieve 10% dividend if possible. Of course we would like to have this on a monthly basis but we spread our portfolio investments in quarterly and monthly paying stocks or ETF’s. Those stocks or ETFS are not always easy to find but we try to limit our risk by spreading in different sectors. Here are our five 2017 financial goals

1. Save at least 10% of my yearly income (Pay myself first! – see our Financial strategy)
2. Achieve a total of 6.600$ dividend income for the total year 2017 which equals an average of 550$ per month. Increase also our monthly dividend paying income to at least 300$. We would like to have a 30% increase if possible compared to 2016.
3. Put my mom’s portfolio at work and generate at least a yearly 1.200$ dividend income. That equals a 100$ a month.
4. Continue to grow my foster child and my kids’ portfolio. Monthly contributions for the portfolio of my foster child and dividend income focus for my kids’ portfolio.
5. Give my son at least 3 FINANCIAL educational lessons and teach him the basics of finance and how to manage money.

The above 5 financial goals are SMART as they are clearly defined and measurable. They should be possible to achieve if we apply our consistent strategic approach.

 

Our 2017 Travel goals

Although we focus on the growth of our passive income, we don’t neglect our work/life balance. Travel is my way to relax and learn. We do this in three different ways. Learn more about those 3 ways by clicking the links

• Visit interesting places in Belgium you can’t miss
• City Break
• Travel the world experiences

In 2016 we set money aside for our travel plans or local visit to interesting places in Belgium. This is the 3^rd layer in our Financial Strategy. We save money for this specific purpose each year. This doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Do your homework when companies launch early rebate promotions and learn how other travelers execute frugal travel. Time to dive in for our travel goals.

Here are our five goals

1. Visit this year three interesting spots in Belgium where kids can learn something and have a unique experience to remember. They don’t have to cost money to be great.
2. Do ONE city break vacation in 2017. Kids have chosen London and Paris in the top 2 to visit.
3. Plan and relax two weeks somewhere in the world with the family for a SUMMER vacation
4. Post a blog post of each travel or visit experience. Grow the popularity of the blog.
5. Inject the kids with cultural insights during our travel and teach them about history and other important facts in life. Write a travel chapter in their life story book.

Okay, ready with our goal setting for 2017. Now it’s time to put our plan in action to list our required actions for each of the defined goals to achieve success. We start to plan, prepare, collect information and execute throughout the year. Mid-Year 2017 we will report out how we are progressing on our 2017 financial and travel goals.  We wish you good luck with your goal setting and achieving them!