Goal Achieved :: $5,000 Projected Annual Dividend Income

One of the first things that I had done when I embarked on the process to build a dividend portfolio was to identify what my goals were going to be during my inaugural year of dividend growth investing.

There are plenty of resources that stress how critical it is to write down your goals and there are various studies that will demonstrate that you’re more likely to achieve goals that have been written down.

Oddly enough, the goal that I am talking about today was one that I did not write down on my goals page but have shared in a few posts.

$5,000 in Project Annual Dividend Income

While I did define a goal for how much I wanted to earn in actual dividends during this first year, I had not defined a goal related to the projected annual dividend income–or forward dividend income if you prefer.

However, as mentioned, over the last month as I have been making purchases and adding to positions in my portfolio I had stated that I set a goal to achieve $5,000 in projected annual dividend income.

Here is a snapshot from my dividend spreadsheet:

Success!

Shortly after posting about my latest purchase of BlackRock stock where I was a measly $10.00 away from goal, my monthly contribution into my Vanguard account processed and I purchased 7 shares of VYM.

The additional forward dividend income from that purchase has pushed me past my goal.

It has been a whirlwind of activity since I created my dividend growth portfolio and I have been doing my best to aggressively add to positions that I find to be at attractive price points. That result of that activity is demonstrated in this view of the monthly increase to my projected annual dividend income.

As shown above, my progress towards this goal was turbo-charged in September when I established my personal REIT ETF and I haven’t slowed down in October as I have been deploying as much new capital as possible.

So where do we go from here?

When You Achieve Your Goal, Revise Your Goal

The easy thing to do would be to check off this goal as achieved, put up my feet, and relax for the remaining two months of the year.

Hopefully you know that this is not what I have planned at all.

Also, if you’ve read my defined goals you will know that I am a firm believer in setting aggressive goals as many times that can push you to achieve heights that your mind did not believe were possible.

Therefore my initial thought of resetting the bar at $5,250 in PADI has been tossed aside.

Over the next two months (plus a few remaining days in October) I am kicking the bar up a notch, and my new goal is…

$5,500 in projected annual dividend income!

Will I be able to do it?

Looking at the month by month growth in the table above, you will see that I added approximately $190 in forward dividend income during July and August–and then September jumped way up thanks to my pension rollover. October has returned closer to the July / August metrics.

I will need to average $250 in projected annual dividend income over the next two months to reach this new goal.

I’m not anticipating too many dividend raises the remainder of the year, therefore this will primarily need to come via new capital being invested and the reinvestment of dividends–two of the three legs from the dividend tripod.

While October has seen a considerable amount of new capital being deployed, it has been in lower yielding–but higher growth–positions and therefore has had a slightly reduced impact to the forward dividend income. With the market continuing to provide buying opportunities and some higher yielding positions being on my radar, it might be possible.

But isn’t it possible that I fail?

Of course.

However, have I really failed if I am aggressively targeting $5,500 in PADI and only achieve $5,400? Or even $5,300?

Not in my opinion, although I can certainly appreciate those that might consider that a failure. To me, anything above and beyond my comfort level–which in this case I would say was the $5,250 that immediately came to mind–would not be a failure at all.

Wrapping Up

By taking the time to write down your goals and setting some stretch goals in the process, you will find that you can push yourself beyond your comfort zone and achieve the impossible.

We have a tendency to create goals that we know we can achieve.

It makes sense when you think about it, because nobody enjoys failing. However, the difference is in how you define failure and to me the fact that you might not quite reach those aggressive goals is not a sign of failure.

Thinking of that as a failure means you have the wrong perspective.

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.

While I enjoy the success of reaching my initial goal of $5,000 in projected annual dividend income, I am shooting for the moon and revising that goal to aim 10% higher. It will be difficult and I might not make it–but I will enjoy the process and be better for pushing myself.

Do you think I will achieve my revised goal?

What goals do you have over the last two months of the year?