Year In Review :: 2018 Goal Recap

As the clock winds down on 2018, it is a natural moment to take pause and look back at the year that was before we set our sights on 2019 and the year to come.

This past year certainly brought about a great deal of change, some of which was forced upon me and some of which was self-initiated. The two biggest changes would have to be changing jobs after being with my prior employer for approximately 17 years (the former) and starting a dividend portfolio (the latter) as part of my investment strategy.

With the move to dividend investing, I also started sharing my journey here and have had the opportunity to virtually meet so many amazing people. I cannot thank you all enough for engaging with me here or on Twitter.

When starting this journey, I defined six goals but I am going to start with one that isn’t on my goals page:

$5,000 $5,500 in Projected Annual Dividend Income

You may recall that I achieved my initial goal of $5,000 in PADI at the end of October, and rather than easing off the gas pedal for the remainder of the year, I reset the bar higher.

I revised my goal to $5,500 in projected annual dividend income.

The recent moves that I have made to redeploy capital have certainly helped, but adding to positions in companies like BlackRock and Altria are what really moved the needle.

As you can see above, not only have I achieved my revised goal of $5,500 in projected annual dividend income but I smashed right through and will end the year with $5,708.06 in PADI!

Produce $2,500 in annual dividend income

As part of my dividend income reports, I have been sharing my progress towards this goal on a monthly basis.

In the November report, I was still shy of this goal by nearly $200 but I was confident that I would reach the goal based on the forecast of dividends to be received in December.

Given that I did not start my DGI portfolio until the end of May this year, I am extremely happy to have achieved this goal and am grateful that I had the opportunity to kick-start my portfolio with a nice lump sum that I had received due to some of the changes I mentioned earlier.

With the purchases that I made in December, I surpassed this goal by more than I had anticipated and will finish the year having received $2,815.49 in dividends!

Build portfolio where YOC is > 3.5%

Out of all my goals, this one feels the most arbitrary as I did not have a sound process of deciding on a target of 3.5% for my yield on cost but as shown below I have exceeded this target as well.

Lately I have read a number of articles or comments via social media that question the value of measuring yield on cost, as some believe it to be irrelevant and may even cause investors to hold onto losing investments that have changed fundamentally.

However you may feel about this metric, I am happy to share that I will close the year with a 4.47% YOC!

Establish REIT coverage in portfolio that produces $500 in forward dividend income

When faced with the decision on what to do with an old employer pension, I decided to do a rollover to an IRA and build my own mini-REIT ETF.

Through that process, I was able to receive over $300 in actual dividends received this year and as we close out 2018 my REIT coverage is currently forecast to produce $1,178 in projected annual dividend income!

Create a blog to chronicle my DGI journey and publish at least 1-2x per week

As mentioned earlier, I started this blog at the end of May and in approximately 7 months of existence I have published 54 posts (as the number shown to the right did not include this post).

While I am happy to achieve this goal, I am more excited about another number shown here–and that is 699 comments.

As much as I want this blog to chronicle my journey that I, or my kids, can look back at later, what I truly value is the dialog and sense of community that comes with interacting with all of you in the comments. Thank you all for chiming in and being engaged!

Satisfy the criteria to join The DIV-Net

Before starting my own dividend portfolio, I was doing quite a bit of due diligence on the strategy and reading a number of blogs. There were quite a few blogs that I found via the links shared over at The DIV-Net, and therefore once I decided to start my own blog it was natural to want it to be included as a resource there.

As you can see by the badge over on the right sidebar, I was able to successfully satisfy the criteria required and I have officially joined The DIV-Net!

Support and participate in the DGI Community

Last but not least, and certainly one of my favorite goals, was to support and participate in the DGI community. I like this goal because it takes a step away from my own blog or social media accounts, and instead is about doing what I can to help others.

One of my favorite ways to do that is to visit other blogs and comment on posts.

As an interesting aside for those that may be looking to make money from blogging, I received my first paying blog opportunity by being someone that left helpful and thoughtful comments on a prominent blog. The owner contacted me as a direct result of seeing all of my comments.

This is a goal that can always be improved upon as well, as it is primarily limited only by available time.

However, I do my best to engage with people on Twitter rather than just use it as a platform to promote my own material (I do that too, but try to have balance). Whether I can lend a hand by helping to answer a question or offering words of encouragement, I don’t want social media to be a vacuum of my own words.

If I haven’t stopped by your blog recently to comment, I apologize and encourage you to call me out (publicly or privately). My memory is not what it was in my younger days, and unless I receive an email about a new post, sometimes I forget to stop by and check.

Summary of Year

Looking back at these goals and considering each one to have been a success, I am both happy and a little disappointed.

The disappointment stems from the fact that I really like to challenge myself with goals that are difficult to achieve. I want my goals to push me beyond my comfort zone and I am okay with failing to achieve a goal.

For the year to come, I may need to push myself a little harder with more stretch goals.

However, until then, I would like to close this out by thanking you all again for taking the time out of your day to read what I share here, engaging in the comments, and doing what you do to help others learn and grow. While I would continue to do this if I did not have a single reader, having the opportunity to interact with you makes it so much more fun!

Wishing all a healthy, safe, and prosperous year ahead.

Happy New Year!