2015 1st Quarter Goals Review

I have seen some up and downs this year and I continue tread lightly. I am going to review each goal in order to see where I am at.  

1. Have a net worth of $50,000 (includes Savings, Checking, 401k, and broker accounts) 

This one will be tough because on January 1st, my net worth stood at $19,102. The goal is to bring this amount all the way up to a solid $50,000 by the end of the year.

Where do I stand?

I am excited to announce that my net worth is currently $29,331 which gives me an increase of 34.87% in just 3 months. This is some pretty solid results so far. However I still have a long way to go.

Conclusion

I still need to increase my net worth by $20,669 in order to accomplish this goal. This means I am going to have to increase my net worth by $2296 for each month left of the year. This won’t be an easy task but I think it is achievable.

2. Receive $1000 in dividends from stocks during the year of 2015

This will be the hardest goal among all three because I set the bar real high. In 2014 I earned only $205 in dividends and now I am hoping to achieve 5 times that amount.

Where do I stand?

So far I have earned a total of $134.83 in dividends for the first quarter.  It looks like I have a lot of catching up to do. My main concern is that I have been adding to companies that have a low dividend but high growth rate. I am talking about companies like DIS, AAPL, and SBUX. These companies will surely help increase my net worth, but will not do much for my dividend goal.

Conclusion

I still need to increase my dividends earned this year by $865.17 in order to achieve this goal. This means I will have to earn an average of $96.13 for each month left in 2015. I am not counting myself out here because we have plenty time left in the year, but surely this one will require putting some serious capital to work in higher dividend paying companies. 

3. Save 37% of my net income from all sources. (Annual Average)

I have been reducing my expenses this year in order to increase my average annual savings rate. So far I have decreased my grocery bill to $180/month, decreased my cable bill by 50%, and cancelled my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu membership.

Where do I stand?

My main concern is all of the car expenses that have been piling up this year. This has been a huge drag on my progress to achieve the 37% savings rate. What’s worse is that my car was overheating on the highway to work this morning due to the ac compressor belt snapping off. So yet again my car is in the garage this morning and the total cost for a water pump, belt, and pulley will be an astonishing $859. My full two week pay check is going right into the car. It really sucks when I don't have much of a choice here. I am avoiding the temptation of buying another used car because I have already put a ton of money into this one. At this point it would probably be cheaper to finance a newer car on a monthly basis compared to the monthly repair I am having to eat up on my current vehicle. This will certainly be the lat time I own a Cadillac.

Conclusion
Currently my average savings rate is sitting at 32.18%. I am not too far off from my goal of saving 37% of my monthly income, but I really need to figure out how to cut the cost of car repairs. I don't want to finance anything at this time because I don't want any liabilities, but having a $100/month car loan might make sense in my situation. 

2014 and 2015 Goals Review

I finally got a chance to look over my goals for last year. Here are the results:

2014 Goals:

• Pay off my student Loan (Unsuccessful - $988 Left)
• Pay off all credit card debt (completed 8/7/2014)
• Have a net worth of $22,000 (includes Savings, Checking, 401k, and broker accounts) (completed 9/7/2014)
• Receive $100 in interest from my savings account for the year (Unsuccessful - Received $62)
• Receive $225 in dividends from stocks during the year of 2014 (Unsuccessful - Received $205)
• Increase my yearly income by 5% or $34,257 (Completed 12/16/14)

Half of my goals were completed successfully for 2014.

• I could have paid off my student loan in full since I only owed $988 but I decided the 3.4% interest rate was low enough to hold a balance
• I was short $38 for my Interest earnings goal
• I was short $20 for my dividend earnings goal

Even though I did fail in some of my goals, I wasn't far off at all. I am now putting these behind me and have a new set of goals for 2015.

2015 Goals:

• Have a net worth of $50,000 (includes Savings, Checking, 401k, and broker accounts) 
• Receive $1000 in dividends from stocks during the year of 2015
• Save 37% of my net income from all sources. (Annual Average)

Goal Update - Increase Yearly Income

With only a few weeks left of the year I have successfully earned more income this year compared to 2013. My goal was to increase my earned income by 5% which comes out to $34,257. I am hoping to successfully complete another goal by then end of the year. The other thing I will be working on will be to update my goals for 2015.

2014 Goals:

• Increase my yearly income by 5% or $34,257 (Completed 12/16/14)

Goal Update - Net Worth Goal Completed

• Have a net worth of $22,000 (includes Savings, Checking, 401k, and broker accounts)

About a year ago I was sitting on less than $5,000 in my savings account and to some people that`s not that bad.  I also owed over $2,000 to the credit card companies and $2,500 in student loans. I was only worth about $500 when you subtract my liabilities. 

How Could This Be? 

I have worked and busted my butt for 12 years and somehow the money I made was gone. It's called consumerism in my book. I liked the fancy Bulova watches, Jordan shoes, and Express clothing. I didn't need any of it. It took me a long  time to wake the hell up. My experiences I write here are to explain how someone who came from nothing turned his life around. In just one year I was able to pay off those credit cards and I am now sitting on over $22,000 in multiple accounts. This is way better than $500 from where I am standing. The numbers are real and it wasn't hard to accomplish this goal. I am going to keep pushing forward and I want to prove to myself that $50,000 is not that hard to save. To some people that is a lot of money, including myself. I plan on explaining how I save the next $28,000 right here on my blog. 

Invest, invest, and invest your money.

Make your money work for you. Work hard, play soft. Another words make your money and stop spending and start investing. In a year from now when I am sitting on $50,000 I will be much more confident and closer to being an entrepreneur. Think about it, I can start a business or buy investment properties with that to make even more money. Money is power. Knowledge is power to. Work hard and invest is my philosophy and it got me this far. The next 28K will be a piece of cake with a cheap bottle of champagne!

Review of Goals for 2014

Sachusett Point National Wildlife Refuge, Middletown, RI.

We are now half way through the year and I still have a ton of work to do in order to complete some of my financial goals. I have already made some serious changes in my life in order to gain financial independence before the age of 55. I would like to think that I could retire a little younger than 55 because that is 26 years from now. I could do a lot of investing and career changes in 26 years in order to achieve financial independence at a younger age, but for now I am going to stick with that number because I think it is practical. Most of my goals are nearly complete and some of them could use a little more work.

• Pay off student loan - I still owe $1259.44 on my student loan which isn't much at all. However the interest rate is at a low 3.4% so I have been making the minimum payments. I do plan on paying a little extra the next few months in order to finally get rid of this bill. (Up to par)
• Pay of all credit card debt - My current credit card debt is $1306.15. I plan on paying this off within the next 2-3 months because the interest rate is a ridiculous 22%. I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to buy all those Christmas gifts last year on my Discover card. Oh well I learned the hard way. That wont be happening again. (Up to par)
• Have a net worth of $22,000 - I started using an app called Personal Capital in order to keep track of my net worth on a daily basis. I no longer have to login to 5 accounts a day in order to see what my funds are because Personal Capital keeps track of all activity within your banks, credit cards, investments, etc. I currently have a net worth of $18,190. I am confident that I can exceed this goal by the end of the year. It's exciting to know that I have all this extra money and that I have a positive net worth. Hopefully I will never go back into a negative net worth, however I do plan on buying an investment property in the future. (Up to par)
• Receive $100 in interest from Savings Account - I have made $29.69 in interest for the year so I am very behind on this goal. However I do plan on catching up and have another 6 months to do so. In order to catch up on the interest, I have moved some of my cash into CDs earning a higher interest rate than my savings account. I like having my money spread throughout multiple investments and plan to receive passive income from stocks, CDs, investment properties, Lending Club, and saving account. Unfortunately I can not use Lending Club in the state of Massachusetts but I think that law will be ending soon so I'll have to wait and see. (Needs Work)
• Receive $225 in dividends from stocks - I am very behind on this goal because I have only received a grand total of $40.85 from dividends for the year. I still think I can achieve this goal if I can invest in companies with a high dividend yield. I'm going to have to start putting some serious capital to work within the next 6 months if I want to earn another $184.15 in dividend income for the year. (Needs Work)
• Increase my yearly income by 5% or $34,257 - I started this goal a few months ago because I think it's important that I keep increasing my salary, even if that means I have to find new employment. The great thing is that I can count my passive income from interest and dividends towards my yearly income. So far I made:

Income Source	YTD Income
I.T. Job	$4,372.50
Counselor Job	$16,713.63
Interest Income	$29.69
Dividend Income	$40.85
Grand Total	$21,156.67

               I have exceeded the half way point on this goal and I can potentially be making over 40k this  year if I continue on the same path. (Up to Par)

In conclusion, I am hoping to achieve all of these goals by the end of the year but I can settle for 5/6. Maybe I should focus on completing one goal at a time instead of looking at all of them as a whole. For example I should pay off all my credit card debt first and then pay off all my student loan debt. After that maybe I can focus on getting $225 worth of dividends and then try to earn $100 worth of interest. I recently wrote about how I am 1.21% retired and that number shot up to 1.30% as of July 13th. In the future I might be adding a goal related to this topic on how far along I am to being financially independent. Let's see where the next 6 months will take me. How are you doing on your goals for the year? 

Goal Update - Increase Income for the year by 5%

I have updated my goals page and decided that their is room for one more goal this year. I plan on increasing my yearly salary by 5% compared to last year. This will help me keep up with inflation and its a great way to make sure I am progressing each year in the work force. In order to make sure I achieve my goal I might have to work a little extra overtime, but I may also start looking for a higher paying job. The interest and dividends I collect for the year will also help me because that is also considered income at the end of the year. The last five years have been pretty good for me and I have managed to keep myself on an upwards trend.

• In 2010 I increased my yearly income by 41.8%
• In 2011 I increased my yearly income by 4.8%
• In 2012 I increased my yearly income by 21.3%
• In 2013 I increased my yearly income by 16.4%
• In 2014 I hope to increase my yearly income by 5% which would make it $34,257