Updates on Goals – Year 2021

It is shocking that we are already into the last month of the year 2021. I am so busy with life and work that I am unable to pay attention to everything else that is going on around me. Perhaps it is a sign to take things easy for a change and also not get too bogged down with responsibilities. As I write this, there is news about a new COVID-19 variant called Omicron that is supposedly originating from South Africa. At this point, I have pretty much resigned to the fact that COVID or some other variant of the virus will never go away and we will eventually run out of Greek alphabets trying to identify each variant.

But this post is, thankfully, not going to be discussing about COVID variants. Given that we are heading towards the end of the year and setting sights on 2022, I thought it is good time to look back at my year’s goals, review my progress and set new goals for the coming year.

Goal 1: Write atleast one post per week

Result: Not Achieved.

Maintaining a blog is a lot of work, much more work than one can imagine. Moreover, with a 9-5 job and also a family to take care of, I have very little personal time to do anything else. Why choose blogging then? For one simple reason: I really wanted to get back to writing and penning my thoughts down somewhere. Interestingly, writing helps me in my thought process. It forces me to introspect deeply about the subject. And since I am spending quite a lot of time thinking about retirement, financial independence through dividend growth investing, writing about these subjects would reinforce my own belief system on these subjects.

I kept a very lofty goal of one post per week this year, knowing fully well that I would most likely NOT be able to achieve this given my other responsibilities. But I wanted to try anyway. The pursuit would ensure that I keep writing often.

Although I missed posting every single week, I came pretty close than what I initially though. My average posting frequency was still pretty high for each month.

Goal 2: Div-Net associate membership

Result: Achieved.

My second goal this year was to engage meaningfully with the dividend investing community on the blogosphere and also the world wide web, in general. Through this blog and then, additionally, through Twitter, I have been able to reach out to several like-minded investors. Dividend growth investing can be very challenging. It is very common to sometimes lose focus and wonder if this is really is the right strategy. Talking to like-minded investors, listening and learning from their experiences helps immensely. There are so many alternative approaches within the umbrella of dividend growth investing that it helps to listen to counter viewpoints sometimes.

As far as the blogging community, I wanted to be a part of a network of bloggers who would blog on this subject. I learned about Div-Net by sheer accident, as I saw their badge appears on several blogs that I would regularly follow. I am happy that I was able to satisfy their entry criteria for associate membership.

Goal 3: $1000+ in annual dividend income

Result: Achieved.

Eventually, I decided to share my progress on my dividend portfolio mostly for my own self and I will continue doing so until it makes sense. If it happens to motivate someone in the process, I will consider that as a huge plus for myself.

I am happy to report that I am well past my stated goal of $1000+ for annual dividend income. Part of my goal when I started this blog was to report my monthly progress here. I thought about this pretty long and hard, because there is technically no reason for me to report my passive income on the internet. In fact, the dividend portfolio that I discuss on this blog is only a small portion of my net worth and I do not plan on disclosing the other portions of net worth.

Goals for Year 2022

I have penned down the following goals for the upcoming year:

• Cover atleast 5 investing book reviews
• Write alteast one blog post per week
• Earn $3000+ in annual dividend income

The first goal will force me to read/re-read investing books that I have been on my “to read” list for a while. There is just no substitute to knowledge gained from reading books on investing, or any other subject for that matter. I have kept this to a reasonable number (5) thereby allowing me to read the book and deeply introspect on the subject matter.

The second goal is a repetition from last time. I want to be able to continue writing regularly on this blog and since I was not able to achieve this goal this year, I will try my best to hit this for the coming year. Fingers crossed.

The third goal also looks pretty aggressive. I have no idea what kind of expenses will hit my wallet in my coming year, so I do not know if I will be achieve a $3000+ figure on annual dividend income. Let us see how I do in that pursuit.

What goals do you have in mind for the upcoming year? Were you able to achieve your goals for the current year? Please let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading thus far…