DOES WRITING DOWN GOALS GUARANTEE SUCCESS?

Is there a correlation between writing goals and success?

I might be a little biased because I've been writing both short-term (annual) goals and long-term (10 year) goals since I was in my mid 20s!  I don't consider myself a success just yet, but I do credit my accomplishments thus far to the goals I've set for myself.  For me, it ensures that there is progress each and every year and I don't become complacent. 

Even though there are many different studies that have linked goals to success, I am not sure that one can say that simply writing goals will "guarantee" success! One fabled Harvard University study sure appears to reveal a very telling story though.  In that study, only three percent of Harvard MBA students questioned had set and wrote goals on a regular basis. The stunning revelation of this study is that 10 years later, 50 percent of the total net worth of the group was held by just three percent of the group which made roughly ten times as much as their fellow MBA classmates. They were the same three percent that had a habit of setting and writing goals as students, then continued to write goals and review them regularly!!

It is up to you to choose to believe if the link truly exists, but for me and my family, we have no doubt that our written goals have allowed us to show progress each and every year! Regardless if the link to success exists or not, there are still many DGI bloggers that we follow whom have set goals for themselves this year.  And since the beginning of the year is a very appropriate time to set short-term goals, you may have come across a few 2017 goals posts.  In case you may have missed them, below is a link to a few posts from bloggers that we follow:

2017 goals from around the DGI community:

• A Frugal Family's Journey
• Buy, Hold Long
• Desidividend
• DivGro
• Dividend Diplomats - Lanny
• Dividend Diplomats - Bert
• Dividend Dolphin
• Dividend Growth Investor
• Dividend Hawk
• Dividend Ten
• Get Financially Integrated!
• Passive Income Dude
• Pollies Dividend
• Retire Before Dad
• Retire by 40
• Roadmap 2 Retire
• The Dividend Guy
• The Expat Investor
• My Dividend Pipeline

In case you are interested in writing goals but don't know where or how to start, below is a quick 5-step plan to help you set and hopefully complete your goals:

1) Set goals that motivates you - Your goal should be specific to you. They should also be achievable (and not impossible).

2) Set measurable goals - Your goals should be specific. For instance, timelines and quantities should be spelled out within the goal.

3) Put your goals in writing - Your goals should be written down either on paper or in digital format on the computer.

4) Check on your goals periodically - You need to make a commitment to check on your goals monthly, quarterly or bi-annually.  And be ready to adjust your plan, current habits, or find extra motivation if progress towards a certain goal is falling behind. 

5) Celebrate the completion of goals - It is important to celebrate and reward yourself for completing goals or milestones. Use each success as momentum to complete the next. Big or small, it is important to recognize each success! 

Feel free to browse through the goals from fellow bloggers for ideas!!

A Frugal Family's Journey - 2016 Goals (Recap)

Recap of 2016 goals!!

With another year on the books, our family is blessed to say that we did see some progress. The largest gain came from our home. In 2016, our family saw our mortgage balance continue to decrease while our home value saw a nice recovery. And with the recovery of the housing market well underway, supported by nice growth in the stock market, our family's net worth continued to grow this past year.  We saw gains in our retirement accounts, kids college funds, and dividend stocks account. All in all, we saw a roughly $46K (or 7.3%) gain from the year prior.  

As for the goals we set out to accomplish at the beginning of the year, it wasn't a total failure, but we certainly wished we could have done much better.  In all, we managed to accomplish only 7 of our 15 goals this past year.  We may have set the bar too high (and while likely dial it back this coming year), but we had just figured that even if we came close on some goals that it would be a success. And that is exactly what we did on several goals!  

BELOW IS A LIST OF OUR NEW 2016 GOALS AND ALONG WITH A NARRATIVE OF WHERE WE ENDED UP:

DIVIDEND STOCKS:

1.  Earn $3,600 in dividend income.

• (NOT ACCOMPLISHED) - Although we did (barely) receive more dividends than our 2015 total, we fell short of our goal by $460.58 with a total of $3,139.42 in dividend income.  I must admit that our buying activity was not quite what we had hoped for. With a few unexpected expenses this past year, a toddler in pre-school a few days a week, and living off just one income, we simply didn't have as much left over as we would have liked to invest into our dividend stocks portfolio.  It should be noted that we still, however, consistently invest monies into our retirement and kids college funds.  Our retirement portfolio is something we are trying to build on side (on-our-own) to help supplement our retirement income. 

2.  Increase projected annual dividend income to $4,100. 

• (NOT ACCOMPLISHED) - With such little buying activity this past year.  In fact, I believe we may have sold more stocks than we purchased this past year! In the end, we finished with a projected annual dividend income of $3229.22 which is pretty close to the total dividends we received this past year. 

3.  Bring value of dividend stocks accounts to $90,000 total. 

• (NOT ACCOMPLISHED) - Although we saw tremendous growth  in our dividend stocks portfolio (approximately 26%), our buying activity (or lack thereof) resulted in yet another unfinished goal.  We ended the year with our account valued at: $82,291. Really hoping our buying activity can increase significantly this coming year!

BLOG:

4.  Write at least 100 posts (8.33 posts/month).

• NOT ACCOMPLISHED - Due to a six week hiatus and a slow end to the year (with 6 posts in November and only 4 in December), we only managed to complete 86 posts this past year. With some consistently, this goal is reasonable and certainly achievable.     

5   Reach 350,000 total hits by end of the year.

• (ACCOMPLISHED) - We finished the year with 370,402 total all-time page views! Thank you everyone who have stopped by or follow us. We hope you continue to stop by from time to time to see the progress we've made on our journey to financial freedom! 

6.  Reach 900 Twitter followers by end of the year.

• (ACCOMPLISHED) - We finished the year with a total of 1,376 followers on Twitter! I'm pretty sure that it was with the help of tweets and our twitter followers that also helped us reach our page views goal. Thanks again everyone.

7.  Cash out $200 from Google AdSense.

• (NOT ACCOMPLISHED) - Although I did cash out once this year, I did not have enough money accumulated to cash out a second time.  I fell $36.04 short of reaching the $300 mark! Not sure if other bloggers are experiencing lower revenue stream from Google AdSense but we certainly have seen a decrease in activity and overall gains in the last few months.  Who knows, maybe its related to our 6-week hiatus.

8.  Join DIV-NET or Seeking Alpha.

• (NOT ACCOMPLISHED) - To be honest, I just couldn't find the time to take on another task. There were certainly ups and downs felt on our blogging journey this past year.  Although we ultimately decided to press forward, I will be the first to admit that the blog has taken a back seat to other things in our life. 

FINANCIAL MILESTONES:

9.    Increase value of retirement accounts to $450,000.

• (ACCOMPLISHED) - Consistency is the key! Even though we were not able to buy many new stocks for our dividend stocks portfolio, we still diligently put away money each and every paycheck towards retirement.  With this effort, we managed to increase the value of our retirements to $453,633!

10.  Increase Net Worth to $675,000 (excluding home equity).

• (NOT ACCOMPLISHED) - We ended the year with just a little over $625K.  Not bad, but well short of our goal for the year.  Maybe we were simply being to optimistic. Either way, since we have so far to go still to reach this goal, we are thinking of simply repeating the same goal. 

11.  Reduce mortgage balance to $292,000.

• (ACCOMPLISHED) - Really proud to say that we managed to hit this goal as we finished the year with our mortgage balance down to $291,145.  Not bad considering our home value is just north of $800K!

FUN GOALS:

12.  Try out 12 "new" restaurants/dessert place.

• (ACCOMPLISHED) - What can I say, we like to eat! This past year, in addition to destroying our goal to try out 12 new restaurants, I am proud to say that I become a Yelp Elite in the process! I like to think that it was my quality reviews and photos taken, but I'm pretty sure the quantity played a small part. In all, we ended up trying out 37 new restaurants and/or dessert places! I know what you are thinking, this probably didn't help the budget.  But the reality is, whenever possible (almost half the time) we generally try to use a paper coupon (from newspaper of Retailmenot website) or online coupon (like Groupon or Living Social).  Best of all, I am able to expose my kids to a huge variety of foods! As a result, my kids are far from being picky eaters. I say that is worth every penny!

13.  Go on 26 hikes (1 every other week).

• (ACCOMPLISHED) - We started the year with a goal to complete one hike every other week but finished the year with much, much more.  I have to admit we thoroughly enjoyed the progress we made on this goal as is evident in our final tally. I am proud to say that we completed 55 hike this past year (an average of more than 1 hike per week!).  Along the way, our family had many great adventures and stories that will last a lifetime. And best of all, the fun times were had with very little money out of our pocket! Not sure with we will even come close to 55 hikes next year but we definitely plan to continue hiking.  

14.  Visit 3 new parks.

• (ACCOMPLISHED) - We managed to barely complete this goal with our 3 visit to a new park coming just a week ago.  I really like this goal because I want to raise my kids as adventure seekers.  So what better than trying out a few new parks each year! If you have little ones, I highly recommend it.  It amazing to see how much different playgrounds and park equipment are from city to city or even state to state (if you have the opportunity).

15.  Volunteer for a project/event (ex. beach clean up, clear hiking trail, race event, serve food, etc.)

• (NOT ACCOMPLISHED) - No excuses here.  We really should have given more effort and made time for a volunteer project.  I'm thinking, as a penalty, I may double this goal for next year to make up for the lack of effort! :)

If we were being graded on the amount of goals we had accomplished, we would have ended with an F. Thankfully, in life, it is not always about the grade we receive (or even what others think) but rather it is about we we ended up compared to where we started.  In my opinion, even though we only completed 46.6% of our goals this year, I still consider this past year a success! Here is why:

1. Our total dividends, albeit not as much as we would have liked, still grew.
2. Our dividend stocks account, although didn't reach our goal, still saw a roughly 26% gain year-over-year!
3. Even though we did not post as much as we had hoped, our blog continues to reach more and more readers.
4. I was able to get outside and enjoy various places around me. The sights, sounds and taste that I experienced on my restaurant trips and hikes were quite memorable.  
5. I took my kids on am amazing road trip that include a total of 4 different states and 5 State Parks! We did, however, stay at 7 different hotels (which we learned that we will never do again). haha
6. I learned that blogging is fun but it isn't the end of the world if I took a break from it. 
7. And best of all, I can still say that our family remains on track to pay off our home and retire in less than 10 years!

Hope you all had a great year as well!

BEST WISHES AND CONTINUED SUCCESS ON YOUR PERSONAL JOURNEY

May 2017 bring you good health and great wealth!!

Mid-Year UPDATES from Around the DGI Community!!

I recently posted our family's mid-year progress report, and specifically, where we stood with each one of our 11 annual goals.  And although we don't post our progress here each and every month, we actually review our progress each and every month. After all, goals mean nothing if you don't periodically look at them to see where you stand, right?! 

With the above said, I thought I'd share a few links of mid-year progress reports from fellow DGI bloggers that I follow:

1. Roadmap 2 Retire - R2R recently provided an update on his annual goals in his quarterly update.  He has 5 goals listed and has already achieved one of his goals!
2. Pollies Dividend - Pollie recently provided his readers with a mid year review of his annual goals.  He has 5 goals and seems to be on track to accomplish each one of them.  He even raised 2 of his goals. 
3. Dividend Diplomats - 
• LANNY - Lanny recently provided a 2nd quarter check-up on his annual goals. He has 7 goals, 4 are monetary goals while 3 are non-monetary goals.
• BERT - Bert also provide his readers with a 2nd quarter review of his annual goals. Bert also has 7 goals but only one goal in non-monetary.  As a sports fan myself, I can appreciate his non-monetary goal. :)
4. Dividend Mantra - Jason recently provided his readers with a mid-year goals review. He has 4 goals and well on his way towards meeting each one of them.
5. Dividend Growth Journey - Ryan provided a update to his 2015 goals back in June. He has 4 goals to help him stay on track with his investment strategy and well as his current and forward dividends.
6. I Want to Retire Soon - Adam recently provided an update to his annual goals along with his June Summary. He has 5 goals and is on track to accomplish them all.
7. The Dividend Drive - TDD provided their readers with a progress report for the first half of the year. They have 7 goals and one goal is already achieved.  They are on track to accomplish at least 6 of their 7 goals.
8. DivGro - FerdiS provides an update on his goals in his recent 2nd quarter review. He has 4 goals: financial, health and an awesome goal to climb the world tallest building. 
9. Financially Free by 40 - Huw recently provided a 6-month goals update for his bloggers. He has a multitude of goals that are broken into Financial goals, Business goals, Employment goals, Physical goals, Emotional goals, Relationship goals, Contribution goals, and Blogging goals.
10. Leigh's Financial Journey - Leigh recently provided a 2nd quarter update for her readers. She has 11 goals and has already accomplished one.  She is on track to meet at least 8 of her 11 goals.

Although, a recent update was not posted, I thought I'd also mentioned that the following bloggers also provide annual goals on their blog:

1. My Dividend Pipeline
2. Young Dividend
3. Dividend Dreams
4. Dividend Legion
5. Dividend Empire
6. A Dividend Dream!
7. Dividend Vet
8. Financial Freedom
9. Passive Income Mavericks
10. Dividend Beginner
11. Dividend Quest
12. Dividend Life
13. The Dividend SWAN
14. Dividend Dreamer
15. Frugality to Financial Freedom
16. Forward Dividends
17. Anha Investing
18. My-Dividends.com
19. Dividend Mongrel
20. The Financial Unicorn

As you can see, many bloggers have annual goals for themselves.  What do you think, is there a possible correlation between having goals and success? I don't consider us a success story just yet, but I can tell you that what our family has accomplished thus far has been with the help of having annual goals for ourselves.  Whether you decide to public announce your goals or not, we encourage everyone to set goals for yourselves.  Even one goal is better than none! 

2015 Goals (Update) - Mid Year

In January, we set a total of 12 goals for the 2015 Calendar year.  We had made goals for our dividend stocks, P2P accounts, Blog, and Financial Milestone.  Below is a mid-year progress report to show how we are doing on these 12 goals.  The results provided was a snapshot taken as of July 1, 2015. On a side note, where did the first half of the year go? Time flies when your having fun, I guess! :) 

With 6-months left in the year, we should technically be half-way, or otherwise at 50% of our goal. Based on these results, it appears that we are doing well and should be on target to accomplish at least 9 of the 12 goals we set for ourselves.  It looks like we will have to put a little extra effort if we want to accomplish goals #1, #5, and #12.  Of course we hope to be successful in accomplishing all of our goals but honestly, we would be happy to remain on track and accomplish 9 of 12 (75%) or 10 of 12 (83%) of our published goals.  

Thanks for following along...stay tuned to see if we continue our current success! 

Regards, 
A Frugal Family's Journey

2015 GOALS

DIVIDEND STOCKS:

1.  Earn $3,000 in dividend income.

• $1,042.57 - Wells Fargo Account
• $187.70 - Edward Jones Account
• Current total: $1,230.27 (41% of goal)

2.  Increase projected annual dividend income to $3,500.

• $2,590.34 - Wells Fargo Account
• $375.40 - Edward Jones Account
• Current Annual Projection: $2,965.74 (84.7% of goal)

3.  Increase number of holdings to 40 (stocks and/or ETFs).

• ACCOMPLISHED!

P2P ACCOUNTS:

4.  Have a combined $20,000 from both accounts.

• $9,388 - Prosper
• $9,378 - Lending Club
• Current total: $18,766 (93.8% of goal)

5.  Maintain an average interest rate of 6.0% or higher (combined).

• AVG return from notes is currently: 5.78% (.22% more to go)

BLOG:

6.  Write at least 84 posts (7 posts / month).

• Currently total: 61 posts (72% of goal)

7  Reach 150,000 total hits by end of the year.

• Current total: 102,239 total hits (68.1% of goal)

8.  Increase stock analyses collection to 800+.

• Current total: 755 stock analyses in our collection (94% of goal)

9. Cash out my first $100 from Google AdSense.

• Currently total: $84.64 (84% of goal)

FINANCIAL MILESTONES:

10.  Increase value of retirement accounts to $425,000.

• Current total: $403,419 (94.9% of goal) 

11.  Increase Net Worth to $650,000 (excluding home equity).

• Current total: $645,240 (99.2% of goal)

12. Reduce mortgage balance to $312,000.

• Current Balance: $324,622 ($12,622 to reach goal).

2015 Goals - A Frugal Family's Journey

New year means a fresh list of NEW goals!!

 

This past year was a pretty good year for our family.  Although our net worth did not grow as much as it had the previous two years, it still felt like we accomplished quite a bit. Albeit smaller steps, we still took few steps towards our ultimate goal of Financial Independence. 

 

Since we didn't start blogging until March of 2014, we did have a list of goals generated last year (at least one that we publicly announced). Nevertheless, the items we considered to be significant accomplishments for us in 2014 were:

1. We finished selling all stocks that did not pay a dividend.
2. We now own stocks in over 30 companies that pay us a dividend.
3. We received more than $2,500 in dividends.
4. We have over $17,500 combined our P2P accounts.
5. Starting our blog on March 15, 2014.
6. Reached over 45,000 views on our blog.
7. Created 77 posts on our blog.
8. We were approved for Google AdSense in November.
9. We now have a twitter account.
10. Our mortgage balance has been reduced to $336,849.
11. I received a promotion in July of 2014 and more importantly, a roughly 5.5% raise.

We are looking forward to an even more productive 2015.  We hope to make significant strides in our dividend stock accounts, P2P accounts, blog, and other financial milestones. 

 

BELOW IS A LIST OF OUR 2015 GOALS

DIVIDEND STOCKS:

1.  Earn $3,000 in dividend income.

2.  Increase projected annual dividend income to $3,500.

3.  Increase number of holdings to 40 (stocks and/or ETFs).

 

P2P ACCOUNTS:

4.  Have a combined $20,000 from both accounts.

5.  Maintain an average interest rate of 6.0% or higher (combined).

 

BLOG:

6.  Write at least 84 posts (7 posts / month).

7  Reach 150,000 total hits by end of the year.

8.  Increase stock analyses collection to 800+.

9. Cash out my first $100 from Google AdSense.

 

FINANCIAL MILESTONES:

10.  Increase value of retirement accounts to $425,000.

11.  Increase Net Worth to $650,000 (excluding home equity).

12. Reduce mortgage balance to $312,000.

 

We have created a landing page for our 2015 goals and plan to provide quarterly updates.  Please feel free to follow along and see our progress!!

 

2015 GOALS PAGE