At the beginning of last year I created a list of goals that I wanted to achieve during 2018. I found it to be useful, as seeing them gave me additional motivation throughout the year. The year ended with 7 out of 10 goals completed. So I decided to create a new set of goals this year. I will again put them into three categories: Financial, Fitness and Personal development. Let’s see what I came up with.
Financial Goals
1. Grow passive income portfolio to €17000
I failed the portfolio goal last year but I am setting another optimistic target for 2019. My portfolio of stocks and loans in P2P lending platform stood at €10234 at the end of 2018. I set the target to €17k and this would mean contributing ~€564/month, not taking into account market fluctuations. It may be harder to save this year, as I will be contributing more of my income to retirement accounts and our family will probably have slightly more expenses, as we are family of three now. Hopefully, we will be able to find some places where we can save, though.
2. Receive €480 in passive income
My goal for 2018 was to earn €240 from passive income and I ended up the year with €255. I decided to make an ambitious thing – double my goal of 2018 and make it €480 (which would be €40/month). Currently, my projected dividend income stands at ~€330, so I will need to do some heavy investing if I want to achieve this goal.
3. Raise PADI (Projected Annual Dividend Income) to $450 from US companies
My current PADI from US stocks stands at $236 after taxes. I also hold some shares of companies in Baltic market but their dividend income is not predictable so I don’t include them in projected income. If I contribute $6000 of fresh capital to my portfolio, it should add ~$150-180 which would raise my PADI to ~$386-416. I will also reinvest dividends and hopefully will receive some dividend raises, so $450 sounds like a challenging but doable goal.
4. Contribute €600 to our daughter’s fund
I recently opened an account in ETFmatic which I will be using to invest small amounts monthly for our baby-girl’s future. Those funds get auto-invested to various index funds with low commissions. The plan is to invest €50/month for now and let the compound interest do its work over the years.
Fitness Goals
5. Finish “Lithuanian Triathlon Cup” in top 20% of my category
Last year I participated in the Lithuanian Triathlon Cup and had a goal to finish in top 50% of the final classification. I ended up in top 22%, so I will try to improve from there. This will not be easy, as I rarely end up in top half of the field in individual events.
Recently, one phrase caught my attention: “Show me a triathlete who has no desire to swim, bike, and run stronger and faster, and I’ll show you an athlete who will not be in the sport for long”. Motivation to become better is one of the biggest factors to stay active. I noticed that it is harder to stay fit and train consistently if you don’t set some goals for yourself. Therefore, I already purchased a season-pass and am preparing for the first race which will take place at the end of April.
6. Run a marathon in 3:45
This is the same goal that I had last year and failed by 2 minutes. I will try to make it work this year.
7. Complete Half-Ironman distance triathlon in less than 5:39:43
I broke my personal record for Half-Ironman distance triathlon last year. I am planning to participate in one more race of this distance and the goal is to beat the time I reached last year. It may be tricky, as I don’t know what the race profile will look like (if there will be many hills etc). Anyway, this will be my A race of the season, so I will do my best to prepare for it well.
8. Be able to do 20 pull-ups
The last time I was able to do 20 pull-ups was when I was ~17-18 years old. That’s at least 12 years ago. I am ashamed to admit but I can only do 3-4 of them at the moment. It’s a tremendous exercise for the upper-body, in my opinion, so I will challenge myself to get back in shape and be able to do 20 pull-ups.
Personal Development Goals
9. Read 15 books
This one is short and simple. Last year I read 12 books, so I am upping up the challenge by a bit and aiming for 15 this year.
10. New IT certification
Louis L’Amour once said: “The only thing that never changes is that everything changes”. I work in IT field and it couldn’t be more true in this type of career. It’s important to keep learning new things, so I am setting the same goal for the third year in a row.
Summary
I ended up with settings 10 goals for myself this year. When I look at the list, most of them look really challenging and it will be interesting to see how many of them I end up achieving. But as one of my readers wrote in a comment – it’s better to “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
Did you set any goals for yourself this year? Do you usually end up achieving them? Don’t hesitate to leave your comments and thanks for reading!
I like this quote by Les Brown as well and I really enjoy reading your blog!
You lead by example my friend!
Thanks a lot Romas! Comments like these is one of the reasons I love documenting my journey here 🙂
Great goals BI, and I really like how you are setting the bar high and pushing yourself. Re: the fitness goals, I must say that I admire your ability there as I have never been able to run much more than a 5k.
I look forward to following along with your progress and seeing how you rise to the challenge!
Thanks a lot DivvyDad! It just takes consistency with those fitness goals, and I always loved grinding 😀
Looking forward to follow your progress as well!
Hi, nice set of goals, but still missing savibg rate 😉 Looks like youll be catching me in relate to passive income. Im a bit wondering re plan for cash accumulation right now 🙁
Hey P2035,
Yes, I decided to go with the portfolio value again. I am planning to contribute ~€500/month but haven’t added it as a separate goal 🙂
500€/mo thats huge! 6K€ of new capital. If you do it your way ahead of me with my 200€/mo investments.
I would like to reflect on your pullup chalange as well. I started 1 pullup/day chalange myself back in December. Easy and takes no time. Just one pullup each morning. Now im doing 3 each morning and tested the max limit. It was 6 pullups. Altough I cannot beat you at the running as I can see you are a tottal pro there I can compete in your 20 pullup chalange 🙂 Lets see if I will be able to do 20 pullups at end of Y2019.
Challenge accepted! 🙂 Let’s see if we can make it!
Great 🙂 Youll see it at my quartely sport raports. Maybe even put it into my goal list, but I consider it already too big – 8 goals. Have to keep ir simple and short. Lets keep it as personal interbloger chalange 🙂 Maybe anyone from DGI community wana join?
But have to film the 20 pullups to prove that the goal is completed 😉
Sorry for spam, but a 1 pullup chalange gor you BI 😉 https://p2035.com/2019/01/15/1-pushup-challange/
+20 pullup at one time till end of y2019. My final packet deal 🙂
Haha, no worries, thanks for the comment 🙂 is it 1 pullup or pushup then? I am doing sports 5-6 times a week, so I think that’s more than enough. I will stick to the 20 pull-ups in one go until end of 2019, I’ll have to film it then 🙂
Since your doing pull-ups its 1 pull-up/day challenge. Im doing pull-ups. Ok lets keep it 20 pull-ups until end of 2019. Just tried my max limit. Its 7-8 at the moment 🙂 Ill include you into the challenge list with * then 😉
Wow, it looks like it won’t take long before you reach 20 🙂 I can only do 5 so far 🙂
Nice, BI! Great goal overview and varied distribution among different categories.
I’m also curious about the pullup challenge. This is one of my favourite exercises. Pullups uncover the truth about the relative strength with no merci 🙂
Someone might be big and have power, but if he can’t do some pullups, the relative strenght is most likely low.
I’ve introduced weighted chin ups since approx. 1 year. And it helped me a lot with normal non-weighted chins. However I have to take things somewhat easier due to an injury lately. When I recover, I’ll join you guys with the 20 pullups challenge. Sound like a nice motivation for 2019.
P.S. we just have to agree whether it’s gonna be pullups or chin ups. Chins are way easier then pullups normally.
Let me know:)
Thanks for the comment SnugFortune and welcome to the challenge! 🙂
It’s pullups (with overhand grip). I agree that chinups are way easier.
I hope your injury is not serious and you recover quickly. Good luck! 🙂
That’s quite the goal list, BI.
Great to see you’ve got a savings goal for your daughter. Never too early to start on that.
The fitness goals look daunting. I’m hoping you can continue your progress in that arena. I don’t think I’d have a chance at achieving those.
Definitely keep honing your professional craft. Those new skills will be valuable tools in moving your career forward.
All the best for 2019!
Thanks for the comment ED!
I think it’s going to be a tough year but should be interesting at the same time 🙂
Good luck with your goals for 2019 as well!
Awesome list BI. Great to see you setting the bar higher and stretching yourself. Let’s go for it in 2019!
Thanks Mr. Robot! Same goes to you, let’s do it! 🙂