For the last few years, I created lists of annual goals to achieve. It helps me to stay motivated and I like putting goals on paper in general.
This year is no exception, so the tradition continues. As always, the goals are divided into three categories – Financial, Fitness & Personal Development. Without further ado, let’s see what I came up with this time.
Financial Goals
1. Contribute at least €6000 to passive income portfolio
During 2019, I contributed ~€6300 to taxable investment accounts. This year I expect to have less money available for investment, as there are some personal headwinds. However, I am hoping that I will still find a way to contribute at least €500/month in average throughout 2020.
2. Receive €1000 in passive income
Last year I had a goal to receive €480 in passive income and ended up receiving €570. This year I am setting the bar at a round number of €1000. Currently, if I don’t experience any dividend cuts and don’t add to my portfolio, I should receive close to €600 from dividends. Interest from P2P lending should add another €100, so it would be ~€700 in total.
When setting this goal, I was thinking about €900, as €1000 is a big stretch, but decided to go with the latter in the end. Most probably it will be too hard to reach this target but I will do my best to come as close as possible.
3. Cover 5% of our annual expenses with passive income.
This time I decided to include a new goal in financial goals category. Last year, our passive income covered ~2.5% of our expenses throughout the year. It will be hard to double the percentage rate, as we will have some additional expenses (mainly daycare). But I like this goal, as it will encourage us to do our best in two ways – increase our passive income and reduce expenses where possible.
4. Contribute €720 to our daughter’s fund
Lastly, quite a simple goal to continue contributing to our daughter’s portfolio in ETFMatic. Last year, I contributed €600 and her portfolio stands at €733. This year, I am raising the contributions goal to €720, which is €60/month. Nothing special here. Our daughter has a lot of time in front of her, so let’s make the compounding do its work.
Fitness Goals
Last year I failed all of my fitness goals. Well, I didn’t even try to achieve two of them. I wasn’t motivated enough to train for triathlons/marathon consistently and had some minor health issues. Truth be told, I was thinking about changing my approach to fitness goals for some time already.
The main reason for doing sports should be health improvement. Participating in competitions definitely adds some motivation and helps satisfying your ego but I doubt if it’s adding any health benefits. That being said, not doing any sports is even worse. So I came up with a few goals that should be beneficial for my health and general fitness level:
5. Be able to do 20 pull-ups
This is a goal from last year. I started 2019 being able to do 3 pull-ups and improved to 10. This year, I am continuing from where I left and will try to achieve 20 pull-ups. Me and a few colleagues are doing short but intensive workouts before lunch three times a week pretty consistently for 5-6 months already. I am planning to continue this habit and it will help me to achieve this goal.
6. Run 800km during 2020
Last year, I ran 480km in total, as it was pretty inconsistent. The plan this year is to go for a ~5km run 3 times a week. We have 52 weeks in a year, so it adds up to 780km if I do it consistently. That’s how I came up with the 800km target.
I love running for a few reasons. Firstly, it improves your endurance and strengthens your heart. Secondly, you don’t need much equipment and preparation to go for a run. Furthermore, I usually listen to some podcasts while running, so it’s a form of active rest and education at the same time.
7. Reduce weight to under 80kg
The last goal in fitness category is a cliché one. I guess reducing your weight is one of the most common new year resolutions people make. Anyway, my weight keeps drifting up during the last few years. I currently weigh 83-84kg. Let’s see if I can reverse the trend and go back to under 80kg.
Personal Development Goals
8. Read 12 books
Last year I had a goal to read 15 books and ended up with 9. This year, I am reducing the target to 12 books which means at least 1 book/month.
9. New IT certification
Traditionally, I am adding a goal to achieve some new IT certification. I love learning new things and hopefully it will help to advance in my career.
10. Publish an exclusive article in Seeking Alpha
Lastly, probably the hardest goal in my list. This year, I would like to improve my writing and stock analysis skills. Being featured in Seeking Alpha website would require a lot of improvement in both of these fields. Again, even if I don’t achieve the goal, I should give it a go. The main thing is to keep improving and be in a better situation than I was yesterday.
Summary
Just like in the last two years, I ended up with 10 goals in total. Some of them are easy and others will require a lot of effort to achieve. I am already working on most of them, so it will be interesting to see how it progresses when the year goes by.
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 your goals! 20 pullups, one of the things I’m also working towards :). I can do between 5 and 10 now. Hopefully I can report back in a year time with 20+.
Thanks SD! Glad to share this goal with you. Let’s see if we can improve enough this year to reach this one 🙂
Wow our goals are almost identical in narute 🙂 20% saving rate = 500€/mo or same 6k€. Also aiming for 1k€ forward dividends. 750€ at the moment. And 1k€ will be also ~5% of our cost (~20k€). Also going for run goals and weight losing but bit less 300km and 85kg (from 93kg now). Got interested about seeking alpha posts 🙂 would be interested to post stuf like that and I have few ideas.
I guess we care about similar things, hence the goals are similar as well 🙂
Good luck with your goals! Let’s see how many of them we are able to cross out by the year’s end.
This is a solid list of goals but you might want to consider not telling everyone. When you tell people certain goals, you’re less likely to achieve them (research linked on my name). I’ve stopped telling people about my goals until I’m well along the path to achieving them. This has helped me accomplish them. But either way thanks for sharing and best of luck :).
Hi Brian,
That’s interesting, I never thought it would work this way. Going to read your post.
I actually thought that it’s vice versa, at least in my case. If I tell something publicly, I get more motivation to complete it. If I would keep it to myself, it would be easier to just let it go 🙂
Good goals for 2020 BI. I like that it is diversified among financial, fitness and personal development. Don’t worry about not achieving your fitness goals last year. 2020 is a brand new year with brand new motivations. Good luck and I look forward to following your progress throughout the year.
Thanks a lot DP! It feels good to start a fresh year.
Let’s crush it this year!