Evaluating my goals for the past year is not without its difficulties. I barely had a sense of direction when I started. But, intuitively, I know it is good to review and assess so that I can set reasonable goals for the new year and push myself to achieve more.
With that, let me dive in to the goals I set for myself this past year.
| Goal | Date Completed | |
| Open a Brokerage Account | 15 November 2022 | ✅ |
| Fund the Brokerage Account with $100 | 15 November 2022 | ✅ |
| Dividends: $1/Month | 21 November 2022 | ✅ |
| Dividends: $2/Month | 28 November 2022 | ✅ |
| Dividends: $5/Month | 3 January 2023 | ✅ |
| Reinvesting Dividends = 1 Share Automatically Purchased Per Year | 19 December 2022 | ✅ |
| Beer Money: $1000 invested | 31 January 2023 | ✅ |
| Dividends: $100/Year | 6 March 2023 | ✅ |
| Dividends: $10/Month | 3 April 2023 | ✅ |
| Reinvesting Dividends = 2 Shares Automatically Purchased Per Year | 3 January 2023 | ✅ |
| Dividends: $15/Month | 10 July 2023 | ✅ |
| Beer Money: $2000 invested | 13 June 2023 | ✅ |
| Enable Margin in the Brokerage Account | 24 July 2023 | ✅ |
| Dividends: $200/year | 7 August 2023 | ✅ |
These are the original goals that I set out for myself. Some were logistical, such as opening and funding a brokerage or enabling the use of margin in the account. Some were financial, such as earning and investing $2,000 dollars for the year. Others that I thought were practical, such as earning 1 share of a stock from allowing dividends to be reinvested were less important than I originally thought.
I think it was important for me – psychologically – to have a lot of mini-milestones early on that I could easily achieve. It really helped to keep me motivated. I don’t think I’m in the same place anymore and so I want to simplify a bit next year.
The other piece of this is that, while I thought I was being reasonable, I actually wildly underestimated myself. I want to set goals that are slightly out of reach so that I push myself more.
Below are the stretch goals I set for myself once I realized I would achieve all of the original goals I set for myself.
| Goal | Date Completed | |
| Beer Money: $2500 invested | 7 August 2023 | ✅ |
| Dividends: $20/Month | 5 September 2023 | ✅ |
| Beer Money: $3000 invested | 28 August 2023 | ✅ |
| Dividends: $25/Month | 23 October 2023 | ✅ |
| Stock Trading: $200 earned | 18 August 2023 | ✅ |
| Stock Trading: $500 earned | 31 August 2023 | ✅ |
| Churning: $1000 earned | – | ❌ |
I was on track to meet all these stretch goals, but did not quite hit the mark. I also set loose goals on my very first post to earn $50 dollars a week outside of my regular job, roughly $10 dollars a day, and to buy at least 1 stock per week. Averaging out my total beer money income I absolutely blew this goal out of the water. I earned closer to $100 a week and bought multiple shares on many occasions when making my weekly purchases.
Considering all of this and knowing what I know now, I’d like to set some loose goals again and re-categorize some milestones. This coming year I’d like to aim for $100+ earned per week outside of my regular job. I’m not going to aim for 1 stock purchase per week, but instead I want to aim to simply make purchases once per week since I missed one week this past year. As for new milestones I’d like to achieve, I’m considering the following.
| Income: $40/month from dividends |
| Investing: $7,500 total invested |
| Income: $50/month from dividends |
| Investing: $10,000 total invested |
| Income: $60/month from dividends |
| Investing: $15,000 total invested |
| Income: $70/month from dividends |
| Income: Earn $3,000 trading stocks |
| Income: Earn $2,000 completing surveys |
| Income: Earn $1,000 churning |
I think this strikes a good balance between what is actually achievable and pushing myself to think outside the box to achieve more than what is currently possible. I do not honestly see how I can invest $15,000 in total or have a portfolio that earns $70 dollars a month in dividends by the end of next year. But why not try?