Reviewing my 2018 Goals before setting new goals
I’ve been thinking about my new goals for 2019. And yes, I know I’m a little bit late. However, better late than never. Before doing so, though, I’d like to review my 2018 goals.
2018 has been the fourth complete year as a DGI. And what a year it was. The value of my Vrijheid Fonds has grown. The value of my Vrijheid Fonds at January 1st, 2018 was € 90,894 and at the end 2018 the total value was € 102,429. With a donation of € 7,614 of fresh capital I made a really nice yield.
My yield for my Vrijheid Fonds in 2018 was 3.98%((102,429 / (90,894 + 7,614) – 1). And if I compare my yield with the yield of some major indices, you can see that my Vrijheid Fonds has beaten all the indices this year! This is really great. And I’m proud of a yield of 3.98%, which is way higher than I can get on my savings account.
For 2018, I’ve set seven different goals. In 2018 I have changed my routine and I found some more time to write my blog posts. But despite my new routine, I still find it difficult to balance my time between family, work, sport, books and Polliesdividend. But I enjoyed every second of it. It was also educational, because English is not my native language. During this year I learned new words and proverbs.
In the beginning of 2018 I had an average views per day of around 86 for my. At the end of 2018, the average views per day have grown to around 147 a day. An increase of more than 70% and I’m proud of it!
And I’m grateful of al the comments visitors wrote on my site. Thank you for it! I really appreciated it!
Goals 2018
1. Receive €3,600 in dividends – Almost Achieved!
In 2018 I received € 3,509.82 in dividend income. This is my dividend income after taxes. And as you can see I almost reached my first goal.
My dividend income for 2018 showed an increase of more than 13.91% from previous year, this is including the special dividend from Franklin Resources I received in 2018. To compare my passive income from 2018 with 2017, I have to remove this special dividend from the equation. And then I have an increase 10,49%
I’m proud of this very nice increase! It is a great starting position for 2019.
I hope I can keep this kind of increases for the next couple of years! 😉
2. More diversification in my Vrijheid Fonds – Achieved!
My Idea behind this goal is that I wanted to position myself appropriately to protect my Vrijheid Fonds and decrease my risk factor for when the markets really dip
2017 | 2018 | |
NL/Europe | 32,24% | 31,03% |
USA | 52,78% | 53,59% |
Geographical diversification 31/12/2018
2017 | 2018 | |
Stocks | 85.01% | 86,95% |
Bonds | 6.37% | 6,27% |
Mix | 6.79% | 6,20% |
Cash | 1.82% | 0,13% |
Assets allocation at 31/12/2018
2017 | 2018 | |
Consumer Discretionary | 19.98% | 19,86% |
Consumer Staples | 20.74% | 19,15% |
Energy | 15.33% | 12,92% |
Financials | 3.92% | 4,51% |
Health Care | 5.77% | 5,64% |
Industrials | 0.96% | 2,43% |
Information Tech | 2.51% | 2,77% |
Materials | 1.26% | 1,18% |
Telecommunications | 3.57% | 3,74% |
Utilities | 2.21% | 3,43% |
REIT | 8.77% | 11,32% |
Cash | 1.82% | 0,13% |
Mutual funds | 13.17% | 12,92% |
Total | 100.00% | 100.00% |
Sector allocation at 12/31/2018
If we take a look at these tables, you can see a small adjustment in all three tables. After one year of paying some extra attention to my diversification, I have found out that I can try hard to change some percentages, but the value of the Dollar is one of the major influences of my portfolio.
So if I want to change my portfolio, I have to buy some extra European dividend companies. And this is the problem, because in Europe there aren’t that many companies that pay a constant (or even better, and increasing) dividend. I have some companies I’m looking into, but I think that they are overpriced at this moment.
3. Invest a total of € 7,500 new cash – Achieved!
In order to let my Vrijheid Fonds grow, it needs fresh cash. My ultimate goal is to live of my dividend income. Therefore my Vrijheid Fonds needs to grow.
In 2018, I have surpassed myself because I donated more fresh capital than ever before. I donated a total of € 7,614 of fresh capital, and I’m proud of!
4. Receive €300€800 on passive income from side hustles – Achieved!
My current side hustles are:
- Google AdSense
- http://www.Bol.com
- Amazon.com
- Member’s Board
- Euroclix. Click here to earn some extra cash with taking some surveys
Only Amazon hasn’t paid out to me in 2018. The other four side hustles have paid out to me.
I received € 145.18 from Google AdSense, €10.52 from Bol.com € 140 from Euroclix and a whooping € 540 of my membership of the member’s board. For more information on my side hustle income see my latest report hustle report December 2018.
To sum-up my progress on this goal: in 2018 I made an astonishing € 835.70 in side hustle money!
What a great feeling that almost 1K of extra cash has been working for me from now on!
5. Grow Polliesdividend.com to 36,500 views in 2018 – Achieved!
The numbers on my site:
Year | Views | Visitors |
2016 | 28,656 | 10,381 |
2017 | 31,446 | 10,633 |
2018 | 53,656 | 18,483 |
So as you can see, in 2018 I had a total of 53,656 page views. And I’m happy to report that this is an increase of more than 70% when compared to 2017. *Applaud*
For 2018 it comes down to an average of 147 views per day.
Thanks to you all for visiting my site and reading my post. I’m grateful of al the comments visitors wrote on my site. I really appreciated it!
6. Write a least 75 post on Polliesdividend – Achieved!
In 2018 I wrote 133 blog posts.
This is great. In the beginning of this year I set my self a challenging goal, because I found it more and more difficult to balance my time between family, work, sport, books and Polliesdividend. Therefore I knew I had to change my routine to reach this goal. And that is exactly what I did. And I’m happy to report that in 2018 I wrote a total of 133 blog posts!
As you know, I enjoy writing blog post. And yes I still find it hard to write a post, because English is not my native language. Therefore it takes a little bit more time to write a post. And furthermore I (Mr. perfect) want it to be perfect. But writing my investing decisions down helps me to make better decisions. And it also helps me to track my progress. Another motivation is to network more actively with other investors focused on dividend growth investing. The wider audience and increased traffic to Polliesdividend is a welcome bonus.
7. Keep investing in my self – Achieved!
For my physical sharpening I have been going to the gym almost once a week this year. My mental sharpening I did by reading three books and I followed 5 webinars.
Lets take a look at the finance book on which I did a book review.
Intelligent Investors – By Benjamin Graham
Hypotheek Vrij! – by Gerhard Hormann
Miljonair met een gewone baan – by Oeds-Jan Postma
I’m proud to say I achieved this goal!
Conclusion
So I’m happy to report that I’ve reached six out of sever goals and one almost.
Now I’ve done my review of 2018, it is time to set new goals for 2019.
Thanks for reading. Did you reached your 2018 goals? If you didn’t set goals, are you planning on setting goals for 2019? Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
Pollie
Pollies –
What a year you had! Dividends, Investing, Side Hustles and the blog traction. Bravo! Good luck in 2019!
-Lanny
Thanks
Hey Pollie,
Great work on your goals. Achieving all of your targets is a huge boost and will set the stage for more growth in 2019!
Take care,
Ryan
Thanks
Great work last year! You had a lot of great accomplishments and look forward to checking out your 2019 goals!
Thanks!