Financial Goals 2007 Report Card
It’s the beginning of 2008 which means it’s time to to look back at my financial goals for 2007 and see if my original financial goals for the year were met. It’s report card time!
Goal #1: Increase passive/alternative income to $500/mo (Grade: A+)
Final Report:
- Our passive/alternative income well surpassed the $500/mo. What I consider passive/alternative income is income that doesn’t come from my regular 9-5 employment. I haven’t written about our passive/alternative income since Sept, but it’s now close to $1,200/month.
Goal #2: Become better at my job (Grade: B)
Final Report:
- I did make some improvements to my skill set but not as much as I would have liked. I’m going to try and keep improving in the new year.
Goal #3: Save 20% of annual income: $23,000/yr or $1917/mo (Grade: A+)
Final Report:
- In October, I did a post indicating our savings rate up to that point. I am really pleased to say that throughout 2007 we saved about 30% of our after tax income.
Goal #4: Increase charitable giving to $1200/year (Grade: A+)
Final Report:
- We really increased our charitable giving in 2007 with total donated amount of $1,455. Of course, this probably wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the charitable contributors: Mortgages, RedFlagDeals.com, Fraser & Stephen Winters and CanRates.ca.
Goal #5: 12-15% return in portfolios (Grade: B )
Final Report:
- Non-Reg Account: Started 2007 with $40,700, current organic worth $43,900 (+7.8%)
- Wife RRSP Account: Started 2007 with $4000, current organic worth $6000 (+50.0%)
- My RRSP Account: Started 2007 with $33800, current organic worth $37500 (+10.9%)
- Organic worth is my resulting value before contributions/deposits.
- Overall Portfolio Gain: 11.3%
In addition to the above goals and results, we have achieved a 25% gain in net worth for the year. Overall, 2007 was a very successful year for us in terms of financial gain. 2008 will be more challenging as my wife will be off on maternity for most of the year and she brings in half of the household income. I will talk more about this in an upcoming post about my financial goals for 2008.
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FT, I think you are being too hard on yourself in regards to your portfolio account. 11% is pretty good for this year, you should give yourself a B+ ;-)
[…] and time again to declare my personal and blog goals for 2008. As indicated by yesterdays Financial Goals for 2007 Report Card, last year was a success in terms of the goals that I set and what I was able to […]
TraciaTim – It’s not how much you make but how much you save that is important. Yes, it’s easier for FT + wife to get to a mill$ net worth than someone on welfare but I have friends who are ten years older than FT, make a lot more money and I don’t think they have his current net worth.
I don’t care if you make a million$ per year – you still have to save some of it to get to a million $ net worth!!
Mike
I’ll second that Gates….that also sounds like a very interesting topic….would like to know of any sacrifices you made in your twenties or maybe gifts or windfalls you got or special training….
I didn’t get serious about money till I was 30…I spent my twenties traveling….maybe it might have been better to start saving earlier…but all in all no regrets….
Hey Traciatim, you’re reading some thoughts directly from my brain… I’m still editing a personal blog post about this very aspect of wealth generation, earn more money.
Of course, I’m with FT here. He wants to make 1M by age 39. Even saving 25k/year for 10 years is only going to get him a quarter of that. Even with his current net worth of 250k, that’s a still a lot of headway to make.
Of course, Tim, I have written a little about money and savings here on my blog . I’ve even brought up the topic of income vs. savings on other blogs. And I think that there are two distinct sides here. On one hand FT’s goal is both challenging and achievable. On the other hand, FT’s goal is only visibly achievable b/c of his large family income.
If someone making 30k tried to accumulate 1M in 20 years, they’d obviously have to do something ridiculously creative or genuinely risky. FT looks like he’ll actually be able to accomplish his goal.
Of course, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Anyone capable of maintaining a high-traffic blog about the complex subject of personal finance likely has the intelligence to be worth more than the average salary. Anyone with the discipline and intellect required to maintain a blog of this caliber for a full year will inevitably be earning more than 20k (or even 30k) simply by those very virtues. If not now, then soon. Heck if you’re running a blog of this caliber and you’re not making 30k, send me a resume :)
The truth is here, that we’re joining FT well into his Million-Dollar Journey, but I don’t think that it’s fair to begrudge his goal or his successes. In fact, it may well be worth the while to reverse his situation and see what’s helped him make it this far.
How about it FT? You just set up the landscape for the next year, how about a rear-view on the last 10. What did you do to get your income level? Education? Extra work hours? How did the wife help? Hurdles for buying the income home? What did you “give up” in your 20’s? When did you get your first car? etc…
I’m sure you’ve done some of it, but a top 10 list of the smartest things you’ve done to date would be pretty cool :)
Thanks for coming to my defense guys! :)
Gates, that’s a good post idea. I have posted about my history, but it’s probably long forgotten by now.
Great post…have been missing my regular blog fixes with everyone away for the holidays….anyways I am going to second it with regards to you doing a post on what your asset allocation is and where your equities (ie: Global vs Cdn / lrg vs small cap…etc) would make for an interesting discussion….
and congrats on your goals
So, considering most families one person makes more than the other at 115K for the combined the tax bill ends up being around 17K and 10.5K for two incomes of 65K and 50K. Barring any deductions and all that jazz your net income would work out to around 87.5K you saved around 30% of that so somewhere near 26K or so, give or take . . . why not just say you met your goal by reaching 22% of your income?
Plus, I think a million in net worth should be pretty straight forward at that income level. Is that the goal, or is it a million of actual cash so you can take it out of the bank and roll around in it on your bed and then deposit it again? ;)
I mean, for net worth just consider that at your income level you could probably buy a home at 250K fairly easily. Over 25 years assuming 2% appreciation and your mortgage will be paid off by then just the house alone will be 410K or so. That means doing nothing you’re already 40% of the way there just by living.
Good analysis Traciatim. You are right, I should have kept the savings either net or gross, not a mix of both.
Yes, the million dollar net worth will come eventually, but my goal is to have it in my thirties.
I don’t want to come off like that whiner Minimum Wage or something, but if 20% of your income is nearly the median salary of individuals in Canada (Source: http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/famil105a.htm )… isn’t it fairly easy to hit $1M as the title of the blog suggests?
Is that after tax income stated there in the goal as was stated in the paragraph to follow, or was the goal stated based on gross income and the results stated on net income?
Traciatim, I wouldn’t say that it would be easy to hit the $1 million mark, but a higher income sure does help.Yes, I think I messed up a bit there about the saving percentage. My initial goal was 20% of my gross income, and my stated result was net after tax result of 30%. I think that if I were to convert them both to gross, it would work out to be about 20%.
Also note that our income stated is our combined family income.
Congrats on a great year. Looking forward to reading about 2008.
Thanks for the kind words guys.
FP, yes, you are right. I would say that most of my holdings are Canadian equity with some US and Chinese equity exposure. I don’t track my asset/geographical allocation, but perhaps would be an interesting post.
Congrats on the investment return. Have you posted on your asset/geographical allocation? I’m guessing you are mostly in Canadian equity (from your returns).
Fantastic increase on the alternative income – MDJ must be doing well :)
Mike