The Money Commando

2018 goals – Q1 update

TheMoneyCommando

Each year I set a variety of goals for myself, and I post quarterly updates on my progress. I find that this helps keep me both motivated and accountable.

You can read the introduction to my goals for the year in my 2018 goals post.

 

2018 goals – Q1 update

The first quarter of the year has absolutely flown by. So far it’s been a great year, with some fun vacations, lots of family time, and good progress on personal and professional goals.

Here’s the breakdown on how I am doing on my goals for the year:

 

 

As you can see, Q1 has been a mixed bag. Of the 11 goals I set, I am on track to accomplish 5 of them and not on track for the other 6.

 

Financial

Goal 1: Generate passive income of more than $70,000 for the year

Q1 goal: $16,000

Q1 actual: $15,528

This was a tough goal to miss for Q1. The bottom line is that our dividend income is right on track but we’ve had some issue with our rental income. In fact, due to some needed repairs on one of our now-vacant properties, we actually lost almost $2,500 on our rentals in March. If we’d even broken even on the rentals we’d have easily exceeded our goal.

As long as we can get the unit rented I hope that we’ll be back on track for the rest of the year. I still believe it’s very possible for us to hit $70,000 in passive income for 2018.

Status: Not on track

 

Goal 2: Net worth of $5.5M

Q1 goal: $5.125M

Q1 actual: $5.185M

This is the goal that I feel I have the least control over. After all, meeting this goal is almost entirely dependent on how the markets perform. Yes, we can save and invest money, but a 10% drop in the market will reduce our net worth by more than my entire pre-tax salary in a year.

That said, I’m still happy to see our net worth rising!

Status: On track

 

Goal 3: Investigate additional real estate investment

Q1 goal: Start

Q1 actual: No progress

This is a carryover from last year. I am giving myself a few ways to achieve this goal:

I did none of the above in Q1. I do think this will be interesting, and I need to spend the time to do it, but studying for the Series 65 exam and dealing with the construction around the house has taken up more time and energy than I expected.

Status: Not on track

 

Work

Goal 4: Pass Series 65 exam

Q1 goal: Study

Q1 actual: Lots of studying

I feel pretty good about this goal. I’ve read all of the required material (about 700 pages) and I’ve started taking practice tests to prep for the exam. A passing score on the exam is a 72% and I’ve been scoring in the low 80% range on the practice tests. My current thinking is to take the test around the end of April or in early May.

Status: On track

 

Goal 5: Start building client base

Q1 goal: Sign up my first client

Q1 actual: 1 client signed up!

A couple of my really good friends have decided to hire me as their financial planner! I’m not officially their planner yet and I can’t get compensated for helping them (since I haven’t yet passed the Series 65 exam) but they have committed to moving their asses to me.

I’m pretty excited for a few reasons. First, this is a big vote of confidence. Second, from my initial review of their information I think I can really help them out. Finally, it’s very interesting to look at some real data – assets, income, etc. rather than staring at fictional case studies.

Now I just need to deliver kick-ass financial planning to help address some concerns they have and ensure they’ll be able to accomplish their financial goals.

Status: On track

 

 

Personal Goals

Goal 6 – Read one book per month

Q1 goal: 3 books

Q1 actual: 0 books

Ugh. This was a total and complete failure. I literally didn’t read a single book in the last 3 months. The good news is that there’s a great reason – I’ve spent almost all of my limited free time studying for the Series 65 exam, and I think I’m almost done with that.

Status: Not on track

 

Goal 7 – Squat 300 lbs

Q1 goal: 220 lbs

Q1 actual: 225 lbs

My squat has been coming along nicely, in large part because I’ve been really focusing on squats. Squats have always been a weak point for me, so I’m compensating by hitting them 3+ items per week.

Status: On track

 

Goal 8 – Bench 275 lbs

Q1 goal: 200 lbs

Q1 actual: 195 lbs

I added 20 lbs to my bench in 3 months, which is solid but unspectacular progress. I don’t feel too bad about missing this goal since I only missed it by 5 lbs.

Status: Not on track

 

Goal 9 – Deadlift 375 lbs

Q1 goal: 300 lbs

Q1 actual: 275 lbs

Frankly, this was the biggest surprise to me. Deadlift has always been a relative strength of mine, as my body is pretty much built for deadlift (I’m tall and lanky). Perhaps because of this performance in the past I didn’t spend a lot of time on deadlifts in Q1. That, combined with my weight loss as part of goal 10 (see below) is likely why I was unable to make any progress here.

My hope is that with a bit more emphasis on the deadlift I’ll get this back on track.

Status: Not on track

 

Goal 10 – Body fat 10%

Q1 goal: 13%

Q1 actual: 12.7%

This has been one of my biggest successes for the quarter. I’ve always been a skinny guy and my goal for much of the last 20+ years has been to gain weight, not lose it. However, at the beginning of the year I realized I was carrying a bit more fat than I really wanted to (or was comfortable with).

I’ve found that losing fat has been fairly easy, but with a pretty big negative side effect that I wasn’t anticipating.

To lose the fat I’ve just eaten a big less food. I’ve largely cut sweets and desserts and I’ve consciously tried to drink less alcohol. At meals I’ve just stopped eating when I wasn’t hungry any more, which is different from what I previously did, which was to sop eating when I was full. Making these minor changes has resulting in losing about .5 lbs/week, which is a pretty reasonable weight loss.

The problem is that losing weight, even as slowly as I’m doing it, is making it very hard to make progress on my strength goals. Given that I’m a bit ahead of schedule on my body fat goals, my hope is that I hit 10% by the end of Q3. That will give me a full quarter of eating at maintenance, which should (in theory) allow me to make faster progress on my lifting.

Status: On track

 

Blog Goals

Goal 11 – Post 2x/week

Q1 goal: 24 posts

Q1 actual: 13 posts

Total failure. I’m running at roughly 50% the pace I was hoping to hit for Q1. As with a few of the other failures for Q1, I’m blaming it on the surprisingly large time commitment required to study for and pass the Series 65 exam.

The hope is that once I pass the exam in late April or early May I’ll be able to spend more time reading books and posting interesting articles.

Status: Not on track

 

Conclusion

So there you go – so far 2018 has been a mixed bad. Two of my misses were very close (5 lbs on the bench press and $472 on the passive income goal). I think I can get back on track with both of them by the end of Q2. A few of the misses were pretty big (0 books read and only 13 articles posts on the blog). However, I’m hopefully I’ll get back on track once I’m done studying for the Series 65 exam.

Let me know what you think!