Related: 2019 goals & Q1 update
Related: 2019 goals & Q2 update
At the start of 2018 I set a variety of goals for myself and posted quarterly updates on my progress. The rationale was that making my goals and progress public would keep me both motivated and accountable.
This did not turn out to be the case. I ended up failing to achieve almost all of my goals.
After some time to reflect, I believe this is because my goals were a bit too aspirational. I bit off more than I could chew. Some of the goals were just too difficult to achieve and some goals were more or less mutually exclusive. Looking back at my goal setting process in 2018 I realize that I was setting goals that were too ambitious, with the hope (dream?) that somehow writing my goals down would help them to manifest. Clearly this was not the case.
So, while I have many faults, one thing I can say about myself is that I learn from my mistakes, and I’ve definitely learned from my poor goal setting in 2018. My goals for 2019 are more achievable, better aligned with how I’d like my life to look, and better coordinated.
So without further ado, here the update on how I’m doing on my goals through the first 3 quarters of the year:
Let’s break down the goals:
Financial
Goal 1: Generate passive income of more than $85,000 for the year
Last year the goal was to hit $70k in passive income (which we BARELY missed), so this is a 21.4% increase over last year. While that sounds like a huge increase, I think it’s achievable for a few reasons.
First, we’ve put some of our cash to work. We bought two additional rental properties (great for cash flow) and in June I bought a bit over $200k in stocks. These investments should really start paying off in the second half of the year.
Second, I expect to get a 6-7% return from organic growth – rental increases and dividend raises.
Third, our rental income was absolutely miserable last year. One of our properties was vacant for a few months AND needed thousands of dollars in repairs and upgrades to make it rentable. We’ve not experienced poor performance like that since we bought our first rental properties in 2012. A reversion to the mean would give us somewhere between $3k-$5k by itself.
Fourth, I expect that we’ll continue to save and invest money that I earn. If we are able to save $50k and receive a reasonable 3% yield we’ll pick up another $1,500 in passive income.
Q1 goal: $21,000
Q1 actual: $20,834
Q2 goal: $42,000
Q2 actual: $47,119
Q3 goal: $63,500
Q3 actual: $71,680
We are absolutely crushing our goal through the first half of the year! All of the possible positive developments I listed above have come true. We’ve invested more money, our real estate holdings are performing as expected, and we’ve received solid dividend raises.
At the current rate, we are projected to have a passive income of about $95,000 this year.
Status: On track
Goal 2: Net worth of $5.64M
Our long-term goal is to grow our net worth by 8% per year, with the expectation of being financially independent when our net worth hits $10M. We started 2019 with a net worth of $5.22, which means we are projected to hit our $10M goal in just under 9 years (sometime in 2028)
To create the quarterly “check points” I just assumed a simple (non-compounding) 2% growth per quarter.
Q1 goal: $5.32M
Q1 actual: $5.64M
Q2 goal: $5.43M
Q2 actual: $5.76M
Q3 goal: $5.53M
Q3 actual: $5.875M
Well, this is a welcome surprise. By the end of the first quarter we had already hit our net worth goal for the year and our net worth continued to grow in Q2! A combination of a healthy stock market and solid income at work has allowed our net worth to grow by 12.5% in just 9 months.
The big question is whether or not we’ll be able to maintain this net worth at the end of 2019. Barring some sort of major market correction, I think we are going to be fine.
Status: On track
Goal 3: Investigate additional real estate investment(s)
This is a goal I’d set for 2018 and completely failed on. I identified 2 properties in Texas and we closed on both of them in April. So far they’ve both been performing as expected and have been a welcome source of steady cash flow.
Q1 goal: Start research
Q1 actual: Research complete, rental properties identified
Q2 goal: Complete
Q2 actual: Complete
Q3 goal: Complete
Q3 actual: Complete
Status: Complete!
Work
Goal 4: Income > $300,000
This is a reasonable goal, as our income (excluding the single large commission check I’ve received every 5 years) averages about $300,000/year. So, I just need to have an average year in 2019 to achieve this goal.
I’ve set the quarterly goals to be simple linear progression – I plan to earn 25% of my yearly income each quarter.
Q1 goal: $75,000
Q1 actual: $96,392
Q2 goal: $150,000
Q2 actual: $182,201
Q3 goal: $225,000
Q3 actual: $264,700
The first 9 months of the year have been great for my income. My guess is that I’ll hit somewhere around $315,000 for the year.
Status: On track
Personal
Goal 5: Read 1.5 books per month
My goal in 2018 was to read 1 book per month, and I failed pretty miserably (I only read 4 books all year). Given that failure, why did I INCREASE my goal for 2019?
Simple – I read some great books at the end of 2018 and I remembered just how much I love sitting down and getting into a really good book. For the last few years I’ve kept a list on my phone of all the books that I wanted to read. Anytime I got a book recommendation from a friend I’d add it to the list. If I stumbled across a really positive book review I’d add that book to my list.
Unfortunately, I was adding books to my list but never reading any of them. So in early April I pulled up the webpage for our local library and went through the 65 books on my list to see which were available at the library. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that just over 40 of them could be checked out through the local library cooperative. I added all of those to a watch list at the library (making it dead easy to request any of the books).
So I put some books on hold, picked them up, put them on my nightstand, and something magical happened. At night, after the kids have been bathed/read to/put to bed, after the dishes are done, and after the mail has been sorted, I suddenly have a desire to sit down for a few hours and read rather than watch a movie or play on my iPad.
Looking at the list of books, about 80% of them are non-fiction (mostly books about finance/investing), and 20% are fiction or stories inspired by real life events.
Q1 goal: 5
Q1 actual: 0
Q2 goal: 9
Q2 actual: 8
Q3 goal: 14
Q3 actual: 21
Related: Book reviews and recommendations – Q2 2019
I’ve been reading a ton over the last 3 months. I’ve been reading just over 1 book per week (13 books in 12 weeks). I’ve been reading a variety of stuff – a few classics, some political/economic stuff, some military history, some exercise/health stuff, and some miscellaneous fun stuff.
I’ve already hit my goal for the year, but I hope to continue reading a book a week.
Status: Complete
Goal 6: Perform a muscle up
If you don’t know what a muscle up is, it’s basically a gymnastics movement that’s a combination of a pull-up with a dip. They can be performed on either a bar or using gymnastics rings. Here’s what a muscle up on a bar looks like:
And here’s what a muscle up on the rings look like:
Both of the above qualify as “strict” muscle ups. That is, there’s no body swing (or kip) used. Here’s an example of a kipping muscle up:
As you can probably guess, the kipping pull-ups are much easier than strict muscle ups.
For this goal I’m going to count any of the above muscle ups as a success.
I selected this goal because it’s a bodyweight exercise (which I’m generally good at because I’m on the skinny side), it looks impressive, and doing muscle ups is a great workout. In addition, it coordinates well with my goal of getting down to 10% body fat by the end of the year (lower body fat makes bodyweight exercises easier).
I expect that achieving this goal will require both strength work as well as skill work. You obviously need quite a bit of strength to perform a strict muscle up, whereas the kipping muscle up is much more about timing, coordination, and skill.
My plan to achieve this goal is to work on strength for the first half of the year, then start adding weekly muscle-up practice sessions for the second half of the year.
Q1 goal: Complete a pullup with bodyweight + 45 lbs
Q1 actual: Complete
Q2 goal: Complete a pullup with bodyweight + 90 lbs
Q2 actual: Complete a pullup with bodyweight + 75 lbs
Q3 goal:15 pull-ups + 15 ring dips
Q3 actual: 12 pull-ups + 6 ring dips
The first step was easier than I thought it would be, but the second and third steps have been harder. The ring dips have proven to be problematic. If you’ve never done ring dips before you’re in for a surprise – they are MUCH more difficult than regular dips.
For Q4 I’m working on high pulls (explosive pull-ups where instead of pulling the bar below your chin you pull it as low on your chest as possible). The reason is that doing a muscle up isn’t so much about strength as it is about power – you need to get your chest over the bar.
We’ll see if I’m able to nail my first muscle up by the end of the year. Right now I’m cautiously optimistic.
Status: NOT on track
Goal 7: Do yoga once per week
Most of my workouts are either weightlifting or some sort of weightlifting/cardio combo (Crossfit-style workouts). While these workouts have kept me in pretty good shape, I still have some areas I need to work on.
Over the last 3-6 months I’ve been trying to get some more variety into my workout routine, so in December I hit a few yoga classes at our gym. The results were eye opening for me. After just 1 class it was clear to me that I have some major deficiencies in both flexibility and balance. I was clearly one of the least flexible people in the class, and any pose that required us to balance on one foot was very difficult for me.
To address these problems I’m going to try to get to a yoga class at least once a week, starting in Q2.
Q2 goal: 12
Q2 actual: 3
I’m so far behind on this goal that I’ve given up. I haven’t been tracking my yoga sessions, so I’m not exactly clear how many I did in Q3, but it was somewhere around 3.
Ultimately, the gym is just far enough away that it’s tough to get there at lunchtime.
Status: FAIL
Goal 8: Body fat of 10%
As I mentioned above, I’ve been pretty thin my whole life. When I was on the wrestling team as a freshman in high school I was 6’0″ and I wrested in the 119 lb weight class. Now I’m 6’4″ and bounce around between 185-190 lbs.
While I’m thin, I’m not super lean. Mostly that’s because for the last ~30 years of my life I’ve been trying to GAIN weight. It’s amazing what weightlifting combined with constantly easting past the point of being full can do – I’m 65 lbs heaver than I was in high school.
However, this constant push to gain weight means I’ve never really “dieted” or tried to get really lean. Last year I had the goal of getting down to 10% body fat, but I realized it was at odds with my strength goals so I effectively gave up on this goal and concentrated on the strength goal.
I started the year at 12.7% body fat, so I only need to drop 2.7% of my bodyweight in fat. Given a weight of 185 lbs, that’s almost exactly 5 lbs of fat.
In 2019 I’m going to really work on eating lots of vegetable and only eating until I’m full. Given my body type and metabolism, and combined with a bit more “cardio”, I suspect this will result in me dropping enough fat to get down to 10% by the end of the year.
Q1 goal: 12%
Q1 actual: 12.9%
Q2 goal: 11%
Q2 actual: 11.8%
Q3 goal: 10.5%
Q3 actual: 12.5%
I’m going the wrong way here, but I still think it’s possible to hit 10% body fat by the end of the year. I’ve really made an effort to clean up my diet in the last few weeks. I’ve also been adding some more cardio (mostly Crossfit style short, intense workouts) to my routine.
Status: NOT on track
Goal 9: Row 2,000 meters in 7 minutes and 20 seconds
In my opinion, rowing is the most awesome/awful cardio in the world. It works pretty much every muscle in your body, and it does so with no impact on your joints. I have a Concept 2, Model D, which uses a fan to provide resistance. This means that the harder you row, the more resistance you get. This makes the rowing machine perfect for sprints and interval work.
The Concept 2 Model D
Because rowing is such a good workout, and because it’s an exercise that fits well with my body type (I’m 6’4″, and being tall is a big advantage in rowing/crew), I’ve decided that I’m going to spend more time on the rowing machine this year. Of course, “more time” isn’t quantifiable, and I want to row with a specific but achievable goal in mind, so I’ve decided that I’m going to try to knock 20 seconds off my 2k rowing time (the 2k is the “standard” test for rowing).
I haven’t done a 2k time trial in a while, and my previous best was 7:47. That time is ok, but nothing special. My goal is to knock 27 seconds off that time and get down to 7:20 (with the possible goal of getting to 7:00 in 2020).
I like this goal because it dovetails nicely with some of the other physical goals (reducing body fat and being able to perform a muscle up).
Q1 goal: 7:38
Q1 actual: 7:35
Q1 goal: 7:30
Q1 actual: 7:28
I didn’t do a single 2K row from the start of Q2 until I did my test at the end of June, and yet I still managed to knock a full 7 seconds off my time!
Similarly, I didn’t do another 2K row for the rest of Q3 and still managed to come in at 7:25. I’m feeling pretty confident I can get down to 7:20, especially since I’ve been doing some more cardio as part of my workouts.
Status: On track
Blog goals
Goal 10: Post 1.5x/week
In 2018 I’d set the goal of posting 2x/week and I didn’t even get close to achieving that goal. I just don’t have the time to write 2 quality blog posts per week.
In addition, my inspiration seems to come in waves. I’ll go through a period where I’m getting lots of good ideas (usually from conversations with clients or due to something I’ve read). I tend to work on lots of different articles at once (right now I have something like 30 articles in some stage of being written, from just a title to an outline to nearly done), but I don’t always do a good job of pushing any given article all the way to being complete.
So, my goal for 2019 is to work harder on staying motivated and carving out 30-60 minutes per day to work on an article. If I can do that, I think it’s reasonable to be able to publish 6 interesting articles per month.
Q1 goal: 18 articles
Q1 actual: 6 article
Q2 goal: 36 articles
Q2 actual: 15 articles
Q3 goal: 54 articles
Q3 actual: 25 articles
I’m way, way, way behind the pace I need to hit to hit the goal. At this point this goal probably isn’t achievable for 2019.
Status: NOT on track
Conclusion
I’m pretty happy with my progress through the first half of the year. Of the 10 goals I’m on track for all 3 Financial Goals and my 1 Work goal. I’m on track for 2 of the 5 Personal Goals and I’m not on track for the single blog goal. Overall, 6/10 isn’t too bad.