When you set a goal means you are setting a GPS for your life journey which gives you the right direction to reach your dream destination.
Your goal should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.
As many of you, I set my financial goals in this page which give me the right direction to reach my financial destination.
Ultimate long-term financial goal
My first ultimate financial goal is to achieve 1 million dollar net worth in 10 9 8 years. Therefore, become a millionaire by December 31, 2024.
My second goal is much more connected with my first goal – receive $25000 yearly dividend income by December 31, 2024.
Estimated passive income increased to $25 000 in June 2022.
To reach my ultimate long-term goals, I have broken down then goals into many short term goals (yearly goals). So, when I reach my short term goals, I will be one step close to the long-term goals.
Short-term goals
Year 2023
Again, I am going to set three financial goals for 2023:
- Goal 1: Maintain my estimated passive income (EPI) to above $30 000 by December 31, 2023
- Goal 2: Receive over $30 000 dividend income for the year 2023 (by December 31, 2023)
- Goal 3: Reduce my debts to $425 000 or below.
Year 2022
Again, I am going to set three financial goals for 2022:
- Goal 1: Increase my estimated passive income (EPI) to $25 000 by December 31, 2022 and reach my one of the long-term goal three years earlier than I planned.
- Goal 2: Receive over $24 000 – dividend income for the year 2022 (by December 31, 2022)
- Goal 3: Reduce my debts to $400 000 or below.
Estimated passive income increased to $25 000 in June 2022.
I received $25 558.72 dividend incomes in 2022.
My debts again increased to $486 500 by December 31, 2022.
Year 2021
Again, I am going to set three financial goals for 2021:
- Goal 1: Increase my estimated passive income (EPI) to $18 000 by December 31, 2021
- Goal 2: Receive over $17 500 dividend income for the year 2021 (by December 31, 2021)
- Goal 3: Reduce my debts to $350 000 or below by December 31, 2021.
Estimated passive income increased to $23 177 by December 31, 2021
I received $18 994 dividend income in 2021.
Year 2020
Once again, I am going to set three financial goals for 2020:
- Goal 1: Increase my estimated passive income (EPI) to $14 000 by December 31, 2020
- Goal 2: Receive over $13 000 dividend income for the year 2020 (by December 31, 2020)
- Goal 3: Reduce my debts to $300 000 or below.
Estimated passive income increased to $16 991 by December 31, 2020
I received only $12691.21 dividend income in 2020 and missed by around $300.
Year 2019
Once again, I am going to set three financial goals for 2019.
- Goal 1: Increase my estimated passive income (EPI) to $11 500 by December 31, 2019
It is $1900 higher than my 2018 goal. This can be reached by increasing my EPI by around $150 per month.
Estimated passive income increased to $11 687 by December 31, 2019- Goal 2: Receive over $10 800 dividend income for the year 2019 (by December 31, 2019)
It is $1800 higher than year 2018 goal.
I received $10844.02 dividend income in 2019
- Goal 3: Reduce my debts to $310 000 or below.
My debts was $322 700 by end of 2018. I just need to reduce by around $1000 per month.
If I can achieve these goals, then my 2020 goals will be $14 000 estimated passive income and bring down debts to $300 000 or below.
I reduced my debts to $309 400 by December 31, 2019
Year 2018
I am going to set three financial goals for 2018, which are more predictable and can be controlled by me. I believe that my net-worth eventually move up in long-run if I keep building my dividend income while controlling my debts.
- Goal 1: Increase my estimated passive income (EPI) to $9600 by December 31, 2018
Estimated passive income increased to $10036 by December 31, 2018 - Goal 2: Receive over $9000 dividend income for the year 2018 (by December 31, 2018)
I received $9261.78 dividend income in 2018 - Goal 3: Reduce my debts to $315 000 or below.
my debt was at $322 700 on December 31, 2018.
It is $1200 higher than year 2017 goal. This can be reach easily if I can able increase my EPI at least $100 per month.
It is $1000 higher than year 2017 goal.
My debts was $327 100 by end of 2017. I just need cut-down by at least $1000 per month.
If I can achieve these goals, then my 2019 goals will be $11 000 estimated passive income and bring down debts to $300 000 or below.
Year 2017
I like to set three financial goals for 2017. As I mentioned above, when I achieve these small targets, I move little close to my big goal of financial freedom.
- Goal 1: Reach at least $225 000 net worth by December 31, 2017 This target is $50 000 higher than 2016 target and $69 000 higher than my actual net worth in 2016. This goal is fully depending on my stock portfolio performance as we are a one-income family now.
- Goal 2: Receive $8000 dividend income for the year 2017 (by December 31, 2017) In my view, it is an achievable target as dividend income is more predictable than stock price/ capital gain.
- Goal 3: Increase my estimated passive income to $8400 by December 31, 2017 I strongly believe that I could achieve this target using dividend reinvestment, new capital and dividend hikes from the current holdings.
My net worth just reached to $195 000 by December 2017.
I received $7947.22 dividend income in 2017 and missed the target by 0.66%.
Estimated passive income increased to $8414 by December 31, 2017
Year 2016
I am little nervous to set a big goal this year as we now one income family with a little kid; however, setting a defined target will guide me to achieve it.
- Goal 1: Reach at least $175 000 net worth by December 31, 2016 This target is $50 000 higher than 2015 target and $65 000 higher than my actual net worth in 2015. This goal is fully depending on my stock portfolio performance as we are a one-income family now.
My net worth reached just to $155 900.
- Goal 2: Receive $7200 dividend income for the year 2016 (by December 31, 2016) This is pretty much achievable target as dividend income is more predictable than stock price/ capital gain.
I received only $7049.17 dividend income in 2016.
Year 2015
- Reach at least $125 000 net worth by December 31, 2015 . My net worth reached only to $110 100 of December 31, 2015. I missed the target by $15 000 as Canadian market didn’t perform well due to the oil crash. Also, I had some new home & new baby expenses last year.
- Receive $5000 dividend income by December 31, 2015 . I received $4955.01 dividend income for the year 2015. I missed the target by $45 as few energy stocks, COS and CVE, reduced their dividends.
Even though I failed to achieve my 2015 goals, I really made a good progress and reached very close to the targets. I am very glad.
Year 2014
- Reach at least $75 000 net worth by December 31, 2014 – my net worth reached $83 000 by the end of 2014.
- Receive $3500 dividend income by December 31, 2014 – received $3597.36 dividend income for the year 2014
- Buy a home under $30000 before December 31, 2014. – bought a townhouse for $260 000 and moved on December 01, 2014
I hope that purchasing dividend paying stocks and compound interest will over time build a cash generating machine for life time and this habit eventually makes me millionaire.
Is one million dollar net worth good enough for comfortable retirement?
Here is my plan;
I will adjust this plan over time with the economy situation and potential higher inflation.
Currently, my monthly expensive is less than $3000 with rent and student loan payment. If I pay-off my student loan and mortgage loan, then my expensive will be around $2000 per month, in other words, $25000 per year is good enough for my comfortable retirement.
If I reach my goal (one million dollar net worth) and pay off my house mortgage by December 31, 2024, then my investment worth will be around $700 000. With 3.5% yield, my investment can generate around $25000 per year dividend/interest income.
In here, inflation needs to be taken in these calculations; however, dividend growth helps to offset the potential higher inflation.
So, my financial tasks are pay off my home mortgage (not sure how much will be) and increase my investment worth to $700 000 by December 31, 2024.
I will update this page periodically as new goals become present and old goals are attained.
Given your increase in debt to make investments, should you actually reduce your “Passive income” by the amount of money being spent to service that debt ?
Hello MaxB,
To avoid confusion, I decided not to include my debt cost in the passive income
My overall debt cost is around $800 per month. This includes mortgage interest fees and student loan debts. Given this ultra-low interest rate and higher inflation rate, I would prefer to build my assets and not worry about debts for now.
Cheers
Hey,
I’m 25 and came across your website. I want to know where I should start as I would like to invest and be on a similar journey like this too! Do you have a email address?
Hello Desma,
Thank you for stopping by,
To be honest, I don’t provide any financial advises for individual people. I am not a licensed financial adviser or any sort of things. And, it is impossible to provide you any investment ideas without knowing your financial goals, situations and risk tolerance. Therefore, I would recommend you discuss with a qualified financial adviser before make any investment decisions.
Best wishes.
Do you DRIP your dividends or use the money for your mortgage, bills, etc.
Hello Steve,
Thank you for stopping by,
I don’t DRIP my dividends or I don’t take the money to pay my bills. I am in very early stage of my journey and I wanted to compound my growth. Therefore, I receive my dividends as cash and invest in one or two stocks that I like.
Cheers,
Thank you so much for sharing your goals and the progress that you’ve made! It gives me a better understanding of what is possible when I can look through the steps that you took each year and how you made adjustments as necessary.
If it’s possible, can you put up a chart of how your passive income is growing every year? I think it would further help your readers to see how the progress may be slow at the beginning but it goes faster and faster as it builds up.
Also, what’s the difference between your two goals, Estimated Passive Income and Dividend Income?
I wish you all the best in your journey!
Hello Jo,
Thank you for stopping by and your suggestions 🙂
I will definitely put a chart to show my progress.
Estimated Passive Income – Dividend I expect to receive in the next 12 months period
Dividend income – Dividend I received
Best Regards,
Great blog Arun. So pumped after going through your articles. I’m just starting out my journey into Canadian stocks. In fact, I started investing last year in stocks, all US. I bought the typical blue chip tech stocks that are super safe (or as I think), like google, apple, microsoft and fb. I now starting picking up Canadian stocks. So far I have BMO, TD, Sunlife and Canadian rail Network. I don’t have much to play with. What would you say are the best stocks to buy if you only had 10 picks?
Again, I don’t want to tilt my portfolion towards one industry too much. I was thinking of just picking up all the Canadian banks and then forget about it for the next 10 years but that would be risky.
Hello Gagan,
Thank you for stopping by,
To be honest, I don’t recommend any stocks or investment advice in this blog. Please do your own research or discuss with a qualified financial adviser before make any financial decisions.
If I can pick only 10 stocks, then I would consider buying the following (I think you are asking in Canadian market only) – not in particular order.. TD bank, Royalbank, BAM.A, BIP.UN, CNR, FTS, BCE, Telus, ENB, TRP.
I don’t know about your financial goal or risk tolerance. So, some of the stocks mentioned above may not suitable for your portfolio.
Best Regards,
Hi Arun,
Thanks for the reply. My goal is similar to yours, growth and income. Since I’m young (37), I have the capicity to tilt the portfolio towards growth more than income as I don’t plan to withdraw gains in the next 5-10 years.
Thanks,
Gagan
Hi Gagan,
Thank you for sharing your goal. Growth with income is an awesome idea. That’s why I choose dividend growth investing strategy and accepting fairly low yield now in order to collect fat dividend later 🙂
Best Regards,
Have you thought about p2p lending? I been doing a little research seems to be a viable option what’s your opinion
Hello Travis,
No, I haven’t yet tried p2p lending. Currently I have been focusing on building a sizable portfolio with dividend growth stocks. May be I will consider trying it after a recession… Because P2P lending is fairly a new concept and we don’t know what will happen in the bad economical cycle.
Best Regards,
Hey I’ve been following your blog for a month or so. I’ve been investing lightly over 15 years. I used my initial RRSP investment to buy my first house with the buy back plan. For me it was worth it as I work for the government with an indexed pension plan. I had a 40 k student loan and home improvement loan of 20 k at first with a medium wage. I paid both off in 5 years but I kept my RRSP up somewhat.
I grew up in a household with poor parents – one is truck driver who is still working 6 days a week with a mortgage and no retirement fund in his mid 60s. My mom was sick on a disability pension and passed away within the last 5 years with substantial debt. I am not saying this is wrong or embarrassing but it taught me a job with a pension plan was a priority. It also made me understand that saving for the just in case anything ever happened (injury/job loss/unexpected illness/etc). I keep a decent amount of silver and gold coins in case anything ever happens and I need things to barter with (yes I know I’m always think of the worse case scenarios).
I married a woman who is employed as a teacher with an indexed pension. She has no budget or financial sense so I made her open an RRSP and start saving 10 percent of her pay. Yeah she hated me but nowadays she thanks me lol.
Over the years made, I made several mistakes on advise from friends who were my financial advisors including the labor sponsored funds (biggest mistake ever 75 percent loss of a 6 k investment of which 500 is still locked a decade later). I switched from him to another who locked me into another investment group with a ton of restrictions. I missed out on TFSA’s for 2.5 years as I never even heard of them (yeah great advisor!) . Anyways we had a falling out when I started questioning his fees and advise (which was minimal). By this time, my wife and I had a decent amount in our TFSA investments but a decent mortgage.
We switched to a bank run mutual fund for both our TFSA/RRSP/RESP. Our investments did well over 4 years with us contributing as much as we could after having 2 kids and my wife off for 2 years of mat leave and now huge daycare expenses (approximately 7 years of 10 k plus) . I mainly invested into TFSA’s due to the tax implications of the pensions later. But as I approach the limit of them I will switch to both our open RRSP amounts.
After researching your blog and a few other websites on investing a couple hours a day, I’ve decided to venture out on my own and do all my own investments. I started this week purchasing numerous shares in blue chip dividend stocks based on some of your portfolio so I like to say your blog helped a lot.
I’m still a little apprehensive of this venture but I feel more confident than before. I just tired of paying people a 2 large percent MER for something I can do on my own. I plan also plan on establishing my wife in a self-directed plan ran by me.
I will invest heaving into equity shares with a 35-40 percent focus on US shares. It’ll be 90 percent equity/10 percent indexed ETF funds. I feel safe doing this as both our pension are indexed and secure.
I would always recommend to anyone this — growth in your investment is awesome, however with the interest rate increases, I would suggest a little more aggressive debt repayment. Our debt repayment (mortgage/secure line of credit for a recent house) is approximately 6 years with 10 percent of our total net income dedicated to it. Our debt to assest ratio is about 20 percent. I agree with your assessment of having good debt but it has to be manageable. I will incorporate many of your ideas of keeping running charts of dividend passive income, and establishing more short and long term goals.
We achieved my only financial goal I had which was achieving 1 million in assests when I turned 40. We currently have 200 k + in free cash within the TFSA/RRSP/RESP, 1.2 million in pension funds and 550 k residence. Our debt stands around 250 k (all mortgage or secure line of credit).
Also based on my life experience, I would highly suggest you invest in a life insurance/critical care policy for you and your wife with a will established. You make no mention of these but they are important at any age. My mother was diagnosed with MS and diabetes at a very early age (24 years) . She had to quit her job and depend solely on my father’s income. No one plans for this type of life event but they do happen.
Thanks and keep up the good writing. I may eventually make a finance blog as I love this stuff.
DP
Thank you very much DP for sharing your journey and your kind suggestions.
You are way better financial shape than so many Canadian in your age. Your DB pension is a great asset for any worse case scenarios.
My wife and I have life insurance policies (for mortgage and two separate policies), but I rarely discuss about this in this blog.
I will take your suggestions regarding the debt reduction. Actually, I committed to bring down my debts a manageable level. I like your financial term about debt to assets ratio. My current debt to asset ratio is over 50%. I should bring it down to at least 25%.
I am so glad that you found this blog is very helpful; however, I would you like to stress you that this is just an information/entertainment blog. I am just sharing my financial journey. I am not a financial guru or anywhere near that. Therefore, I would strongly recommend you do your own research or discuss with a qualified financial advisor before make any investment decisions.
It seems like you have a ton of information to share. You should start a blog and share your knowledge 🙂
Step-by-step guide to start your own website
I have been following your blog for over a year now & am enjoying it very much. Is this your only method of investing ? (dividend bearing stocks)
Are you adding new money to your portfolio monthly/annually, if so how much ?
I too started with my own investment account in dividend stocks about the same time as you started however with a one time investment of $22,000. and it has grown to just under $42,000….. but I still have other investments with a financial advisor. My self directed portfolio is performing better than money I have with a financial advisor & therefore I am considering moving all my investment dollars into dividend stocks…… & managing all my own funds any thoughts? thanks BLT
Hello Ben,
Thank you for stopping by,
Yes! As of this writing this is the only method I use for investing. I buy high quality dividend stocks when they trading at attractive valuation.
Re adding money: Whenever I have extra money, I add it into my portfolio and buy dividend stocks. Also, I reinvest all the income I receive from my investments.
Re moving money from your financial adviser – To be honest, I couldn’t comment about this without knowing about your investment knowledge and risk tolerance. If you like to manage your own money, then I would say learn as much as you can and understand about your the risk involve in investment and your risk tolerance. Once you feel comfortable, then you could slowly move your money in your account. Make sure, try your best to minimize trading commission and keep your investments in a tax-efficient way 🙂
Best Regards,
Hey,
I was just curious as to your initial investment into dividend stocks when you first started in 2012.
Thanks
Hello Eric,
I started with $1000, then gradually added more money. Also, I reinvest the dividend.
Cheers,
I forgot to mention, you should take a close look at Evertz Technologies Ltd ET:TSX if you are looking at expanding your portfolio in the technology sector. I’ve been monitoring them for a while and the value looks attractive. Growth is still very high with net income improving year after year.
Cheers
Hello Eric,
Thank you for your suggestion. I will take a closer loot at TSX: ET and may consider adding it if it is interesting one.
Thank you once again,
Cheers,
Hey,
Anyone have any great suggestions for Canadian ETFs with exposure to international and U.S markets? I have very little diversification internationally. Probably makes up like 5% of my portfolio. Any suggestions are welcome.
Thank You
Hi Eric,
Thank you for stopping by.
To be honest, I don’t recommend any investments products. I am not a professional financial advisor, and still in a learning stage in investing. Here are some ETFs in my watch list to have exposure in international market, so you could take this as a starting point to do further research:
Again, this is not a recommendation list. The list only for your further research and you could make your own decision 🙂
Currently (July 31, 2017), I don’t have any positions in the above ETFs, but I may consider adding them in the future if they meet my investment criteria.
Cheers,
Great composition! Vanguard 500 index headged has great and even exposure to several sectors. Will definitely keep these on watch. I believe it is trading at a reasonable value at the moment, but I’d like to see it drop slightly before buying.
Thanks!
Hi Eric,
Thank you for your comments.
I am also looking for a drop in U.S stocks, so we could buy more for less price. In my view, most stocks in U.S are over valued. I will wait for drop, meantime save some money to increase my buying power 🙂
Best Regards,
Hey buddy,
I’ve been following your blog for quite some time now. I’ve started some investing myself dealing with mostly dividend stocks. I am looking to achieve a great long-term goal of creating a decent amount of passive income off dividend stocks. I recently purchased a house and am paying for tuition. I am hoping I can reach financial freedom early enough. Slowly, but surely I have been expanding and diversifying my portfolio. I’d like to thank you for your blog as it was inspiring to me.
Thanks!
Hello Eric,
Thank you for your kind feedback 🙂
I guess we are in a same boat. I also have a house/mortgage and student loans, but I decided to build a investment portfolio instead of worrying about debts.
Slow but steady wins the race. Set a goal and keep moving forward toward your goal everyday 🙂
Best Regards,
Hey,
I stumbled across your website, you’ve done a great job building up your passive income =) After reading the other comments, I live in Toronto now after moving here from Vancouver couple years ago as well and were about the same age. However, I’m starting over from $0 just finishing College from Seneca (Financial Planning) this month with a loan, probably gonna struggle to find a banking job, so maybe find a job at Starbucks or something for the time being. I’m going to continue viewing your progress while trying my own. Good Luck
Hello Ricky,
Thank you for stopping by and welcome to Toronto.
I wish I should done a degree or diploma in Finance. If I am starting over, I would take a finance degree instead of Engineering. You have completed a great diploma from Seneca College (Financial Planning). I really hope you could get a well paying job in Toronto. May be you could provide fee-base financial advising service to individuals.
Best Wishes,
I just started a Net worth Blog, I would like you to check out my portfolio if you have the time.
Any feedback would be appreciated
Hey Othalafehu,
Thank you for stopping and congrats for your new blog.
You have pretty large and diversified portfolio with high quality stocks (as well realestate assets). Most of your holdings are in my watch list, I will start accumulating them once Canadian dollar gain some value over USD.
Best Regards,
FJ
I keep a stash of silver Maple leafs in case I need to buck North, we live in interesting times!
Hi OthalaFehu,
It is very interesting period for investing. Nothing is predictable.
Cheers,
I don’t think Cominar REIT is that solid. The high dividend may be in trouble:
http://www.fool.ca/2017/02/15/could-this-reit-cut-its-10-yielding-dividend-payout-soon/
I generally exclude stocks that pay higher than 7% dividend. The company should not have to bleed that much money to shareholders to “entice” you to buy their shares…
Hello EJ,
Thank you for stopping by, Cominar REIT is not in my watch list because majority of its income depend on one retailer. I like more diversified REITs.
Also, higher dividend yield is not always risky. BIP.UN yeild was very high few years, but it is a solid company to own for longer-term (please do your own research).
Cheers,
Dear Finance Journey Guy,
I really enjoy your Dividend Income web site.
Read it on a monthly basis and it is an inspiration for starting my own Dividend Income portfolio.
Was wondering, may you please post an updated Dividend Income portfolio with the stock names and symbols for the end of the year for 2016.
i.e.: Dividend Portfolio as of Dec. 31, 2016
It would be greatly appreciated to see what dividend stocks you have invested in, and compare it with my portfolio that I just started this year.
Thank you
Hello A Follow Canadian,
Thank you for stopping by,
It is a good idea to post a end of year summary. I will try my best to do that.
Thank you for your idea..
Cheers,
You should take a look at Cominar REIT. Long term track record of good dividends.
Good luck in your journey.
– Rugged
Hello RuggedCanadian,
Thank you for stopping by and your suggestions.
I indirectly own Cominar REIT via etf called XRE. I will have look at it.
Cheers,
november 2016 and forward
which canadian sectors or stocks will do good going forward ?
thanks
Hello Rex,
It is really hard to predict the future, and I don’t spend much time for market research. If bond yield moves high, then interest sensitive stocks go down while financial stocks go up, and vice versa.
So, I will keep my portfolio diversified with all the sectors and collect growing dividends from high quality companies.
Best Regards,
Hey,
I also have financial goals like yours and I’ve been investing in dividend stocks ever since I turned 18 (now 24). I also see that we own a lot of the same stocks!
Recently however, I was thinking that maybe there are faster ways to reach my goals. Why did you chose to invest your money in passive income stocks instead of other investments like real estate for example (buying a condo/house and renting it out).
Are you convinced dividend stocks will be the key to becoming a millionaire?
BTW I think the concept of your website is amazing. Great idea!
Jeremie
Hello Jeremie,
Thank you for stopping by,
I like to invest in real-estates, but managing properties and tenants are little difficult for me with my full-time job. So, I am currently concentrating in dividend stocks (pure passive), may be I consider about buying rental properties after I reach my financial freedom 🙂 .
Also, I believe that I could get a similar return with in stock too.
Best Regards
Hey I don’t understand how you have your costs at 3k per month with loans and a family…. I trust you’re tracking it, but I”m no where near that and I watch my costs closely. I suspect by the cost of your townhouse you live in either a small town or some where with an extremely low cost of living. In a bigger city you’re going to be nearly double that. This is really playing into meeting your goals and I think that’s great.
Impressive and congrats.
Hello Blake,
Actually our monthly cost is less than $2500 because we spend money for unnecessary things. And, we buy our things when they are at sale.
Also, I have very small mortgage, around $185K, compare to my friends and other family members. I bought my house little far from downtown area and use bus to get work 🙂 .
Cheers,
Great website, can you tell me if you used brokerage firms or started on your own
Hello Batty,
Thank you for your comments, I am using Questrade and TD redirect investing online brokerages.
Cheers,
Great blog. I enjoyed reading it. Most of your positions are matching mine. My net worth already exceeds 1.9 mln CAD but I still heavily rely on active income to raise 3 kids, having only 400,000 actively invested thru RRSP and TFSA accounts. Keep it up and you will get there.
Hi,
Great to hear that you have $1.9 million net worth 🙂 . I assume your big asset is in your house or are you holding a lot of cash?
We love to hear how you built your amazing net worth. It would be really helpful for me and other readers and we could learn from you as well.
Best Regards,
Hi there – great site and info!
I’m a little late to following the site, but I think it’s a very valuable resource. I put together my own site based on your template, as I think it’s a fantastic way to structure financial goals and keep track of your progress.
I’m curious which province you’re located in and how old you are, if it’s not a secret? I’m based in Ontario, 29 years old, and have a very similar financial outlook (around $110,000 of networth, goal to hit $1 mil within around 10 years). I plan on checking in regularly to your site for updates as it seems like a really useful benchmark.
I’m in the market to also buy a house soon, and I’m relatively new to Canada in terms of taxes (I’m Canadian, but was working in the US for a while) so I’m just getting started with RRSP and TSFA’s as well as tax optimization strategies.
Thanks for sharing!
Hello David K,
Thank you for stopping by, I’m in Ontario and 2 years younger.
Setting a goal is the best way to achieve financial freedom. Wish you all the best for your success.
Best Regards,
Hey,
I just stumbled upon your site, I haven’t seen everything but I’m wondering why you want to pay for your student loan when you can leverage invest the $. Are you with OSAP? Isn’t it something like 2%
Hi Ron,
Thank you for stopping by,
I am paying pretty low amount each month for my student low. It is a minimum payment that I have to pay. Yes, it with OSAP and paying interest of 5.35%; however, the almost 30% of interest payment can be detectable from tax. So, I am not concerning to pay the loan anytime soon.
My focus is to build an good amount of asset, then think about the loans later.
Cheers,
Impressive goals. I like how you decalre a few long-term goals, then set your annual goals to support your long term goals. I’m going to start doing this as well.
Hello IH,
Thank you for stopping by, I love to set a goal and move toward to achieve the goal.
Wish you best of luck in achieving your goals
Cheers,
I love this site & have saved to my favorites. I put too much money into Energy in 2014 and have to wait for the rebound. Last month I started adding a lot of dividend paying stocks to my portfolio banks and REITS. I think banks are due for a pullback in spring of 2016 will add a lot more then. Need ETF & US stocks added in future. Keep up the good work! You’re an inspiration.
Hello Susan,
Thank you for your comments,
I am so glad that you like my website. Actually, I am just sharing my journey while learning lots from readers like you.
Energy stocks will rebound for sure, but nobody knows when. If you invest for long term, you don’t need to worry about short-term market ups and downs.
I would like to add more U.S stocks for diversification, but the currency exchange rate is way expensive now.
Wish you best of luck in your investing journey!
Cheers,
I too am a dividend investor and discovered that we own several of the same stocks and your approach is not as commercial as many other similar websites. I don’t know if you are interested but I have done considerable work on the subject of “measuring portfolio growth” including both capital and income. For example, I have set a start date for measurement at June 30, 2004 and since then, my portfolio has grown at an average annual rate of 6.01 %. Many months ago, when the tse was near 15,000, this growth figure was about 9%. Every time I update my spreadsheet, which I call the “Decision Maker”, it automatically updates the growth figure. I took a course in financial mathematics at UBC that helped with these calculations.
Hi John,
Thank you for your comments,
Honestly, I didn’t take any financial courses in my life. I learned everything from my experience and from internet. I started my dividend investing journey back in March 2012. At the time, I didn’t have any plan, and just moved some money and started purchases dividend stocks. I don’t have any tracking system to compare my portfolio performance with market. I deposit and withdraw money so many times per year, so it is bit of hard for me to calculate the real performance of my portfolio.
Only thing I track is total money I put to work in my brokerage accounts and total money I have. Actually, I have more money in my accounts than I deposited – this includes dividends income, margin interest rate, trade fees and capital gains.
Best Regards,
Hi,
I just found your blog and I was wondering if you were from Quebec as I’m a dividend growth investor too and I’m trying to build a french DGI community here. I own two blogs about DGI, one in english (quityourdayjob101.com and faiscommelesriches.com in french).
Good luck with you goals,
Best regards,
Hi Alain,
Thank you for sharing your blog information with us. Good luck with your progress as well.
Cheers,
Hi, looks like things are working well for you on the DGI journey. Keep up the good work. I will be visiting your blog regularly.
Michael
Thank you Michael for stopping by,
Dividend investing is one of the best way to build wealth.
Best Regards,
Hey just stumble upon your blog and seem like you’re on track to meet your 2014 dividend goals. Hope to see your progression over time. I am starting to build my dividend portfolio also and hope to earn some passive income from the dividend in the future.
Thank J for stopping by,
I hope I can reach my goal. The dividend investing is really working well for me and Glad to hear you also starting to build your dividend portfolio.
Best Wishes,
Finance Journey, great job on laying out your short and long term goals. I use a similar approach – small steps (the SMART approach) toward achieving long term financial success. I agree that it is essential to track your progress through regular dividend and net worth updates. I look forward to following your progress.
Thank you for stopping by,
Track our progress regularly gives a motivation to keep us in the financial game. You are doing great as well in your progress to become wealth.
Cheers,