Monday, December 16, 2013

2014 Financial Goals

1. Increase forward annual dividend income to $6,880 ($573 per month)

This is a rather ambitious goal which represents a $100 per month improvement compared to where I'm at right now.  It can come from new stock purchases, bond purchases, ETFs, preferred stocks, dividend increases, DRIPs, or FRIPs; it matters not.  My over arching goal is to grow passive income high enough to replace employment income so that one day I can spend my time on other activities besides work!  To put the number into context, I was able to increase my forward income by $1,080 ($90/mo) this year.  I think I can do better in 2014.

2. $20 monthly Lending Club interest

I continue to be a fan of peer to peer lending and have become quite comfortable with Lending Club the past year or so.  Unfortunately LC cannot support a large investment based on my current screen, but I have been testing a few parameters to broaden the note pool.  I think I could achieve this goal if I were to deposit somewhere between $50-$75 per month.  Lending Club deposits compete with brokerage deposits so I might be reaching a bit with this one.

3. Average monthly brokerage deposits of $1,300

I averaged about $1,335 this year and expect 2014 to be about the same.  The difference being my salary and regular savings will go up, but my tax return will not be used towards investments (I need tires/new computer).

Salary:  Last I heard, the military will be getting a base pay raise of 1% starting January.  Likely our housing and food allowances will go up too, but we're still waiting on the house & senate to do their jobs.  Automatic raises might come out anywhere between $50-$100 per month, it's only designed to keep up with inflation.  However I will get a heftier automatic raise starting in June and might also be promoted.

Budget:  I don't see a lot of room for additional savings without sacrificing quality of life.  I can only think of two items worth mentioning.  I am shopping car insurance and believe I can get better rates.  That, and when our lease expires we'll be looking to save a bit on housing.  There are cheaper places available down the street which seem to be just as pleasant.  Enough about budgets... yawn!

Side Income:  I'm always interested in generating side income because a budget can only go so low and my salary is for the most part out of my control.  I've tried a bunch of ideas in the past, few seemed worthwhile.  I might entertain a regular old part time job during summer months.  If we want something bad enough, we have to do whatever it takes.  How bad do I want to be financially independent at a young age?

Well that's it.  I thought about a few other goals, but really my journey to financial independence is about building passive income and doing whatever it takes to deposit enough funds into my accounts to make that dream a reality!

Here's to achieving our dreams, 2014 and beyond!

Oh, I found out that we will NOT be deploying to Afghanistan.  It's a long story, but I'm just glad to know one way or the other.  Well maybe it's a little disappointing because I wanted to follow through on the oath I took years ago (plus combat pay is fantastic) but I'm just happy to get my life back.  Days get pretty hectic training up to go to war as you might imagine.  A box full of my personal items is currently sitting somewhere in Afghanistan as the shipping container with our equipment was already sent.  That's how close we were to going!  Anyways, our Colonel took time out of his day to explain the situation to us and apologized for the constant changes.  I really appreciated that. 

UPDATE 12/20/2013:
Today I switched auto insurance companies.  The new policy has better coverage AND a 37% lower premium.  Boy was I being swindled!  Would have done this earlier, but was expecting to put my vehicle in storage for a while.

Housing allowance went up way more than expected (about $115/mo), still waiting on the 2014 food allowance increase (might be $10/mo or so).  Base pay is set to increase by 1.0% as far as I know (roughly $25/mo for me).  Military pay is public knowledge, you can figure it out for any service member with only basic facts.  Nothing to hide here.

It's looking good on the deposit front!

28 comments:

  1. Good luck on your goals next year, CI. Im sure you will be able to do $100/mo increase next year. Cheers

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    1. Thanks I hope so. The easy part is making the purchases... the hard part is funding it all with savings!

      take care!

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  2. CI,

    Looks like some great goals, although you might be shortchanging yourself a bit on the dividends now that there's a bigger base to work off of. I still can't use LC because of Texas law but I really like the concept as a portion of your whole portfolio. I'm working on compiling my goals for 2014 and I'm hoping for some big things. Glad to hear that you're not having to go over to Afghanistan. Definitely a dangerous place. That's crazy how close y'all were to getting deployed and then they pulled the plug on it.

    Enjoy the holidays!

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    1. We'll see how it all turns out. Many of my holdings have low DGR, usually the same ones that pay a lot (T, LINE, EIFZF, O, LEG, SO). I'm working on getting higher dividend growth. I'm thinking about going nuts and just investing all my idle cash, that would be a nice boost!

      I personally don't mind going to Afghanistan, but deployments like that are EXCRUCIATING for my loved ones! Anyways it's not my decision, I just go where the DoD needs me.

      Appreciate you checking in!

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  3. Here we go! I love this time of year when everyone starts writing up their goals for next year and reviews the current year's progress.

    Sounds like some great goals there. For side income, what about this blog? For 2014, I know one of my goals will be to focus more on growing my audience/readership. Maybe I just like blogging since I can do so in the comfort of my own home and not have to put on nice clothes.

    All the best!

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    1. Yeah get prepared to read all about everybody's goals! Collectively, financial independence blogs are group of motivated individuals. I would expect nothing less.

      I started trying blog ads maybe 5-6 months ago and discovered I can make $10/mo or so. I could try to expand my audience, but that would mean I'd have to start writing real articles and try to cover topics people actually want to read about. Dividend growth/income investing isn't the sexiest topic to showcase my crappy writing skills, HAHA! A Dividend Mantra I am not.

      Well the DoD just released 2014 housing allowances. I was anticipating the military getting hosed to help lower the federal budget. Turns out we're getting a 11% raise in my area. The housing allowance is tax free, this is going to help immensely.

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  4. Nice goals. That reminds me I need to start working on mine. This years it will be easy. I accomplished almost everything I wanted and had my year ONE of dividend growth investing a successful one!
    I wish you a lot of success in the next year!

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    1. Thanks Martin! I'll definitely be around cheering you on.

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  5. A nice set of goals. I have not thought about goals for 2014 yet, but I do need to update my long-term dividend income projection.

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    1. Yeah, I keep having to revise mine up and up. Best wishes for 2014 and rest of December!

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  6. Looks good CI! Big fan of the continued pursuit of the Lending Club goals (did you get my email about criteria?) as well as the stretch dividend goal. Here's to hoping you knock it out of the park!

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    1. Yes, thank you.

      My email has my real name in it, which is why I didn't respond. I prefer to stay anonymous as a precaution against identity theft and getting hacked (I'm a bit of an online worry wort). Anyways I ought to make a new email for this account.

      Happy Holidays!

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    2. Not a problem, I totally respect that and am glad you got the email. I too prefer to maintain a level of anonymity online. Once you have another email address set up, feel free to shoot me that email.

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  7. CI,

    Sounds like some challenging, but reasonable, goals. I think your dividend goal is quite achievable, especially when you factor in the organic growth of your current payouts.

    Sounds like the deployment worked out for the best. You missed out on some combat pay, but get to stay Stateside. Not a bad trade-off.

    Keep up the great work!

    Best wishes.

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    1. DM,

      I think it's achievable, but I must stay hungry to maintain that savings rate. Believe it or not, I have to exercise a lot of self control in order to save $1,000 a month. Now during deployments it's easy and I would have been tossing 4 grand a month into investments. But hey, there's about a 0.00000001% chance of being blown up by an rocket in Colorado. Plus I hear the skiing is better here ;)

      Best wishes to you too!

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  8. CI,

    Nice goals! Challenging, but I think you have a great shot of achieving them as motivated as you are. You have quite a community here cheering you on! Look how far you have come already the last few years.

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    1. Haha very true! The blogging community is very supportive of each other.

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  9. You have a well defined plan. Stick to it thick and thin and you should come out quite successful! Glad to hear you won't be going to Afghanistan. (I've never been in the military so I don't know how you guys feel about going to Afghanistan, but I wouldn't want to!) Here's to a prosperous 2014!

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    1. Most Soldiers don't mind going (we expected to go to Iraq/Afghanistan when we signed up) and the ones who are afraid probably wouldn't admit it publicly. Everyone else on my team is actively trying get a different assignment in order to get another deployment before we pull out. They want to go for various reasons. Some are just patriotic and feel it's their duty, some want the money, others are willing to go to escape bad marriages, etc. There's a stigma attached to higher ranking Army leaders who don't wear a combat patch on their right shoulder. One guy wants to go because he's embarrassed not to have that patch (meaning he hasn't deployed before). It is what it is.

      Please understand I am not infantry kicking in doors, shooting at bad guys, and rescuing women & children. We do intelligence type work at this assignment, I'll leave it at that.

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  10. Some fantastic goals. Do you find yourself talking to other soldiers about money? Glad you aren't getting deployed!

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    1. Money is never a topic of discussion at work, that's why I enjoy blogging. I always recommend saving & investing, or at least avoiding debt to my subordinates though. Nothing specific, just how it might be beneficial to start young.

      I have helped a couple guys start retirement accounts because they asked. One guy decided on a target date fund and the other index funds. Very reasonable strategies, I'm sure they're happy with those choices.

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  11. I'm a little late commenting on this one, but I'm in Afghanistan right now. Very cold, and always tough over the holidays with wife and kids at home. Huge fan of your blog. Keeps me motivated in my DGI goals. Love the combat pay! Thanks for being a voice of financial reason among the forces, wherever you're assigned.

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    1. Thank you for putting up with the conditions there. I know it can be especially tough during the holidays. I was stationed in South Korea last Christmas, skype just isn't the same. Just think how awesome it'll be when you finally get to come home. Take care!

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  12. Great to see your goals posted for 2014! Quite a challenge to raise your "forward annual dividend income" by $100 per month, but it looks like you're allowance increases may help out...

    Probably not something you want to hear, but I'm glad you're not shipping off to Afghanistan. Take care!

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    1. I think accomplishing that goal is quite doable, but will depend in part on dividend growth & market prices which are out of my control. I've taken steps to reduce bills that add zero quality to my life. That will help to meet my savings goals or for use towards other things that do matter to me. Happy holidays

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  13. Grats on not going overseas for now, there will surely be other deployments coming, I liked Afghanistan, had a great time there in 2010...if there are senior leaders w/o combat patches tell them to get their butts over there...no excuse for that imo after all these years of war...grats on some great goals and great progress, most military members have no clue when it comes to money and get taken advantage of quite often, so spread the word as much as you can

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    1. I have a combat patch but to be honest it's a lame one. I was sent to Kuwait (I know I know, but I also didn't get to choose either) and ended up extending for a 2 year deployment. One reason I wanted to go was to get a real deployment in, but we might be headed to Afghanistan next year anyway. My only reservation was that I've only been at this duty station for 6 months after spending a year in Korea. Kind of difficult to leave again so soon. I don't take ANYTHING for granted and when life sucks I commonly say "at least I'm not in Korea." Actually we might be heading to Korea for a few weeks and I'm a bit depressed about it. Get a lot of ifs and mights at this unit... I think from here on out I'm not announcing anything till I've actually boarded the plane...

      You're right about service members being taken advantage of. There's almost an endless amount of perks for the military. Guaranteed pay, cheap food, free college tuition, cheap hair cuts, no sales tax on base, cheap life insurance, military discounts on everything from oil changes to $5 Subway sandwiches. If people can't save money in the military there's really no hope. I try to spread the word, but I have to stay within my lane as you know.

      Take it easy!

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  14. Setting goals regarding one's financial stability is a good practice. It may not be an easy task, but exerting effort towards your goal will definitely have good results. Some people are even advised to get mortgage and make the financial burden lighter. How are you now? Thanks for sharing! :)

    Kevin Fritz

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