2017 Goals Review

Here were my 2017 Goals that I’ve set for myself.

 

1. Give away 100% of the post-expense earning

2. Moving wellroundedinvestor.com to a self host that is fast and reliable.

3. Do my book every week or at least once a month.

4. Talk to my boss about going part-time.

5. The goal by the year end to generate $5,000/month

6. $50K in emergency fund.

7. Take 2 trips outside of the US and 2 trips in the US

8. Improve my medical skill.

 

Let’s go through it:

1. My trying to give away $700/mo goal failed after my tenant in the midwest delay making payment, then not paying at all. Trashed the house after leaving. However, I manage to give away $200/mo to family, give $500 donation to one of the guy who were working for me, $50 donation to a girl that have her house burnt down (she got some help from the red cross and her insurance built her a new house), $2000 to scholarship fund. Average $40-60/mo in church donation, $200 extra for Christmas donation fund. All in all, given a 7 months income of $4900, I gave away:
   • $2400+500+50+2000+200+2080 =$5230
   • Exceed expectation for this goal
2. Moving to self-host – Done
3. Do my book every month – I did a good job until after April. When we start biking, We were doing at least 120 miles/week on our shiny new bikes. LOL 🙂 everyday after I got of work, I’d go to the property downtown rest for a couple of hours waiting for my husband to get off work, and we’d bike 20-30 miles. On the weekend, we’d bike a long ride of 40-52 miles. LOL 🙂 Epic fail, but you see I was extremely busy. hahah LOL 🙂
4. Talk to my boss about going to part-time – so there was a guy that were leaving, he was a part-timer, however, instead of posting a part-time position, they had made his position a full-time position. So, no hope. However, I can try again this year, one of the lady who’s in her 70s. Maybe, after she quits, I can take hers.
5. Generate $5000/mo in passive income – not quite. I kept one of the room as the bike room, my dividend income is $900/year. So the income is average at $4200/mo (or $50K) With some months of not able to collect due to tenants stop paying. But all in all, this kind of income blew my past years dividend income ($3600/year or so) out of the water. – Not considered it as fail, but I’d say… almost meet. LOL 🙂 I’m not complaining though.
6. $50K emergency fund – Okay. This is crazy, at the beginning of the year, I was flat broke. I mean, after buying a property in the midwest $77K ($57K buying price + $20K renovation cost) and $310K commercial property buy and ($290K buying price +$20K in renovation), I liquidated my dividend portfolio entirely, so I was flat broke.
   • However, at the end of the year, I have $25K in dividend portfolio + $75K in savings. ***This blew my expectation out of the water. (My goal was meet by August or so, even when some of the tenants weren’t paying and trashing the house.) I’m humble by this experience, because I now value great tenants more than a little higher rent.
7. Take 2 trips outside of the US, and 2 domestic trips – At the beginning of the year, we went to St. John, in the summer we went to Virginia Beach, California (drove through and visit the highlight of Arizona, Utah, stopped by Las Vegas), Washington DC, Baltimore, Blue Ridge Mountain, Visited a Safari Zoo, biking and hiking trails in various cities. **Even though, we didn’t take a vacation outside of the US, I’d say we’re more than meet the expectation. I’m more than happy to spend the money that I’ve earned inside the US and put it back into the US’s economy.
8. Improve my medical skills – I really didn’t do much this year, I barely did enough CE to meet the expectation. **this is a fail here.** My goals in life was to be a healer, I need to step up on the plate.