Back at the beginning of the year, just after the inception of the blog, I wrote a post laying out my goals for 2019 in all aspects of my life. Well, 2019 has come and gone, and it’s time to report back on the results.
So let’s break down how I fared this year with each goal.
2019 Goals:
1. Start a Blog:
Met. Technically, when I wrote these goals last year I had already started the blog. So we will call this one met. When I began writing this blog, I started it as a safe place that I could voice my financial opinions, however, I had no idea that in 2019 the blog would actually be in the green.
The blog costs me about $150 per year to maintain but actually ended up making me around $2,000 dollars this year. Again, this doesn’t pay much when you add in the working hours on it but nonetheless, I will call year one a success in my book. I plan to expand my blog goals in 2020 to hopefully motivate me for increased success.
If you want to see more information about how the blog fared in 2019, check out my recent blog on the subject by clicking the link.
2. Reach $100,000 in Net Worth
This probably was the most satisfactory goal that I met this year. So much so that I dedicated an entire post to this goal, right around the time I crossed over the threshold.
Everyone talks about how hard the first $100,000 is to accumulate and how easy wealth growth through investing is once you reach this number. So completing this goal and reaching this number meant a lot to me and my future success.
It is less about the actual money though because in reality $100,000 isn’t that much money nor is it very liquid sitting in different investment vehicles. But in the big picture reaching this number allows compounding interest to finally start showing off it’s noticeable effects. And this, this is invaluable.
At the end of the year, I actually was able to grow my net worth to just over $125,000. Meaning that in 2019 I was able to invest and save roughly $75,000. I haven’t yet calculated my savings rate or income yet for 2019 but I imagine the savings rate will be comparable to last years numbers.
A high savings rate and likely slightly higher income this year combined with a very strong stock market led to a net growth of 150% in my portfolio. This likely is or will be very near my peak in what I am able to save in one calendar year so taking the time to celebrate this success I believe to be important and I suggest other individuals or couples to do the same when they reach this milestone as well.
Obviously net worth goals have a lot of factors to them and may not hit every year. However, I find them to be very beneficial for those of us in the accumulation phase of money as it forces us to regularly track our net worth and more importantly track where our money is coming and going. I try to recommend everyone to have one, no matter how small or big the goal is. Every dollar helps.
Remember, if you can find a way to save and invest 200 dollars per pay period or $400 per month, over a 40 year time period invested in low cost index funds, you will be a millionaire!
3. Max out my traditional IRA and start/max out my HSA
Met. This year I was able to max out my traditional IRA and HSA right away at the start of 2019. These are always the first investment vehicles that I max out to start the year.
This ensures that I’m not scrambling at the end of the year to max them out, and it also actually leads to slightly better returns with lump sum investing vs spacing out your investments throughout the year. I plan to expand on this more in a future post. However, if you have questions now, feel free to reach out here.
I went with a traditional IRA through Vanguard in 2019 because of the improved tax breaks it would give me but after reviewing the information again, I believe that I will go back to a roth IRA in 2020.
It was brought to my attention that because I travel for work, I likely have my lowest taxable income at this point in my life so it may make more sense to invest in a post tax investment vehicle next year.
Because I have a high deductible insurance plan through work, I was able to begin a HSA or health savings account this year which I opened through Fidelity based on their competing rates with that of Vanguard lately.
If you want to read more about why I feel that HSA’s are the best investment vehicle, feel free to read more in one of my previous posts. It will save you the redundancy of me rambling on and on about how they are the only accounts that are completely tax free.
I mentioned in my 2019 goals that I valued these accounts so much due to my lack of ability to invest in a 401k, however, what I didn’t know was that this year I would qualify to begin contributing to my 401k.
So this was the cherry on top for this investing goal as I was able to begin filling another pre-tax investment bucket that wasn’t in my financial plans at the start of the year. I was not able to fully max it out this year due to my late start, but I was able to contribute a solid starting amount which I plan to report on in my 2019 financial results post.
All of which should bring my taxable income down even more this year which should have another positive effect on my taxes this April.
4. Buy one rental property
Not Met. This was one that I was hoping to accomplish but due to my current working/living circumstances I did not meet this goal. I currently am contracted in AZ, and as much as I would love to buy a rental property and manage it long distance, I feel that my first one should be bought when I am in the area so that I can more actively manage it
Through 2019, I was still actively viewing houses on the MLS, running numbers, and listening to the Bigger Pocket’s podcast so future investments may be possible in the future but this year just wasn’t the right year for me.
5. Meditate for 10 Minutes per Week
I would call this goal partially met. I attempted multiple times to meditate but each time I had a very difficult time not letting my mind wander or falling asleep. Part of this may have been because of the timing, as I attempted to meditate when I woke up.
Overall, rather than meditate, I found that taking time to thoughtfully check in with my own happiness and the happiness in my relationships turned out to be more beneficial for me.
I don’t want to rule out meditation in the future, but I didn’t see the benefits I anticipated like I did with increased mindfulness.
6. Reach New PR’s in Fitness
Perform 20 full pull ups without rest:
-Not met, 14. Without cheating I was only able to get to 14 this year when I was strict about form. I may have overestimated my potential for this one.
Bench press 245#:
-2019 max: 225#: Not met, current max 230#. Bench pressing has always been a difficult lift for me. I will likely need to break down my form in 2020 as my max has been the same for the last few years.
Squat 350#, current max is 325#:
-2019 max unknown: I didn’t push this max as much as I thought I was going to this year. I dealt with a bout of knee pain, so some of the year was spent working through this injury and breaking down my form again from the bottom up. I am happy to report my knee is feeling much better at this point in time.
Dead lift 325#, current max is 275#:
-Met, 400#. Because my knee was limiting me with loaded knee flexion, this year I was really able to focus on my dead lifts and was able to peak at around 400# x 1 this year.
Run a 7 minute mile:
-Nope, I don’t think I attempted this goal this year. Hey, but I did get on a more routine basketball schedule and even added a weekly flag football game to my routine.
Overall, I didn’t love using set numbers for my 2019 fitness goals. I don’t know how else to quantify my numbers besides the dreaded scale. And because I lift more for lifestyle and health than PRs, it made these numeric goals less motivating than I originally anticipated.
I am open to any and all suggestions on how to better quantify my fitness goals in the future. So feel free to comment below how you quantify your goals.
Conclusion
Overall, 2019 was a great year. By many it was named “The year of positivity” and I think it lived up to that name. A lot of big changes have occurred in my life this year. I moved to Arizona for a series of travel contracts, traveled and hiked more than ever thought possible, and may have even met someone to share this journey with.
Although many of my personal goals were left uncompleted, I think overall having the goals motivated me or at least reminded me what I was trying to accomplish in 2019. And to me, that in itself provides enough value to complete this practice again in the future.
I understand that many New Years goals are cliche, but I still find them important because they force us to review not only our financial well-being but our well-being with our relationships, family, faith, fitness, and other areas of personal growth goals. So instead of viewing them as 2020 goals, a more appropriate name may be our 2020 reflections.
Either way, we may not accomplish these goals in the end but as long as we strive to get a little better every day in at least one aspect of our lives then we are headed in the right direction.
What are your 2020 goals?
Feel free to comment below to share!
