2017 Goals

Here are few of the goals I would like to achieve during 2017.

Financial

Increase Lending Club balance from $10,000 to $15,000.
Reach $10,000 in forward passive income in my taxable account
Receive $8,000 in passive income in my taxable account


Build the following positions by year end

• 200 shares of Exxon
• 400 shares of Coke
• 100 shares of Procter & Gamble
• 200 shares of Verizon
• 100 shares of Johnson & Johnson
• 200 shares of Wells Fargo
• 100 shares of Apple
• 200 combined shares of PM & MO

Reach $900,000 in total net worth.

Health goals

Continue ACL knee rehab and start running again in March
Lots of hiking!!
Eat more grilled chicken and fish
2 gym visits a week


Education goals

Read at least 30 books on various business topics investing, retirement, sales, real estate, passive income, motivation, personal improvement

Get real estate and insurance licenses this year
Get myself knee deep into some serious grilling/smokin/outdoor cooking


Fun goals

Go on 1 cruise
Cabin rental and fishing trip
Attend a weekend baseball series at Disch Falk field in Austin
Hike a part of the PCT, Continental Divide Trail, or The Appalachian Trail
Continue learning how to play guitar
Transition back to a 5 day workweek 
Spend more time drinking cold beer in my hammock
Buy an old Jeep and just go driving off the grid every now and then


Professional goals

Continue to build a world class and dominant sales team
Promote at least two of my hand picked sales proteges into management
Increase sales by 10% and net profit by 25%
Earn $250,000 from my day job
Help build my girlfriend's new insurance career


Personal Goals

When not grinding my ass off at work, lots of family and friends time

Goals Update

Here is a progress report on some of the goals that I created for 2015.


Financial

Since I plan on reaching FI within four years I think that it would be good to lay out at least a basic framework of how the next 35 years might look. Even the best laid plans have flaws and need adjustments from time to time. Without a basic plan, success rates diminish so it I at least needed to put the FI ball in play. I think I came up with a conservative, attainable FI plan and will tweak it from time to time. This plan is not perfect, but it's a good start. As always any suggestions or recommendations are certainly welcomed.

Here is my FI Hybrid Model.

The Lending Club plan as I mentioned last month is a no go in Texas so I will look at some other ideas to diversify my income streams. I do qualify as an accredited investor, so that may open my options to some alternative investments. I still hope that Lending Club will become available to Texas residents sometime in the near future.

18K in forward passive income and 16k in passive income received is on track. I will continue to take it easy as I exhausted myself and my a lot capital last summer and fall chasing my 14.5k in forward income goal. It's too early to say, but I think my heavy investment in energy companies is going to work out pretty well. Once I make it past tax season, I will ramp up the purchases and hopefully the markets will provide some good opportunities.

Another financial goal I made some progress on last month was to improve the quality of companies I invest in going forward. I think my purchases in TD, CAT, and JNJ will help towards this goal. I plan to continue adding higher quality companies throughout this year. Also I sold my entire position in ARCP and replaced it with NOV.


Health Goals

My largest goals involve running and a lot of it. During the middle of last year, I reached a personal best of 6.2 miles or 10k. Shortly afterwards I suffered a high ankle sprain which sidelined me for two months and when I started running again in September, my right knee started to bother me. That has never happened before and while the pain disappears within a few days it comes back if I try to run over 3 miles.

Recently I decided to just keep running since the pain is more of a nuisance than an injury (so I think) and I felt my left knee starting to hurt. I'm pretty sure that this was caused my trying to compensate for my right knee. The following day both knees were really sore.

I plan on resting them a few weeks and then try a different running pattern. I am beginning to think running exclusively on the track is causing problems because of all of the turns that I have to make. This is just a hunch, but that is why I plan on running straightaways and on dreadmills in the future.

If I see no improvement with my knees, then no big deal. I will swim, bike, hike, or something else. What I won't do is do is give up on cardio as my blood pressure and lower standing heart rates are very important. Nothing can replace good health and of course that includes protecting my knees as well.

Turkey, tilapia, salmon, and a lot of green vegetables are being consumed regularly so without question my diet is improving.


Education goals

I read The Choice by Og Mandino which is about a man who gives up a great career in management for the opportunity to chase his passion for writing and spend more time with his family away from the chaos of the rate race.

Og also wrote an excellent book called The Greatest Salesman in the World which I have read many times and is an excellent book whether you are in sales or not.

I also read The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham which is fantastic as well, but it is not casual reading. Also the copy I read had somewhat annoying commentary from Jason Zweig which I mostly ignored.

I found this website called Coursera which offers free online course covering a variety of subjects from many different colleges and universities. I am currently taking a course on Microeconomics and find it very interesting. There are music courses, computer courses, physics (puke), and many others. I will definitely look into taking a few more throughout the remainder of this year.


Fun goals

Unfortunately I haven't made much progress in this category, but I have reduced my work schedule from six days a week to five and a half. Today I left at 12:00 and spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching movies with my wife who was sick today....no really she was sick not just playing hookie. :-)

Anyway the Horns baseball season starts in a week or so and I look forward to making the short drive from Houston to Austin to watch a weekend series soon. There is nothing like being outside watching or playing baseball in the spring.


Professional goals

Everything is going great at work and the team is kicking ass. We increased sales by 8% over last January and net profit rose by 28%. It feels great getting the year off to a good start primarily because January can be a tough month due to weather, taxes, and possibly some economic problems in Houston due to falling energy prices. I have seen no effects yet.

Overall I think I am off to a pretty good start and plan on reaching a few more goals by the end of this month.

2015 Goals

Here are few of the goals I would like to achieve during 2015.

Financial

Create a strong hybrid FI plan incorporating

• Dividends/Interest
• Safe withdrawal plan (SPY and cash)
• 72T early distribution from my 401k
• Side hustles that do not include a traditional W2 job

Open a Lending Club account and build up $10,000 in loans
Reach $18,000 in forward passive income in my taxable account
Receive $16,000 in passive income in my taxable account
Avoid more speculative investments with unstable dividends (this will be difficult)

Build the following positions by year end

• 100 shares of Exxon
• 400 shares of Coke
• 150 shares of Procter & Gamble
• 700 shares of AT&T
• 800 shares of General Electric
• 100 shares of Chevron
• 100 shares of Johnson & Johnson
• 100 shares of Pepsi
• 300 shares of Altria
• 100 shares of Caterpillar

Reach 100% savings rate during at least 2 months this year

Health goals

Run a half marathon
Run at least 20 miles each week
Buy a bike and start riding (pretty vague I know)
Eat more grilled chicken and fish
Kayak on the lake more often


Education goals

Read at least 30 books on various business topics investing, retirement, sales, real estate, passive income, motivation, personal improvement

Start seriously researching side hustles in case I unplug from the work force prematurely
Read past Chapter 1 in my Microsoft Office 2013 manual
Take a couple of college courses on any subject excluding math, physics, chemistry, or any other subject that is subject to cause long term psychological damage (maybe photography, marketing, real estate, or stock market analysis)

Fun goals

Attend all 8 Houston Texans home games (I used to go to every game for 8 years)
Attend at least 2 Longhorn football games in Austin
Attend a weekend baseball series at Disch Falk field in Austin
Take a long road trip through Colorado with the wifey
Take a long road trip through California along the PCH (again with the wifey)
Learn how to play guitar
Transition back to a 5 day workweek
Spend more time drinking cold beer in my hammock (Must achieve 5 day work week first)
Build a new deck for the backyard
Learn to play golf
Install indirect lighting throughout the house
Enter 20 different 5K and 10K runs in different cities


Professional goals

Continue to build a world class and dominant sales team
Promote at least two of my hand picked sales proteges into management
Increase sales by 10% and net profit by 25%
Increase Linked In contacts to at least 1500 people
Earn $250,000 from my day job
Spend more one on one time with sales associates (Not a negative like many may think)


Blog goals

Create an About page
Learn to create graphs (without throwing the monitor through the window)
Use the HTML button without destroying the blog
Add more information to the month end summary (Income, expenses, networth)
Create a few more entries each month