Hi There! A new decade has started and I feel really excited to kick it off with setting some stretched goals for the upcoming year. Why stretched? Well, I think this quote says it all:

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.

For me my long term goal to become financially independent and retire early (FIRE) by age 45 really feels like building a rocket (or even a starship) all by myself based on some manuals downloaded from the internet and watching some “how-to” videos on YouTube when being stuck. Sounds familiar? 😉

Approach to Goal setting

My approach to setting goals is quite easy. I’ve defined four categories in the following order of importance: 

1. Health
2. Family
3. Wealth (FIRE)
4. Giving back

Without focusing on health first I would not work on the biggest risk for all of us in life. What’s FIRE worth when not being able to enjoy it in full extent due to for instance chronically health issues? And what’s FIRE worth if you got divorced and can’t see your kids on a daily basis by not having focused on them while pursuing FIRE? In any case, I guess you understand why I am prioritizing it like this and luckily they are not mutually exclusive.

Without further ado, let’s have a look at my 2020 goals.

2020 goals

Health

1. Get a long desired surgery done to fix a part of my vision
2. Have my blood levels in a healthy state by using a right diet (vegan or vegetarian, but low-fat)
3. Run 500 km in total
4. Run 10k under 50 minutes in an official race
5. Finish the Cooper Test with at least 2700 meters (classification Very Good) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_test
6. Bike 500 km in total
7. Reach an average of 10.000 steps a day

As you can see, these goals are really about getting me more healthy and at the same time build a routine of being sportive. I am working all day behind a desk, so I will really need to get my condition from actively sporting. The stretched goal in this section is the 10 k run under 50 minutes. I could probably do it within 60 minutes so this requires quite a bit of training in the upcoming months.

Family

1. Have a long distance holiday, thus another continent than Europe
2. Support kids in their activities and be visible and available
3. Two weekends away with the missus and without the kids
4. Listen to understand, not to be understood

As you can see, these goals are mainly to ensure quality time and not to forget about living right here, right now. As a dividend growth investor I am continually having a future view and my biggest challenge is typically to not forget to live in the moment. The last goal is a particular personal goal. I just wish to be a better listener, because I truly believe that it’ll make me a better husband and father. The last one is the most stretching goal as it requires character improvement (ps:people often tell me that I am a good listener, I just want to be a better listener).

Wealth

1. Invest 40% of my salary in my dividend growth portfolio
2. Reinvest all my received dividends
3. Grow my dividend income so that it covers at least 25%  of our monthly expenses
4. Use any leftover income to pay down the principal of our mortgage on a quarterly basis. Preferably paying down enough to reduce the mortgage by 1 year.

These goals require focus, determination and consistency and it all depends on whether there are no unforeseen events in the upcoming year, I.e. job loss, an unexpected large payment. The most stretching one will be collecting additional funds for paying down some mortgage.

Giving back

1. Share my journey and knowledge via this newly created blog to inspire others
2. Inspire one person in my environment to also start investing for the future and coach that person
3. Contribute two days of my time to a local charity

This topic is important to me. I feel very fortunate to be in a position to save money and invest in my future. First of all i’d like to inspire others as well, whatever their preferred lifestyle is and whatever their approach is. It would be for instance great to even be able to help someone in my environment becoming more financially literate so that they for instance start to focus on becoming debt free. Besides that i’d like to add additional purpose by slowly starting to do charity on a continuous basis. That will be a very stretched goal with me, because for sure there’s something that I’m lacking generally in my life and that’s time. I will really need to plan it well and choose it wisely so that I can make maximum impact.

Summary

Health >> Family >> Wealth >> Giving Back

This will be my focus this year. I’d be very fortunate if I’d could tick every goal off by the end of the year. It’ll require focus, determination, time management and a consistent approach. Wish me luck! 😉

There you have it, that’s my focus for 2020. What do you think? Do you like it? Am I missing something? What are your goals for the upcoming year?

Please let me know via the comment section, I’d be very interested to learn from you!