Man, today has been a busy day for side hustles!
I must have spent a good six hours re-making an old site that was just sitting there gathering dust. Well, sort of. Yesterday, I was just casually checking my AdSense stats which have been at an average of about $0.02/day now (up from $0.01! Yay!), when I noticed a single $0.15 click. Upon further investigation, it turned out that it was a site I’d sort of set up and forgotten about. So of course I had to dig in a bit more and it turns out that it’s ranked well for a number of organic search terms.
Naturally, there was only one thing to do — give that puppy a make-over while preserving SEO. And that’s what I did. As soon as work was done, I got to work. Luckily, my wife took the kids out for the night so I’ve been in focus mode the entire time (early retirement light, I guess). She’ll soon return, which is why I feel a bit rushed in writing this but I wanted to get a post out tonight. I hate breaking that chain.
Boy have I digressed from the title.
So today, I read a post from my buddy Adam over at I Want to Retire Soon (IWTRS) where he went over his progress for the year so far. I feel like I’ve been doing a lot of that, but one thing I haven’t really done is set any kind of public goals for me to embarrass myself with (just kidding), so I wanted to take the opportunity to set a few in the same vein as IWTRS. So without further adieu…
Goal 1. Fill Emergency Fund to 100% (Status: Completed)
Okay, I’m kind of cheating on this one but to be fair, it was the only real goal I publicly stated (besides my FI date goal stated in my About page, that is). Also, I killed that goal, so I’m going to give myself that one.
Goal 2. Reach $20,000 in investments for the year (Status: On track)
So far, I have about $12,000 invested (as you know from my many postings on the subject). This goal poses some threat as I have an upcoming dip in salary coming, albeit temporary (side hustles and side businesses — time to step it up).
Goal 3. Write at least 25 posts here per month (Status: Behind)
Last month, I wrote 24 posts. I feel like none of my posts are really super long, nor are they super short, so I feel like that should be a good momentum to maintain. However, I’m going to reach a little higher on this one and call it ‘Behind’ because I’d like to generate more quality content on a constant basis.
Goal 4. Comment on at least 20 posts per week on similar blogs (Status: On track)
I’m totally ripping Adam off here on this one, but I think this is vital to keeping involved and keeping the right mindset. If I’m constantly thinking about financial independence, early retirement, dividend growth investing, index funds, I will be much less likely to fail. I’m calling this one ‘on track’ because I comment on at least 5 blogs every day just because I enjoy it. And Adam, if you find a way to track that metric, please let me know.
Goal 5. Get my feet wet with Dividend Growth Investing (Status: Behind)
I’ve been bothering a lot of people in my attempts at researching this one, and I don’t think that will stop anytime soon. Still, I haven’t achieved it yet and I want to sort of pressure myself into it because I think it will pay off well in the long-run. Hopefully this one is set to “on track” by the beginning of Q4!
Well, that’s it for now. I’ve got stuff to do around the house since I’ve been staring at this stupid screen all day!
Until next time.
Thanks for the shout out!
Good list of goals here. 25 posts a month. That’s a lofty goal but I think you can do it. I think that works two fold in your favor. First it keeps you thinking about your purpose and second it draws in more readers by providing fresh content.
Also goal 1 is huge and quite a stress reliever. When I hit mine it was one of the best feelings. Congrats again on that.
Looking forward to following you on your progress!
Adam – IWTRS recently posted…June 2015 – Summary
Adam,
No, thank you! For reminding me how important goal-setting is to success in general. I hope I can stick to all these. Maybe I’ll put a goal tracker in the sidebar. :)
FM
Good luck with your goals.
For your last point, I took the plunge last August, though I have been invested in the market since I started working via the 401k, IRA etc.
The key takeaway from me is that it is not that difficult to invest in dividend stocks. Definitely not rocket science. I mean, if I could do it, anyone can.
D4s
Div4son recently posted…Recent Buys
D4S,
That may be, but I’m not a guy who likes to jump in with both feet when it comes to financing. I definitely like to over-research so minimize surprises. I certainly appreciate your take on it though. Gives me hope.
FM
FM,
You’re right. I wasn’t saying that you shouldn’t do your homework and be comfortable.
I am just saying that Certain investment schemes can be complex – and it doesn’t have to be so.
I think I followed a very similar path to you – building up an emergency fund etc.
Then, it was just just finding a strategy that I was comfortable with.
D4s
Div4son recently posted…Recent Buys
D4S,
Understood! Yeah, I think this strategy is nice common ground between being risk averse and risk friendly.
I have plenty of time for this stuff to grow; the only things that really bug me are the taxes and trade fees, but I guess those just come with the territory.
If you have any tips on keeping taxes low on this kind of thing, please let me know!
FM