2021 Goals and Resolutions – Q3 Update

It’s hard to believe there are only three more months to go before 2021 wraps up. Considering that we have regularly travelled outside of Canada every year for the past many years, it is weird that we have only travelled locally here in BC in 2021.

Due to the pandemic, I have been working from home since mid-March last year and there are no plans to head back to the office anytime soon. A few weeks ago I had an in-person meeting with my manager at the office for about 2 hours. It was the first time that we saw each other in person since mid-March 2020 but work wise we hadn’t missed a beat.

This pandemic has changed the way many of us work. The old mentality of β€œyou can’t do your work properly unless you’re in the office” is going away quickly. I am hoping companies will encourage remote working in the future to cut down unnecessary carbon footprints. My manager and I agreed that we’d continue to work from home once the company starts the return-to-work phase and only go into the office once a week, at the most. This will allow me to spend time with the kids and doing other things, rather than sitting in the traffic.

Malahat Skywalk

One important thing I want to say is that I am really sad and disappointed that there are so many divides lately. The left, the right, the vaccinated, the unvaccinated, pro-life, pro-choice, pro-guns, anti-guns, drug legalization, drug criminalization, etc. Can’t we all just get along? We need to be more acceptable and more tolerant of each other, regardless of their opinions.

Stop the hate, stop the divide, put aside the differences, and let’s start healing together. Let’s have more acceptance, more understanding, more love, and more togetherness.

Can’t we just all just enjoy the view?

2021 Goals and Resolutions

Below is my 2021 goal sheet. Since I’m a visual person and a spreadsheet nerd, I found that having a goal sheet works very well for me. I keep the goal sheet on Google Drive so I can update and review it regularly.

Tawcan Q3 goals and resolutions update

Financial Goals

  • Dividend Income over $32,000 -> Work in progress but slightly behind. This is a very ambigious and challenge goal I set out for us at the beginning of this year. To hit this number, we’d need a YoY growth rate of 18.6% or more. However, we’re already facing the laws of the big numbers and it is getting increasingly more difficult to continue to grow our annual dividend income at above 15%. After nine months, we received a total of $22,774.79 in dividend income (stay tuned for the detailed update). At this pace, it is unlikely that we’ll hit the $32,000 target, but we’ll be close. Who knows, if the Canadian banks decide to reward their shareholders with special dividends this year, maybe we will hit this target.
  • FI ratio >=60%. Very behind on progress. Hitting this goal means we need to have a sizable dividend income and low expenses. If we were to hit $32,000 in dividends, a 60% FI ratio would mean we’d spend a total of $53,333. Although this number is roughly inline with our average annual spending for the last few years, we are noticing pricing increase everywhere. For example, groceries are definitely getting more expensive, even though we shop mostly at discount grocers like Costco and Superstore. We have also signed up kids for extra-cirucular activities like Soucts and dancing classes which all cost extra money. We will continue to work toward the 60% FI ratio goal but I think it will be difficult to accomplish this goal.

Blog Goals

  • Publish a blog post every Monday -> On track. I have kept posting every Monday so far in 2021. The trick for me is to write ahead of the time and have a handful of articles reach to publish. Writing a new blog article is very time consuming for me. Typically it’d take me anywhere between two to five hours to write a new blog article. For articles that require more research, the writing time can easily double.
  • Speak at Canadian Financial Summit -> Done. I was one of the speakers at this year’s Canadian Financial Summit. It was a lot of fun brainstorming an idea with Kyle then recording our session. For those of you that tuned in to the summit, I’d love to hear what you think about it.
  • One Facebook Live Session -> Done! I recorded a Facebook Live session back in Q2. I may consider doing more Facebook Live sessions in the future. I also did an Instagram Live with Jessica Moorhouse and Liquid from Freedom 35 Blog in late September.

Personal Goals

  • Work out at least twice a week -> On track.Β Good progress after three quarters. I have been working four times a week so far in 2021 with a single 16 kg kettlebell. Lately I have been doing more movement complexes which would result me dripping in sweat by the end of the workout session.
  • Complete all 5 levels of Duolingo Danish Course -> Done!Β After about 1.5 years of daily studying, I finally finished the Duolingo Danish Course! I am very proud of myself for finishing this personal goal. Am I perfect with Danish now I have finished the course? Far from it. I am still terrible at pronounciating Danish but I am better at understanding written stuff and understanding when Mrs. T and the kids speak Danish (when they speak slowly). I’ll have to continue to practice Danish to get better at it. Perhaps I’ll look into other computer-based or smartphone-based Danish courses.
Dulingo Danish
  • Read 12 books -> Done. Thanks to multiple camping trips in July and August, I had time to read books. In Q3 I finished a total of five books! The books were:
    • Explosive Child: This book was recommend to us by a child psychologist that we saw. It really helped both Mrs. T and I understand why our kids react the way they react. The book also helped us in dealing with temper tantrums and resolving issues. If you’re a parent, I would highly recommend reading this book.
    • The White Tiger: Mrs. T and I watched the movie a while ago. The movie itself was fantastic which made me wanted to read the book. The book was even better than the movie and really gave a sense of the struggles the Indian poor people face in their lives.
    • Pirate Lattitudes: I’ve been a big Michael Crichton fan since I was a teenager so when I saw a book by Michael Crichton in the library that I haven’t read, I was intrigued. Pirate Lattitudes was discovered in Crichton’s files after his death so the story may have been edited by other authors. The book was a quick fun read but it was definitely outside Crichton’s typical scientific genre.
    • What Alice Forgot: We found out that Alice forgot 10 years worth of her memory after a bad fall in the gym and how this loss of memory has influenced her life. I really enjoyed reading this book.
    • Digital Wealth. An Automatic Way to Invest Successfully: The only personal finance & investing related book I read in Q3. I think it was good for me to take a break from reading personal finance & investing books. Anyway, Digital Wealth listed some proven digital investing ideas. While some of these ideas were quite basic, they were good reminders for me.
  • Meditate for 5 minutes each day -> On track. So far so good. After three quarters, I hae meditated every single day. I am actually quite proud of myself for this accomplishment. It’s great to start the day with a quick meditation and really set my intensions for the day.

Fun Goals

  • One kids-free staycation with Mrs. T- > Done! Mrs. T and I had a quick one night stayaction in Vancouver back in Q2. It was great to spend some kids-free time together. We needed that.

Summary – 2021 Goals and Resolutions Q3 Update

I am really pleased that I finished a few more of my goals in Q3. The working out and meditation goals have kept me level-headed in this very difficult year. The biggest accomplishment, I think is finishing the Danish Duolingo course. Overall I’m very pleased with my progress.

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16 thoughts on “2021 Goals and Resolutions – Q3 Update”

  1. Good work on all these goals. Happy to see that Duolingo is working out for you. I have a long streak, but I’ve been doing mostly easy stuff in Spanish (which I studied in school), French, and Japanese. I would need to do a lot of work to make the Japanese useful, but at least I have some kind of base now.

    Reply
  2. Posting a blog post every week is such a challenging goal. I am glad you achieved it. I enjoy your posts and learn a lot from it.
    Thank you!

    Reply
  3. Hi Bob,

    Thanks for share all the information in your posts.

    I know a lot of thought and hard work goes into producing a blog.

    I really do learn something every time I read one your post.

    Thanks again.

    Reply
  4. thanks for your time and your blog. Well done . I would sure like to see cover-call ETF’s investigated at some point . Which is the best to buy, et al…
    You social commentary is interesting as well ‘ can we all get along please’. As a degreed sociologist , I take great interest in these comments. One factor getting in the way of ‘getting along’ is people innate nature of tribalism. If you build it , it will surely come. So , when a country has a policy of “multi-culturalism” , such as Canada , this tends to divide rather than bring people together and pit tribe against tribe, paradoxically( ie Quebec and others). Nationalism-unity , cannot exists in earnest with a multitude of tribes at work like they are . Much has been written on the subject . Also, the vogue word/phrase of ‘Diversity is our strength’ , is contrary to social theory . The in vogue phase would be “unity is our strength” . Through driving for unity and togetherness , true brilliant things happen. Of course it is much harder to govern with a unified population and no fear of using the wrong adjective ( Mao Cira 1949) … hence disunity, fear and tribe rule are perpetuated. History has taught us that this has been utilized for centuries.For example , It was utilized by the Roman ruler Julius Caesar and the French emperor Napoleon (together with the maxim divide ut regnes), very effectively . ” Divide, separate and you shall conquer the mass , unity is our enemy for rule , diversity is our friend for absolute power” .Moreover, Immanuel Kant was an advocate of this tactic, noting that “the problem of setting up a totalitarian state can be solved even by a nation of devils” so long as they possess an appropriate constitution which pits opposing factions/tribes against each other with a system of diverse groups, checks and balances” . elements of Kant’s ideas( and many others) for absolute tyrannical rule were:

    -creating or encouraging divisions among the subjects/tribes to prevent alliances that could challenge the sovereign and distributing forces to create disunity and diversity.
    -aiding and promoting those who are willing to cooperate with the state and its ideas of total power.
    -fostering distrust and enmity between all local tribes/ leaders /rulers.
    -encouraging meaningless expenditures and over taxation, that reduce the capability for political and military spending on the unified state, so as not to have a threat militarily, only the new state shall have the means of military power, not the old unified old state.

    Unfortunately , history and current social theory makes it very clear.

    Switching gears , whats your thoughts on a market correction coming?(10% or more) . It does keep markets healthy over time, economically.

    Thanks for your wonderful work !

    Reply
  5. Hey Bob, love your blog. I read it every week. Be cool to see a post about your kettlebell workout. I always like to see how non-fitness influencers do their workouts.

    Cheers
    Pete

    Reply
  6. Congratulations!
    I am impressed with your blog.
    Danish: By all means, find another course. Do NOT however fall for Rosetta Stone. I did and forced myself to do it (Spanish). After completing many, many levels, I felt I was not progressing much at all, even found errors in it. Above all, it was BORING!

    Reply

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