2024 Goals and Resolutions – Q1 Update

This year is the sixth year that I set goals and resolutions at the beginning of the year. Then each quarter I provide an update here. I like these regular updates because they help keep me accountable and honest. They also help me understand if I need to change my approach to attaining my goals.

Some readers have appreciated these regular updates and have reached out that they started setting annual goals. It’s great that I have inspired some readers. This is exactly what I hoped this little blog would do…. Inspire other people to start their financial independence journey and improve themselves along the way. 

2024 Goals and Resolutions 

My goals and resolutions for 2024 are mostly year long ones. 

As you can see from below, most of the goals are either still WIP (Work in Progress) or To Do. This makes sense since most of the goals and resolutions are yearly long. 

Tawcan goals and resolutions Q1 2024 update

For privacy and safety reasons, as some readers pointed out in the past, I set quarterly completion targets for the two travel goals rather than stating a specific month.

Financial Goals

Dividend Income over $55,000 – WIP, A 

After three months, we have received $14,335.80 in dividends. This puts us roughly on target for the $55,000 target by the end of the year. Because of this, I gave myself an A.

Tawcan dividend income March 2024 summary

This year, rather than focusing on high yield dividend paying stocks, I have put more emphasis on low yield but higher growth stocks and ETFs. This was one of the reasons for initiating a position in QQQ. 

Travel hack to earn $2,000 equivalent of points – WIP, A+ $1,410 earned

We have been busy applying for credit cards and earning travel points. In the first quarter, we applied for the following credit cards and earned the following points:

  1. TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite – earned $35k Aeroplan points or the equivalent of $735.
  2. WestJet World Elite Mastercard – earned $250 worth of WestJet dollar
  3. Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite – earned $125 via Frugalflyer for applying for the card. Also earned 30k Scene+ points, which is equivalent to $300. 

So far, we have earned the equivalent of $1,410 in travel points. Solid progress so far, hence deserving of an A+ letter grade. 

Reduce # of individual stock holdings to 40 – WIP, B

We started the year with 46 individual stock holdings. In Q1 we closed out Metro and Suncor, which reduced our total holdings to 44.  

Some potential holdings we might consider closing are:

  • Canadian Tire – Surprisingly, the warmer winter has impacted Canadian Tire’s revenues. Although Canadian Tire has been growing dividends for 13 years straight with a 10-year dividend growth rate of 17.3%, the price performance over the last five years isn’t all that impressive.
  • Magna International – Magna International is the smallest position, percentage-wise, in our dividend portfolio. The stock has dropped quite a bit due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Magna International provides a lot of parts to auto companies and is building toward an EV future. However, the EV market has slowed down and that’s negatively impacting MG’s stock price performance. 
  • Qualcomm – I have a love-hate relationship with Qualcomm. Professionally I work very closely with Qualcomm so I know they make a lot of money from their cellular chipsets. I also know that they make even more money from royalties. But the stock price has bounced around in the last couple of years. Would Qualcomm see a bit of a tailwind from the AI hype?  Qualcomm is a relatively small position for us. Does it make sense to reinvest the money elsewhere? (Qualcomm is a multi-bagger position for us. Does it make sense to close out?). 

One important thing to note is that I am not going to close out positions simply for the sake of accomplishing this goal. I want to be methodical and rational whenever we decide to close out a position. 

Blog Goals

Continue publishing a blog post every Monday – WIP, A

I have been writing ahead and scheduling posts to go live every Monday. I also have been doing a lot of brainstorming on new blog post ideas.

Write & publish a 10 year review post – To do

I have not started this yet. I’ll put more thought into this goal in May or June. I probably will end up writing about 10 things I have learned after blogging for 10 years. 

Personal Goals 

Do 1 minute plank each day – WIP, A.

I have been consistently doing one minute plank every single day so far this year, except for three days (two of the days I was sick and a few days when I was travelling overseas). One minute planks are relatively easy nowadays and I often do planks for one and a half minutes or two minutes.

Read for 10 minutes before bedtime – WIP, 7 books read, A+

I have been consistently reading for more than 10 minutes before bedtime. This has helped me to calm my mind down before sleep. 

In addition to reading before bedtime, after listening to a few All the Hacks episodes, I stopped reaching for my phone first thing in the morning and started reading for 5 to 10 minutes first thing in the morning. 

In Q1 I finished the following books: 

  • A Column of Fire: The third book in Ken Follett’s Kingsbridge series. I thought the book wasn’t as good as The Evening and the Morning and The Pillars of the Earth because A Column of Fire was more of a spy book and most of the stories didn’t occur in Kingsbridge. 
  • We Were Dreamers: As a fellow immigrant myself, I could relate to many stories that Simu Liu told in the book. The book also made me appreciate all my parents’ sacrifices after moving to Canada to ensure my brother and I had a solid footing in the new country. 
  • The Armor of Light: I decided to finish the last book in the Kingsbridge series. I liked The Armor of Light better than A Column of Fire. It was neat that the Kingsbridge series covered 1,000 years of Western civilization.
  • Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince: The 2nd last book of the Harry Potter series. Having watched the Half Blood Prince movies a couple of times, I have to say that the movie changed many things and missed a lot of details. I plan to finish reading the last book of the series this year.
  • Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows: this was probably my favourite book out of the Harry Potter series. Very glad I finally finished the series. I could see why people love these Harry Potter books so much. 
  • Low-demand parenting: a very interesting book on a completely different parenting approach. The book provided a great perspective shift from the traditional parenting paradigm. Mrs. T and I both read the book and had some discussions about how we should approach parenting. 
  • The Readaholics and the Faleon Fiasco: a free murder history book Mrs. T got at the local library. It was an easy read but with a lot of characters in the book. I think I finished the book in about five days. 

Reduce body fat to 15% – 16%, B.

I started the year at 15.9% body fat. I ended Q1 2024 at 16%. A slight increase but when I looked at the weight difference it was less than 0.5 kg. In other words, it’s in the acceptable range and I shouldn’t worry about it.

To be honest, I didn’t pay too much attention to this goal throughout the quarter. I continued intermittent fasting for about 90%. From time to time I would have treats in the evening. Having said that, I think I look pretty good whenever I look at myself in front of the mirror with a little bit of a six-pack showing. Many people have commented that I looked noticeably thinner. 

For Q2, I plan to continue eating healthy, exercising, and fasting regularly. 

Minimize social media on phone (15 minutes X & 15 minutes Instagram) – WIP, A

I made very solid progress on this goal in Q1. Setting timers in the Digital Wellbeing app helped me from spending too much time on X and Instagram on my phone. There were only a few days in Q1 that I hit the daily limit so I was quite proud of myself.

Overall, I found by setting timers in the Digital Wellbeing app, my overall phone usage decreased in Q1. 

Clean up the garage – WIP, B+

Mrs. T and I started cleaning up the garage at the end of February. We made some solid progress but we still need to get rid of a few things. 

In case you’re wondering, Mrs. T won a broken potter wheel from the community centre. As it turned out, all she had to do was to adjust the potentiometer on the paddle and the wheel was working without any problems. She was very happy to have this new toy. 

garage
The current state of the garage. Need to get rid of a few more things. 

We also cleaned up and reorganized the garage cabinets so we could store more items in them rather than leaving stuff on the garage floor. 

Fun Goals

Rent a Model Y for Iceland trip – WIP, A 

We booked a trip to Iceland and also reserved a Model Y for our seven-day Iceland trip. The reason for renting a Model Y? 

First, the rental company offers free charging for Tesla Model Y via the Tesla Superchargers and local Iceland charging networks. 

Second, gas is really expensive in Iceland (more than $3 per litre). After some calculations, I concluded that the overall cost for Model Y would be cheaper than an ICE car.

Finally, I have never driven a Tesla Model Y so this seemed like a good opportunity to try one. 

Visit Taiwan with family – WIP 

No plans yet, so this goal is still very much a work in progress.

Omakase with Mrs. T – WIP

The original idea is to take Mrs.T to one of the omakase places in Taiwan when we visit Taiwan as a family. Since we haven’t booked a Taiwan trip, there’s no progress on this goal. 

If we don’t end up going to Taiwan this year, we may need to find an omakase place in Metro Vancouver to accomplish this goal (it’d cost a lot more than Taiwan though).

Summary – 2024 Goals and Resolutions – Q1 Update

With three months in the books, I have made some very solid progress toward my goals and resolutions. I need to make sure I continue this solid progress. 

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6 thoughts on “2024 Goals and Resolutions – Q1 Update”

  1. Great post. I like the reading updates and that you mentioned listening to all the hacks. I’ve added Ken Follett‘s the evening and the morning to my reading list and all the hacks to my subscribed podcasts. Looking forward to more updates this year.

    Reply
  2. Love reading your blogs, thanks for your honesty! Could you do a blog post on advice you would give to yourself back then, now that you know what you know? Would love to read that.

    Reply

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