Welcome to another quarterly update on my 2024 goals and resolutions. Long-time readers will remember that for the past six years, I have set goals and resolutions at the beginning of the year and tracked them and reported my progress each quarter. I find this routine very worthwhile and it has helped me to stay motivated throughout the year.
Unfortunately, I took a step backward in Q2 with many of my goals. This was mostly caused by my losing focus slightly. Q3 was all about re-focusing on my goals and resolutions.
Let’s find out how I did in Q3 shall we?
2024 Goals and Resolutions
Below is the spreadsheet table for tracking my goals and resolutions. Most of my 2024 goals and resolutions are year-long, so I have to continue working on them for the next few months.
Financial Goals
Dividend income over $55,000 – WIP (Work in Progress). $43,044.88. A
We continue to make very solid progress on this financial goal. After nine months, we received $43,044.88 in dividend income. With one quarter to go, I believe we should be able to beat this goal slightly.
If we could end the year with a YoY dividend income rate of more than 10%, we’d be extremely pleased.
Travel hack to earn $2,000 equivalent of points – Done. A+
Despite finishing this goal in Q2, we continued to apply for credit cards and accumulate reward points. We applied for more credit cards because we knew we had some planned expenses like car insurance renewal, house insurance renewal, etc.
In Q3, we received the American Express Business Gold Rewards card welcome bonus and transferred the points to Marriott Bonvoy at a 1:1.2 transfer rate. To my surprise, American Express and Marriott were running a 30% transfer bonus so we ended up getting some additional Bonvoy points.
In the end, we ended up getting a total of 126,360 Bonvoy points from transferring 81k Amex points. At $0.008 per Marriott Bonvoy points, which meant we “earned” $1,010.88 value thanks to travel hacking.
In case you’re looking to travel hack and earn some points, you can sign up the following using my referral links:
- American Express Business Gold Rewards Card – Earn a welcome 75,000 Membership Rewards points by spending $5,000 in the first three months.
- Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card – Earn 55,000 Marriott Bonvoy points by spending $3,000 in the first three months.
In Q3 we applied for the American Express Business Edge Card before it was discontinued. Once we hit the $5,000 spending requirement, we would receive 55k Amex welcome points. We plan to transfer these points to Marriott Bonvoy and take advantage of the 30% bonus promotion.
Since we’re still looking for a long term MasterCard to use at Costco (currently using RBC WestJet MasterCard but that’s not a long-term solution), we probably will end up applying for the no annual fee Rogers World Elite Mastercard one of these days and cancel the WestJet card before we’re up for annual fee renewal.
To summarize the points and dollar equivalent we have earned so far in 2024:
- TD Aeroplan: $35k Aeroplan points or $735 equivalent
- RBC WestJet: $600 worth of WestJet dollars
- TD Aeroplan: $15k Aeroplan points or $315 equivalent
- Scotiabank Passport: $425 with of Scene+ points
- American Express Gold: 81k Amex point to Marriott Bonvoy (plus 30% bonus) or $1,010.88 equivalent
In other words, we have “earned” an equivalent of $3,085.88 so far in 2024. Not too shabby at all.
Reduce # of individual stock holdings to 40 – WIP. 42. B+
In Q3 we closed Magna International and reduced our individual stock holdings from 43 to 42.
Although I talked about potentially closing out the 3 REIT positions we have (Granite REIT, VICI Properties, and SmartCentre REIT), there’s currently no plan to close any of them. As some readers may have noticed, the share price of REITs and telecoms has slowly appreciated in the last few months due to interest rates getting cut. Therefore, it probably doesn’t make sense to close out REITs and lose out on the share price appreciation – at least at this point.
There’s a good chance we won’t accomplish this goal at all but that’s totally OK. We don’t want to close out positions simply for the sake of accomplishing this goal.
Blog Goals
Continue publishing a blog post every Monday – WIP. A
I am very proud of myself for being able to continue publishing a blog post every Monday. The one-a-week publishing schedule has worked well for me since it has allowed me to plan and write ahead. I believe the Monday publishing schedule is also good for the readers because they know when a new post will be posted.
Write & publish a 10 year review post – Done.
It’s hard to believe this blog is 10 years old. It has been a fun ride and I don’t plan to stop blogging anytime soon. Is it hard work? Absolutely! But it has been so rewarding to have inspired readers to get started on their financial independence journey. It’s also very cool to have connected and met so many like-minded people.
In case you’re wondering, here’s the 10 year review post I published in July.
Personal Goals
Do 1 minute plank each day – WIP. B
Unlike Q2, I have been consistently doing a 1 minute plank each day. Therefore I moved the letter grade from a B- to a B.
Read for 10 minutes before bedtime – WIP, 20 books read total, A.
I finished reading eight books in Q3 which increased the total of books read to 20 so far in 2024.
The eight books I read in Q3 are:
- Finding the Magic in Middle School
- Same as Ever
- Death of a Vivid Reader
- The Wisdom of the Council
- The Readaholics and the Poirot Puzzle
- The Little Book of Bull’s Eye Investing
- Gothic Galla
- The Value of Nothing
Eight books on various different topics and I enjoyed reading most of them. Out of the eight books I’ve read, I would highly recommend reading Same as Ever by Morgan Housel. Morgan Housel also wrote The Psychology of Money which is another book I’d also highly recommend.
Reduce body fat to 15% – 16.8%, B-
I reduced my body fat from 17.2% to 16.8% but given that I started the year at 15.9%, I have a bit of a way to go.
I worked out consistently throughout Q3, around four to five times a week. Although my body fat percentage is not below 16% yet, I have noticed some visible changes when I look at myself in the mirror. I’m more toned and I can see my six-packs slightly showing. So I plan to continue on what I have been doing and perhaps not focus so much on the body fat percentage number.
For the most part, I continued to stay off social media, especially on my phone. I haven’t been attracted to social media in the last few months and have tried to spend my time more effectively than wasting my time on social media.
Clean up the garage – Done
We finished this goal in Q2 and the garage has stayed relatively clean since.
Fun Goals
Rent a Model Y for Iceland trip – Done.
We rented a Model Y for our eight-day Iceland trip in June. In case you’re wondering, here are the trip reports:
- Visiting Iceland for 8 days – our Itinerary & experience (Part 1)
- Visiting Iceland for 8 days – our Itinerary & experience (Part 2)
I enjoyed driving a Model Y in Iceland but currently, we have no plan to replace our ICE with an EV.
Visit Taiwan with family – WIP
We have no plans to visit Taiwan in 2024 so I’m pretty sure this goal won’t be accomplished. Oh well.
Omakase with Mrs. T – WIP
The original plan was to take Mrs. T to one of the omakase places in Taiwan when we visit Taiwan. Knowing that we have no plan to visit Taiwan this year, I have made an alternate plan to visit an omakase place in Metro Vancouver in Q4.
Summary – 2024 Goals and Resolutions – Q3 Update
I believe I have made significant progress in Q3 with my goals and resolutions by staying focused and paying attention to what I need to do on a daily basis. I am very pleased about my consistent workout routine and eating healthier. I am excited to see how many of these goals I will complete by the end of the year.
How was your Q3? Did you accomplish any goals and resolutions?