Since 2019, I have set goals and resolutions at the beginning of the year. I then provide an update on this blog every quarter. If I do the math right, this is the seventh year of following this annual tradition.
I like setting these goals and resolutions and then updating them every quarter because it helps me stay motivated and forces me to be accountable.
In 2024, I set 13 goals for myself and accomplished 10 of them. Of the three I didn’t accomplish, with two of them I made partial progress. There was only one goal that I did not achieve completely.
The lesson I learned from last year is that I had too many goals that required continuous work throughout the year. I eventually lost focus and motivation in the second half of the year. So I decided to make a slight change to stay motivated throughout 2025.
2025 Goals and Resolutions
Here are my 2025 goals and resolutions in spreadsheet form. As usual, I categorized them into Financial Goals, Blog Goals, Personal Goals, and Fun Goals.
Financial Goals
Since this is a personal finance blog, I figured I should have at least a couple of financial goals.
Dividend Income over $60,000
After much consideration, I decided not to adjust our dividend income projection that I created in January 2024. The key reasons are:
- We are encountering the law of the big numbers, it is getting harder and harder to grow dividend income at above 10% YoY rate.
- We don’t want to set up a lofty dividend goal which would force us to lean toward buying high-yield stocks.
- We don’t want to chase yield (see previous point). We want to be methodical when we purchase dividend stocks.
A $60,000 dividend income would mean an average income of $5,000 per month and an hourly wage of $28.85.
Based on the current dividend income projection, this goal should not be too difficult to achieve.
$25k in LTSS/cash wedge
As we get closer and closer to reaching financial independence and living off our portfolio, we want to start building up our cash wedge. Having a cash wedge saved up would give us a greater margin of safety when we do live off our portfolio so we aren’t forced to do stupid things at the wrong time (i.e. chasing yield or selling shares when the market is significantly down).
Some readers may recall that I had the same goal in 2023 but failed to accomplish it.
Boost RESP by $1,500 each
Since the birth of our children, we have been contributing $2,500 to their RESPs each year to get the 20% government matching (Canada Education Savings Grant). Since the maximum RESP contribution is $50,000, a quick calculation showed that we should consider adding extra money each year in the RESPs to max out the $50,000 limit as early as we could and allow the money to compound over time.
Since we didn’t “front-load” the RESPs by contributing $14,000 for each child the year they were born, we are playing a bit of a catch up here. Adding an extra $1,500 to each RESP will allow us to mid-load the RESPs.
In other words, we’d be contributing $8,000 total to the RESPs in 2025 if we were to achieve this goal.
Blog Goals
Continue publishing a blog post every Monday
I have had this goal since 2021 and the weekly publishing schedule has worked very well for me. The Monday publication schedule has allowed me to plan and write ahead. There’s nothing worse than trying to force an article the night before.
Since the blog is more than 10 years old, I have written a lot of posts and covered many different ideas. Sometimes I feel like I am just repeating myself on the same topic. Therefore, if you do have any post ideas or suggestions, please let me know.
Improve Google Pagespeed to >=90 Performance
Overall, I think this blog is performing quite fast. Pages are loading quite quickly, and there are minimum technical issues, leading to a solid user experience (please do let me know if this isn’t the case).
Needless to say, I have spent a lot of time working on the technical side of the blog to ensure things run as smoothly as possible. However, I haven’t been able to achieve a 90 or higher score on Google Pagespeed. Somehow the blog keeps getting below 80 for page speed performance. I’d like to spend some time tweaking around and see if I can improve this score to 90 or higher.
Consider whether to incorporate or not
The blog generates a small amount of revenue from ads. No, I’m not making thousands of dollars from the blog. The revenues aren’t enough for us to live off of yet (and there’s no plan to do that). However, since the blog revenues are taxed at my marginal tax rate, I am wondering if it makes sense to incorporate the blog to reduce overall taxation.
The plan is to consult with a few tax specialists to figure out whether it makes sense to incorporate or not.
Personal Goals
In case you’re wondering, I am setting these personal goals to continue improving myself as an individual.
Read 15 books
Last year the goal I had was to “read for 10 minutes before bedtime.” I read most nights but found it difficult to find the time to read before bedtime when I was travelling and when I went to bed late.
Instead of setting the same goal, I decided to have a goal with a specific number.
Some books I’d like to read for this year are:
- Axiom’s End – I wanted to read this book last year but didn’t do it
- When Breath Becomes Air – sounds like an amazing book
- Fall of Giants, Winter of the World, and Edge of Eternity – I heard good things about Ken Follett’s century trilogy so I’d like to read these books.
Join 2 curling teams
I used to curl in high school but then stopped for over 20 years. I started a 7-lesson “learn to curl beginners’ workshop” last September to get back into curling and finished the workshop in December. Since getting back to curling again, I have played as a spare a few times. I even bought my own broom and curling shoes so I could continue to improve my game.
To improve my curling game, I’d like to participate in two different teams and play in two different leagues throughout the year.
Replace 2013 iMac
We use Apple computers at home. I switched from Windows-based computers to an Apple MacBook Pro in 2008 after being disappointed by Windows Vista and a preview version of Windows 7. In early 2014, we replaced the MacBook Pro with a late 2013 27” iMac that we purchased via Apple’s certified refurbished program.
After over ten years, we haven’t replaced the iMac, despite it being discontinued by Apple a few years ago.
Nowadays, we could start seeing a bit of a slowdown on our iMac. Given it’s over 10 years old, I think it’s time to replace it and move to Apple Silicon.
We need to decide between the new Mac Mini M4 and Mac Mini M4 Pro. Since we don’t do video editing or intense 3D modelling, we may go with the Mac Mini M4 to save some money. The biggest question is which monitor to buy – the expensive Apple Studio Display or a 3rd party monitor.
Fix Fence
Part of our fence fell and collapsed during a winter wind storm. We cleaned up the fallen wood pieces quickly but we need to replace the fence posts and install new fence panels. This is going to be a project for either the spring or early fall.
Fun Goals
We all need a bit of fun in life so I always set up a few fun goals for myself.
Visit Taiwan with family
This trip didn’t happen last year so I’d like to plan for a Taiwan trip this year. We visited Taiwan back in 2019 but both kids don’t have many memories from that trip. With them being older now, hopefully they’ll be able to remember more from a Taiwan trip.
Omakase with Mrs. T
Mrs. T and I went for a sushi omakase lunch in Vancouver in November and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I’d like to go for a sushi omakase again with Mrs. T, hence for this goal.
Summer camping trip
We’d like to reserve a campsite for a weekend in the summer. Kid 1.0 would like to go back to Alice Lake but Cultus Lake could be an option too.
Summary – 2025 Goals and Resolutions
With 13 goals and resolutions for this year, I’m sure I’ll be busy throughout the year to ensure I can accomplish them all. As mentioned, I plan to update my progress and results every quarter.
Do you have any 2025 goals and resolutions?
Last yr. I did what wanted, visit 3 Americans in Chicago and St. Paul’s MN which I’ve met online since 2 are bloggers and 3rd one participates with me and others in an American dominant cycling forum for a decade. And I enjoyed their part of the world….before Nov. 2024. It was my lst full yr. of retirement.
Hope your kids enjoy Taiwan even more and hopefully no smoke when camping in warm season this yr.
Sounds like an amazing trip you had!
should be ‘when breath becomes air’…. not ‘one breath becomes air’…
A
Thank you for the correction!
I think it’s great one of your goals is to join two curling teams. I’ve been curling almost 30 years now and it’s one of the most fulfilling things I do. It keeps me social and gets me out of the house in the winter.
When I was younger and single, I played 3 nights a week. Family and other obligations has me down to one night a week and the occasional weekend tournament, but I really enjoy having that time with friends and the thrill of executing a great shot.
Being able to curl more often is one of my motivations for achieving financial independence.
Very cool that you have been curling for almost 30 years!
Until couple weeks ago I was using my iMac from late 2012, one trick I used to make it run faster a few years ago, was to boot it from an external fast SSD. It’s still quite usable, only to be replaced by a new MacBook from Wealthsimple promo…
Ahh, I haven’t tried booting it from an external fast SSD yet. Yes, our iMac is getting slow but the main problem is that we couldn’t update the OS and many software anymore.
That’s true, OS upgrade is limited, there are workarounds but might not worth the effort, 10+ years is good enough money worth for a computer 🙂
Love the blog, pages load pretty fast for me, omakase sounds great, just came back from Iceland winter trip inspired by your trip last year, so beautiful and different from anywhere else!
Agree that 10+ year is very solid for a computer… definitely wouldn’t be able to get that kind of life from a Windows based computer or laptop. 🙂
Appreciate your kind words. Glad you enjoyed Iceland, it’s an amazing country.
I have never had an issue waiting for your blog to load, even with an older iPad.
When we retired five years ago, we owned just one stock (from my workplace purchase plan) and a variety of index funds. Reading dividend blogs, including yours, has given me the confidence to begin dividend investing the past few years. Admittedly, I’ve opted for higher yield stocks, but am trying to incorporate more dividend growers. My goal for this year is to further diversify using dividend growth stocks.
I’m concerned about the markets, for obvious reasons, with impending tariffs and such.
That’s great to hear the blog loads fast. 🙂
I believe the market will be volatile in the next little while due to all the uncertainties.
The only time I had technical issues with your blog was a couple of articles ago. When I got a notification in my email that a comment was added to the blog and I would click on the link provided, it would take me to the article and not the specific comment. This was frustrating as you have to scroll down every time to see the comment.
Hi Jyoti,
Hmm that’s unfortunate, do you know if the link has the # shortcut or just the link toe the article?
It did indicate that it was a link to the comment. Buy when I clicked it, it would take me to the article. Happened for a few comments.
Hmm odd, I’ll have to take a closer look then. Thanks for letting me know.
I have been following your blog for years but I do not post very often. Your post today prompted me to reply and share my experience.
With regards to incorporating, I also looked at that years ago and decided against it. I did not want the additional responsibility of filing corporate tax returns and wanted to keep my life simple.
I am currently 70 years old, retired at 57, and have managed my portfolio as a DIY investor for over 30 years. I have more than enough money to enjoy life and take 3 or 4 overseas trips per year since travelling to other countries and experiencing their culture, food and way of life is my passion. I also support local and international charities by donating securities with significant capital gains.
I also have a son, who is now 32, who we started to travel with (to Bali) when he was 5 years old. My advice would be to take that trip to Taiwan, take that Disney cruise with the kids and make memories now. Your kids will grow up quickly and will be out of the house and on their own. Now is the time to share experiences with them and not focus so much on saving every dollar for the future. Looking back on my career I should have taken sabbaticals with my wife and son and enjoyed life travelling with them. Our son has a job which he enjoys and has flexibility. He is looking at taking a month off here and there to travel with Mom and Dad and it couldn’t make me happier. Life is good!
Hi Roger,
Appreciate your feedback. I need to talk to a few tax specialists and understand the pros and cons of incorporating. You’re absolutely right, filing corporate tax returns are more complicated.
Fully agree with you on making the memories now rather than later.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the “fix fence” goal on your list. This is a stereotypical Canadian chore! I’ve had it on my list at least three out of the past five years too, and have learned that it can be as futile as vacuuming the floor.
My recommendation would be to write it on a separate to-do-list. And, instead replace the goal with something more fun like, “host a backyard BBQ with friends and family to share the first vegetable crop of the season”.
Haha, yea it’s a typical Canadian chore. 🙂
Good suggestion on having more fun goals. Will consider that for next year.