2017 Financial Goals

What’s 6 inches long and gets Kim Kardashian excited? That’s right. It’s money. 😀 Especially the one with Benjamin’s face on it. There is certainly no shortage of liquidity in the world today thanks to central banks. As investors, our priority is to increase our expected returns while reducing our anticipated risks. A good way to go about doing this is by setting goals. Making smart decisions and taking appropriate action is easier if we have defined a target to aspire to. 🙂 If we don’t take control of our money, then someone else will inevitably try to use money to control us.

Here are my financial goals for 2017.

• Grow my TFSA to $80,000.
  I currently hold $72,000 across all my tax free savings accounts. I have $3,000 contribution room remaining for the year. All the investments inside my TFSAs have performed well, except Bombardier stocks BBD.B. Overall I’ve been quite lucky with my stock picks. 🙂
• Grow my RRSP to $100,000.
  I currently hold $86,000 in my RRSP. I have $10,000 contribution room remaining for 2017.
• Grow my net worth to $750,000.
  I hope to grow my wealth by $180,000 this year. $60,000 of this increase could come from savings and debt reduction. The remaining $120,000 would ideally come from investment returns. 🙂 This isn’t an unreasonable expectation considering last year’s market performance, and I currently have over $1 million worth of assets.
• Increase my passive income rate by $2,000/year.
  I plan to invest at least $35,000 into a mix of fixed income securities and dividend stocks. The average yield on new investments would be 4% to create $1,400 of new passive income per year. The remaining $600 growth should come from dividend increases from investments that I already have in my current portfolio.

That’s pretty much it. As usual, the likelihood for me to reach my goals will depend on many factors, including how the financial markets perform which is largely out of my control. We’ve had a great Q4 in 2016 to finish the year on a high note. But who knows how this year will turn out. Setting goals is important because it gives us something to focus on and look forward to. It guides our behavior so we feel a sense of purpose when making financial decisions. 🙂

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Random Useless Fact:

There’s a man in east India who has 39 wives, 94 children, and 33 grandchildren so far. They all live in a 100 room mansion. It takes 30 whole chickens, 132lb of potatoes, and 200lb of rice just to make a family dinner.