12-30-2017, 07:38 AM
It's that time of the year again! As the final moments of 2017 are passing by, it's time for us to take a look at how the year went. Did you reach the financial (or even personal) goals you had set for the year? How did your portfolio do? What were your biggest hits and misses?
I think that dividend income, or a new statistic that I've started to follow this year: cashflow from investments, is a much more important thing to measure than simple value of the portfolio. I know some agree, I know some don't, but this is what I measure because it's what makes the difference for my future. So how did I do?
Well first of all, some of my European stocks (which are a tiny percentage of what I have) had a bit of a down year so that really dragged down the dividend payments. I was fully expecting this, so nothing to be concerned about. But even with this headwind, I managed to grow my dividend income from 2087.61 euros in 2016 to 2530.22 euros in 2017. A whopping 21% increase, can't complain. As I said I also started to follow a new statistic, investment cashflow, which accounts for the dividends, interest payments, stock yield enhancement program from IB (it automatically loans your shares to shorters, IB takes 50% and you get 50%) as well as my endeavours in the world of options and covered calls. I'm still missing some numbers for december but it looks as if my total cashflow from investment activities will be somewhere very close to 3170 euros. Compared to the dividend income from last year (as that's pretty much all there was) this would be an increase of over 50%. Yummy!
So of course I have to be happy with those numbers. From a passive income point of view, everything went great and I'm really looking forward to increasing both of those numbers dramatically in 2018! But it's wasn't all roses, I still didn't manage to buy a house/apartment for myself. I'm not in a hurry with it... but it would be the next logical step for me. Will I get there in 2018? Probably not, but at least I plan on getting a little closer. :p
And on a personal level, the year went pretty damn well too. I got to travel a lot and saw some really amazing places, I still enjoy life at my new job (at least enough to sign a new contract) and I met... well actually a couple of girls I really liked
So, definitely another good year for me and I'm anxiously waiting to see what opportunities 2018 brings! Feel free to write a few sentences about your year, whether financial or personal, and don't forget to put down a few objectives for 2018 if that's your thing!
I think that dividend income, or a new statistic that I've started to follow this year: cashflow from investments, is a much more important thing to measure than simple value of the portfolio. I know some agree, I know some don't, but this is what I measure because it's what makes the difference for my future. So how did I do?
Well first of all, some of my European stocks (which are a tiny percentage of what I have) had a bit of a down year so that really dragged down the dividend payments. I was fully expecting this, so nothing to be concerned about. But even with this headwind, I managed to grow my dividend income from 2087.61 euros in 2016 to 2530.22 euros in 2017. A whopping 21% increase, can't complain. As I said I also started to follow a new statistic, investment cashflow, which accounts for the dividends, interest payments, stock yield enhancement program from IB (it automatically loans your shares to shorters, IB takes 50% and you get 50%) as well as my endeavours in the world of options and covered calls. I'm still missing some numbers for december but it looks as if my total cashflow from investment activities will be somewhere very close to 3170 euros. Compared to the dividend income from last year (as that's pretty much all there was) this would be an increase of over 50%. Yummy!
So of course I have to be happy with those numbers. From a passive income point of view, everything went great and I'm really looking forward to increasing both of those numbers dramatically in 2018! But it's wasn't all roses, I still didn't manage to buy a house/apartment for myself. I'm not in a hurry with it... but it would be the next logical step for me. Will I get there in 2018? Probably not, but at least I plan on getting a little closer. :p
And on a personal level, the year went pretty damn well too. I got to travel a lot and saw some really amazing places, I still enjoy life at my new job (at least enough to sign a new contract) and I met... well actually a couple of girls I really liked
So, definitely another good year for me and I'm anxiously waiting to see what opportunities 2018 brings! Feel free to write a few sentences about your year, whether financial or personal, and don't forget to put down a few objectives for 2018 if that's your thing!
I've added all my "fixed" monthly costs in a spreadsheet, comparing to my monthly estimated dividend income. Very motivational to look at those kind of stats, and expand the portfolio.