2018 in Review and Financial Goals for 2019

I'm 33 now and I have a goal to save one million dollars by the time I will turn 60. That's 27 years to go. I've been documenting my journey towards financial independence for the past two years already

In today's article, I will review the past year of 2018 and take a quick glimpse at the New Year of 2019.

Just like in the previous year, 2017 for me was a year of peer to peer lending, dividend-paying stocks and  - cryptocurrencies. Speaking of cryptocurrencies 2018 was really bad for my long-term crypto holdings and whipped out all the great gains we made in 2017.

2017 in Review and Financial Goals for 2018

Structure of Investment portfolio at the end of 2018

Structure of Investment portfolio at the end of 2018

At the start of 2018, I planned to invest about 42% of my annual net income, the planned amount for 2018 was $10,700.18, I managed to invest little more ($11,066.07) at the end of the year. I exceeded my initial plan by $365.89. In 2018, on the average I was investing at the pace of $922/mo, that's slightly less than back in 2017 ($1,000)

Net Worth value at the end of 2018

Net Worth value at the end of 2018

Starting June 2018, my portfolio has entered into a negative value growth ending 2018 with a negative -30.81% YTD growth and -19.31% Since the start of the portfolio in 2017.

A year ago I was quite optimistic and looked to reach at least $25,000 in net worth value. Unfortunately, there were just two months in 2018, when total net worth was larger than $20,000. I closed 2018 with $18,685.40.

Despite I managed to invest more than $11,000 this year, I barely managed to increase my net worth by a humble $2,600 or things went wrong almost everywhere in 2018 and I lost in value (YTD) EUR 7,380 / USD 8,465. Ouch, that hurts!

Here is what I told a year ago about net value:

Also, I'm looking to reach 25K net worth value by the end of 2018. 

Let's see if we can apply some math here:

$16,077.05 (portfolio value January 1st, 2018) + $10,700.18 (planned additional investment throughout the year) = $26,777.23

Now let's do some crazy stuff and imagine that in 2018 I would see another 30% year over year value growth:

$26,777.23 + 30% = $34,810.399

Holly cow. It's hard to believe in such numbers (and probably there is no need for that), but in general this is how compounding works (ok, it's both compounding and value growth in this case)

Instead of +30% year over year growth, I got a negative - 30% year over year growth in 2018. That happens!

Now, the good news - In 2018 dividend yield (on cost) for my investment portfolio was about 6.30% (up from 5.50% in 2017), here is the breakdown by positions

  • Mintos.com peer to peer lending: EUR 591.14 (yield 14.82%)
  • Nasdaq Baltics: EUR 386.56 (yield 5.04%)
  • EU stocks: EUR 74.26 (yield 4.65%)
  • US stocks: EUR 154.76 (yield 3.61)
  • Poloniex.com crypto lending: EUR 58.64 (yield 2.18%)

Now, in total in dividend income for 2018 I received EUR 1,265.36 / USD $1,466.84)

In general, it means that in a true passive income I made $4.02 daily, by doing nothing much, just keeping stake at great companies and lending out money via peer to peer platforms. On the other hand, I spend about an hour a day to research, analyze,  make future decisions.

Financial Goals for 2019

I'm looking to invest 53% (my age + 10%) from income I've made in 2018, that's about $11,871.70

For 2019 I plan to invest in stocks, peer to peer lending and cryptocurrencies. More or less here is the plan for invested amounts:

  • Stocks: $7,000
  • Peer to Peer Lending: $4,000
  • Crytptocurencies: ~ $1,200

Also, I would love to keep at least 5% in cash. 

For 2019 I'm looking on a minimum $2,045 annual dividend income (about $170/mo or $5.60 daily)

I'm looking to reach net worth value $30,000 by the end of 2019.