My 2014 Investing Review and 2015 Goals

     2014 has marked my first full year of investing directly in stocks and collecting dividends. Throughout the year, and a couple months in 2013 I have slowly been building up my dividend stock portfolio. By adding in just small increments, generally between $200-800 a month I have managed to create a portfolio that churns out an estimated $610 a year, or averaged out to $51 a month! In some months, my little accumulation of dividend income has boosted my overall income by up to 4% and could if needed be able to cover a couple reoccurring expenses, or a trip to the grocery store.



    Since starting to track all my income and expenses in mid-late 2013 I have been able to watch my passive income incrementally increase and to manage my monthly costs in order to maximize my savings.

Month(2014)	Div $
January	21.23
February	13.44
March	7.52
April	33.82
May	34.44
June	18.59
July	57.26
August	37.45
September	29.59
October	64.05
November	38.09
December	~38
Total	358.74

    In 2012 I had no passive income, in 2013 I made $13.56 through two dividends, interest on cash and mutual fund distributions. My estimated total dividend income for 2014 is $358, that is an increase in passive income of 2645%!!! Now, I hardly expect to see that kind of percentage increase in passive income in 2015. My dividend income goal for 2015 is either going to ambitious, or quite easy depending on circumstances. My goal is to raise my current projected 2015 dividend income from its current $610 to $1,200. I consider doubling my dividend income pretty ambitious at the moment since my expenses have gone up considerably since I moved out of my parents house. And while working at a near minimum wage job, its pretty hard to save in an expensive city like Toronto. The upside here is that if and (hopefully soon) when I find a 'real' job my income should rise considerably, making buying more good, dividend growing stocks much easier, so considering my aptitude for savings the $1,200 shouldn't be too hard for me.

    Hand in hand with my goal of increasing dividends, I am also setting myself the goal of  hitting a 40% saving rate for 2015. My estimated savings rate for the end of the year is 30% overall, which reflects my aforementioned increase living expenses and the payment for a vacation in March. I decided to stick with my current accounting method of expenses purchases as I pay them and the same goes for income. Once again this goal is either going to be pretty hard to do, or not overly difficult, although 40% is a pretty high saving rate to try for even when I do find a better paying job as there are some purchases I have held off on for myself.

    My next goal for 2015 is to continue posting my investing journey updates throughout each month and to continue working on useful and informative posts on dividend investing, registered accounts and anything else that I come across and find interesting on the subject of finance and investing. Also to keep up with my Twitter Account.

    Lastly, I want to finish my post on D.R.I.P's, a part 2 for my Excel tutorial that will also include Google Spreadsheets that I had mentioned in my previous Blog Plan Update.

Quick Goal 2015 Recap:
1)  $1,200 in yearly estimated dividend income.
2) Achieve a savings rate of 40% or higher.
3) Regular posting of update and informative articles(1-3) month.
4) Complete partially finished 2014 articles!
5) Thank you to all my readers, regular and new! :)