The best financial services for your money!

Download this e-book and optimize your finances and save money by using the best financial services available in Switzerland!

Download The FREE e-book

Mid Year Review of My 2018 Goals

Baptiste Wicht | Updated: |

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links)

This year, I wanted to review my goals after 6 months. But I am really late ;) At first, I forgot about it. And then, there were too many posts I wanted to write so I delayed this review for too long.

Last year, I set goals for the year 2018. Setting goals is a very important thing. But it is also important to review them. If after six months the goals are going bad, it is important to take actions to improve the chances to meet the goals. Also, sometimes, the goals are not set correctly.

2018 Goals

At the beginning of this year, I have set 11 goals for the year 2018. Here are the goals I have set:

Goals 2018
Goals 2018

They are set in three categories. I have set 6 financial goals, 3 blog goals, and 2 personal goals. It was the first time I have ever set precise goals. Since that time, I have checked my goals every month. It is now time to check them fully to see if I will be able to meet them.

Here is the current state of my goals as of last month:

Goals as of July 2018
Goals as of July 2018

1. Invest 10’000 CHF – Passed

In 2018, I wanted to invest 10’000 CHF. In 2017 I invested only 8’000 CHF. In 2018, in almost 8 months, I already invested 23’500 CHF. I already met my goal more than twice. I am quite happy to have met my goal already. But it was really too low of a goal. I did not count on my new salary for this. I really need to make it more difficult next year.

2. Monthly expense < 4500 CHF – Failing

I wanted all my months to have lower expenses than 4500 CHF. In 2017, my months were around 4750 CHF. This one is really failed. I have already had four months with more expenses. And August will be too high too.

In the next months, I will do my best to keep our expenses low. But this goal is already failed. Next year, I will put an average as a goal, it makes much more sense. And I don’t think I can still keep up a 4500 CHF budget. This will probably be higher for next year’s goals.

3. Max out 3rd Pillar (3000 CHF) – Passed

I wanted to max out my third pillar in 2018. This goal is very easy. It is very important, but there is not a lot of challenge. 3000 CHF is the most I can contribute to my third pillar. I plan to keep this goal for next year. Maybe next year, we will also contribute to Mrs. The Poor Swiss third pillar if she starts working. I think it is important to contribute the maximum amount to the third pillar.

4. Dividend Income 500 CHF – Lagging back

I wanted to get 500 CHF of dividends in 2018. In 2017, I only got 50 CHF of dividends. This was a difficult goal. Currently, I got 154.35 of dividends. I am only at 40% of the goal. I am lagging back a bit.

There is not a lot I can do for this. I could change my asset allocation to have a higher dividend yield. But I am not a dividend investor at heart. Then what I can do is to invest even more. It is likely I will fail this goal. But there is still a slight chance to meet this goal. I need to increase my investment until the end of the year to increase my dividends.

5. Add 5% EUR Bonds to the portfolio – Canceled

I wanted to get 5% of bonds in 2018. There is quite some history with this goal. In March, I bought 5% of bonds. But then later, I realized that my bond allocation was already too high. Indeed, if you consider your second pillar as bonds, it is likely that you already have a good allocation to bonds. So, I updated my portfolio again to reduce bond funds and simplify it.

So this goal is failed, but I do not intend to try to meet this goal. I did not plan my goals very well last year with this one.

6. Sell all old PostFinance Funds – 2/3

Before I invested in ETF through DEGIRO, I was investing in PostFinance funds. This was one of my biggest investing mistakes. These funds were really too expensive. I have been able to sell two out of the three funds. The last one is very small, I invested 200 CHF. But is now down about 10%.

I would rather not sell at a loss. But I may not have a choice. As soon as it gets back to 190 CHF, I will sell. Since the TER is high, I am losing money every year by keeping it in this fund.

7. Blog 24 times – Passed

I wanted to blog 24 times, twice a month on this blog. I already blogged more than 60 times on this blog. I am almost able to maintain a routine of three posts per week. I am really impressed at how easy it is for me to find new ideas for blog post.

Next year, I will definitely need to put that goal higher. I do not know if I will be able to keep up with the same rhythm next year. But at least 50 posts in one year should be easily done. We will see about that :)

8. Get the blog out of wordpress.com – Passed

At the beginning of the blog, it was hosted on wordpress.com. It is a free service offered by WordPress. It is not bad, but it limits a lot your options for a blog. I wanted to have my blog completely modifiable. I started by transferring the blog to bluehost. It was already in March, 5 months before the goal target. It is a definitive Pass for this one. However, I then realized that bluehost was a very bad hosting company. So I migrated the website to SiteGround. It is still out of wordpress.com, so the goal is passed! But I should definitely have made more research before using bluehost.

I said that I wanted to DEGIRO referral link in the blog by April. It took a while longer in fact. Just a few weeks ago, I was finally able to add the referral link on the blog. They only added this to the system in August. My goal with this is to have a small income with the blog. I do not intend to make a big profit. I just hope the blog will be at least even.

10. Scan all documents (5 binders) – Passed

The first of my personal goals was to scan all my documents. I wanted to go paperless. This is now done, I am almost paperless. All my documents are now safely stored in the cloud, for free. I already found many advantages. I had to print several documents already. It is now very easy since everything is available from the internet. I am very glad I have put this goal. It was an excellent idea. The goal is passed on time. It was a lot of work though.

11. Get a new job from 01.08 – Passed

The last of my goals was to get a new job from the first of August. After my Ph.D., I needed to find a new job. This was done already two months in advance. I started working at a new company in June 2018. This is a very large increase in salary. My salary went up around 50%. Again, this goal is passed before the delay.

Conclusion

Overall, my goals are going great :) Except for the dividend income goal and my monthly expense goal, all the goals are easily passed. There is also the case of my last PostFinance fund to sell. I hope to be able to sell it before the end of the year.

One thing I have seen in my goals is that they were too easy to reach. By mid-year, I finished almost all of them already. Apart from the dividend and expense goals, all other goals were too easy to reach. Next year, I need to set myself some more challenging goals. But I think it is a very good exercise to set goals and to review them regularly.

What about your goals this year? Are you in a good place to reach them?

The best financial services for your money!

Download this e-book and optimize your finances and save money by using the best financial services available in Switzerland!

Download The FREE e-book
Photo of Baptiste Wicht

Baptiste Wicht started thepoorswiss.com in 2017. He realized that he was falling into the trap of lifestyle inflation. He decided to cut his expenses and increase his income. This blog is relating his story and findings. In 2019, he is saving more than 50% of his income. He made it a goal to reach Financial Independence. You can send Mr. The Poor Swiss a message here.

Recommended reading

8 thoughts on “Mid Year Review of My 2018 Goals”

  1. Why a target on dividend? Especially in Switzerland? You know you pay income taxes on them vs. no tax on capital gains.

    1. Hi Zoltan,

      There are several reasons for that.

      First of all, I like dividends :) It feels good to receive cash on my trading account. It may not be rational especially considering that, as you said, dividends are taxed in Switzerland.
      Secondly, dividends are there whether you want them or not. My main allocation in my portfolio is the VT ETF. This ETF is the one giving me the most dividends. So here, the goal on dividends becomes a goal on investment total ;)
      Third, I need more goals :P

      I know it’s not a great answer. I don’t invest to increase my dividends. My dividends are simply a outcome of my investing.

      Does that answer your question ?

      Thanks for stopping by :)

  2. 🤘🤘cool !!!! You’ve done a great job !!!! 🖖it’s amazing what clear goals you are trying to reach. This is something I can’t do.
    You are a great model for me ❤️

  3. Great job on your goals! One of my goals was to get into investing but I am still not very motivated or interested in it. You are doing a great job there! And with your blogging schedule and everything! Keep it up!

    1. Hi Janet,

      Thanks a lot :)
      Yes, I’m quite happy with my investing goal :) And quite happy with the number of posts this year!
      I have to put some more challenging goals next year

      Good luck picking up on investing!
      And good luck with your blog! Seems you are doing very well!

Leave a Reply

Your comment may not appear instantly since it has to go through moderation. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *