1. Investment & Portfolio Update
Companies listed without any activity during the year mean that we did not add or remove these positions in our portfolio, nor did those companies have any change in dividend policy. These investments remain dormant in our portfolio.
2. Passive Income Update
Our total annual passive income totaled $9,099.70! Needless to say, I am extremely pleased with my progress over the years and I just managed to clear the goal of reaching $9K in annual passive income.
On a quarterly basis, our passive income saw another all-time high in Q4 2015.
Year |
Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 |
---|---|---|---|---|
2013 |
$383.65 | $516.32 | $718.33 | $1,063.97 |
2014 |
$1,322.47 | $951.18 | $1,055.79 | $1,803.90 |
2015 |
$1,546.87 | $1,960.10 | $2,076.81 | $2,256.01 |
2016 |
$2,167.95 | $2,404.43 | $1,965.95 | $2,561.37 |
You can read my previous quarterly updates here.
“Other” Passive Income
Passive income that we achieve is split between investment income via dividends + options and what I call other sources of passive income, which includes cash back rewards credit card, affiliate programs, advertising revenue from this blog, interest on cash and writing premium articles for Seeking Alpha. As you can see from the chart below, our other category has performed well through 2016. This other income gets transferred into our investment accounts helping us compound our investment growth.
3. Blog Update
Based on the pageviews, the following were the most popular posts on Roadmap2Retire.
- Top Investment Picks for 2016
- Recent Sell – The Big Reset Edition
- Annual Update – 2015 Review
- Where to Get Good Dividend Investment Ideas
- Why I Stopped Making My Financial Advisor Rich
A wide variety of topics based on reader preferences, including a couple of guests posts. Its great to see the interest generated by these posts and gives me an idea of what the readers are more interested in.
4. Goals Update
Right. Onto the goals that I set and see how we did overall on that front.
- Total passive income of $9,000 Achieved!
- Our total passive income for 2016 was $9,099.70. I set a high goal at the end of 2015 and what looked like a failed goal even until a couple of days ago, it turned out that we had achieved this goal for the year. I am ecstatic with this progress and look forward to setting an even higher goal for 2017 and trying to beat it going forward.
- Achieve better balance across asset classes and sectors Achieved!
- For the time being, I am happy with our asset allocation…we are close to 1/3 cash, 1/3 real assets (gold/silver and real estate) and 1/3 in other DGI stocks. I have detailed the reasons for picking this in this post. This is a short term allocation, and I will be slowly adjusting our portfolio going forward to align with our long term goals.
- Take atleast two finance related courses Failed!
- I took only one course in 2016. The course was Financial Markets taught by none other than Robert Shiller. I was hoping to take another course in Q4 of 2016, but life got busier and I missed this goal.Take atleast two finance related courses
- Blog Growth: Achieve 15K pageviews consistently through 2016 Failed!
- I was not able to keep my blog traffic up and fell well below the target of 15K pageviews per month.
- Write an e-book Failed!
- I started writing an ebook earlier in 2016, but was not able to dedicate enough time to keep working on it. I have struggled with this goal for a few years now and hope to find enough time and motivation to work on this in the coming years.
That’s all folks! Thanks for reading. Be sure to leave a comment at the bottom – I love to hear from the readers on your thoughts and opinions.
Wow great job over 9k passive income very impressive. I hope 2017 is even better for you.
Thanks for the wishes, Matthew. 2016 was a great year for me. Hope 2017 brings the same to all of us.
R2R
Nice update, it looks like you are making some really good progress. $9k in passive income is a great accomplishment, I have a long ways to go to catch up!
Best wishes in 2017!
Eric
Thanks for the wishes, Eric. I am pleased to have hit that goal in 2016. Hoping to set higher goals and conquer them in 2017!
Best wishes to you too
R2R
Congrats on the successful year bud!
Thanks Alex. Hope 2016 ended well for you.
Best wishes for 2017 and beyond
R2R
Overall it looks like 2016 was a good year for you guys. Over $9k in passive income is awesome and I expect bigger and better things for you in 2017. Overall considering all of the turbulence we had in 2016 I’m pretty happy with how the year went. I failed on many fronts from what I was hoping to accomplish, especially with the blog and other writing, but I still have lots of ideas. Much like cash flow you need your time to be free and 2016 didn’t prove to have too much free time. All the best in 2017.
Thanks JC. 2016 was a great year for me in a lot of different ways — personally, professionally, financially etc. Couldnt have gone any better 🙂 I hear you on being busy with the newborn and the thing is….I can never get enough time with our daughter. I am making sure that I dont spend too much time in front of screens when Im home so that I can be with her and not distracted. Precious days…
All the best in 2017 for you as well
R2R
Nice year overall. Now you just need those precious metals stocks to take off ;-). Best of luck this year.
Hi IH,
The PMs are already rallying and we are seeing a repeat of Jan 2016 🙂 I am in the green big time in some of my securities and tempted to take some profits. For now, I have just written some covered calls and letting the market take care of that decision.
Wishing you the best for 2017 and beyond
R2R
Can’t blame you for focusing the stock portfolio. I agree that it becomes challenging to manage and stay up-to-date with too many positions. Plus, as you mention, a portfolio of like 8-10 stocks pretty much diversifies away 90% of all non-market risk anyways. Have you read Joel Greenblatt’s book “You Can Be a Stock Market Genius?” If not you might enjoy it (also The Magic Formula).
I think I’ve mentioned this before but I do like how you’re doing this and the thinking around your passivity index. I’m going to steal that idea for myself and thinking about my own life 🙂
Thanks again for sharing and best of luck in 2017!
Thanks Jay. Theres no point in trying to invest in 50 or 100 companies. Its why index funds were made — so that you can avoid spending your time worrying about every single one of those management decisions and stock price valuations etc.
Im glad you like the passivity index idea. By all means, go ahead and use it 🙂
cheers
R2R
That is truly fantastic. Look at that growth over the years! 9k a year is nothing to scoff at, I would be happy to reach the same mark as you in that same amount of time. Thanks for sharing, all the best for 2017.
Thanks BHL. As you can imagine, I am pleased at the progress over the years. Its taken me a while to get here and its the fruit of my labor and patience.
Best wishes
R2R
Hi R2R,
Congrats on $9k of passive income in 2016! I like the summary chart of stock activity too.
I also dialed back a bit on individual stocks for similar reasons as you.
Best wishes,
-DL
Thanks DL. I believe focusing on a smaller set of companies allows us better time management. The rest of the exposure can come via index funds.
cheers
R2R
Actually, if you stayed invested you would have made some good gains. You purchased gold/silver at their highs a big no no. The purpose of buidling a dividend growth portfolio is to shield you from over trading, changing strategies, and to focus on long term goal of income stream.
just my 2 cents
good luck to your future endeavor
You say that was a gold/silver top and I say that it was the first leg of the next bull market 🙂 Its this kind of disagreement that makes a market — for every buyer, theres a seller. For the record, I am still sitting on pretty good gains on my gold/silver investments after the recent rally. So, Im glad that I picked up more shares when they were beaten down in Nov/Dec.
Good luck to you too in 2017 and beyond
R2R
I see some fails on your list, but I don’t think they are truly fails. While you may not have hit your mark, look at your progress and growth in passive income, pageviews, etc. You are leaving this year in much better shape that you entered it if you ask me. Congrats on the great progress and keep up the great work R2R. Get ready to knock those goals OUT OF THE PARK in 2017!
Bert
Thanks for the kind words, Bert 🙂 Overall 2016 was a great year financially and I cant complain one bit. Hope you had a great year for the books and wishing you the same for 2017!
R2R
R2R,
Thanks for the update. Great 2016 for you! $9k in dividend income is amazing. Looking forward to the next update.
Thanks Scott. $9K seemed like a lofty goal but I made it 🙂 Hope you had a good end to 2016 as well.
Best wishes
R2R
Looks like a lot of progress across the board for your R2R, even if there are a couple of faileds in there. You did well, you should be proud 🙂
Good luck to you and your family for 2017..
Tristan
Thanks Tristan. 2016 was a great year overall. Cant complain at all 🙂
Hope you had a great year too
R2R