2023 Personal Finance Resolutions- Mid Year Review

I keep saying this every year, but I can’t believe it’s June already. It’s time to review how my personal finance resolutions are going. In general things are okay so far and seem to be on track.

MAX OUT TFSA

The 2023 TFSA contribution limit is $6500. This will be an easy goal because it just involves transferring money from my non-registered account into my Questrade TFSA, and this will be done in January 2023 to maximize the magical tax free compounding.

Here’s the total TFSA contribution room if you were of minimum age (age 18) when the TFSA started in 2009. $88,000 is the total contribution room if you had never contributed to your TFSA and are were at least 18 when the TFSA was introduced.

Status: Completed

I think I did this after midnight, instead of ringing in the new years, I maxed out my TFSA.

MAX OUT RRSP

As with other years, I’m not sure what my RRSP room will be. This goal will be done once I find out what my RRSP contribution room is from the 2022 Notice of Assessment after my taxes are done.

My RRSP contribution room is on the lower side (typically it is 18% of earned income from the previous year) because of my defined benefit pension adjustment.

In the past I’ve transferred US dividend paying stocks from my non-registered to my RRSP. We’ll see what will happen this year as most of my US dividend paying stocks are already in my RRSP.

Status: In progress. I just recently found out my RRSP contribution room and I’m planning to contribute US dollars into my RRSP. In the past I would just transfer US equities in-kind to my RRSP but I’m not too keen on triggering a capital loss. I could transfer VTI into my RRSP but that would be annoying come tax time.

INCREASE DIVIDEND INCOME TO $35,000/YEAR

Last year in 2022, my goal was to increase my dividend income to $25,000 per year. To my pleasant surprise, I ended the year with just over $28,790 in passive dividend income annually.

Therefore, in 2023, my goal is to increase the dividend income from $28,700 per year to $35,000 (forward annual yield).

I can’t control what the market does but I can control my contributions (I have cash savings, and I don’t make this much money in order to be able to invest $180,000 in the market for a 3.5% yield, in case you are wondering…hah). Also, thankfully dividend raises occur too!

If I don’t hit my goal, I won’t fuss about it too much because I don’t need the income right now, but focusing on growth would be a bigger deal, which is why I’ll be investing the majority of my money in ETFs that may not have a 3%+ yield.

Status: Seems to be on track. A bit tight though. At around $31,000 right now.

Work On My 1 Year Goal

My one year goal is to have 7 figures in my investment portfolio.

Assuming a 7% annualized return), my target for the end of the year December 2023 will be around $1,000,000 and this includes contributions to the portfolio which are similar in numbers to the above dividend income goal with reinvested dividends.

My favourite free compound interest calculator is from The Calculator Site.

Passiv recently added a Goals feature to help you achieve this and keep track of your goals- it is pretty much a compound interest calculator broken down by month. You can see what the goals feature looks like here.

Passiv Elite is free if you use Questrade.

Status: Complete-ish. Some months are above and some months are slightly below since February. This was completed earlier than I expected.

READ 5 INVESTING/ PERSONAL FINANCE BOOKS

Here are the 5 investing and personal finance books that I hope to read and then write about in 2023:

• Investment Biker by Jim Rogers (I liked Adventure Capitalist so much that I want to read his first round the world trip)
• Retirement Income for Life: Getting More Without Saving More by Fred Vettesse
• Beat The Bank: The Canadian Guide to Simply Successful Investing By Larry Bates
• Too Rich to Be Stressed by Dividend John (Dividend John on Twitter is quite the fan of Canadian banks, amassing over $68,000 in annual dividend income from a concentrated Canadian heavy portfolio)
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert C. Cialdini

Here are other personal finance books and dividend investing books I recommend.

Status: Slightly behind. I just finished reading Investment Biker (haven’t written up my review yet) and read the Retirement Income for Life. I have 3 books left to read.

2023 NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

I find habit changing resolutions more difficult than financial resolutions. I am doing okay in only about 50% of these. Physical activity and Twitter usage is okay but sleeping before 12 is not going so well.

Most of the times it’s around 12:20am but I really should try and get at least 7 hours of sleep. I started using Llama Life to keep on track with tasks and it’s been interesting since I often tend to grossly underestimate how long tasks take me.

• Meditation daily for 10 minutes. Not going so well. I am still falling asleep.
• Continue physical activity 20 minutes four times a week and get some weights. Doing good, weights have been going well for 2023 I do them once a week and run or do a HIIT exercise the other days.
• Time management– Limit Twitter to maximum 45 minutes per day throughout the day. Doing surprisingly well with this one, most days are under 45 minutes or even 30 minutes. Take that Twitter!
• Sleep before 12am– Not going so well. Need to work on this.

Hopefully your own personal finance and New Year’s resolutions are going well, it takes at least two months to form a habit, so keep on trying!