This is the time of the year, when many financial bloggers like me make heroic resolutions and goals for the year 2020. As mentioned last year when I set my goal for 2019, I mentioned that goals have to be SMART (S – Specific, M – Measurable, A – attainable, R – relevant, T – time-based).
Recently, I learn while reading over the internet that there are two questions I should ask myself before setting SMART goals.
- Who do I want to be?
- How do I want to show up?
Both the above questions made me think deeper and reflect on what kind of person I wanted to be moving forward.
Who do I want to be?
I want to be a better parent, a better leader at work, a healthy and fit person and to have less financial stress from daily necessities of life.
How do I want to show up?
1. A Better Parent
1a) Do at least 1 activity together per month
Due to my hectic work schedule, I realise I have not spent much time doing activities with my children such as playing basketball, badminton etc in 2019. Believe me or not, my children never had a BBQ session before.
No matter how much money you earn, I believe family is most important. In 2020, I am going to do at least 1 activity with my children per month.
1b) Contribute at least S$600 to each of my child OCBC Young Savers Account
I shall be giving each of my child a monthly allowance of S$50 each month into their OCBC Young Savers Account. The amount might seem small but I hope they have some monies in their savings account when they reach teenager age of 16.
2. A Better Leader
2a) Read 12 Self Improvement Books
I am going to read 12 self improvement books in 2020. Believe me or not, I have been very poor with reading books in 2019 due to the lack of time. I bought quite a couple of books (related to leadership, self improvement, investment) from the bookshop but I have not unwrapped some of them!
2b) Watch 12 Courses From Udemy
I have only managed to watch 3 courses from Udemy in 2019. Similar to reading 12 books, I am going to watch 12 courses from Udemy.
3. A Healthier and Fitter Me
3a) Run 300KM
I am going to run a total of 300KM in 2020. Based on my 2019 running record, I average 15KM per month. I am going to stretch myself by running 25KM per month. I am also currently overweight at 72.5kg. Ideally, I should bring down my weight to 66kg. Hopefully by jogging more, I am able to reduce my weight to 66kg.
3b) Workout at Gym 36 Times
I have recently start working out at ActiveSG gym. Usually, I visit the gym twice a month. I am going to stretch myself by increasing my visit to the gym to 3 times a month.
4. Less Financial Stress
4a) Achieve 11.5K of Passive Income
The total dividends that I have collected in the year 2019 is S$10,547.40. Even though I did not met my goal of achieving 11K of passive income in the year 2019, I am uplifting my goal to achieve 11.5K of passive income. This should be achievable if I am frugal in my spendings and invest the rest of my monthly savings into good dividend paying stocks and REITs. The other dynamics will be opportunity from the stock market.
4b) Purchase 8K Worth of Singapore Savings Bonds
This goal may sound foolish to some but for me the Singapore Savings Bonds act as a form of emergency fund should I get retrenched. Believe me or not, I was once retrenched and that life lesson taught me to have an emergency fund on hand that can tide me through until I find a new job.
Ok, I guess I have my goals and resolutions set and ready for the year 2020. I am excited on the challenges and unknown ahead.
Have you started your planning?
Happy 2020.