Since 2019, I have set goals and resolutions at the beginning of the year and provided progress updates each quarter. It has been six years since this annual tradition and I believe I have accomplished a lot by simply following this routine every year.
In the past, I found Q2 and Q3 were the roughest quarters because I would lose focus on my goals and resolutions. Let’s find out how I did in Q2.
2025 Goals and Resolutions – Q2 Update
To make the progress easier, I use a spreadsheet to track my goals and resolutions. At the end of each month, I would track my progress.
Here’s what the spreadsheet looks like at the end of Q2.
Let me go over each goal and my progress in detail.
Financial Goals
Dividend income over $60,000 – WIP. A+. $33,199.84
After six months, we are definitely ahead of progress having received $33,199.84 in dividend income. Based on my current dividend income projection, I am quite confident we will end the year with more than $60,000 in dividend income!
(Note: for the end of the year dividend income projection, I can’t just double the amount due to BEC’s dividend cut earlier this year).
As you can see from my dividend income projection chart below, we are aiming for $63,000 in 2026. It would be fantastic if we could end 2025 above $63,000. Now I projected $66,000 in 2027, but do we have a chance of exceeding this number?
$25k in LTSS/cash wedge – WIP
This goal is very much a work in progress (WIP). At the time of writing, we are nowhere close to the $25k goal. This is primarily due to several large item expenses, such as overseas airfares and CRA tax installments.
In case you’re curious, the idea behind this goal is to save up some money to give us a greater margin of safety when we do live off dividends.
Boost RESP by $1,500 each – Done. A+
We completed this goal in Q1 by contributing $4,000 to each kid at the beginning of 2025 ($2,500 each for the annual contribution to capture the $500 grant, then $1,500 additional contribution each).
We actually went above this goal by contributing another $3,500 in late March to each RESP. What we’re trying to do is make up for the fact that we didn’t “front-load” the RESPs by contributing $14,000 when each kid was born.
Blog Goals
Continue publishing a blog post every Monday – WIP
I have successfully published a blog post every Monday so far this year. The Monday publishing schedule has worked quite well because it allows me to plan ahead. I think the readers also like it because they know when new posts will come out.
Improve Google Pagespeed to >=90 Performance – Done. A+.
I spent quite a bit of time tweaking the blog in Q1 to improve page load speed. With these changes, I managed to improve Google Pagespeed to above 90 on Mobile!
If you notice any poor page load performance, please do let me know so I can look into it.
Consider whether to incorporate or not – Done. A.
After talking to a few tax specialists and fellow bloggers who have incorporated, I decided not to incorporate the blog. The blog is very much a hobby project for me. Although the blog generates some income, the income level doesn’t justify the one-time incorporation cost and the yearly recurring cost.
Personal Goals
Read 15 books – WIP. A. Read 11 books total, 7 in Q2
I finished reading four books in Q1 and in Q2, I improved that number by finishing reading six books in total. The books I read in Q2 were:
- Richer, Wiser, Happier: How the World’s Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life by William Green: I really enjoyed reading this book and learned a number of investment lessons which I outlined here. I highly recommend reading this book!
- When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi: Wow, what a book! Paul wrote this book while dying of cancer and practicing neurosurgery. Paul had a distinct writing style and he would have been an amazing writer if he were able to write more books. I highly recommend reading this book.
- The Money Trap: Lost Illusions Inside the Tech Bubble by Alok Sama: a very interesting book outlining Alok’s time at SoftBank and how its founder, Masayoshi Son, created the Vision Fund and the deals they invested in. It was crazy the amount of money they were investing with the Vision Fund. Some of the investments included Yahoo, T-Mobile, Alibaba, Nvidia, WeWork, DiDi, etc.
- Fall of Giants by Ken Follett: I have read many Ken Follett books in the past few years and have enjoyed his writing style. After finishing the Kingscross series, I thought I’d get started on the Century Trilogy. Fall of Giants began in 1911 and followed eight key characters up to 1924. Overall, I thought the story was interesting and I look forward to reading the second book in the series – Winter of the World.
- The Rules of Management by Richard Templar: this was a book I purchased at a local book fair. Since I manage a team, I could apply some of these rules in the book to my work life.
- Morris Chang Autobiography Volume 2 by Morris Chang: I finished Volume 1 in Q1 and continued with Volume 2. Overall, a very interesting book and I found it fascinating that Morris Chang founded TSMC in 1987 when he was 56 years old already. If he were to follow the FIRE path and retire early (he already could when he quit Texas Instruments), he wouldn’t have founded TSMC, one of the most influential companies in the world!
- The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant by Tae Kim: wow, what a fascinating book! Reading some of the Nvidia products in the 90s brought back memories of when I was building my own computers. It was amazing to learn how Nvidia operates internally and the crazy work hours (60 hours a week is 100% expected, with some working over 80 hours a week).
Join 2 Curling Teams – WIP. A+. 2 teams & spare on 1 team from January to March
I played on two teams and spared on one team from January to March. The new curling season will start in September with team sign up in August. I have gotten some contact info, so hopefully I can join three teams starting in September, playing Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights every week.
Replace 2013 iMac – Not yet started
Our 2013 iMac is still holding up. Although we can’t install some programs, for the most part, we are not missing out much.
If we were to replace the iMac this year, I’d look to replace it with an M4 Mac Mini with at least 24GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD. Having said that, since there are rumours of a new Apple Studio Display coming out later this year or early next year, we may want to wait for that before making a purchase.
Fix Fence – WIP
I spent a few days removing the fallen posts and tidying up the fence area. Since our lot is higher than our neighbour’s, in order to properly fix the fence, we’d need to build a concrete retaining wall and then put the fence up on the retaining wall (that was probably one of the reasons why the fence fell due to not having a retaining wall).
As you can imagine, that’d be a big job since the retaining wall would need to run for one side of the lot. Therefore, it might be a job for a professional.
Fun Goals
Visit Taiwan with family – Done. A
We visited Taiwan for 3 weeks in January and had a blast!
You can find the three-part trip report here:
Omakase with Mrs. T – Done. A.
Mrs. T and I went for two sushi Omakase while in Taiwan and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Summer camping trip – WIP, booked campsite
We booked a campsite in the summer for two nights. It should be good to check out a new provincial park that we haven’t been to.
Summary – 2025 Goals and Resolutions – Q1 Update
I managed to stay focused throughout Q2 and finished one goal. Overall, it was a successful quarter and I will continue to work on my goals and resolutions for the remainder of the year.
The focus for Q3 is to continue reading books and join at least two curling teams, hopefully three, in August when the sign-up opens up. We’ll see if I end up fixing the fence myself or hiring a professional.
