2018 Review and Thoughts
Hey everyone, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your friends and family. We sure did, although it tends to always be a busy time of the year. Our kids got spoiled by everyone, and even got money towards their 2019 RESP contributions. Got to love that!
Unfortunately I’m a little behind on my posting schedule. With the holiday season in full force I kind of put it on the back burner.
Our family has been battling various flu’s on and off for almost a month now. Of course our son probably brought it back from school one day and it makes the rounds to all of us. (Luckily not our 11 month old) It seriously is getting frustrating. Right when you think its gone boom! Its 2am and there’s puke all over our sons bed. We all got our flu shots, but the doctor even mentioned how bad of a year this is for the flu.
Hopefully this will pass by new years and we can go to our friend’s to drink and ring in 2019! With the start of 2019 approaching its a good idea to look back and evaluate how you did on your goals for 2018
2018 Goal Review
- Create a Will – Fail…. We still need to do this…..
- Hit The Weights — I have been throwing weights around the last couple weeks, so that’s good. But really I haven’t been consistent. Ill give it a orange for at least starting again.
- Diet – Pass. We have definitely made a improvement to our diet this year, adding a lot more vegetables to our meals and eliminating more bread.
- 10,000 Page Views – Fail. The site never got to 10,000 page views in a month. I’m actually ok with this though as the progress has been pretty consistent. PassiveCanadianIncome.ca now brings in roughly 6-7k views a month and the bounce rate has improved quite a bit.
- Dividend Growth – Focus on Buying better dividend growth stocks. Id say we did pretty well in this regard. The portfolio has gotten quite a bit more blue chip stocks in it now.
- Budgeting – Fail…. Yup failed this one for sure. Haven’t done one this year. We just focus on paying ourselves first.
- Bump Passive Income up to 15k – Well technically we failed, as we will be around 14k but that’s a massive improvement year over year. I might of set the goal to high with the wife on mat leave.
- Start a RESP account for our Daughter – Pass. We combined both our son and hers into a family resp plan.
- 10% Increase In Salary – Nope, I did get a 5% increase though, so not bad…
- Fix Credit Report – Earlier this year I noticed we had a error on our credit report, a couple of calls and now it is removed. Definitely keep an eye on your credit report.
- Finish Vegetable Garden – Well this one didn’t get finished. I ran our of patio slabs and refuse to buy them, since we get them at work all the time. The gardens are all framed with 4×4’s, filled and got drip lines setup so not that bad. Just the paths are a little messy.
Overall I feel we did pretty well with our goals, of course some things could of been improved. The will and budget are bad though. I could of at least made a attempt to do them. If your Canadian and have a will did you go with a lawyer or legal wills.ca or something like that? With the new year approaching it will be time to make a new list and hold myself to a higher accountability to get them done.
Market Thoughts
This market is interesting ain’t it? One day its a huge drop the next a big gain. The us stocks pull back and the tsx rallies and vice versa… Our portfolio is officially down 10% now, which really isn’t that bad. I think its because we are pretty high on the utility sector. Although energy and financials are my next 2 sectors and they have been getting beat down.
I really do have mixed feelings seeing all the red. Sure it sucks, I’m a horrible investor etc etc. (that mental game) But you got to love adding to positions in your portfolio while they are in the red… Yields are higher, your dollar cost averaging down and it just feels good buying stock cheaper! Hopefully you even drip a extra share or two.
There tends to be a lot of good deals out there now. I know for me personally I had emails coming left right and center from notifications of stocks hitting target prices I set on them. Unfortunately I don’t sit on much cash, and if I did I would of probably put it to work the week before.
This pullback could be very good for the market though. I know I have a good friend who now just started a quest trade account because he thinks its a good time to start investing. Everyone has talked about how long this bull-run has been going on and needs a correction etc etc, well now they can get over that. If Trump and China work out a better tariff deal we could really see the market rally now. Of course it could keep going lower. I got no crystal ball. Unemployment everywhere is so low, so it seems the economy is doing well. If that’s the case I don’t mind the market declining.
I think interest rates will continue to go up, but at a slower pace. It seems they need to do that, so when things go bad they can stimulate the economy with lower rates. Luckily I read a article earlier today stating Canadian’s #1 goal for 2019 is to pay down their debt. I really hope Canadian’s do, as we carry a tonne of debt.
Real Estate
At the beginning of the month I wrote a post about possibly getting into real estate for our 7th source of income. After talking to a bunch of people who are already pretty successful with real estate, we have decided to not go that route at the moment. The general consensus was where we were looking at buying a property is to far away. I thought it would be doable, but these are the “pros” to me, so I will gladly take their advice. We still have lots of room in our tfsa and rrsp accounts at the moment, so we will continue working on those. If real estate becomes a cheaper option as interest rates rise, we will reevaluate it in the future.
Conclusion
Overall another great year all across the board. Some goals I should of worked harder on, some I just should of done! Yup that will.. Why do most people put it off to the side, when we all know we are gonna die… Clearly this will make it to my 2019 goals, and I WILL do it. As for the market, for me its nice to see. I got another 20+ years before I really need these investments and higher yields and cheaper drips sounds great! There are no threats of wars or anything, things look good. Now if we could find a solution for plastic, things would be even better.
Or we need the prince of Atlantis to dump all our garbage in the ocean back onto the land, like in Aquaman! (btw it was a good movie)
Anyways hope you all had a great Christmas, and 2018 in General. Enjoy the cheaper prices of the markets and we will see you again in 2019!
Happy New Years,
Cheers!

Hey I’m Rob, creator of Passive Canadian Income.
In 2011 me and my wife had almost $60,000 in debt and a negative $7,000 Net Worth. Through hard work and financial education we paid all that off. Now we are focusing on increasing our Passive Income Streams to make the money work for us. Feel Free to Follow along the Journey by clicking the Social Media links below or subscribing to get notified of new posts on the sidebar.
Nice work on the goals Rob, and despite them not all being done I think there is still a lot to be proud about there in your accomplishments. My wife and I are right there with you on the will, as every year we mention how we need to do it but never make the time to actually do it. My FIL just did one recently as he has been going through a health crisis and that motivated him to get it done.
Sorry to hear the flu bug has been going through your house; my wife had it just before Christmas and my oldest son had it over Christmas. Knock on wood it seems to be behind us now.
I’m happy that I found your blog and have been able to connect this year, and look forward to seeing what you can accomplish next year! Here is to a safe, happy, and prosperous New Year!
hey dd
Kinda nice to hear im not the only one without a will. I guess in a weird way….
We both need to get on that, the community online helps a tonne keeping ya accountable. Hopefully this will be the kick i needed to just go do the fricken thing! haha
flu’s suck, but i think its passed.
Great to hear the comments on the blog, got to love hearing that stuff.
I also really enjoy your blog and constant comments on both our blogs/twitter…
Cheers!
Nice work on your goals. Wills are easy to slip but super important especially when you have kids! I’d definitely put that on the top of your goal list for 2019. And find yourself a good lawyer to draft up a will. Don’t use one of those online kits. A good lawyer can draft up your will so you don’t need to change it in the near future (i.e. if you have more kids and have wishes for future grandkids, and different scenarios).
Our household got hit by the flu bug for a month just before the holidays so I know how that feels. Get better soon!
hey Bob
thanks man, seems to be the consensus to get a lawyer involved. Yeah not having one is, has been a error in our part. Our kids deserve better.
Glad you are all better, seems like it may have finally passed here as well.
cheers
HI
We have a will. We update it every 7 years. Why because our kids grew up and now they are adults.
In our first will we named POA ( power of attorneys, executors, and where the kids would go should both of us not be around). As they got older we changed the will again, more in the how we want to be buried, POA’s and Executors changed as friendships changed etc.
Early on we bought Term 100 insurance to make sure costs were covered when ea of us passed on . When you are young and have a young family the cost of term 100 is cheap. I made sure to buy enough to cover taxes on our estates after we left this fun world.
Use a lawyer to get your will properly done. Pick one you know or one of your friends knows. Having a lawyer is personal and you should get along with them. Costs will vary between $400 and $700 approx. But for your sake and the family, its a no brainer. Don’t mess around with on line wills. Get a lawyer and as time goes on you go back and update/change it.
I had a stroke 6 years ago and I also had Critical Life Insurance on the mortgage. I survived the stroke and the mortgage was paid. I didn’t have it on my LOC but at least the home was looked after.
Well these are few of my ideas. One more for you….. make sure your parents have updated wills and you know where they are and whose the POA and Executor. Make sure you have joint accounts with your parents as it saves on probate costs. If one of your parents takes ill or gets Alzheimer’s then its too late and yes the Govt can come in and manage the account.
So WILLS, Parent Wills,
Happy New Year to all of you and the readers as well.
wow Greg lots of great info there. Thanks alot
Good to hear you recovered from the stroke. Those are no joke. My dad basically had one but went to the hospital in time and did suffer any stroke symptoms after.
As for life insurance im a huge fan and have had a term plan in place for about the past 10 years. Once we got the house, we thought it would be a good move to get for each other.
I will definately take your advice about the will. Thanks!
Hi Rob. Great year in deed 🙂 Nice notes about the economy, I have done some research myself in this field https://p2035.com/2018/11/10/is-the-next-recession-really-coming-2/ As you said economy looks more or less ok and the market releasing its steam is a good thing as if it would continue we would end up in 2000 dotcom bubble scenario in 2019-2020. Now it looks like a more safer place to br (The Market that is). But O would still like to see some more decline of -20%. Now the prices are berable but not atractive 😉 Good luck with your new 2019 goals. You should try SMART goal seting methodology (hope dont mind another link) https://p2035.com/2017/04/22/smart-goals/ I havd wrote about that technique some time ago and use it. Worked for me 🙂 It is also a very good tool for project managment. We sure did good in our goal with #1 the most important now in our hands. Literaly as I write this comment 😀
hey p!
thanks, yeah i think things dont look as bad as the media loke to portray it at the moment.
I dont mind the links, its all good.
As for smart goals i think i did that in my original goal post. I will check out your post for my 2019 goals though.
Congrats on killing your goals.
All the best in 2019!
cheers
I don’t have a will but maybe it’s something I should considering doing. Dieing is not in my plans but you never know what tomorrow awaits. Overall, you had great achievements in 2018, especially the passive income. BTW, tell your friend not to use questrade. They seem to be cheap on commissions at first, but when you sell a stock commissions are way higher. For example, if you want to sell your position to the market, Questrade will charge $0.0035/share extra. They are tricky these guys. I have a body at work, he flips 10K worth of stocks, when he sells he pays around $50 in commissions, that’s a rip off.
hey German
Since posting this the wheels are in motion and I have contacted a lawyer. Its gonna get done soon. Writing it down, makes it a little more concrete this time.
Interesting about questtrade i didnt know that and forwarded him your message. Thanks
Happy new years German.
Hi Rob,
Great work on your goals!! My wife and I haven’t set up a will… we don’t have any children but that’s really no excuse but maybe that’s why we’ve delayed this. My wife’s godfather is a lawyer so we don’t have any excuses. I’ll have another chat with my wife when we return from our travels.
You’re right about the markets and how it impacts your emotions. It’s frustrating to see your portfolio drop but it’s great being able to buy stocks at a cheaper price. My wife and I recently retired and don’t have the income from our work. We are able to add to positions but wish we could buy more.
Any, keep up the great work!
Ernest
hey Ernest
man you have the lawyer hookup! Get on it. haha… Sounds like your living the dream with all those travels. Just awesome.
The market will eventually come back, its not bad when your putting money into it but when your just pulling from the market that would be a different mental game. Guess I got to go read your latest post!
cheers Ernest, happy new years.
You seem like you had a great year, hope you all feel better soon! I also failed about the will thing. We are waiting until we baby #2 joins us and hopefully we will get our act together. I think assigning guardianship is important too in case something happens to the parents.
Would love to see a post about vegetable gardens and how to make one!
hey Gym
thanks we all are feeling better.
Currently am reading a book on wills and talked to a lawyer about what we need to get started.
The ball is rolling, this year there will be a will.
Like you mentioned the will is really important for our kids especially.
That vegtable garden is basically done. i should of taken pics. Maybe the next garden.
cheers
Hey Rob,
Great job on your goals from 2018. Eating healthier and working out are the most important ones. The real wealth is health, when all is said and done.
Like you, I’ve been watching the market and hoping to continue investing at lower prices if the volatility persists. Perfect for reinvesting or adding new capital.
Take care,
Ryan
hey Ryan
So true health and relationships, id say.
The market seems to of rebounded pretty nicely lately. Hopefully it pulls back a bit soon.
Cheers