Now that I will be in transition to part-time blogger, I want to get back to writing monthly goal-setting posts.
Why publish my goals online, though?
In short, the goal-setting posts allow me to stay on target and be more precise with my plans for blogging and dividend investing. I can break my plans down into monthly steps. Plus, it’s another post to attract page views each month. #justbeinghonest
My hope is that goal-setting adds more context to my plan to reach financial independence through blogging and investing.
In addition to knowing how much money it took to reach financial independence, and on top of my entire dividend income being documented, I want readers to be able to see the monthly steps I took to build a blog and to save money. I want FI through blogging and investing to be a transparent journey that is broken down into simple steps for anyone to accomplish on their own.
Preface: The Transition to Part Time
As I recently mentioned, I will be eluding the 9-to-5 again to work part-time and to become a part-time blogger.
This will allow me to spend more time on blogging, which is awesome because I love working on it. But it will also add an extra pressure to earn income.
With that said, I am looking forward to the challenge. I’ve learned so much about blogging over the last 3 years that I haven’t been able to apply. But with this newfound time, I anticipate that I will be able to double the amount of content generated monthly.
Related Post: Celebrating RTC’s 3 Year Blogiversary
The timeframe for this change is October 2019, because that’s when my new schedule will kick in. Until then I am going through a job transition, and a more busy time than usual since it’s summer, basically.
So August and September will be mini-transitions into my new blogging schedule. There will be signs of change, but I won’t have time to step up the workload until October.
Goal-setting for August 2019
I will try to keep this brief.
Publish 6 Blog posts
I am planning to publish at least 6 blog posts in August. September will be within the same range. However, I am anticipating that I will publish more than 10 posts in October. Here are most of the posts planned for August 2019
- Dividend Income Update for July 2019.
- Dividend Income Projection for August 2019.
- Monthly Savings Report for July 2019.
- Clever Articles Around the Web.
- Daily Checklist to Market a Blog on Social Media.
- To be announced.
Put Up a Work With RTC Services Page
This blog previously had a “Work With RTC” page before I went back to work. It generated decent income and inquiries until I took it down. Then I stopped receiving any interest for a while again. But more recently, I have started to employ small tactics to generate e-mail inquiries again.
Nevertheless, my goal for this month is to establish a “Work With RTC” page to make it easier to contact and easier to understand what services are offered.
Related post: A Blog Post about Sponsored Content that’s not full of s–t
Add Back My Questrade Affiliate Income Stream
Even though I wasn’t posting the numbers like I do now, I was still blogging about dividend investing when I started out. I also blogged about day trading crude oil.
It was during this time I noticed that Questrade, my broker, had an affiliate program.
Since it was a good fit, I decided to try it out as one of my affiliates. Although I wasn’t sure what to expect, I received a payment within the first few months of trying their affiliate program.
Unfortunately, I had to remove it as an affiliate when I went back to work due to a conflict of interest.
I am looking forward to promoting Questrade as an affiliate again, because I truly do believe in their platform.
Republish or edit at least one old post
There are over 140 posts in draft mode that were taken down when I went back to work. Yesterday I republished 3 of them.
Considering that re-editing and republishing content can be beneficial for SEO, I am planning to republish at least one per month. It will likely be more but I’m setting the goal at 1 for now.
Surpass $600 in forward annual dividend income
As of the most recent dividend income projection, the portfolio was up to $580.73 annually.
By the end of August, my goal is to report dividend income surpassed $600 annually.
Even though I am going through a job transition, I still need to keep dividend income going in the right direction. After all, dividend income is the main thing.
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. – Stephen Covey
Save 10% of my income
Obviously saving 10% is not a high enough number to reach financial independence anytime in the near future.
I am aiming to keep it at 10% while I begin this new job, for now. If I can maintain it, I will try to increase it. If I can’t, I’ll lower it.
Of course, I should be aiming to save at least 35-to-50% if I want to reach financial independence.
But my expectation is that income earned through working part-time, income from blogging, and income from dividend investing will allow me to eventually reach a 50% savings rate.
I know compound interest is everything, and I do already have money working, but I believe a smaller savings rate to afford a better lifestyle might provide more income opportunities in the long run. It’s a risk I’m willing to take over the next year.
Gym at least 4 days per week
Because I have previous experience with working out, I am fortunate that I can quickly develop exercise routines that are effective, even if I haven’t worked out much in years lol.
I was an avid weight lifter in high school, and I even did two-a-day workouts in college lol.
Anyways, 4 days per week seems to be the perfect amount of days for my body. It allows me to exercise all muscle groups:
- Day 1: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
- Day 2: Back, Biceps
- Day 3: Legs
- Day 4: Core
Plus it allows for an ideal amount of time for recovery.
Related Post: Personal Goals for 2019 focussed on Health & Happiness
Read daily, even if it’s just a few pages
Although I write a lot of notes and blog frequently, I don’t read enough, straight-up. I never read much in school either, to tell you the truth.
I will go through phases of being interested in a particular author or area of interest, like investing, so I’ll read a lot during those phases. But other than that, I tend to read blogs, listen to podcasts and YouTube videos, and I listen to music.
Based on my experience with blogging and writing, reading truly does help a lot. If I want to become a better writer, I need to read more.
Similar to my exercise goal above, the goal is to embed reading into my lifestyle.
Concluding Thoughts – The Transition to Part Time Blogger
In addition to the goals mentioned above, I must remain active on social media, and I’m aiming for a specific number of page views per month. But since those goals are less measurable, I left them off the list.
As for the rest of the goals, they are all centred around the transition to part time blogger. They are preparation for the coming months.
I have started to allude to some of the upcoming changes, which include revealing my portfolio holdings in dividend income updates. But there is so much more that this will eventually change.
I am looking forward to reviewing this month’s progress in next month’s goal-setting post.
Thanks for reading!
I am not a licensed investment or tax adviser. All opinions are my own. This post contains advertisements by Google Adsense. This post also contains internal links, 1 link to another trusted investment site, and links to RTC social media accounts.
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Email: graham@reversethecrush.com
Announcement: I eluded the 9-to-5 again…
