Review of the Year 2017, Goals for the year 2018

The year 2017 is behind us, so it's time to see how I reached my goals, and how my portfolio developed during the year. I will also set my dividend income goal for the 2018.

I did 67 transactions during the year, 61 purchases and six sales, I got dividends from 63 companies and distributions from two ETFs. My portfolio now includes 65 companies and two ETFs that pay dividends. Comparing to 2016: 27 transactions, 22 purchases and five sales, got dividends from 55 companies and from two ETFs. About a year ago I made a plan to make a weekly purchase and in this way to grow my portfolio. In this objective, I almost succeeded because there were a few weeks before the end of the year without significant purchases. During the year I added ten new companies in my portfolio, which in the future will hopefully pay me growing dividends. I do not have any particular objective to increase the number of companies this year, but I keep my eyes open, and if the market is favorable, I might add my portfolio diversification. Overall, I'm pretty satisfied that I added more companies to my portfolio and increased diversification during the last year.

Transactions

During the year 2017 I made the following transactions:

2017 I closed three positions, SP Kehittyvät Markkinat B equity fund, Quality Care Properties Inc.  and General Electric Co. I received shares of Quality Care Properties, when it spin-off from HCP Inc. I also sold half of Avance because the repayment of the dividend will not be visible shortly. I will probably sell the rest of it this year.These sales generated a total lost of € 4,046.53 which I can reduce from capital gains.

During the year 2017, I used a total of 56,021.06 Euros for the new acquisitions of shares. My sales gave me €19,382.11, almost all of the dividends that I received during the year 2017, a total of € 11,178.61 I have already reinvested. In other words, 2016 I put new capital into my portfolio for about € 25k

Dividends

My total dividend income during the year 2017 was € 15,074.55. After the payment of taxes, my net dividend income will be € 11,178.61. My goal was to get € 11,200 net dividend income during the 2017, that I do not reached.  

In 2017, my net dividend income was € 11,178.61, so my income increased about 9.6% compared to last year.

You can follow the development of my dividends here.

Goals for 2018

Probably I will close my ownership of Avance and sell the rest of my share of it during the summer. My intention is to continue to invest regularly every month, but more rarely than last year when I made purchases almost every week. My goal is to invest € 1k every month and reinvest the dividends in the shares I have chosen. With this plan, I should make an average of two purchases per month and spend about 24 thousand euros a year.

2017 was a good year and I almost reached my goal. However, there is still a long way to go to the financial independence. For 2018, I will set the target of € 12,200.00 (net dividend income), which would mean over one thousand euros per month. However, the exchange rate changes have a great effect on achieving this goal, as about 75 percent of my dividend income comes in other currencies  than in the euro.

 

Thanks for reading and successful investments in 2018 for everyone!

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