2014 is when I started my journey towards Financial Independence. I did not have a formal set of goals, but I did define what Financial Independence means to me (here).

2015 was the first year where I had a formal set of goals. For 2015, I the following goals to get me closer to my financial independence goals (here). End of 2015 has arrived and it is time for the year-end review.

One word before that. I got amazing support from the Financial blogger community during this year and my humble thanks to all who took the time to drop a comment and/or drop in an encouraging word and/or drop a suggestion. It is truly appreciated. Thank you.

Back to the goals, I managed to reach some goals, exceed some and not reach some.

1. Max out 401K contributions ($36K) for both me and my wife.
   1. Done: 12/31/2015
   2. Reached this goal…same goal for next year.
2. Contribute $16K (goal stretch $24K) to Passive Income Streams
   1. Done 09/30/2014
   2. Exceeded this goal big time….very happy about this.
   3. Same 16K goal for next year
3. Contribute $4800 to 529 College Fund
   1. Done: 12/31/2015
   2. Exceeded this goal as well by about $1000….I am happy about this too…though the goal seems to be stuck at $30K…it is like two steps forward and three steps back.
   3. Same goal for next year though
4. Deposit maturing CDs into passive income streams
   1. Done 01/17/2015
   2. This was a one-time cash inflow…I used some CDs I had set aside for home down payment…since I did not see that happening this year, I moved them to my passive income streams. I am very happy I did this as well.
5. Keep scouting for a possible home
   1. Not Done: 12/26/2015
   2. This goal is not looking so good. The prices in 2015 were even more crazy than 2014. So, 2016 is not looking good either. There were some discussion about moving to a lower cost area that *forced* its way into the family’s conversation. But, no decision yet.
6. Start and finish Estate Planning
   1. Not Done: 12/26/2015
   2. There were some changes within the family which delayed this goal a bit. I was thinking about appointing my brother’s family as a guardian for my kid, but some instability has crept into my brother’s family and I wanted to give him time to work things out…so, I need to rework my strategy and timing a bit more. Family is family…so, I am hoping this issue can be resolved. And of course, I spent way too much time on setting up the passive income streams.
   3. Will add this goal to next year’s goals
7. Get a more stable job.
   1. Not Done: 12/26/2015
   2. I am struggling with this goal due to a serious lack of will power. I keep starting my preparations and then it gets bogged down after a few days. I think I am mentally tired of working and preparing for interviews and the rest of the things that has to happen in family life. But, doing this when out of a job is not a good idea.
   3. Will add this goal to next years goals but I will come up with some form of tracking to keep me honest.

Summary

Overall, 2015 has been a reasonably good year. I achieved 4/7 goals I set for myself.

• Average monthly dividend has reached $702 per month…still way below my target of $4000, but much closer to my intermediate target of $1000 per month. I read somewhere that the pace of compounding will visibly increase once you hit $1000 pm in dividends. For next year, I would like to make a serious dent in the goal towards $1000 pm in dividends.
• Goals 6 and 7 will be done next year for sure.
  • For 7, I need to build up my confidence and will power and beat the heck out of this goal.
  • For 6, I just need to make some difficult decisions along with my wife.
• W.r.t Goal 5, I am going to keep accumulating small amounts of money towards the home down payment, but I do not anticipate meeting this goal in 2016.

More on this in 2016 yearly plan. Once again, thanks for all the amazing support. I really appreciate it.