4 goals progress report

Last year I set 4 goals for our non-registered portfolio. Since June is now upon us, which marks about 6 months from the time I posted the goals, I'd like to update our progress toward these portfolio goals.


Goal #1 - Save an average of $1,000 per month to be added to this portfolio

Progress - For 2008 we've saved an average of $2,559 per month. This is a tremendous result especially considering my wife has been on maternity leave for the year. I expect this average figure to be peaked out right now and decline for the balance of 2008, as the month of April included some one time funds that won't be repeated this year.

Goal #2 - Keep our 'Buy Fee' under 2.0%

Progress - Currently our Buy Fee sits at 1.9%. This is something that is important to me, as I know the impact fees can have in investing. This fee should creep down as the years go by. I would expect the fee to get under 1.0% someday.

Goal #3 - Keep our portfolio dividend yield between 2.0% and 4.0%.

Progress - Currently our portfolio yield is 4.3%. This means that we are being paid 4.3% of the money we have invested annually. We are not meeting our goal in this area. The reasons for this are that a part of our portfolio was purchased to provide some additional income for my wife's maternity leave, and this section is made up of high yielding income trusts. The other reason for this is the poor performance of the stock market. If not for the recent weakness in the stock market our yield would likely sit just below 4.0%.

Goal #4 - Grow our portfolio to $175,000 by February, 2014.

Progress - Currently our portfolio is worth $45,875. This is the most difficult goal to gauge progress on. Looks like if we are able to save an average of $1,200 per month and we get an annual investment return of ~8% we'll meet the goal.