Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a good break and may 2015 be full of happiness, laughter, health and wealth. I spent the past few days crunching numbers and reviewing goals, before thinking about the year ahead, and here are the final results of 2014’s goals.
One of the last sunsets of the year…
Increase net worth by 30%
It was an epic FAIL last year, and this year, I can call it a win! I have a hard time calculating net worth since I have assets in several countries and in several currencies, so currency fluctuations make it hard to estimate properly. At the end of the year, I have grown my net worth in euros by 31.5%. The dollar has been very strong and I make some good moves buying dollars when they were much cheaper, and I have grown my dollar NW by only 19%, but if you apply the current 1US$ = 1.20 euro rate to my January 1st, 2014 USD net worth, you also get a 33.75% increase.
So for me it’s a PASS.
I still haven’t updated the value of my properties, but I did add the value of the works I am doing building a new house on the beach to the value of the land. I think I should get back more than the building costs when selling but that is a cautious estimate.
I am really happy about this once since I thought it would be another fail this year.
Make $60,000 blogging
Another win, I made a little over $70,000. You can check a full recap tomorrow at Make Money Your Way. What looked like a stretch at the beginning of the year (make over $5,000 a month) actually became the new normal.
PASS
Keep donating 10% of online income to charity
10% of my online income currently goes to charity, which means mainly supporting education projects in my Guatemalan village. This year I have given over $6,000 to send two honor student to boarding school for high school, buy uniforms and supplies for primary school girls, buy 10 laptops and desktops and run a 12 hours a week computer literacy class, buy books and run a small library so the kids learn to enjoy reading. I also received almost $3,000 in reader donations which I fully passed forward.
Another PASS.
Turn a profit with land development
There you go, first FAIL of the year. We have kept pouring money into the land development, to flatten the streets, dig a well, buy a beach to give residents a private access to the lake… While we are definitely headed in the right direction, and my region has experienced the strongest growth in all Guatemala this year, all the investments kept me in the red for a while more.
Make $5,000 with the guest house
I haven’t got the exact figure since I am a mess but I think it is another FAIL. I had a $1,000 booking over Christmas who ended up being a real PITA and the guests left so I owe them a refund since I don’t want any trouble and prefer my peace of mind over money, so anyway, I think they would have made me cross the $5k mark but without them we may be around $3.5 to $4K.
I am building a new house on another plot to move away from the guest house, and as long as I still live on the premises, I am happy with it being a small operation. Having guests around all the time would be annoying. $5,000 was a stretch goal for a first year, I think I managed to pay the bills, staff and get a little profit, but still for what the house is worth it was a very poor return. I will promote it more once I move out.
So in spite of failing the last two goals, I still managed the 30%+ net worth increase, meaning it was a good year. I haven’t clearly defined the 2015 goals, but will do soon!
Great work on your goals for 2014 Pauline. Achieving such a significant increase in net worth and blogging income is great all while giving back to your charity project.
I am looking forward to seeing what you have planned for 2015.
Thank you Lynx, and happy New Year!
Outstanding work making $70K from just blogging! That’s pretty incredible to pull off so many +$5K months in a row.
Thanks MMD, I was surprised too!
Great profit from blogging..Keeps me motivated! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!
Very impressive Pauline. It seems like you almost met all your goals especially making more than $60,000. Congrats.
Thanks Jayson!
Great job! The increase in net worth is huge. Here’s hoping that 2015 is even better. happy New Year!!!
Thank you Kemkem, happy new year to you as well!
Congratulations on the 30% net worth increase. Even though the development is still in the red, I bet you’ll see a good return on the money. I hope 2015 is even better for you.
Thank you Jenna, have a great 2015 too! I could sell all plots today at discount prices and get the money back and then some but patience is key here.
I still can’t believe you raked that much in with blogging! Teach me your ways (though I will admit, your living abroad is a lot of the appeal, for me, to keep reading.)
Those are all fairly solid wins, and I bet that the land development is getting close to positive dollar territory, as you have had some major, major costs in the past two years.
Honestly I think I am still resting on the long hours I put in at the beginning, and now it is mostly in autopilot, and I’d say it has worked better to put say 8 hours a day for 6 months than 2 hours a day for 24 months.
Overall you did great Pauline! Sorry to learn that the last booking was less than desirable and I agree sometimes it’s not worth the stress or headache when it comes to money in those instances.
Absolutely, I just wanted them out!
70k blogging… what else can I say than WOW! It’s just great and inspiring. And I like what you do to help your community there. It’s just wonderful.
Wish you the best for 2015!
Merci! HNY to you as well.
Awesome goals and you are killing it. My goal in 2015 financially is to save around 35% of what I earn from my job and make more money in other ventures as well.
Good luck to you Sally!
I’ll be really interested to see how the land development goes this year. It is SO interesting to watch you build up your properties. I would love to own a rental or two someday. Once we get our student loans paid off, I would really like to formulate an investment plan to make rental property a reality for us. Wishing you peace and prosperity this year, Pauline : )
Same to you Liz! Our prices are low compared to the nearby village but we are careful to get mostly foreign buyers as they respect the environment more and should build better houses, resulting in land appreciation for all remaining plots.
Great job with blogging income and net worth. I do think your property development will be a big win in the future. You certainly have quite the international empire.
I think it is already a great investment, if I put all the plots at the price people are selling them for in the village, I have easily doubled the investment, but as long as they are not sold I won’t update the value in NW.
Sounds like 2014 was a great year for you! All the best for 2015.
Congrats on reaching so many goals!! 2014 was a great year for us. We grew our net worth and my blogging business grew by 50% once again. I am uncertain though if I can grow it another 50% this year, but as you said, maybe the last few months of 2014 are the new normal!
Happy New Eve… The best part is donating 10% of online income to charity, i’m sure that many of them not interested to do that it’s great of you. I hope all you year 2015 come with color full surprises.
Wow – awesome work! 2/4 is great when it comes to yearly goals!
That stinks about the PITA holiday guests – I think you’re right that it’s probably better to just wash your hands of them and move on 🙂
Have a great 2015!
Great job in 2014. Hope 2015 will be even better. This is working for me. http://mscca.net/
Excellent progress on your first three goals. A 30% increase in Net Worth in 1-year is a great achievement; as is $60,000 from blogging. Keep up the good work!
Great job in 2014.. thank you share