Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Never Confuse Desires With Goals

In any pursuit, if you have more than one or maybe two goals, they will often start to conflict with each other. We should never confuse desires with goals. For example, it is my goal to create an ever-increasing income from dividend growth stocks, while it is my desire to beat the S&P 500 index over the long-term.

If I am achieving my goal of creating an ever-increasing income from dividend investment, I would not drastically change my investing strategy if I were to under-perform the S&P. However, the opposite isn't true. If I were not consistently growing dividend income, but nearly always beating the S&P, it would be time for me to totally rethink my strategy.

A person that tries to please everyone, usually ends up pleasing no one. In the same vein, trying to achieve your goals and desires may lead you to achieving neither.
 
My goal is to generate an ever-increasing income stream from dividends. I have met this goal every year since I started investing in dividend growth stocks. As for the S&P, I am still beating it over time, but have under-performed the last three years (I am beating it YTD so far in 2022). Much of the under-performance came about when I merged several portfolios into my Divided Growth Portfolio. In the end, I will not sell a great dividend stock for under-performing the S&P.

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