Goals and Books

Happy new year! Here's hoping your 2024 is off to a great start. After barely posting the last couple of years, I decided to not renew the dividendsinhand domain and go forward with blogger instead.  

Goals:
I'm glad to report that I achieved my 2023 goal of adding $3,200 of dividend income, even if I fell a little short of my 5.0% target for organic dividend growth (4.63% at year end).

For 2024, I'm going to target the same $3,200 increase in forward dividend income and make an effort to achieve a 5% organic dividend growth rate. Complicating factor is I only plan to invest about a third of my contributions + dividends + starting cash balance into dividend growers in 2024. The other thirds will be placed in a Canadian index fund and "compounders" (think Constellation Software, in which I've slowly grown a nice position).  Reasoning is to keep taxes down.

Additionally, I'll continue to look to spend my money on things that create memories for my kids and wife. Likely some trips, hockey games, concerts, and similar experiences. I got better at doing this over the past 12 months, and I'm committed to upping my game in 2024. Also looking to keep investing in my health (dumbbells, running shoes, ski pass, tournament fees for volleyball and ultimate, etc). 

Books:
A friend and I track our reading via a Google sheet and I was surprised to reach 82 books in 2023. In case you're a fellow reader, listed below are the books I read, along with my rating out of 5. 

Run Rose Run - Dolly Parton & James Patterson (3.5)

Hello World - Hannah Fry (3.5)

The Other Emily - Dean Koontz (3.5)

Beyond the Wand - Tom Felton (4)

Beartown - Fredrick Backman (4)

Get it Done - Ayelet Fishbach (3.5)

Sparring Partners - John Grisham (4)

Desert Star - Michael Connelly (3.5)

Forever Terry - Various (3.5)

Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro (3.5)

Mindset - Carol Dweck (3.5)

My Squirrel Days - Ellie Kemper (3.5)

Us Against You - Fredrick Backman (4)

The Shallows - Nicolas Carr (3.5)

The Intelligent Quality Investor - Long Equity (3.5)

Long Shadows - David Baldacci (3.5)

Hello Molly! - Molly Shannon (3.5)

The Bond King - Mary Childs (3.5)

The Creative Act - Rick Rubin (4)

The Winners - Fredrik Backman (4)

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tommorrow - Gabrielle Zevin (4.5)

The Acquirer's Multiple - Tobias Carlisle (3.5)

The Boys from Biloxi - John Grisham (3.5)

Hench - Natalie Walschots (3.5)

Friday Night Lights - H.G. Bissinger (3.5)

The 12 Hour Walk - Colin O'Brady (3.5)

The Game - Ken Dryden (4)

The Legend of Bagger Vance - Steven Pressfield (4)

This is What it Sounds Like - Susan Rodgers (3.5)

Good for a Girl - Lauren Fleshman (4)

Anxious People - Fredrik Backman (4)

When the Game Was Ours - Jackie MacMullan (4)

Billy No-Mates - Max Dickins (3.5)

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi - Shannon Chakraborty (3.5)

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing - Matthew Perry (3.5)

Building a Second Brain - Tiago Forte (4)

The Storied Life of A.J. Firkry - Gabrielle Zevin (4)

Less - Andrew Greer (3.5)

The Terraformers - Annalee Newitz (3.5)

Chaos Kings - Scott Patterson (3.5)

The House Next Door - James Patterson (3.5)

Elsewhere - Gabrielle Zevin (3.5)

Fundamentals of Corporate Credit Analysis - Blaise Gauguin (3)

The Greatest Salesman in the World - OG Mandino (3.5)

The Art of Learning - Josh Waitzkin (3.5)

Young Jane Young - Gabrielle Zevin (4)

When McKinsey Comes to Town - Walt Bogdanich (3.5)

How to Host a Viking Funderal - Kyle Scheele (4)

Dark Angel - John Sandford (4)

The Longest Race - Kara Goucher (3.5)

The Wild Things - Dave Eggers (3.5)

All These Things I've Done - Gabrielle Zevin (3.5)

The Nineties - Chuck Klosterman (3.5)

The Road - Cormac McCarthy (4)

Elon Musk - Ashlee Vance (3.5)

Fundamentals of Corporate Credit Analysis - Arnold Ziegel (3)

Michael Jordan The Life - Roland Lazenby (4)

Carrie Soto is Back - Taylor Jenkins Reid (4)

Camp Zero - Michelle Min Sterling (4)

Both Flesh and Not - David Foster Wallace (3.5)

From Strength to Strength - Arthur Brooks (4.5)

SuperBetter - Jane McGonigal (3.5)

Discipline is Destiny - Ryan Holiday (4)

Raffi: The life of a children's troubadour - Raffi (3.5)

The City of Brass - S.A. Chakraborty (3.5)

Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman - Richard Feynman (4)

Going Infinite - Michael Lewis (4)

Clear Thinking - Shane Parrish (4)

L'Ickabog - JK Rowling (4) in French

The Sparrow - Mary Russel (4)

Murakami T: T-Shirts I Love - Haruki Murakami (4)

Hidden Potential - Adam Grant (4)

Norwegian Wood - Huruki Murakami (4)

Of Boys and Men - Richard Reeves (3.5)

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki - Haruki Murakami (4)

The Secret - Lee Child (4)

Same as Ever - Morgan Housel (4)

Writing for Busy Readers - Todd Rogers (4)

Wind / Pinball - Haruki Murakami (3.5)

Things My Son Needs to Know About the World - Fredrik Backman (4)

The Real Work - Adam Gopnik (4)

Dead in the Water - Kit Chellel (4)