The 2022 year was brutal, but I expected it would be difficult to meet our goals. Yet we met them anyway. Not all of them, but those important ones were met. And it is time to set new goals for 2023.

2022 Goal review

Buying dividend growth stocks and monetizing those positions goal

We set up a goal to purchase dividend stocks and monetize those positions.
At the beginning of the year, we set the following goal to purchase these stocks:

For the year, we modified the goal by adding more shares of our interest.

Last year, I was buying stocks like crazy. All dividends and premiums from selling options were reinvested. I am satisfied with the results. We increased the equity value in our portfolio by $44,896 (33.6%). Given how volatile and dangerous the market was in 2022, I think this was a great result:

We accomplished this goal 100% despite its floating value (the plan developed over time, but the original part was fulfilled).

Developing SPX trading goal

Last year, I started trading SPX spreads again. It generated high income, and I made $37,687 (1,046%) gains. The only issue is that many SPX trades remain open (I rolled them). So this gain is partially deferred. I consider the received premium a profit or loss when realized (received). But if the trade is still open, the Net-Liq value is blocked by the max risk buying power reduction. That’s why the Net-Liq does not always reflect the gains received.

Developing and managing 15% of the portfolio in the HFEA strategy goal

This was the most unfortunate goal in the entire 2022 year. At first, I started trading leveraged ETFs like SPXL, but I wanted to add protection. So, I adopted an HFEA strategy adding TMF as downside protection. This failed miserably. Bonds didn’t work in 2022 at all. So I abandoned this strategy and returned to buying the bullish leveraged ETFs and accepting higher volatility. The HFEA account was down -12.22% in 2022. I still think this is a great strategy, and I will continue building it up.

Increase Net-Liq value of the account by 30% goal

We failed this goal miserably. Increasing the Net-Liq by 30% meant the ending value would be $151,638.03. We failed this goal as our Net-Liq ended down by 40.51% last year. At the end of the year, Net-Liq was $62,255.78 only.

Dividend Income goal

We set a goal to receive $4,800 in dividends last year. We received $5,868.88 in dividends (an increase of 122.27%). I am happy with this result. We also accumulated enough shares to start receiving $7,135 in dividends.

Options Income goal

We didn’t set up an options income goal last year. I was not sure how to quantify it. But we exceeded the previous year’s income.

Despite the bear market and our account’s Net-Liq being down by 40%, I consider 2022 a successful year. We were able to navigate the markets without significant losses; in fact, we were able to invest more money and increase our base. We own more shares and companies than at the end of 2021, and once the bear market ends, we will see these shares rise in value, propelling our account up. I could not achieve this goal in 2008, 2018, or 2020. In 2020 I even thought that I missed the opportunity. This year, I took this opportunity to buy low.

2023 Goal summary

 
In 2023, I will focus on the following tasks:
 

1. Continue buying dividend growth stocks and increase holdings by 20%
2. Buying growth companies and increasing holdings by 100%
3. Monetizing my stock positions.
4. Continue trading SPX spreads.
5. Continue building the HFEA strategy.
6. Increase the Net-Liq value of the account by 30%
7. Increase cash equivalents to $60,000

Dividend growth stock purchasing goal

In 2023, I will buy dividend growth and high-yield dividend stocks. These are two separate beasts. Typically, high-yield dividend stocks do not provide any capital and dividend growth. They act as bonds. They have little to no growth but pay high dividends.

The standard dividend growth stocks provide low yield, and it takes time to grow the dividends and capital appreciation. It may take 5 to 10 years to see any meaningful results.

To close the gap between investment and dividend growth, high-yield dividend stock will step in and help. I will be getting high dividends now while waiting for the dividend growth stocks to kick in.

For 2023, I set a goal to receive $8,000 in annual dividend income. I am also setting up a goal to raise my dividend stock portfolio holdings by 20% in 2023. As of today, I have $134,357.50 in dividend stocks. I plan to have $161,229 or more at the end of 2023.

Growth stocks buying goal

As of today, I have $44,006.66 in growth stocks. My goal for 2023 will be to double these holdings and own up to $88,000 in growth stocks. The stocks in focus are Amazon (AMZN), Airbnb (ABNB), Google (GOOGL), etc. It is also a goal to reach 100 shares of each company.

Overall, here is my stock (dividend and growth) purchasing goal for 2023:

Monetizing stock holdings goal

My goal with all my stock holdings is to reach 100 shares and sell covered calls against these positions. I will also be selling strangles and spreads (and strive to cover them by saving cash to cover the put side of the strangle; and owning 100 shares of the underlying stock to cover the call side).

Originally, I expected to make 30% trading options. But I exceeded that goal and made 104.86%. In 2023 I believe we will have more success, so I will set a goal to make $70,000 in options income (112%).

Continue trading SPX spreads goal

Trading SPX spreads strategy is a part of our alert program that you can subscribe to. Last year the trading didn’t work very well as the trading was directional, and we had a volatile market with too many false signals. Instead of taking losses, we rolled the trades away.

We use “box trades” to collect enough credits that can be used to roll the old trades. Our goal for 2023 will be to eliminate the old trades using boxes and adjustments.

Our goal for 2022 was to grow our SPX account to $10,000. We fulfilled that goal and ended with $41,287. For 2023 I plan to increase this account to $60,000 by the end of the year.

Investing 15% in HFEA goal

Although I keep calling this strategy “HFEA”, it is not a true HFEA strategy anymore. The strategy is to keep buying 3x leveraged ETF (SPXL) and maintain approx. 15% of my entire portfolio in this ETF. We will not be trading in and out of this ETF.

But if the holdings drop below 15% (which initially equated to a $15,000 value) by 25%, we will start adding new shares to bring the value up to $15,000.
When the ETF goes up by 25%, we will sell shares to bring the value down to $15,000. This is a typical rebalancing process.

The proceeds from the ETF trimming will be invested in Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD). When the ETF falls, we will sell SCHD and buy SPXL.

Increase Net-Liq value by 30% goal

I created a 10-year plan on growing my portfolio (all accounts together), and for 2022 my goal was to reach a $151,638.03 net liq value. We failed this goal.
In 2023 I expect the Net-Liq to grow to $96,532.51, of course, given that we will not hit the recession.

 
I still have goals from last year that are long-term:
 

6-year Portfolio Value Goal:  achieve $175,000.00 net-liq value.
 

10-year Portfolio Value Goal:  achieve $1,000,000.00 net-liq value.

These goals are well underway, and if my portfolio growth keeps growing at the estimated pace, I should be able to achieve the 6-year goal in 2026, and the $1M goal is currently failing to be accomplished at all. It goes well beyond 10 years.

Increase cash equivalents to $60,000 goal

Part of my problem in 2022 was that I didn’t have enough cash for trading and investing. Many times, I had to skip a buying opportunity or even sell newly acquired positions to release cash and buying power.

I also believe that my current broker caused many issues with our buying power as they were not able to properly display my buying power to make a proper judgment about whether I had enough money or not. So, I decided to change brokers, and I am currently transferring my accounts from Tasty Works to TD Ameritrade. The transfer should be done by January 16, 2023. Until then, I cannot trade the account as the transfer may be rejected (it already happened once due to expiring options in that transfer window).