New Year’s is a good time to take stock of the past year and set some strong goals for the new year.

In this blog post, I explain how I both succeeded and failed with last year’s goals, and how I’m setting new and better ones for 2023.

If you want to know how I do it, you can read last week’s blog post here.

Let’s get cracking.

Last year I had two main goals:

     One was to raise more than 2 million USD for my value investor fund Grünbaum Value Invest. 

     The second was to throw myself into online dating and meet a boyfriend before that year was over. 

This Is How I Failed with My 2 Personal Goals

I achieved both goals, but I’m not satisfied with the result.

On the investment front, I managed to raise DKK 12.3 million (around 2 million USD) and I was grateful for every penny. But six months later, I still haven’t invested the capital, and I find that frustrating. 

Why not?

The whole administrative process of getting a license with the financial authorities and a bank and investment account took a lot longer than I anticipated. It took five months for the setup to be ready to invest. Fortunately, it’s ready now.  

In the private sphere, I managed to find a partner… But after five months I broke up with him, because I couldn’t see a future for us.

I made a classic mistake with my personal goal, and that was being too vague.

It’s somewhat like being a job seeker and saying “I want a job” – without defining the sector, the tasks or the salary range. 

If, as a well-educated and critical job seeker, you set a general goal of “getting a job,” then the universe will test you and offer you a cleaning job. 

In the same way that you must define your goals professionally, you must also be strategic and critical on the private front.

So what are my goals for 2023?

1. I Will Invest My Fund’s Capital

The main goal is to get the money invested: before the end of the year, the current funds must be invested in at least 5 wonderful companies.

The fund aims to achieve an average annual return of 2% above the MSCI World. Ideally, I would like to have a return of at least over 10% but preferably over 15%.

It can be difficult to predict how the market will behave this year, and I know I have to remain patient and flexible.

We can only do our part, which is to look for wonderful companies, run them through a checklist, do the calculations and double-check our work.

Whether the stock market goes up or down in a specific year is impossible to predict. 

I am highly motivated to make that return of at least 10%-15%. 

Why? 

First of all, I want my investors to do well. I also set up incentive structures to motivate myself: 

      I have invested alongside the investors, so the return I make for them is also my own return. 

      In Grünbaum Value Invest, I only get paid if I make a return of over 6%. This means I work for free if I make a return below 6%.

This investment will be the most important professional goal for me in 2023, and if I had to choose only one, I would stop here, but I also run a blog and an educational site, so I have two more professional goals. 

2. Build and Sell the Value Investor Course 

I have hired a small team to help me expand Money and Freedom. We are testing different content strategies and building a YouTube channel. 

We are filming and creating an amazing 8-week course that will launch in a few months. Are you ready to learn how to invest with the method I use? Then maybe this is for you. Stay tuned. Make sure you receive my e-mails (you get them if you sign up for my e-book or the checklist).

3. Build the Inner Circle

I have long wanted to build the next level for my 8-week Value Investing course. 

I’ve decided to launch the inner circle which has weekly live investment cases and teaching for a whole year, an annual event and a more advanced course on options.

With my professional goals in order, it was time to get more personal…

4. Find a Life Partner

When I had to write my private goal, I realized I still didn’t really understand what went wrong in 2022. 

I had to go back to the ex-boyfriend from 2022 and ask if we were completely sure that it was over.

It’s the same every time we meet: he says he misses me. For a moment, I think we might be able to make it work, but then we start talking… 

We’re still in love with each other… but we don’t have the same vision.

So once again, we met and talked it through and ended up in the same place. We love each other and miss each other. But we don’t want the same thing and can’t find a common platform to dance on.

I want a life partner. He shrinks at any future talk. What does he want? He doesn’t know. 

What does it really mean to be a life partner? I had to pin it out to understand why we didn’t work. 

I have attached seven pillars to the idea of a life partner:

1. Trust. We know we can trust each other, and we’re exclusive. We want to confide in each other about big and small things, because we trust each other and know that we want the best for each other.

2. Passion/Adventure/Fun. We are attracted to each other and have passion. We also have fun in other areas and enjoy life together: we go for dinner, go on trips, to concerts, to the theater and discover things together. We laugh a lot.

3. Common Life/Vision. We are building a life together: We live together (or plan to live together). We build a home full of trust, love, dinners, board games, dinner parties, and interesting discussions.

4. Intellectual. We are both interested in the world, in knowing more, reading books, watching documentaries, and we can talk about deeper topics such as how the world is connected. Our conversations are like a good book you never want to finish. 

5. Clear communication. We talk in a straightforward way to each other about our needs and expectations. We avoid nagging, complaining or guilt tripping. 

6. Reciprocity. We have an elegant dance of giving and receiving.

7. Support. My life partner understands my mission of spreading financial freedom and supports me in my work.

My ex and I had a lot, but not 3. He didn’t want us to build a life together. 

Instead of going on dates while I’m still in love with my ex, I have decided to shift my focus for the next three months. 

I set a temporary personal goal for the winter to make an effort to strengthen my social network in Portugal.

I have drawn a map of my network and have made a list of families with children that I want to invite to dinners and another list of those I want to have lunch with (without children).

Now What?

I’ve done the work with analyzing, selecting and articulating my most important goals.

Now comes the key: writing down a precise sentence I can read and visualize daily – and doing the daily work. 

Here comes an example:

“I, Beile Grünbaum, have achieved a return of at least 10% in Grünbaum Value Invest before 2025 by investing in a minimum of 5 wonderful companies. My plan is to invest as a value investor and use my checklist and calculations.”

Or: “I am happy and grateful now that I have invested the capital in Grünbaum Value Invest and I’m getting a good average annual return above 10%.”

Each morning and evening, I will read the sentence and visualize the result. Then I will write down three things I can do that same day or the next day. 

There’s another good trick I use. I look at the goal and ask myself:

What type of person is successful with this goal? What does such a person do? I write these qualities down and read/listen to them daily.

When it comes to investing, I’m building an inner, psychic Warren Buffett that I manifest. 

What are your goals for 2023? What qualities do you need to be successful in your goal? Do you have an inner type that you can put to work? To learn more about my style of investing, you can download my e-book Free Yourself here