A bit of a topsy-turvy month – with the announcement at work and various members of my family arriving for an extended visit and birthday celebrations (mine!), things aren’t quite normal in the weenie household. Oh, and also Brexit happened….
So I managed a savings rate of 39.7%, my lowest so far this year. Meals out with friends and family plus shopping trips (again with family) incurred extra expenses.
My average savings rate has now sadly dropped below my target, now at 49.4%, so just below my target. With my family being around for a few more months and work being uncertain, I’m not sure when I’ll be able to drag this back up but I’ll do what I can.
This month’s income was boosted by £50 from rent received, £25 premium bond winnings and £25.05 from TopCashback*. I also made my first £100 investment using matched betting profits – more on that another time.
Net Worth and Future FundÂ
I don’t report my Net Worth on a monthly basis, but here’s the detailed info after the second quarter:
(a) Figure based on August 2015 statement, plus overpayments made
(b) Personal Emergency Fund
(c) Emergency Fund for stuff related to BTL property
(d) On a 0% rate
(e) Zoopla estimated value of property as at 30/06/16
Brexit has actually had an initial positive impact on my portfolio – helped along with new capital, my Future Fund now stands at £72,192.02, an increase of 5.9% from last month.
Since December 2015, my net worth has increased by 15.2% (not including my work DC pension). I’m not really hung up on this number but it’s heading in the right direction, so I guess I’m happy.
Dividends and Other Income
Dividends received this month (which will be reinvested):
Wow – I was hoping to just break the £100 barrier at some point but actually got a total of £207.12 this month! Post-Brexit sterling jitters meant that I did well from the ETFs (All World and World High Div) that pay their dividends in US dollars.  A very nice jump compared to last June’s £30.07!
Total dividends received this year now stand at £435.83, so I finally appear to be on track to achieving my goal of £720, with half the year to go. Average dividend income so far is £72.64 per month, average over 12 months now at £36.32.
Here’s how things look graphically at the halfway stage:
This graph just makes me want to keep on investing!
I also received £12.77 interest from my P2P investments.
Shares and Investment Trusts
I added to my holding of F&C Commercial Property Trust, although the purchase was made before Brexit so no real bargain to be had there. I don’t have surplus capital lying around so for now, my plan is to just continue investing on a monthly basis. “Keep Calm and Carry On” as it were!
Current portfolio can be found here.
Matched Betting
I was hoping Euro 2016 would lead to lots of matched betting profits but with my family around, I found that I wasn’t able to dedicate the usual amount of time to this hobby. Managed to squeeze in a few Wimbledon tennis accumulators but not as many as I would have liked.
I still managed to make £389 profit this month, making my total earned from matched betting £1614 since I started in March, so an average of £403.
This is the first month where I didn’t open any new accounts, so the profits are from reload/repeatable offers with existing accounts only.
Again, despite not getting to £500, I’m pretty chuffed with the amount I’ve made and I’ll be well happy if I can continue to bring in this amount (or thereabouts) every month.
Non-Financial Goals Update
Here’s how things look on the goals front in brief:
Having finally finished re-reading the Game of Thrones series at the beginning of the month, I’ve made some progress on my library book goal. Need to somehow squeeze some financial related books in there too at some point.
Anyway, hope you all had a great June, Brexit notwithstanding!
[*referral]
[EDIT – matched betting numbers updated – I’d missed off a few bets from June]
Hi, I enjoyed reading your blog – Can I suggest as an idea selling the BTL and investing in shares – if you can earn a good return – or use leverage (sensibly) via spreadbetting you can earn a much higher return than on a BTL.
I am trying to sell my BTL now – though it isnt proving easy.
Check out my investing blog – http://www.deepvalueinvestments.wordpress.com
Rob
Hi Rob
I’m getting over 6% net on my BTL, so not looking to sell it. Probably not the best financial decision but I decided not to use leverage to buy another property when I could have – if I had spare capital I probably would but I’d rather not be saddled with numerous mortgages and get caught out when rates go up.
Good luck with the sale of your BTL and I’ll check out your blog at some point.
Impressive read, always nice to see those steps in the right direction. Rereading the GoT books – you would be passed 4 books?
Hi mr MB
I’ve re-read all 5 GoT books – impatiently waiting for the next one haha!
What a crazy month it’s been ay?!
39% certainly not to be sniffed at when you had a lot on.
It’s weird how the shares seem to have gone up but somehow we are actually poorer because of the devaluation of the £. Hard to wrap your head around that one or more specifically hard to work out how that will affect FI plans.
All the best for July!
Cheers TFS.
Yes, it’s a crazy month and I think there will be many more to come!
I know – my portfolio going up is strange but I can’t see it staying that way for long and as you say, in reality it’s poorer due to the devaluation of the £. I just need to continue plugging away and keep investments diversified.
Great to see things heading in the right direction overall. No sweat over not being able to spend so much time over matched betting, family is much more important 🙂 I’m in a similar situation, as have recently got out of hospital after 8 weeks (Edward’s condition deteriorated) and have too much to do to put much time into matched betting. Hopefully, I’ll also be able to get more time on it too.
Congrats on the post Brexit increase from dollars!
Hey M
Sorry to hear that Edward’s been poorly for so long and hope he is ok now.
Yes, it’s been great having the family around – I’ve been enjoying watching the football with my Dad and even trips out to the shopping mall with my Mum were enjoyable because it’s been so long since I have been shopping myself (I still didn’t buy anything though haha, I was merely her ‘taxi’ and ‘shopping bag carrier’!). Mum’s home cooking is already having an effect on my waistline though, haha!
Hope all’s well with you and perhaps catch up with you soon at the next FIRE Escape in September.
With all the going out and family around, its still a very impressive savings rate – keep it up!
And an excellent month on the dividends, its a great feeling when you see the graph and its going up time and time again!
Cheers
London Rob
Cheers LR.
Yes, it was a great surprise to see the dividends for the month and I look forward to the time when those sort of numbers are the norm – gotta keep plugging away!
Absolutely keep plugging away but with the extra investment from the dividends (Im assuming you are reinvesting!) added to your usual savings, the snowball starts to gather speed!
LR
Yep, every penny is being reinvested! It’s only a small snowball right now, will take a wee while to gather pace but I’m getting there!