I’m back from a fabulous holiday but am both jet-lagged and hungover – not a nice combination, but yes, Christmas parties have started early!
I’ll do a bit of an update on my hols at a later date but without further ado, how much of my net salary did I save in November?
I saved 25.2%. My worst number since I returned to work but I’m quite surprised I even saved this much to be honest. Hurrah for automated savings!
My average for the year has now dropped to 42.8%. Unless I have an utterly disastrous December (it’s not looking great but shouldn’t be that bad), I should be able to make a reasonably good 40% average savings rate.
The above savings includes £25 premium bonds winnings, £36.75 from TopCashback*, £50 rent received and £85.73 affiliate income from OddsMonkey (thank you to all those who joined via my link – much appreciated!).
Shares and Investment Trusts
I sold my Ladbrokes Coral shares to take 15% profit (including dividends received over the two years I’ve held the stock).
I sold as part of portfolio simplifying exercise but my decision to sell was also partly based on my thoughts that the government’s pending restrictions on the fixed odds terminals which will likely to have a big impact on the company, plus the viability of high street bookies in general. As for the takeover by Foxy Bingo owners, GVC? Not really interested to be honest.
The funds from this sale have been added to my usual monthly capital to top up one of my existing ITs.
Current share/IT portfolio can be found here.
(Entire portfolio here)
Future FundÂ
Markets appeared to be up a little this month, boosting my Future Fund, which now stands at £130,765. Another step towards my next big milestone!
Dividends and Other Income
Dividends received this month:
A more ‘average’ month, totalling £132.12.
Total dividends received now stand at £1,837.55. Still a decent chance of me reaching £2k by the end of the year, but it’ll depend on whether the dividends hit my account before the end of the year, or at the beginning of Jan.
Here’s how things look in the graph:
Looks good and makes me very excited about what can be achieved next year!
Matched Betting (MB)
I was only around for one weekend in November to do any MB and sadly, my no-lay accumulators (accas) again didn’t fare too well and I didn’t have time to try to recoup any winnings from other MB offers.
This meant that for the first time, I actually made an overall loss, though only £61.87. Total profit made for the year now stands at £4,348.
The no lay acca strategy is a long-term (and slightly risky) one but I’m going to continue to follow it until the end of the year. I’ll then review my strategy (or not), depending on what my other goals for the new year are going to be.
Note that there are plenty of folk who do MB who don’t touch accas at all but who still make regular profits from other offers.
The matched betting guide I subscribe to is OddsMonkey*.  It’s a nifty little website for beginners and experienced matched bettors alike – for beginners, there are plenty of tutorials which provide you with step-by-step guides on how to make profits and to work through special offers. They also offer one-to-one sessions for those who need a little more help. OddsMonkey offers quality tools including the Each Way Matcher, Extra Place Matcher, Dutch Finder, Racing Matcher and Acca Matcher. There’s also a friendly forum for you to ask questions. Anyway, check out the free trial*.
Goals Update
Here’s how things look:
I should be able to achieve those two reading ones by the end of the month, as long as I set proper time aside to read but it’s just getting so busy right now, plus I’m playing catch up.
Anyway, hope everyone had a great November!
Saving 40% of your income is a fantastic achievement, plus you’re still having great holidays and an active social life too. Just shows what can be done.
Cheers Jim. 40% is a great achievement but I’m trying to reach for the stars by aiming for the 50%!
Hi Weenie,
I love looking at your graph showing year on year progress of your dividends. It will be so exciting to see how that looks in 2018!
Have you already started giving some thought to what your goals for next year will be yet?
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, and a fantastic (and of course prosperous) new year!
OR
Hi OR
That graph itself is enough to motivate me to keep at it. The ‘blip’ that is June does annoy me a little but July more than makes up for it! It actually hurts my brain even thinking about goals for next year. Chances are I may just keep them unchanged, although I might set a couple of personal ones.
You have a great one too and all the best for the new year!
Hi Weenie,
You have now mentioned 2x within the last few posts that you’re simplifying your portfolio. Would you mind expanding on this, please? Maybe as a separate post?
Regards, Pinch
Hi Pinch
I made brief mention of simplifying my portfolio in my updated investment strategy post (http://quietlysaving.co.uk/2017/06/08/investment-strategy-updated/) where I’ve decided that I’m not reinvesting in my P2P and I’m starting to withdraw the money (to invest elsewhere, mostly in my basket of investment trusts). I’m also slowly selling off a few single stocks. There’s not enough to talk about in a separate post, perhaps when I’ve done more simplification!