Hello, I’m back so here’s my belated June update – I’ll do a bit of a write up on my holiday when I’ve got some time, have loads of admin work and reading to catch up on.
So how did I do with my savings in June?
I saved 40.9%, which sees my average savings rate going down to 47.2%. As mentioned previously, the summer is going to be rather ‘spendy’ and I ended up borrowing some spending money from my sister, which I will have to pay off over the next month or so.
The above savings was topped up with £62.81 affiliate income from OddsMonkey (thanks to all who signed up via my links!).
Shares and Investment Trusts
No new investments, I just topped up existing ones.
Current share/IT portfolio can be found here.
(Entire portfolio here)
Future FundÂ
The markets did what they usually do, ie go up and down and with the extra capital, my Future Fund now stands at £144,498, still steadily making progress towards my next big milestone.
Dividends and Other Income
Dividends received this month:
£238.84 was received, a good number despite some dividends expected this month tripping over into July. Total dividends at the halfway stage stands at £1,272.64, still ever so slightly behind plan but I can already see that next month will put me right back on track!
So here’s how things look on the main dividend income graph:
Interesting to see the consistency of income for Jan, Mar and Jun – I hadn’t planned it that way!
Matched Betting (MB)
I was so busy before I went away that I only had time to do a few World Cup MB offers, with the exception of around a dozen EW bets. So profits are on the low side this month, coming in at just £128.
Total MB profits so far this year stand at £1,455, still well below target but I’ll keep plugging away. TheFIREStarter has written an excellent piece on his Each Way betting strategy – my strategy is very similar, except that I’m not ready (or comfortable) taking on the risk/variance he does with big bets. The huge profits are tempting though, so I intend to gradually increase my bets to see how it goes.
As mentioned before, the matched betting guide I subscribe to is OddsMonkey*, which is great for beginners and experienced matched bettors alike with quality tools such as the Each Way Matcher, Extra Place Matcher, Dutch Finder, Racing Matcher and Acca Matcher. There are step by step guides and also a friendly forum for you to ask questions and get help on any of the offers. Anyway, check out the free trial*.
Goals Update
Here’s how things look right now:
Hmm…the only one I feel confident about hitting is the dividend one and the charity one. In the ‘passive vs active income battle’, unless I strike it lucky with my matched betting, my dividend income will overtake my MB profits very soon.
Really struggling with my reading at the moment, need to get back into it. The non-fiction book I’m currently reading is a real slog but I shall plough on. Still got all that blog reading to catch up on too…
Other News
I arrived home to find that I had a slow puncture so a tyre which was pumped up before I went away is flat. I never expected to be enjoying a heat wave upon my return, which is just as well since it looks like until I get that tyre sorted, I’ll be walking to and from the tram stop. This must be the only time when I’m glad of my jet lag which should have me waking up early!
Anyway, hope you’ve all been enjoying the scorching weather and the England team’s progress in the World Cup – I so hope ‘It’s Coming Home’!
[*referral/affiliate link]
Hi Weenie
Welcome back! (….and it’s definitely coming home 🙂
I’m also struggling with keeping up the matched betting income this year so thanks to the Firestarter for his guide.
If I struggle with a book, I move on to the next one. Life is short and there are so many good ones out there not to waste time on something you are not enjoying.
Thanks FT9T5. Sadly it’s not come home but what a run!
I’ve sort of gotten back into the MB but am looking forward to the start of the football season so I can get stuck in properly.
It’s rare for me to not finish books I’ve started – I get that life is short but what’s worse for me is not knowing how things ended (if I’m interested enough!). I’m struggling not because it’s not enjoyable but because it’s non-fiction – I shall plough on!
Hope you had a good holiday Weenie! I’m still struggling with reading Les Miserables after starting it about 5 months ago! I’m about 80% finished, but other non-fiction reading keeps pushing it back. V excited about England in the semis 🙂
Thanks Mindy – I did think of you as I stopped at Bangkok airport on my way to Koh Samui!
Despite having seen the show a couple of times, I’ve never read Les Mis, which I imagine isn’t an easy read! Good luck with the other 20%!
Welcome home weenie!
Hopefully we can say the same about the world cup this time next week. Is it too presumptuous to book the Monday off at this point just in case?! 🙂
Looking forward to hearing about your holiday!
Another solid savings rate considering you were away though.
I’ve had another cracker with the each way but started off July pretty badly. Bet365 penalty payback offer has been great again with Spain going out on penalties. Fingers crossed for another shootout in the France v Belgium game tomorrow.
Thanks for looking to my article. Got loads more to write about it so look out for part 2!
Cheers TFS – there were some at work who had booked Monday off prematurely! Ah well, it wasn’t to be this time!
EW betting has been ok since I’ve been back but you know how that can change!
Hi Weenie
Welcome back from your holiday.
The dividends are really starting to accelerate now, and it’s great to be able to see the cash build up and then invest in more great shares/IT’s.
A possible suggestion towards your bon fiction book goal is “The Big Short”. If you don’t know it, it is about the subprime loans scandal in 2006/2007/2008, and it makes quite scary reading to see how much dishonesty there was but apparently only one person went to jail. I think it shows how the financial institutions and the people working in the investment bank seem to be able to get away with what they like as the financial authorities won’t let them fail.
The ratings agencies also seem to have been “asleep at the wheel”, and again nothing seems to have happened.
Look forward to hearing about your holiday.
FIUK
Thanks FIUK.
Yes, the increasing dividends are hopefully starting to build up a momentum for for that ‘snowball’ to build up!
‘The Big Short’ is on my to read list – I watched the film and enjoyed it but always planned to read the book. Yes, scary stuff – absolutely incredible that a ‘lone wolf’ was sent down for helping bring the economy down to the brink!
Hi weenie, great savings rate. I don’t know if you have touched on this before so sorry if I’m asking you to repeat yourself. I was wondering how you calculate your savings rate. That is, do you calculate it on percentage of take home pay. Do you have a workplace pension and do you include this? I’ve never calculated my savings rate because I get bogged down in technicalities. For example I have a salary sacrifice pension and put a high percentage of my salary into that. Should I use my gross salary and include the sal sacrifice contributions or just look at nett salary and isa investments as this is the only money I could access earlier than when the government allows me to get access to my pension.
Thanks
M
Hi M
There are various ways to calculate savings rate and in your comment, you mention being ‘bogged down by technicalities’.
This is the exact reason why when I started tracking my own savings rate, I decided upon a very simple calculation – it’s how much I save of the money which lands in my bank account from my normal salaried job. So, I don’t include pension deductions, which of course if I did, would lead to a higher savings rate.
This might not be how other people calculate their savings rate but I’ve been consistent from the start as I didn’t want to make it complicated.
Hope that helps!
Thanks weenie, sounds like a good idea to keep it simple. I guess savings rate will be pretty crappy calculated this way as I sacrifice around 25% into my pension so find it hard to save much out of post tax income. Certainly not 50%.
Hi Weenie – great to see your progress each month. Do you use the same no-lay e/w method as firestarter?
Thanks
Alan
Hi Alan
Thanks for stopping by and yes, I do use the same no-lay EW method as theFIREStarter, only his stakes are a lot bigger (£20 EW compared to my current max £4 EW) and he throws in a few doubles/trebles, which I haven’t attempted (yet). On the whole, I’m up by at least £500 so far this year just from EW betting so I think it’s worth doing – just need to ride the losses/variances like a rollercoaster!
Good luck!
Thanks. I’ve just started testing it. How many bets do you average in a usual week?
Alan
Well my boss is away this week so I’ve managed to squeeze in 93 bets, so averaging just under 20 a day! When she’s in, I’m probably closer to around 10 a day but can do around 40 just on Saturday alone.
Thanks. That gives me a target! Not that i’m competitive or anything… 🙂
Alan
Welcome back Weenie, hope you had a fabulous break. And that’s a very respectable savings rate for a holiday month. And that’s partly the reason I only calculate mine on a rolling 12 months, it’s so variable month to month depending on what is going on. Some months I’m a hermit, others I go away a lot.
Thanks Ms Ziyou and yes, it was a fab break.
The savings rate isn’t too bad as I didn’t change my direct debits too much but things will likely take a bit of a dip in July and August when the spending catches up on me!
Yes, spending per month varies depending on what I do. I could do with a month where I don’t do anything at all though!
when you do matched betting, do you need to send the betting agencies a copy of your government provided id? if yes, isn’t this quite risky nowadays?
Hi Jussi
Yes, it’s normal for betting companies to ask for verification of accounts (particularly when you want to withdraw your funds), ie a copy of your ID etc. It’s for anti-money laundering purposes, although funny how they’re only interested when you win (and want to withdraw) and not when you are losing and just making deposits!
They will already have my credit card details, have my date of birth, address etc, so I consider it the same risk as providing my details to any other finance related company.
Hi Weenie,
Hope you had a lovely holiday. Like you were, I’m very behind on my blog reading (can’t believe it’s now mid August and I’m only just catching up on posts from early July)!
Nice to see another progress post. As always I’m envious of your dividends. I invest into an ISA but not for dividends, I’m just in Life Strategy funds so I don’t think I get to see dividends. With regards to your matched betting, target of £4,000 this year, as you know I have the same target for side hustle profits. Your £1454.70 is beating my £1,101.13 for the end of June, so well done!
Hope you had a great July, no doubt I’ll be catching up with that post soon!
Corinna
Hi Corinna
Yes, with the Lifestrategy funds, you just see overall growth but that’s just like reinvesting the dividends so the same result in the end.
I had a so-so July matched betting-wise but am having a good August so far so I might still be slightly ahead of you! The £4k is a challenging target for both of us – good luck to you too!