February 2022 Savings, plus other updates

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Thoughts go out to the people of Ukraine.

I can do nothing except make a financial donation to charities helping the people in crisis over there.

Meanwhile…

In My Little World

In my little world, February was a good month, including several social nights out with friends and an actual works leaving do  – colleagues had been slinking off over the past year or so with no thanks or fanfare so it was nice to give someone a good send-off.

There was also the Manchester FIRE pubmeet, which was the usual eclectic mix of people at all different stages of their FIRE journeys, and was the usual engaging, enjoyable and interesting event.

Work ran a ‘Compliment a Colleague’ on Valentine’s Day, where you could submit an anonymous (or not) Valentine’s compliment or message to a colleague (all compliments and messages vetted by HR to ensure nothing inappropriate was sent, otherwise it could have been carnage, with an office full of young twenty-something lads…)

I received the following compliment:

Dear Weenie

You are awesome at your job and so patient with people!

I appreciate our chats and think you’re an amazing person – kind, smart and funny. You rock!

It was sent anonymously but I know who sent it and I was extremely touched to receive the compliment from them!

Anyway, enough of that warm fuzziness, let’s take a look at the numbers for this month:

 

I saved 22.6% of my net salary.  The above includes £37.96 from doing Prolific surveys and £61.63  from Google Adsense.

Shares and Investment Trusts

No changes here, I just topped up existing investments.

Current share/IT portfolio can be found here.

(Entire portfolio here)

Future Fund 

It’s obvious that war causes uncertainty and volatility so the markets continued to dip.

I have no insight (who does?) as to what will happen next but as I think my portfolio is mostly diversified, I just continued to invest as normal according to my plan.

My Future Fund continued to fall, settling at £223,780 by month end, down by 3.6% YTD.

 

I’m almost back to where I was a year ago!

Dividends and Other Income

Another hurrah for dividends, which are a welcome sight when stock prices are plummeting:

 

I received £427.02, of which £291.99 was from my ISAs, the rest from my SIPPs.

Here’s what the graph looks like:

 

Good to see income received in February finally breach the £400 mark.

Matched Betting (MB)

I dipped my toe back into MB this month and pickings were rather slim – I probably need to open some new accounts to get the most of signing up offers but I didn’t get round to doing any. All I did was a couple of football accas (accumulators) and some EW bets. got lucky and made £16.42 profit.

As mentioned previously, the MB guide I subscribe to is OddsMonkey*, which is great for beginners and experienced matched bettors alike. There are step by step guides and also a friendly forum for you to ask questions and get help on any of the offers.

Goals Update

Here’s how I did in February:

 

I’ve been enjoying my reading and have made a good start (for me) on the non-fiction reading front.

Dividend income is looking good; just need to keep on top of the other goals.

Railcard

Just thought I’d mention that after 25 years of not owning one, I’m finally in possession of a railcard again and no, it’s not a Senior Railcard – I’m not there yet!

Last year, my friend and I forked out £190 (in total) on train tickets for our trip to London. We have another couple of trips to the capital planned later this year, so I’ve gotten a Two Together Railcard, which allows two adults travelling together to get 33% discount on all rail fares.

The railcard is digital only (you need the Trainline app) and costs just £30 for the year (although I managed to get it for just £20 in a recent sale, so a tenner each), so we’d get our money back and save with just one trip.

Definitely worth checking out if you do big or regular train journeys as a couple or with another friend.

And finally…

Gotcha, MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

With me being more sociable and mingling more with the masses, it was probably inevitable that COVID would finally get its grubby little viral mitts on me and I tested positive on the last day of the month.

As I write this, I still feel like poo and will be heading back to bed again as I have a pounding head and a temperature.

Hope all’s well for everyone else – how was your February?

[*referral/affiliate link]

26 thoughts on “February 2022 Savings, plus other updates”

  1. So sorry to hear you’ve been Corona-ed, Weenie. I hope you feel better very soon!

    I, too, have been gallivanting a bit recently 🙂 and – since I live in The Smoke – reckon it’s only a matter of time…

    Jane in London

    • Cheers Jane in London.

      Luckily, am over the worst of it now, I think.

      Glad to hear you’ve been enjoying a bit of gallavanting – fingers crossed that when you do get it, it’s a mild case!

  2. It’s starting to be harder to think of people I know who haven’t had it, rather than the other way around!

    Hope you recover soon.

    The messages at work is a very sweet idea. I’ll have to send one to Mrs T next time we are both working at home together 🙂

    • Cheers TFS.

      And yeah, only a small number I know now who are left skating on thin ice I think and will be getting it sooner or later!

      Aw, messages between you and Mrs T would be sweet, though not anonymous 😉

  3. I had rona in Feb too. Nothing new on my part – just teaching bring me into contact with germy students I guess! Taken about 3 odd weeks to probably get over it. Similarly found that my pension had time travelled back to the beginning of last year in terms of value.

    • Hi G

      Ooh, hopefully it doesn’t take me 3 weeks to get over it – I’m looking forward to getting back to the gym but have heard of people really struggling.

      Haha, yeah, both our investments travelled back in time to the same point a year ago! Let’s hope there’s a ‘Back to the Future’ turnaround once this crisis is over.

  4. Hey weenie,

    Thanks for your update, nice to read as always. Sorry to hear you have come down with Covid. It’s almost inevitable isn’t it at this stage. I am just glad that by the time I got it, I had three jabs and it was the milder omicron variant (bad enough for me!). Not everyone was so fortunate!

    Nice one on the railcard. Me and my partner have a two together railcard which just costs £10 in Tesco club card vouchers as they triple it. Used that the last two years.

    Take care and get well soon Weenie. I am still positive after 12 days but was only really rough for the first four or five days, cough is still there though even now.

    TFJ

    • Hey TFIJ

      Agree, had I not had my jabs, I think it could have been a lot worse. As it was, I could still function, there was only one day where I spent most of it in bed. Other days, I’ve been up and about, cooked myself hot meals but required naps in the day as didn’t have a lot of energy. I hope this cough doesn’t linger too much.

      Ah, great that you and the missus have the railcard – annoying that we didn’t have it last year!

  5. Get better soon weenie, I’ve so far managed to dodge this virus despite having a more active social live these days It’s just a matter of time until we all get it, would rather to get it now before I head back to UK though!

    I’ve aswell donated some money to the people in Ukraine, a little bit from everyone can make a big difference.

    Take care.

    • Cheers Tony and hope that when you get it, it’s mild too.

      Yes, little we can do for the poor Ukranians except donate right now.

  6. Hope you get better soon Weenie!

    I’ve been lucky enough to fortunately miss this virus – though this is predominantly due to the home working lifestyle these days.

    Good to see those dividends still growing year-on-year, despite the situation in the world going on right now.

    • Cheers Jase.

      I was hoping to dodge it but knew that as soon as I started going out a bit more, it would be pretty impossible not to get it.

      Yes, dividends seem to be the one highlight I’m getting from my investments!

  7. I didn’t know about the Two Together railcard. I had one at Uni when I got them for free through my student bank account but hadn’t re-purchased since. I got myself the 26 – 30 one end of last year and it paid for itself within one trip to Brighton and one to Waterloo. I have since used it a number of times and have left myself wondering why it took me 6 years to re-buy it 😀

    • Hey AMM
      Yes, I recall getting my first railcards free as part of my student bank offer! I think I had one up to the age of 26 as I didn’t know there was one available after that – annoying as I could have save so much!

      • Don’t be annoyed, Weenie…the 26-30 card was only introduced nationally from March 2018 (after a 3 month trial in East Anglia). I know that you’re a similar vintage to me, so had long passed 30 by then! 😉

  8. On the topic of new betting accounts, there are some interesting developments underway in the blockchain betting exchange arena. A few companies (eg BetDEX and Averbet) are looking to commence operations in the coming months, and if they’re able to get a foothold in the market, they could shake things up for the big boys. I’m not up to speed at all with blockchain and crypto, and the phrases and terms used completely bamboozle me, but for those comfortable with the new technology it could be exciting times (think Betfair in the early days, when they welcomed winners).
    Keep on rock’in, and get well soon!

    • Hi KC

      I hadn’t heard of the idea of blockchain betting exchanges but it does make sense – I would imagine it to be quite exclusive for a while and not for average punters but perhaps it would interest the big bettors who already make a living from sports trading. The technology interests me, so I’ll be following the progress on this, cheers.

  9. Hi Weenie,
    Hope you are now back fighting fit again.
    One thing that occurred to me is that, if I recall correctly, the rationale behind your ISA dividend income target is to cover utility and other such costs. You increased your target to £3,400 this year but with utility prices going up so markedly, and likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future, are you considering putting it up again (either in-year or next)?

    • Cheers NewInvestor.

      Yes, you’re right – in planning for my ISA dividend income to cover my utility bills, I hadn’t really factored in such a big hike in cost of living over such a short period of time. Rather than change it mid-year, I’ll change it again for next year as by then, I would have had a year’s worth of bills to see how much I might need to increase my goal by.

  10. Hi Weenie,
    Always nice to read an update of yours – hope you’re getting over the virus quickly. It looks as if you haven’t included Aberdeen Diversified Income & Growth (ADIG) in your numbers – you may need to check and update your formulas.

    • Hey Pinch

      Long time now see, hope you’re well. I’m feeling much better, thanks.

      Good spot on ADIG, I have amended now!

  11. Hi Weenie,

    Sorry to hear you have caught the virus. I hope you feel better soon.
    I have managed to avoid it so far, as others say, it is only a matter of time. Someone I know got it from being back in the office. They all came down with it within days.

    I have managed to go out and about a bit and avoid it so far. I am hoping the vaccines mean that I only get a mild case when I catch it.

    Glad to see your dividends pick up. The market roller coaster is out of our control, we can only watch and hope that he situation in Ukraine can be resolved and peace can be restored.

    • Thanks Sparklebee, feeling much better thanks.

      I’m fairly certain that had I not been vaccinated, I would have likely suffered more.

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