I did have this draft nearly ready to publish last week but sunny weather meant that I spent more time outside than on my laptop.
It’s all doom and gloom right now investment-wise, but my numbers are from end of March so not quite as bad as what they currently look!
So, how did my numbers look for March?
It was company bonus month so I saved 42.5% of my net salary. In the past, I’ve saved more of my bonus but I’ve put some aside for future house repairs. Or maybe holiday. The above includes ÂŁ33.35 from doing Prolific surveys.
Shares and Investment Trusts
I opened a new holding in M&G as part of my dividend income portfolio. Other than that, I just topped up existing ones.
Current share/IT portfolio can be found here.
(Entire portfolio here)
Future FundÂ
The markets started their Trump tariff-inspired downward spiral and my FF ended up at ÂŁ298,296.34 by the end of the month. Everything seems to be currently in freefall at the moment, so not particularly looking forward to April’s update!
Dividends and Other Income
Despite the rubbish markets, the dividends fortunately continue to roll in:
I received ÂŁ478.96, of which ÂŁ467.53 was from my ISAs, the rest from my SIPPs. All dividends were reinvested.
Here’s what my ISA dividend income graph looks like:
Goals Update
Here’s how it looks for month 3:
Still working on my emergency top ups, though I get the feeling I should be topping up my investments right now!
Spring has Sprung!
I’m loving the brighter and longer days. My garden is starting to look green again and I’m looking forward to spending more time outside again.
Hope you all had a good March!
Yes, we look to be heading into a period of depressed values. How long for? Who knows. Oh, well.
It looks like you sold the IUKD to fund the M&G purchase. Incidentally, when updating your shares/IT spreadsheet it looks like you inadvertently altered the visible range: on my devices (desktop and mobile) it defaults to showing AEI to DIG in a small window. It’s possible to scroll within there to the see the rest but it’s a bit looking-through-a-keyhole 🙂
Enjoy the sun while it lasts!
Hey Curlew
Yes, I did sell IUKD to fund the M&G purchase – I forgot to mention as the sale and purchase weren’t done on the same day – probably a week in between.
I’m not sure what’s happened with the visible range, I don’t recall making any changes so it’s probably something I’ve clicked on by accident – I’ll see what I can do about it, thanks for flagging!
Hi Weenie – I really want to reply to your post a month or so ago about how much pension is enough, and the usual re-jigging of figures. So don’t be surprised if you get that reply in the Summer. It’s an interesting topic, and I get a lot out of seeing other peoples realistic targets.
Other than wishing I’d sold all my stock the day before Trump announced his tariffs, and then re-buying it all again yesterday, I’m surprisingly unphased by it all. We see these sort of market dips frequently and every time “its different”. Shrugs shoulders, I’m tired of over thinking / worrying.
Bonus month over here too. I paid off a interest free credit card (interest free bit about to run out) that I’d used to fund my kitchen diner refurb. Credit cards aren’t my style but using it meant I didn’t have to sell any shares, sensible right – which have all now promptly crashed. Shrugs again!
I’ve got a DB pension like you, so that is unaffected. My work DC pension that replaced it hasn’t taken much of a hit as I’m in lifestyle funds with a projected retirement of 3 years time, so all low risk stuff. I don’t make much, or lose much at this stage of the game
The sun is shining, I’ve got birds nesting in the garden and a the new addition of tadpoles (just hatching) in my wildlife pond I built in 2023.
Enjoy your April!
Hey Starla
Yes, if only we all knew to sell before Trump made any sort of tariff announcements!
But like you, far from panicking, I’ve just shrugged my shoulders too – the big drop wasn’t as big as the Covid drop so here’s hoping another K shaped recovery, haha!
Same on the credit cards, I don’t mind using 0% interest to fund large purchases and always have a plan to pay off the balance before the no interest offer ends.
I hope your garden/pond isn’t overrun with frogs/toads but how fantastic! I’d love to have something similar but my garden doesn’t lend itself to that kind of structure, without a lot of investment.
I think that the best response to market turmoil is to switch off, go outside and enjoy the sun.
Presumably, you will keep up your steady progress and saving.
The market and Trump can do what they like.
Good luck!
Hi GFF
Indeed, I’ve just looked at the red numbers and then moved on. If I didn’t have to track monthly for the blog, I’d probably try to avoid looking for a while.
Yes, still topping up, so keeping on keeping on!
Cheers, and hope all’s well with you.
I was just reading an old Monevator article. The comments, going back to 2013, are an interesting time capsule but I followed the link here from one of your comments: https://monevator.com/earn-a-million-pounds/#comment-773897
It was fun timing to read you say in 2016:
“probably need around ÂŁ300k and I plan on spending it”
Just before checking in on your updates to see that’s about where you are now!
Hey Northern Greg
Thank you very much for that link back!
9 years ago, my lifestyle certainly did not need ÂŁ30k pa, but it’s certainly above that now, as my recent expenses tracking showed!
In 2016, I was just two years into my FIRE journey, my FF was only a fledgling ÂŁ83k! However, I don’t think my prediction of ÂŁ300k was too outrageously farfetched, though it’s likely closer to ÂŁ400k now, pushed up by the high inflation we’ve experienced – still need to work on some modelling to get some closer predictions.
I do still plan on spending the money, though probably not all of it!
If your current reckoning is ÂŁ400k then the Bank of England inflation calculator reckons that’s almost exactly ÂŁ300k in 2016 money, so your comment has aged very well. I was struck by how many of those comments back then were linked to commenters’ own blogs (including firestarter, who I still hope will come back for an update some day). Most of the links were dead, so a second kudos for keeping up this blog since then.
Thanks Northern Greg and I’m glad my prediction back then wasn’t so outrageous, so it wasn’t too much of a guess, haha!
Hi Weenie, really enjoy reading your posts! I wanted to ask, what is your plan for early retirement, how many years away are you? Also are you counting the days until then, or not too fussed about it? Cheers
Hey Rob and thanks for reading!
The early retirement goalposts have moved a couple of times, but I’d like to say I’m around 2 years away…
While I’m not counting the days, I’m very conscious that that’s not such a long time. At the moment, I am just carrying on as before but at the back of my mind, I feel that I should be doing more planning! Unfortunately, procrastination seems to have dug its heels in somewhat!