A complete blur of a month.
Work has been so busy (more on work later…) and we enjoyed some days reaching heatwave temperatures, brilliantly coinciding with the bank holiday, so I was outside much of the time. I had family visiting too so had a lovely time catching up.
Anyway, how did I get on in May?
I saved 30.2% of my net salary. The above includes £5 lotto win.
Shares and Investment Trusts
As well as topping up existing holdings, I used some cash sitting in my ISAs to open positions in Mony Group plc (MONY) and Foresight Group Holdings Ltd (FSG) – mentally, that’s it now, no more new positions for my dividend income portfolio. I might do a one out, one in…
Current share/IT portfolio can be found here.
(Entire portfolio here)
Future FundÂ
I haven’t been looking at my portfolio, other than to make note of dividends coming in so it was a nice surprise to see that I had reached another milestone, breaking through the £400k barrier!
At the end of May, my FF was at £401,488.02! At the beginning of this year, there was no way I expecting to hit the milestone so quickly! However, forgive me if I don’t feel incredibly joyful about this, just a tad anxious still that something is about to burst…
Dividends and Other Income
An decent month for dividends:
I received £861.44, of which £761.56 was from my ISAs, the rest from my SIPPs. All dividends were reinvested.
I’ve updated my ISA dividend income to £6k – think it will be good to aim for a round average £500 per month, though it will be a stretch.
Goals Update
Goals are ticking along nicely and I have started to read a non-fiction book so hopefully one crossed off by the end of June.
Hi Ho, Hi Ho…
I reached my 9th year anniversary at work – I can’t believe how time has flown!
But celebrating this anniversary made me realise that it won’t be too long before I have given this company 10 years of my toil, sweat and stress and then, that will be it. It was always going to be a ten-year plan with this company.
I mentioned earlier that work is so busy and after enjoying lovely, long bank holiday weekends, it really got to me, sweating and working while it’s beautiful sunny weather outside, when I could be working on my garden, more so than before.
I’m also providing holiday cover, something I have never liked doing but which now feels even worse then ever.
I had my 1-1 with my boss and all is going well. I of course mentioned nothing about the plan to end my career.
I was praised as usual for my consistency, being a team player, a business expert with a positive attitude. I get on with my boss and we can chat quite candidly. But what did she say that I needed to improve on?
My understanding of AI technologies within my role.
I already use AI daily for work, but still don’t trust it 100% so use it sparingly. Other areas of the business have me review AI answers they have received and sometimes, it is complete rubbish because they haven’t asked the right question/prompt.
It’s quite scary how wrong it can be, but also it’s really amazing when it gets things right and it can save soooo much time.
So there we have it – I gotta get down with the AI!
Makes me even more convinced that my job needs to go to a younger person, not one mostly stuck in her old ways.
Also, speaking of anniversaries, I have just realised that I have completely missed my blog anniversary! Head’s not with it at all.
So, next job is to get that post sorted.
Hope you all had a great May and enjoyed the hot weather and bank holidays!
Congratulations on the blog anniversary. How have things changed over the years since you started. Both on your journey, and also in the world of blogs?
Thanks Sneaky squirreller!
In the world of blogs, there aren’t many of us around, although I haven’t really looked around to be hones. As you can see from my blog list, many have been discontinued.
In terms of my journey, it’s gone really quickly but that’s just life in general I think!
Well done for hitting that £400K milestone but you have had a really good run since the start of 2024 and I share your anxiety about the future direction of the markets. Personally with retirement just around the corner, I would be seriously looking to lock in those gains…maybe switch some from the S&S ISA to a cash ISA with a secure 4% return and no loss of capital.
Whatever you decide, good luck with your future plans!
Thanks John!
Yes, it’s been a very good run since 2024, unexpectedly good if you listen to the doom and gloom that is happening and has happened around the world!
I have already locked in some gains, will maybe just build on my cash ISA.
I have the security of a DB pension at some point so I feel that I don’t feel I need to flee so far to the safety of cash just yet.
Or have a portfolio asset allocation that you can live with come what may? Maybe move towards a permanent portfolio?
Clearly moving to cash at 4% is also risky, just in a different way (inflation)
Hey Rhino
I think I am close to a permanent portfolio having been derisking over the past year, bit by bit. I’m fairly comfortable with my equities, just need to build up a bit more cash/cash-like funds.
Wow! Your chart looks fantastic! Congrats on making 400k and happy anniversary.
Your comments on AI are interesting as that’s one of the reasons I FIREd last year – it was making my job much less fun, challenging and engaging. I feel I’ve got out at the right time. I fear for the younglings coming into the industry I’ve left – but maybe they can reinvent it. Much like what happened in the 1980s when desktop computers became commonplace.
Promise me you’ll say a proper goodbye when you FIRE. Don’t just go silent. All the best.
Hi Chromebaby and thanks!
My job role is one of the ones which have been flagged as being ‘at risk’ from AI in the future, so when I hand my notice in next year, it will be the right time! I can already see how so many of my tasks could be replaced by AI (and as mentioned, I use it daily already) and yes, I do fear for the younglings but I’d like to think that they will embrace and make it work!
I won’t just be disappearing when I FIRE, my blog domain is paid up for at least a couple of years, so I may do some posts about post FIRE and hope they won’t be posts of ‘Oh no, I got it wrong!’ haha!
Be canny about handing in your notice. It’s always worth seeing if you can wangle a redundancy.
Hi Dearieme
I would love to be able to engineer redundancy but unless something drastic happens to the business, my role is unlikely to be made redundant.
But of course, I shall be waiting until any entitled bonus has been paid next year and any anniversary goodies received before I submit any notice!
Great to hear you’ll be posting for a couple more years. Have you seen that FireStarter’s site now only exists on Wayback Machine? ‘Tis a sad day…
Despite all the turmoil at the moment, I’m weirdly optimistic about the markets. They seem oddly resilient to whatever’s happening at the moment.
More power to your rocket, Weenie! 😀