Was it just me or did anyone else find that this month passed by both slowly and quickly?
I daren’t think too much on why this was, as it hurts my brain!
Anyway, ‘highlights’ this month for me in the first lockdown month of the year included:
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- 4 hour+ Zoom chats with a couple of friends from uni, whom I hadn’t met up with for 6 and 12 years respectively – we had a lot to catch up on!
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- Attending two FIRE meet ups: the London one and the Manchester one. Of course, with the meet ups being on Zoom these days, you can be dialing in from anywhere and we even get some FIRE peeps from overseas joinng in. I know many people might be ‘zoomed out’, but unless you talk openly about FIRE with your colleagues or family and friends, I’m guessing these sessions will be different from your usual Zoom calls. Anyway, I’ve put in the links so people can join ‘Meet Up’ and see when the next events are on (the next Manchester one will have discussions about savings rates and the next London one will be talking about aiming for FIRE as a couple).
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- Downloading the Zombies, Run app – (thanks go to Faith of Much More With Less for the heads up on this fun app!). I’m not paying for subscription so have to wait for the new missions but that’s ok, I can be patient!
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- Buying some ‘working-from-home clothes’, in other words, a couple of pairs of leggings, £5 in the sales!
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- Rewatching ‘The Matrix’ for the gazillionth time – I liken Neo’s Red Pill moment to when I discovered FIRE and went down the proverbial rabbit hole myself…
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- Being riveted by the whole ‘meme stock‘, r/wallstreetbets vs hedge funds thing. I even had a few small ‘bets’ myself (using Freetrade*) on GameStop, AMC and Blackberry and came out eventually +12%, although the whole saga continues to unfold. Certainly the fallout from all this will be interesting. Silver, anyone?
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- Rotting my brain with guilty-pleasure TV shows like ‘Married At First Sight – Australia’ and ‘The Masked Singer’….don’t judge me 🙂
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- Spending a whole month with just my Sis in the house since nephew is still with his dad from before Christmas, as pointless him coming back yet with his school shut. It’s been surprisingly ok…
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- Not a highlight but making another trip to the dentist which had me going home minus £300 (2 missing fillings replaced – ouch!). That went on my credit card and I may just plug this with some emergency cash.
Anyway, how did I get on money-wise in January?
I saved 46.6% of my net salary – not a bad start to the year.
The above savings includes a top up of £20 from Matched Betting profits (from last month).
Shares and Investment Trusts
No new investments apart from ones mentioned here, where I adjusted part of my investment strategy earlier this month.
Current share/IT portfolio can be found here.
(Entire portfolio here)
Future Fund
After the end of year rush upwards, the stock markets wobbled a little so I saw no real gains, despite new capital being added. Some ‘experts’ are saying there’s going to be another big crash at some point. Yeah, whatever.
At the end of the month, my Future Fund stood at £220,324.
Dividends and Other Income
Not a bad start to the year for dividends: