Portfolio Value
I ‘forgot’ that I had a little equity income fund which is neither SIPP nor ISA hence I’ve just tagged it at the bottom, so that makes my total portfolio value total
£18,078.20. I last tracked my portfolio in April and its value was
£15,372.85 – if I don’t include that equity income fund, then that’s a increase in value of
£1,508.76.
Gains don’t look too clever this month, likely affected by world events. Gains in April were £518.95. This month, gains (not including the above fund) totalled £505.01, so a decrease of -£13.94.
Any income/dividends I get from my funds gets automatically reinvested as accumulated units.
Moving Goal Posts
When I started my blog back in April, having already missed the first 3 months of the year, I decided to set my goals based on the tax year, ie April 14 – Mar 15 so that I could have 12 months to work with.
However, I realise now that I should just make this first year’s goal based on 9 months, ie April 14 – Dec 14, so that all subsequent years will be easier to measure from January to December.
One of my goals for 2014, namely the value of my investments portfolio to reach £22,000 was based on 12 months.
If I were to base it on 9 months instead, that goal should drop to around £20,000. However, as my portfolio is already at the £18,000 mark, I think I will keep it at £22,000 – it appears that I made my original goal too easy to achieve and this one will make me stretch a little!
Active funds versus Passive Funds
I’ve mentioned previously that my portfolio consists of mostly actively-managed funds as opposed to the cheaper passive index tracker funds. The split is currently
86.37% / 13.27% – very overloaded towards active funds but this should change as I invest more in trackers and gradually switch some (though not all) of my active funds over to passive. Perhaps initially, I’ll try for 80 / 20 – in fact, I think I’ll make this one of my goals for this year. That fund I’d forgotten I had? I’ll convert it into a tracker asap.
I’ve found another investing platform (AJ Bell Youinvest) where I can invest in shares regularly and in certain types of passive funds (exchange traded funds – ETFs) more economically. I’ll see how running with two different platforms goes before I consider trying to consolidate them into the one platform.
Peer to Peer Lending
I’ve received my first repayments (plus interest) from both
Ratesetter and
Lending Works. The latter have deducted their fee from the first repayment so my total P2P balance now stands at
£1998.65 (pre-fee balance was
£2007.65). Repayments are being automatically reinvested in the case of Ratesetter. For Lending Works, I’m going to withdraw the repayments (plus interest) and use those funds to lend via
Funding Circle – spread my risk a little further!
Net Worth
Notes:
(a) Estimated figure, statement not due til August 2014
(b) Monthly payment of £147.95, final payment of £3,166.25 in Aug 2016
(c) Estimated value of property based on similar property sold in area
(d) Statement as at May 14, plus June contribution
(e) This value includes the £3,166.25 that will be used to pay off my car loan – yes, I know, I didn’t mean to include it in here!
Figures will be updated when I have the info.
My net worth has increased by
£6,524.24 since April. As I’ve stated
previously, I don’t know whether this is good or bad – good I guess, as it’s going up! But what is considered a good ‘net worth’ figure?
Anyway, my assets (not including property) now total £36,407.71, which is 14.56% of my ultimate goal.
Seems such a long way off to go, but I have to remind myself it’s a “marathon, not a sprint” and that I’ve only been tracking for 3 months!
Wow! You've got a growing positive net worth, that's brilliant. I think you'll definately hit your 22k target because you've got your money working hard for you.
Hi DBC, thanks! Yes, my net worth is heading in the right direction! I'm quite positive about hitting the yearly target, assuming that I can maintain my savings rate and that the markets don't go belly up….
Hi weenie despite this month not being great from a gains point of view I think you have to be very positive about your prospects of reaching your goal from the fact that you've already proved that your target for the year was too modest 🙂
I think I read that you are aiming for £250,000 savings in 15 years? but is this on top of anything you put in your stakeholder pension? How does this work and how much do you expect it to grow?
Hi Cerridwen
Yes, I need to stop focusing on the gains and look at the bigger and more long term picture!
And yes, I'm aiming for £250,000 in 15 years and it's on top of my stakeholder pension (not to be mistaken with my work pension), which is very small.
All I've done for my calculation is to add all the projected pots together to get my total at the end, ie SIPP + Share NISA + Cash = £250k
I've made some big assumptions with my calculations:
– that I will continue with a savings rate of around 50% of my salary
– that I'm in the same job for the next 15 years (this is a massive assumption!)
– that I will continue to be able to invest some of the rental income I receive from my BTL (up to £200 per month)
– that I will increase the amount I save by 2% (average pay increase) every year – I've not accounted for what happens if I don't get a pay increase, which has happened in the past
– that my investments will grow by 4% every year (this is supposed to smooth out any big increases and decreases in the markets)
– that I will still be living where I am now
If I'm on track, then I should be around the £90k mark in 5 years time. If not, then a serious recalculation will be required!
Hope that makes some sort of sense!
Thanks weenie, it does make perfect sense and, as you say, you can recalculate if needs be. It's being aware and having a plan at all that makes the biggest difference to whether we succeed or not – or that's what I think anyway. Making a plan has certainly had a very positive effect on the way I feel about things.
Yes, I totally agree – the awareness and plan makes all the difference, gives us control and yes, success is then of our own making!