Hi all, I’m back! 🙂
I’ll talk about my hols in a later post but right now, I need to get my final 2016 numbers out, plus an update on how I did against my goals.
Apologies in advance for this long post but here goes…
My savings rate in December was 40.6%, resulting in an overall average in 2016 of 44.9%. Although it meant that I failed in my goal, I’m pretty satisfied as I was able to beat 2015’s savings rate of 43.7%!
December’s savings was boosted by £122.25 affiliate income from Siteground* and Oddsmonkey*, £100 from rent received and £100 from matched betting winnings.
Future FundÂ
With the crippled £ sterling continuing its slide, my Future Fund got a big boost, up to £91,101. The number looks good on paper/online and I’m a bit giddy that it’s getting closer and closer to that coveted £100k milestone. However, I’m not kidding myself that things are all rosy – the UK is poorer as a result of this currency slide and of course, at some point, the stock market will come crashing down again.
Net Worth
I’ve not mentioned my net worth in a while, only because it’s not something I regularly track. Anyway, my net worth is now £163,004, an increase of 39% from the start of 2016.
I have no idea what a ‘good’ net worth number should be so I’ll just say that I think that’s a pretty good increase!
Dividends and Other Income
Dividends received this month (which will be reinvested):
A nice sum of £118.94 in dividends hit my accounts, the third time in 2016 I’ve managed to get >£100 in one month. In December 2015, I received £85.
So, total dividends received for 2016 was £1,007.61! Woo hoo! 🙂 I never expected to get more than £1k and I was already happy that I had achieved the goal I set (£720)!
Average monthly dividend income was £83.87 – this amount could cover my gas and electricity bills!
Anyway, here’s how it all looks compared to previous years, showing how far I’ve come in a relatively short time:
I also received £12.45 from my P2P investments.
Shares and Investment Trusts
No purchases made in any new shares/investment trusts – I just topped up some of my existing tracker funds.
Current portfolio can be found here.
Matched Betting (MB)
As my mind was either on winding down my job or getting things sorted for Christmas and the holiday, there wasn’t a lot of time for MB in December.
I still made £216 in profit. This was pretty much entirely on football bets only (including accumulators).
I’ve now made £3,588 profit so far from MB since I started in March 2016, which I’m really pleased about. I can’t say that it’s ‘easy’ money as you need to put in effort to make the money but I enjoy it and I don’t have any other hobby which makes me money.
Of this profit, I invested 36% of it, spent 29% (on a new mobile phone) and donated 10% to charity (increasing my charity giving by nearly x10 compared to last year!) The rest has been ploughed back into my MB funds so that I can continue to take advantage of offers.
The matched betting guide I subscribe to is OddsMonkey*.  It’s a great website for beginners and seasoned matched bettors alike – for beginners, there are plenty of tutorials which provide you with step-by-step guides on how to make profits and to work through special offers. They also offer one-to-one sessions for those who need a little more help. For the more experienced, the tools offered by OddsMonkey are fantastic, including the Each Way Matcher, Dutch Finder and Acca Matcher, all of which I have used successfully. There’s also a friendly forum for you to ask any questions. Anyway, you can join for free to try it out.
Goals Update
Here’s how things finished up:
Three out of five aint bad! I was tempted to just add some redundancy money into the emergency fund so that the goal would be achieved but that would have been defeating the object – the aim had been to top it up with my normal income.
So, that was me for December and for 2016.
Despite some not-so-great things happening to me (including a life-changing work event and a relationship breakup), I’ve come out at the end still generally upbeat, still compos mentis and financially better off so I’ll notch that up as a good year!
I now have a ton of blog reading to catch up on!
Oh and before I forget, thanks to @LewysAron for including this blog in his Top 100 Dividend Blogs! Diolch yn fawr, Lewys! (still remember a bit of Welsh from school days!)
Hope everyone had a great end to 2016 and achieved their goals.
Cool post! Very nice increase of net worth compared to last year! Keep it up 🙂
Thanks!
Hi Weenie,
Welcome back – I hope you are fully refreshed from your trip?!
Whilst you may not have hit your target, you still have a huge savings rate – something to be very proud of as it accelerates you to freedom! More importantly, congratulations on a superb year on dividends – 4 figures in a year is a great threshold to break – next its 4 figures in a month – onwards and upwards!
Cheers,
FiL
Hey FiL
Thanks and yes, I am refreshed, although suffering badly from jet lag at the moment.
4 figures in a month! Not sure I could aim that high but I’ll continue making steps onwards and upwards as you say! 🙂
You will be surprised how quickly it will happen – especially if you are putting the bulk into trackers – think of it this way its only a yearly income of approx £4,000 – so only 4 times what you already have.
Keep plugging away, reinvesting the dividends and it will happen faster than you think!
Keep it up!
Yay Dividends over £1000 in a year! Now that’s a milestone to note!
From your experience, is it worth paying the subscription for Oddsmonkey? It is sometime I will look into next. Will I be able to learn much even without paying the subscription fee??
Hi FP
Yes, I’m very pleased as it’s not a milestone I thought I would achieve so quickly.
From my experience, I have to say yes, it is worth paying for subscription for OddsMonkey (OM). The basic service you get when you initially sign up provides free guides to help you earn around £40-£45. The premium service, which is £15 a month or £150 annually provides more tools and info to help you achieve more profits. There is a 30 day 100% money-back guarantee and no minimum contract so you can cancel anytime. There are other services out there but I’ve only ever used one other (Profit Accumulator, similar to OM but a little bit more expensive).
There are successful matched bettors out there who do not subscribe to any kind of service at all, so it’s up to you – I just think that without OM, I would not have been able to earn as much profit and would waste a lot of time hunting down offers.
WELCOME HOME WEENIE!! 🙂
Ahem. Apologies.
Hope you had a great holiday, can’t wait to hear all about it. As for your figures above, I can’t help but be impressed.
Sounds like you had a great year with the things you had greater control over and that’s all you can ever really ask for ay?
Here’s to 2017 being a smashing year on all fronts.
Hopefully we’ll catch up with you in person this year, York seems like too long ago!
Thanks TFS!
Yep, I feel like I’m in control of my life (mostly), and I can’t say that that has always been the case!
2017 will be interesting and different but I will be trying to make it a great one too!
It would be great to catch up again – York does seem ages ago! It’s possible that I may pop down to London at some point to visit family so if I do, perhaps we could catch up then if it suits!
That would be fantastic!
Let me know if you’re down this way and likewise if we come up north I’ll give you a shout.
Well done Weenie. And, there is not such thing as ‘good net worth’, I believe. There is you life planning and the money you need to live the life you want – the rest is moving towards your goal. You are doing great.
Thanks Maria.
I remember when I first started blogging, I was getting ‘net worth envy’ as I saw people with huuuuge net worths. But eventually, I realised that it was useless comparing myself as everyone is different.
You’re right, moving towards my own goal is more important.
Thanks for stopping by.
Overall another cracking year Weenie. Congratulations!
Your dividends, rent, Matched Betting and affiliate Income are really starting to add up now. The next 2-5 years are going to be very exciting to watch, because I see them passing your expenses at this rate.
Perhaps I have my rose-tinted specs on but, everything’s moving in the right direction it seems. The job sitch, is bound to knock you off guard, but I honestly believe that’s a good thing. I’m not suggesting the transition will be easy, but the enforced change is likely to do you a lot of good in the mid to long term. I have no doubt at some point you’ll declare on the blog that you were glad it happened….but we’ll see!
Ultimately, you’re healthy, happy, and have the world at your feet. Go get ’em Weenie! 🙂
Cheers Huw!
Yes, it will be interesting to see how that other income adds up – hopefully, most of it will be passive as currently, it isn’t!
I do think things are heading still in the right direction, don’t want to be over-optimistic, just want to be realistic.
Just working on my goals and one of them compliments your charity goal! 🙂
Sounds like 2016 has been a bit similar for you and me jobs wise, and our jobs even ended within days of each other!
Look forward to checking in on your progress going forward. With that sort of net worth, I reckon the snowball will start picking up downhill speed, and like Huw said, the next few years could see your financials really take off.
All the best!
Cheers FS – will keep on building that snowball up! Thanks and all the best!