Well, the big highlight this month is that my Future Fund reached £250,000!
Woohoo, I’m a quarter of a million millionaire 🙂 🙂 !
I’d planned on doing a separate post dedicated to celebrating this milestone but decided to relegate it to just a highlight in my usual update because once my house purchase goes through, I’ll be withdrawing a chunk of cash, so in my mind, I’m not really there yet.
And yes, the house purchase business rumbles on – a big post about it once it’s all over. Still so much to do.
I waiver between being really excited/stressed about it and working madly on decluttering etc, to days of complete apathy where I just binge-watch tv or play video games because I can’t face it all.
Fortunately, all that needs doing by me (for solicitor etc) is up to date, it’s the sorting of the house and my/the family’s belongings which is completely doing my head in. But I will get there of course.
Anyway, I’ve finally been successful growing some tomatoes (cherry) –Â so chuffed with these, which have been great in salads:
So, how did I get on with my savings in August?
I saved just 13.5% of my net salary.
The above includes another £25 Premium Bond win!
Shares and Investment Trusts
No new investments, I just topped up existing investments.
Current share/IT portfolio can be found here.
(Entire portfolio here)
Future FundÂ
I’ve been too busy/distracted to know what the markets were up to this month but whatever, there was a decent jump and my Future Fund ended up at £250,171!
Dividends and Other Income
A record-breaking month for dividends:
I received £663.62, of which £462.78 was from my ISAs, the rest from my SIPPs.  First time I’ve gotten over £600 in one month, after beeing so close in July 2019 and more recently, May 2021. All dividends received were reinvested.
Here’s the graph of all dividend income received so far:
Are dividends back? Perhaps – I don’t like to be over-optimistic!
Matched Betting (MB)
With the house purchase thing going on, I made very little effort to do any matched betting but still managed to make a tiny £37.82 profit.
As mentioned previously, the MB guide I subscribe to is OddsMonkey*, which is great for beginners and experienced matched bettors alike. There are step by step guides and also a friendly forum for you to ask questions and get help on any of the offers.
Goals Update
With summer pretty much over, here’s how things look:
And that’s it for now.
I’ll be continuing with my decluttering (that’s a whole post in itself!) and hopefully in the next post, there will be more progress with the house.
How was your August?
[*referral/affiliate link]
Awesome achievement- well done – I am sure you will inspire many others to do the same – can’t wait to hear about your £500k post i when you make it!
Thanks Jeff!
Congratulations on your milestone. Even if you will need to withdraw a chunk for your property purchase it’s still something worth recognising. Well done with the tomatoes too – it is so satisfying picking dinner from the garden
Thanks Wombat! And yes, it is so satisfying cooking something you’ve grown yourself – I’m still very much a novice gardener but my successes this year show that I’m learning!
You are definitely a 1/4 millionaire – even though some of the money will be held in your house. Well done you – an impressive achievement.
When I started the process of buying a house, a good friend of mine suggested I treat it as an adventure as you don’t do it very often and like all good adventures – it will have its ups and downs. Good luck for the remainder of the process.
Thanks C and great idea about seeing the house purchase as an adventure – I see that I do need to change mindset to make the bumpy journey less daunting and stressful!
Good luck with the continued decluttering! It’s a tough thing to have to do, but how lovely it will be when you can move to your very own house taking just the stuff you actively want to have in it.
I think the only approach possible to the job is to keep putting one foot in front of the other on those days when motivation goes awol. Keep your eyes on the prize, as they say. It will be totally worth it!
And, irksome though it must feel that you’ll have to plunder your money stash for the purchase, remember that – at the same time – you’ll have achieved a major milestone in your master plan by a much earlier point than you’d originally expected.
That means you’ll be able to settle back down again to growing your future fund without the uncertainty about the timing and cost of an eventual house move hanging over you. In my book, that counts as a massive win!
Jane in London
Thanks Jane in London – I’ve resolved to do a bit each day and put in a big(ger) shift at weekends.
And you are so right, it will be worth it in the end.
I know I’m still lamenting on having to dip into my money now but I already know that I will be grateful that it is happening now, rather than in some far-flung uncertain future. Although it was something I knew I needed to do, the fact that I didn’t have an actual date in mind means that I hadn’t really planned for it so would have probably been in a worse pickle!
Thanks as always for your wise and kind words.
250K is a BIG milestone…congratulations! And sure you siphon off some of the investments for your house purchase but you will still be a quarter millionaire. Enjoy the moment and give yourself a big pat on the back!
Thanks diy!
Stunning result weenie, well done!! You bet me as I am at £242,000 .
Best of luck with the house weenie, hope all gets sorted soon for you.
TFJ
Cheers TFJ – it’s not a competition but a good feeling that I got there ahead of you 😉
Now, to catch up to you after I’ve taken a chunk out for the house – that will be a challenge haha!
Ive been reading, loving & being inspired by your blog for a while now, and seeing you get to this milestone is amazing – and really amps up the inspiration levels for me! Good luck with your house purchase!
Thanks David and thanks for reading. It makes me really happy to read that my writings have inspired you in some way – good luck with your own journey!
Transferring wealth from stock to house equity still counts! You’ll be saving on rent and be able to get the stock position back faster I’m sure. Good look on the move and everything else!
Thanks PercyPen!
A hearty congrats on hitting that target!
I’ve heard that once you get to £250k, to get to the £500k point is half the time? is that what your projections are saying to you too?
Thanks Ian.
I believe this would be the case – certainly it was a lot quicker getting to £200k, than it was to get to the first £100k.
However, I haven’t actually projected to get to £500k in my future fund, I’m not sure that I need that much…
Congratulations on the milestone!
Maybe 500k in 5 years?
Just a qq (I tried searching your blog) what makes up your freedom fund? (vs net worth) is it cash, investments, sipp and other work pensions. (everything except home equity)
Thanks Gc.
I think £500k would be a goal to aim for in 5 years but as in my response to @ian, I’m not sure I need that much to FIRE.
My future fund includes all my ISAs, SIPPs, current DC pension, cash savings and premium bonds. It does not include my DB pension.
Come to think of it, if I was to plan and include the estimated value of my DB pension in my numbers, the goal would be just over £500k.
Congrats on reaching that financial milestone Weenie. The snowball continues to roll downhill, getting bigger each year (although some years may see some melting!) Hope your house move goes well.
Cheers Jim and yes, the snowball indeed does continue to get increasingly bigger, helped by the bull markets.
Congrats Weenie on reaching the £250K milestone.
I am in a kind or a similar stressful situation, been busy clearing out my parent’s flat and garage but I am finally getting there. The garage is empty and found a potencial buyer, and I found agent who is happy to sell the flat after we leave, so good. Also been watching series and playing games on bad days. To top it up I am also growing some tomatoes! 😀
I am sure you’ll enjoy the relief after you have sorted it all out.
Hey Tony
Sorry to hear you’re also in a stressful situation but good to hear that you are finally getting there. Yes, I will be relieved when it’s sorted out.
I think there’s a lot to be said about trying to relax by watching tv and playing video games. I will also add that I have been reading too so it’s not all bad! 🙂 Hope you have been enjoying your tomatoes!
Congrats on your investment success.Anecdotedly many properties in the NorthWest are being bought now by HK residents who are not even visiting the UK to check the properties first.Maybe you could act as an adviser to them.
The Chinese govt is reverting back to the bad old days of the Mao period and there will be many HK resident looking to get out including singles looking to marry for a passport.
Thanks Simon. The properties being snapped up by HK residents has been going on for years. I’ve acted as ‘adviser’ to members of my family who bought based on my viewings of the property (at least they had all lived in Manchester previously so knew the area!) and although I know people who specifically cater to this kind of clientele, it’s not something I want to get into, albeit there is a lot of money to be made.
I’m not looking to marry to provide anyone a passport either, not that you were suggesting it but just wanted to say! 😉
Great work on hitting £250k – a fantastic achievement. Don’t worry about that dipping back down due to house expenses, enjoy the moment 🙂
£660+ in a single month – wow! Long may that continue…
Your tomatoes are looking pretty good, I’m waiting to dig up some potatoes shortly, hopefully there are a few there.
Thanks John – am glad I did enjoy the moment as it was only a brief moment, if the wobbly markets are anything to go by!
Sadly the £660+ is a one-off month, unlikely to get that very often, if I get half that consistently I’ll be happy! Good luck with your spuds!
congrats on reaching £250k, although I know how annoying it will be to take money out to fund a house… that is what money is for- where would you be without saving so much ?
Myself I only needed £300k for fire, with a DB pension of £31k at 55. However on reaching 55 I found my savings were a lot(lot) higher, the result of a strong market.
Definitely the first anything is the hardest – then compounding interest starts doing the heavy lifting.
Well done on the tomatoes, weren’t they late reddening this year, I chose to grow chilli peppers and will be freezing & eating them for years !!!
Gary
Thanks Gary!
Yes, annoying but indeed, imagine if I hadn’t have saved that money!
Ooh, that’s a very nice DB pension and at a nice early age too!
Agree, some of my tomatoes are still green, only starting to change now. I didn’t try chilli peppers this year but will give them a go next year.
Congratulations Weenie, big achievement! You should be really proud.
Good luck with the continued house move efforts. I’m excited to read your posts about that journey.
Cheers SN – I’m really chuffeed to have got the achievement. Need to start making notes for the house move posts!
Congratulations on the big achievement and making the milestone!
I am new to your investing journey. I am intrigued by your selection of managed funds. I would very much be interested in finding out why you have chosen managed funds over ETFs in your ISA/SIPP and what shapes your selection.
Thanks!!
Marcus
Thanks Marcus!
In the passive vs active argument, I’m more pro-passive (ie most of my portfolio is made up of ETFs), but have chosen to also have some investments in active funds (the investment trusts) for further diversification.
In the similar growth vs income argument, my active funds are income-producing – the intention here is so that I don’t have to get my income from just selling investments, which I know will be psychologically hard to do.