I mentioned at the end of my last post that I had family staying with me in November.
As it was their half-term holidays, I took some time off work and had my niece and nephew for a few days – my sister needed a break from hungry teenagers (13 and nearly 16)!
I was only aware of two rules (from their parents) that I needed to responsibly apply, and that was no phones at the dinner table or in the bedroom. Happy to say there was full compliance and no fuss! There might have been a bedtime rule too, but I forgot what that was, so they stayed up with me and went to bed at the same time – oops!
I let them have a lie-in one day but other days, I got them up early so we could spend some quality time together. I didn’t want them just vegging on my sofa playing games on their phones and laptops (although they did enjoy some of that), so I took them out to eat (ranging from KFC to fine dining Italian), we browsed around the shopping mall, got lost driving around Manchester City centre (it’s been so long since I last drove in and all the roads have changed!) and had some fun in the arcades. The weather wasn’t great, and they didn’t have appropriate shoes otherwise I would have taken them out for walks.
In the evenings, we watched films together and played cards and board games, including Catan and old school favourite, Yahtzee.
At one point, they both agreed that I was their ‘coolest Aunt’ – well, that’s my job done, haha! 😀
After a nice break away from work, I returned to an explosion of emails in my inbox – this is something I definitely won’t miss when I retire!
Anyway, after deciphering all the emails, and reading between the lines, I decided to volunteer for some extra responsibility.
This will just be another task I’ll have to juggle with, one which no one wanted, and which other departments have chucked over like a hot potato, but hey ho, I continue to make myself ‘valuable’ to the business, thus hopefully reducing the risk of me being out of a job before I’m ready to go!
Anyway, enough of the waffling, how did I get on with my numbers in November?
I saved 16.7% of my net salary.
The above includes £52.74 from doing Prolific surveys.
Shares and Investment Trusts
No changes, I just topped up existing investments.
Current share/IT portfolio can be found here.
(Entire portfolio here)
Future Fund
Was it the bottom of the market in September? Signs may indicate as much but who really knows what’s going to happen? I’ll be happy however if there’s a Santa Rally so I don’t end the year on a negative!
My Future Fund ended up at £228,180, now just minus 1.2% YTD. It doesn’t seem so bad, and the rocket makes another appearance:
Dividends and Other Income
A decent month for dividends.
I received £466.95 in dividends, of which £391.98 was from my ISAs, the rest from my SIPPs. All dividends were reinvested.
Here’s the updated graph:
Goals Update
Here’s how things are looking, with just the final month to go:
I bagged my ISA dividend income target – my second goal achieved! I’m really chuffed that I’m pretty much averaging £300 a month in tax-free dividends and hope to continue increasing this, bit by bit.
Made time for some reading this month (in between watching World Cup matches) so have caught up a bit on my library book goal. Not sure if I can make it to 15 by the end of the year but we’ll see.
With interest rates on the up, I thought it was time to move some of my cash into an easy access ISA to earn a few extra quid tax-free (I’ve not had a cash ISA in years). I’ve gone for Marcus, (currently paying 2.5%) only because I had an account with them already and opening the ISA took less than a minute online.
Yes, I know I could probably get better rates elsewhere, but I can’t be bothered to open any more accounts with new providers. The only other savings account I’ve taken advantage of is First Direct’s regular saver (I already bank with FD) which now pays a whopping 7% – shame I don’t have the max spare £300 a month to deposit but even a smaller regular amount will be worth it.
And that’s me for now.
Hope you all had a good November.
PS – I don’t know about you but I’ve done all my Christmas shopping! However, have had to be super organised this year.
It’s great to see all those ISA dividend ’employees’ eagerly working away for you 24/7. As you get closer to pulling the ripcord on RE, having that replacement ‘income’ rolling in on a regular(ish) basis should provide a bit of brain tricking reassurance as regards stepping into the shoes of the disappearing monthly salary. From my perspective, this change is going to take a bit of getting used to.
Hey KC
Yes, it’s great to see the ISA dividends continue to ramp up. Sadly, it’s unlikely that all my monthly outgoings will be covered by them but enough like to say to trick the brain into not freaking out over not having a monthly salary come retirement! I hope all’s going well with your retirement.
Well done on being a “cool Aunt!” – you sound every bit like the perfect person to decant your kids to.
It’s important at that age for teenagers to have a non-parental figure to bond and spend with – you’ll make more of an impression on them than all the shouting that their parents do!
So when you say, “save your money and be careful with your purchases….” they’ll pay more attention than if Mum or Dad blasts them for spending £200 at the Trafford Centre!
Hi GFF
Thanks and yes, when they were at my sister’s, they were given chores to do. When they stayed at mine, I just told them not to make a mess, haha! I hope I can pass on some knowledge to them regarding spending/finances!