Another month swiftly moves on by after a pretty busy November you could say the least! I’ve pushed myself hard to keep up with the blog updates which I believe is important because it helps keep focus on the FIRE journey. I know a few other FIRE bloggers that have struggled a bit to keep everything up to date – but good on them for keeping up with it! (It’s great to read them!).

Christmas decorations have been put up in the house and most of the presents have now been purchased for friends and family which I feel much more relaxed about now. Our re-mortgage offer is progressing nicely – as I write this post a surveyor / valuator just came round to value the house – blimey, I’m surprised what they have valued it at given that we only bought the house 2 years ago! (It’s 25% increase on our original purchase price 2 years ago to give you a flavor of how bananas the housing market is in the UK). Of course, not complaining! It means that we have more of a chance to secure an excellent mortgage deal with Natwest at 1.24% (which again is crazy!)

Anyhow enough of my life, how have those savings been doing this month?

Value of Investments

Here?s the total value of investments to date across all accounts;

Jan-19 Feb-19 Mar-19 Apr-19 May-19 Jun-19
??17,919 ??24,666 ??29,873 ??37,687 ??41,400 ??48,743
Jul-19 Aug-19 Sep-19 Oct-19 Nov-19 Dec-19
??58,104 ??60,882 ??68,509 ??73,577 ??79,553 ?TBC

Eyyyy! That’s another great increase of close to ?6,000 compared to October figures! Super chuffed with that – a bit of a blow that I couldn’t hit the ?80,000 mark in November, but beggars can’t be choosers right?! In-fact as I write this post, the total value of investments have surpassed ?80,000 (but a celebratory post shall be coming next month). I reckon by April 2020 I would’ve hit that all important ?100,000 mark! (which will be a big celebration!).

Unfortunately I do have a bit of a tax bill to pay in January / February – seeing the accountant today to go through the figures / numbers so depending on the damage savings rate may plummet over the next coming months.

Here are some stats on income / expenditure side of things;

Total Income: ?10,750
Total Saved (?): ?5,150.00
Total Expenses: ?5,600.00
Savings (%):?48%

Eeek – ?5,600 total expenses this month. Here’s some of the breakdown of that;

  • Christmas Presents ?800
  • New Parquet Flooring Repair: ?1,400
  • New Computer: ?1,600

The rest is the usual expenses of around ?2000 – ?2,500 p/m (mortgage / bills / food shopping etc). We needed to do our Parquet flooring (which looks ace now in the dining room), but of course at a pretty substantial cost. New computer wasn’t ‘technically’ needed, but given I spend such a huge amount of time on the computer, I believe it’s important to invest wisely on things you spend most time on / in – I.E. a comfy bed, a decent computer, a good pair of shoes etc.

A slight hit on the savings rate that’s been moved to 48% but I believe the worst is to come with this up and coming tax bill.

Anyway, how are those graphs looking??

(Vomit emoji on the shares graph) – Carnival and Imperial brands continue to slump. Still, buy and hold is my strategy – there’ll always be cruise ships and I’m sure there’ll always be smoking / vaping. The dividends I continue to reinvest for the time being.

Whilst on the other hand my index funds continues to show promising / excellent returns – good old Vanguard continue to lead the way on their global FTSE index fund.

Anyway that’s it folks! See you in the new year and have a delightful Christmas!