Financial Update 13# – March 2020 (Coronavirus causing chaos)

Hello everyone!

So…. yah.

I’m having trouble on where to start with everything. Shall we just jump straight in? Ok – Coronavirus. Eugh – how frustrating! I feel like we’re in some very uncertain times right now, not knowing the direction of this disease. It just shows how normal life, going to work, earning an income can change quite literally overnight since the UK Government announced lockdown a few weeks ago. The term ‘recession’ is most likely coming as businesses in a broad range of industries are starting to feel the effect. As some of you may be aware, I run a digital marketing agency and can see from first hand experience the effect this is having on some of our clients. For some, they are booming – pet stores, online eCommerce mainly. For others, such as service industry and dealing with people, have seen a complete retraction of new enquiries to their businesses. Us as a company, we’ve seen about a 10% reduction of turnover in the last 2 weeks, so nothing yet to really start to panic about.

We anticipate for us and depending on well things go, to see a 25-30% reduction in our client base. Our first priority is to keep our staff employed and continue working as normal. Even if that means pay cuts and part time work if it does go ‘pete tong’ on us, we will do as much as we can physically with cash in the bank. Staff have reacted very positively to this, which is great – chipping in extra hours unpaid to drive through this and come out on the other side fighting. Seriously impressive stuff and I love them all to pieces. (We have 12 in total).

Anyway, enough doom and gloom regarding Coronavirus. I’m stopped myself from reading the media and just continue to do what I need to do to see myself through all of this mess. So what’s been happening life wise?

Life Update

We’ve been investing in our house over the course of March. We’ve had our lounge floor totally re-done, sanded, filled in and refurbished along with our front-garden having a nice border installed and a new conservatory (which unfortunately has stopped works since the covid-19 stuff).

Here’s a few snaps of the usual life stuff that is going on in our world;

• Lounge Floor has been refurbed!
• Conservatory / extension is coming along nicely (though half a floor because the builders can’t get sharp sand due to coronavirus – works have stopped).
• DIY Gutter on my new shed! (Saving that precious rainwater).
• DIY Insulation internally in the shed (going to be a bit of a working man cave).

Really quite proud of myself with the DIY side of things. 2 years ago, I have never used a jigsaw or a hacksaw and rarely used a drill (apart from the odd screw / plug in the wall). Now, I’m using them a whole tonne more and actually really enjoying it! There’s a real satisfaction to DIY – when you stand back and proud of a job you’ve done. I can see myself once I reach the FIRE stage, doing more of this.

Anyway, enough about me – how about those investments!

Value of Investments

Oh god – here we go… brace yourselves!

A drop of of £7,163 during the month. Ouch! That’s close to 8% off the total portfolio value. But, as I’ve mentioned in other posts, I’m just going to keep calm and carry on! Here’s the expenses side of things;

Total Income: £8,368
Total Saved (?): £5,150
Total Expenses: £3,218
Savings (%): 62%

Quite pleased with the savings rate side of things, given the situation that we’re in. Whether or not April is going to be like that, I don’t know – we will wait and see!

Anyway, how are those graphs looking?

Hopefully you guys can see the chart now! I forgot to mention that I’ve upgraded my website hosting (as the other guys were useless) to a company called Siteground. Very impressive!

Anyway, stay safe everyone and keep chugging on!