The new year is upon us and somewhat of a more optimistic year, in light of the global pandemic. The vaccine looks to be making a real good dent in providing suitable protection for the elderly and unfortunate ones with underlying health conditions here in the UK, even after 1 dose, which is suggesting to provide 2 thirds protection against Coronavirus.
Given that during this time of the year in particularly isn’t the most enjoyable nor exciting with dark nights, wet and cold weather this news is really giving me great optimism for the future. I envisage that social distancing will remain for the foreseeable and for some time to come, however the ability to go enjoy shopping, enjoy the UK scenery, holiday, exploring really is giving me a strong appetite to get up and go again.
This new found bound of optimism has also given me continued confidence in my FIRE journey as I watch those figures gradually increase closer to that £1,000,000 target by the time I reach 40 years old. So how have those figures been looking?
January 2021 | Investment
There’s been a slight decrease to the gains of the month. I finished the year of 2020 at £178,966 and January just gone has put my portfolio on £181,842. I certainly can’t complain at that, given all of the drama with the Wall Street Bets / Shorting of Game Stop which was a real part of history in the making. However as per usual, the hedge funds got their way even in light of said drama.
How are those figures looking?
Total Income: £8,368.00
Total Saved (?): £5,675.00
Total Expenses: £2,693.00
Savings (%): 68%
A good start to the year, even in light of a whole bunch of tax money (self assessment) and corporation tax for the business having to be forked out. I’ve never understood why the government have put the self assessment tax due just after Christmas, but hey ho. My tax liability has been paid and we look to make good strides throughout the year of 2021 in working towards achieving £250,000 in savings by the end of the year!
Taking that I’ve started the year at £180,000 and looking to achieve a £250,000 end of the year sum, this means I’m going to need to tuck away around £70,000 for the year ahead. This is roughly in line with what I have been putting away anyway, however this year we have some plans regarding house improvements, additional tax (on the increased income) and a few other bits, so I do genuinely feel that this will be challenging.
Up & Coming
A few things are up and coming;
- This year should be the year I pay off my student loans! The joys of self assessment means that tax I pay has to contribute more to student loan payments and this has accelerated payments compared to standard PAYE. At the moment, the balance is sitting at around £1,500 so later this year I’ll just pay off a lump sum.
- Garden! I’ve got a whole bunch of garden projects to be working on;
- New raised bed for seating area.
- New structure / someway to prop up tomatoes in the greenhouse (which worked so so well last year).
- Improving names / learning new things with vegetable growing.
- New fence to go between the gate
- And a bunch of other stuff – I do genuinely get a lot of satisfaction out of gardening and seeing projects completed!
- Electric Bikes / Bikes – Me and the other half are looking to get into the world of cycling, when the weather warms up. Either looking at fold up bikes or electric bikes (not quite sure yet).
Anyway hope everyone here has had a pleasant January and look forward in catching up!
I can’t believe your on report #22 already!
You’re blasting up the charts as fast as GME, keep it up!!
We’ll be moving to our first place that has a garden in April, we’ve already started planning what vegetables we can grow in Sweden, we’re going to start getting the seedlings now, I’ll definitely be contacting you for some tips 🙂 I really want to grow San Marzano tomatoes as they’re just so good for pizza bases and they’re obscenely expensive here. Unsure if we’ll need a green house covering or not.
We’re also planning on starting a couple of composting units that we’ll try to build from branches as bin collection here is super expensive so being able to compost food would be a big plus! Do you have any tips for that?
Hey Ninja!
Good to hear from you dude! Hope all is keeping well in Sweden – I bet it must be pretty chilly out there come winter! Ahh thanks – I’m certainly chugging along at the moment and keep my head down / busy.
Eyyy nice! Welcome to the gardening club! If you’re anything like me, staring at a computer screen for what feels like 23 hours a day, the outdoors / gardening for me feels like a real treat.
Ahh nice regarding the tomatoes! I haven’t grown San Marzano myself – you’ll ideally want to be sowing them now (most tomatoes will be going in around now I believe), indoors and getting them germinated if you can. Then come March / April every day just take them outside to harden them off. If you take them from the warmth of the indoors straight to the outside, they can wither and die. Hence why best to harden them up by exposing them to the colder air.
Nice regarding the composting unit! Best thing with compost is heat – paint your compost unit black ideally as heat is one of the main contributors in the composting cycle. I use a ‘hotbin’ to do mine – they’re great and the soil you get out of it is so rich, just plop it down onto your garden again and you’re good to go!