Monthly Update – Apr 24

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It’s the last day of the month and I have just updated my spreadsheets. As is normal practice, the month has ended down overall. It seems that after the rush to use up all the tax allowances, the investments all drop a little in price and value by the end of the month. it just shows how certain events boost returns and values while there is a rush and heat in the market to get your UK investment allowances used up before the tax year closes. I am hoping that my investments grow this year as I want to feel that I am in a good position. I am trying to keep a positive view on life at the moment.

I have been trying to improve my diet and have been out exercising and trying to stay active. The UK weather is still not really helping but I will try and ignore it and make the best when I can. I have just come back from a short break in the Lake District. I haven’t been there for some years now, mainly because it became too over populated with tourists and the costs became too high. I found a nice place in the north Lakes and managed to get a few walks in around Ullswater and Derwentwater. The weather did pick up and I had some great sunshine and dry days to enable the walking to be enjoyable. I stopped off in Pooley Bridge and it has changed so much from when I last visited over 10 years ago. A new bridge and businesses. The centre has new car parks and seems quite busy, which you would expect being part of the Lakes. I dread to think what Windermere and Bowness are like now, I avoided the temptation to go and see. It felt so great to be out and walking again and seeing the Lakeland hills after such a long time. My first walk was up Cat Bells and I could see quite a few people walking along the ridge. As I enjoyed it so much I am already looking at going back for another visit and walking Cat Bells.

I am trying to sort out one of my bicycles, it has a few issues that need some mechanical attention. I am using the great god google for some advice and will look to repair the bike so I can ride it again. I must have had this bike for over 30 years now. It has covered quite some distance and travelled around the country with me.

I have sorted my garden out and the tomato plants are now growing on well, I have planted some more seeds so I can get a bit of a succession crop if possible.

Income

I had a few dividends but not much else this month. My ISA had a few income events but not much to write home about. What I did notice was how the value of the funds increased around the time of the UK tax year end/start. The value of the funds have now dropped as the new UK tax year is well and truly under way. I have had a quick check on future dividends next month and also had a look at a few company reports to see if dividends will be due later this year. It seems that some will be due and I can wait until closer to the time to see what the final declared/approved dividend will be.

Expenses

Expenses have been manageable this month and mainly consisting of my basic living costs, council tax, utilities and food. I have received notice from my utilities company to say they will drop my monthly payment now that energy prices have reduced. That will help a bit and once summer arrives I should be able to cut down my energy usage and that will help me plan for next winter.

Month End Summary

I reasonable month and to some extent an expected end with investment totals down from the start of the month due to UK tax year activity. I am just hoping that investments will pick up and a more positive outlook start to appear over the next month. I will continue to monitor my budget, keep within my limits and try to spend my time and money wisely on things that will help me flourish and keep healthy. I am looking at other places to go and locations I have not visited for years to see how things have changed. I know it makes me feel old now but I have an interest in the social change that has happened and having the time to explore and people watch is enlightening. I haven’t found history so interesting and it will keep my mind active.

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Monthly Update – Mar 24

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A bit late with March’s post, mainly because I have been away. I have been trying to make the most of my time and getting out and about. I had my NHS health check. Now according to the nurse I should be on my third check – Ha Ha! Well, my last GP practice never invited me for a health check so this was an enlightening experience.

According to the nurse, the previous health checks should have been carried out so they had a baseline to track my health. Well, with no history they had to start by taking my current assessment and then wait another 5 years and see how my health has changed. Luckily, my health seems to be ok and my stats match my current age. If I can increase my fitness I could possibly drop down to below my current age when it comes to heart health. I am not sure that will happen but at least I have relatively OK health values. My BMI seems OK, my cholesterol is OK too. The only issue is my blood pressure, which as usual was high and so I had to do my pressure at home and submit. I suffer with white coat syndrome and means the doctors/nurses can never get a good reading as my anxiety kicks off and my blood pressure goes through the roof. Their suggestion is to up my exercise and eat a healthy diet and try to keep active.

Yet another person I knew has passed away, I seems that I know someone each month so far. It has got me focused on getting out and enjoying my freedom while I can.

I sorted my bicycle out and have now started cycling again. I am hoping this will improve my health and fitness over the summer.

My tomato seeds have also germinated and I now have a good, strong looking crop of tomato plants which hopefully will continue to flourish and I can get some home grown tomatoes this year. I have some basil growing on my window sill too, so I am hoping to get some good healthy meals and reduce my shopping bill this year. I have spent a bit of time this month sorting the garden out and I have quite a few flowers already blooming. It is uplifting to see when I look out of my kitchen window in the mornings. It feels like Spring is here and Summer is on its way.

Income

No premium bond win this month, sigh. I had a few dividends and a large savings account interest payment. This all adds to my passive income total and I will need to track this to see how this affects any pension drawdown as I want to remain within my personal allowance if possible. I have earnt a bit of cash via surveys and other online work but it is not enough to actually live on. It just adds a bit of pocket money to buy drinks or food when I am out and about.

Expenses

Expenses have been large this month as I had to MOT and service my car. It is my main form of transport and use this to visit friends and to travel to holiday destinations that cannot be reached by train. I have made sure that all my tax allowances (pension and CGT) have been used up. I will now start collecting together my paperwork so that my tax form can be completed and submitted.

Month End Summary

At last the Spring season is here and maybe we will get some good, warm, dry weather. I could do with getting out more and getting fitter. My health check this month has made me focus on this and now I have the time and the ability to get out there and make a difference to my mind and body. I am hoping to get out more on my motorbike and enjoy socialising and some freedom. It seems that this last winter has been a hard grind and I really need some positive vibes to bring me out of the winter doldrums. Happiness is required and I really should not waste my time procrastinating, I need to get out there and DO IT!

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Monthly Update – Feb 24

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February being the short month does fly by quickly, even with the extra day (leap year) it seems to have been quicker than ever. Maybe that is a good thing as this suggests I have been busy and active. I guess I have, although the weather has not been as good as I would like I have tried to get out and about.

I weight myself this month ( I don’t own scales) as I had the opportunity and found I have gained more weight than I would like. I therefore need to lose some especially as I have change my GP surgery and have now been invited for a NHS Health Check. I have never had one of those before and I guess I will learn how bad my health really is. Even though I have given up work and the work stress has now eased I still have the underlying ‘anxiety’ which I just do not seem to be able to get rid off. My body is in constant ‘fight or flight’ mode which is the reason my blood pressure is always high. I suffer from white cost syndrome so as soon as a doctor puts a blood pressure monitor on me my blood pressure rises so it reads as hypertensive. I laugh when they tell me to relax as I appear to me more relaxed yet my pressure has gone up more. I have the outward appearance of some one who is calm and controlled yet underneath my body is going mental. I will wait and see what the results of this health check are. I may have to do what I have done in the past which is take readings at home when I am relaxed and these then show as normal.

I think some of my anxiety is due to menopause but I am trying to avoid HRT medication but maybe it would help me. If I reduced my anxiety then it could benefit my health in general. I want to focus on my health this year and really need to motivate myself to exercise and also do things. I have agreed with my partner that each month we will do at least one overnight stay somewhere. This has given us a motivation to get out and find locations we would like to visit.

Yet another person I knew has passed away, I seem to be surrounded by this kind of news. This person was one of the only people I spoke to during lockdowns as they operated a business and I would go and visit them and have a chat while making my purchases. I am not sure what will happen to the business now. A really sad time as he was not very old either. I think that has also spurred me on to do things while I can. No point dying with money in the bank I could have spent on activities and memories.

On the financial front, I have reviewed all my accounts and have worked out what remaining allowances I have and have started the process of topping up my pension, given that I am classed as a non tax payer I can only pay in £2880 so I have now scheduled the payments. I have reviewed my other accounts and moved savings to gain better interest. I have started looking at withdrawals from my SIPP as I could take some money and top this up with dividends and interest from savings and use up all my personal allowance, starting rate savings allowances and CGT. I am crunching numbers to work out how to do this and the best way to do this, I think UFPLS may be the way but I need to understand how to do this. I have a personal allowance which I am only really utilising for my savings interest and dividends, which is helpful as both my savings and dividend interest is above the separate allowances. I need to determine a good way to utilise these in a tax efficient form to enable me to release cash and use this to fund my lifestyle and enjoy more things in life.

Income

No premium bond win this month either. I had a few dividends but the income has been small, so the dividends from Jan will balance out the smaller input. I need to look at ways to balance my income as I get a few large sums then nothing or very low income on other months. It would be good to spread it out a little more.

Expenses

Expenses have been mainly the basic costs of supporting a house and car. I have had a few social occasions and these have been great for my mental health. Next month will be interesting as some of my utility bills will increase with inflation and I will also receive my council tax notice and find out how much it will cost me for the next tax year.

Month End Summary

A quick month with my tax review completed and all my allowances accounted for and used where I can. I just need to look at utilising more of my personal allowance as there is spare and drawn more money and have more to spend and enjoy myself.

Enjoy March and the start of Spring and some better weather to enable us to get out and make the most of life!

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Monthly Update – Jan 24

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January seems to have flown by so quickly. It has been a bit of a rollercoaster for me as I start the year. The good activities have included the growth of my investments which is a great start to the year. They are up 3% already which is a positive feeling. I have topped up my ISA for this year so my yearly allowance is now maxed out. I sold some old employer shares and banked the profit and used up my CGT allowance and popped the money into my ISA. I am slowly selling my shares each tax year and popping the money into my ISA and occasionally my SIPP to gain a better return and reduce the taxable gains. I cannot time the market so just sell some every January as an activity to kick off the financial tasks for the year. As I am classed as a non tax payer there are limits to what I can put into my pension so just top up what I can from my share sales when I can.

I haven’t been that active this month due to the weather. Things I have wanted to do have been restricted and I am just hoping that the rest of the year will be better so I can try to make up for the lack of activity this month.

I spent at least an hour waiting on the phone to speak to the HMRC as I received my tax statement and it stated that I still owed them my CGT payment from selling my rental last year. I had to be passed around to speak to different people to get this corrected. I had all the CGT transaction reference numbers and it appears that my self assessment form/account did not have this recorded even though I had declared it. After a bit of double checking my tax record was updated and I am now ‘assuming’ that it is OK. I did asked them twice if I would receive an updated tax statement but they said no, I would not need one. I said how do I know this is ok and they just said we have updated your records it is OK. I have made a note of the date/time I called them as they would not give their names, so if there is any fall out from this I will quote my call date and their responses to me.

Another bit of new year post informed me that an ex-employer had their pension account data held by Capita who have been subject to a data breach. They informed me that my data could have been compromised. They acknowledged that my pension is closed (I transferred it a few years ago) but they still retain some of my details and this could have been stolen. I have therefore been given a free credit monitoring account, the old monitoring account I had when I last went through this saga has been re-activated. Oh great! I have been trying to avoid Capita yet unbeknown to me an ex-employer hosted their data with them!

I learned that an acquaintance has succumbed to their illness and passed away in the second week of January, that has been a sour start for the year. They were just 7 months older than me and it was quite a shock when I found out that they had this illness. They managed to survive for 5 years but it eventually consumed them and their battle was lost at the start of the year. A terrible shame and has made me think about my own life and how I need to make more of it while I have the health and the ability to do so. This is part of why I have been working on my FI path as I wanted to break out of the workplace and do activities that I have always wanted to do. I fear that I may not have the funds but I do need to make the most of my time. A time millionaire is my aim.

I have a few things planned for Feb and March, I need to make more effort to get out and be active. I need to keep on top of my health and not waste my days. I have started my creative activities and need to do more drawing and painting. I am very rusty and need to just practice, practice, practice. I do need to widen my social circle too. I do not have many friends and it is one of the reasons why I try to find ways of getting out and about on my own and learn to be on my own. I have always found it hard to make friends and I think this stems from childhood where my parents would not let me interact with other children and I was not allowed to have friends. I was also bullied a lot at school as I have skin grafts on my body which kids would make fun of. Some are very visible and I was unable to cover them and so this made it easy for kids to tell others that it was a disease that was infectious and to stay away to prevent them from catching it. It meant I have mental scars that ran as deep, if not deeper than the physical ones. The teachers were never very helpful either and made things worse for me. It has affected me all my life and although things are not so bad now I am an adult, it still has an effect on me, there is still a lingering feeling of avoidance and fear of rejection.

Income

After a few consecutive months of wins I have not won anything with my premium bonds this month. I have made up for this by receiving my largest dividend payment this month and this will help to cover my expenses for the next two months. My next large dividend payment will be in about 6 months time. I have gained some income from my online survey activity and this helps to fill my day and give me some pocket money to spend on a few treats, mainly meet ups with ex-work friends at coffee shops and pubs for some light relief and social contact.

Expenses

Expenses have been mainly the basic costs of supporting a house and car. I have been looking at the rise in costs and I am trying to keep a tight control on them as this cost of living hike is reducing my ability to do other things. The growth in my investments helps to provide a little bit of relief but with the state of the world at the moment, it is hard to know what will happen next and how that will affect the markets and how that will drive cost into materials and their consequential knock on living expenses. Just when you think you have the money to do something, the cost rises.

Month End Summary

A quick and quiet month of contemplation and a chance to look forward and plan for the year ahead. I cannot plan for every situation but want to aim for some positive fun and gratification while I have the time, health and ability to achieve it.

Happy new year to you all and hope your plans for 2024 come to fruition.

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Monthly Update – Dec 23

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December blew by fast and I didn’t feel I had much chance to get out and do anything other than prepare for Christmas. I managed to meet up with a few friends and had a great, restful and relaxed Christmas. A few trips out to a warm and cosy pub to meet friends and catch up.

I managed to avoid the worst of the floods which hit the UK and ended the year by trying to up my exercise and walking routine. My finances seem to have ended the year well. My net worth growing by 10% which is great, I have stripped out the income from the sale of my rental house. I am so glad I have left that sector as the rules continue to change and I am now just trickling the cash into ISAs and pensions.

I spent December still working off the COVID residual tiredness and rested and slept quite a bit. A few of my friends ended up getting COVID over Christmas which ruined their festive plans, some spending their days isolating in bed. I am glad I got my bout of it before so I could have an enjoyable time.

I started working through plans for 2024 and look at doing new things and getting on with living life without a job.

Income

A little bit of paid survey income and a premium bond win to finish the year well. Some more dividends in my ISA & SIPP. My ISA has grown by 16% and my pension by 10% by the end of the year. Not as good as some people have reported but a good rate for me. I really need to have a look at cutting fees as these seem to be the area which is soaking up some of the gain I could have made. Having the choice of multiple ISA accounts from next tax year would be good as I can then look to spread some of the cash around and still contribute where the fees best suit me. I cannot do much with my pension as I do not have an income so unless I get a job I cannot pay any more than the flat rate non taxpayer total into my account each year.

Expenses

Expenses this month are focused on Christmas and finding suitable gifts for family. I have the basic expenses for supporting my house and transport costs. I need to review my expenses for next year as prices continue to rise and the basic costs of living increase and I need to account for these in my budgets. Inflation continues to hit me hard and I need to keep an eye on them. When I look at my expenses for this year, my passive income has covered it so I am glad that I am within my budgets and targets. If I can live on my passive income alone then I can continue to leave my SIPP to grow and then look at drawing an income from this in future years.

Month End Summary

A quiet and enjoyable month to end the year. I feel more relaxed that I have done in a while. I worried about my bout of COVID and am now feeling happy that I am here to continue to enjoy and plan a few more adventures in the year ahead. I have some natural immunity now to help. Roll on next year when I can look at new learnings and adventures. I want to make the most of my free time and get a more positive feedback from plans rather than feel restricted by fear of financial difficulties.

THANK YOU to those who bought me a coffee last month!

Especially to Dee ! – Thank you for your support and hope you continue to enjoy my posts as I continue my FI journey!

If you enjoy my content, please consider showing your support and Buy Me A Coffee by clicking Here.

Monthly Update – Nov 23

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A bit of a quiet month for me. The weather stopped me going out and about as much as I would like, so have started working on some of my old hobbies. I am trying to get back into sketching and doing some textile art. These are things I used to do but gave them up as work commitments got in the way. I am now trying to bring back some of the activities I used to do when I was younger. I am trying to start doing the activities I have wanted to do for ages, things that make me feel good and also engage me.

One thing I have noticed when watching youtube videos and reading other FI blogs is how the ability to choose what you want to do comes into focus. You are not constrained by the rat race and ‘the man’ and can start living and doing things that you want. It has taken some time to recover from the pandemic years and now I am trying to do the things I have just not had the time to do before. I feel like a time millionaire and want to spend it wisely. It will take me some time to get into the good habits of sketching and I have been completing online courses to try and encourage me to do more creative pursuits.

I will get there I am sure, it just takes time to get those creative ideas flowing.

I have abandoned looking for a Christmas job. The only ones I could find were full time and I just do not think I can handle a full time job at the moment. Then again, I have not been too well this month. I have now officially had COVID. It started off as a bit of a cold with sniffles and just feeling a bit tired. It then turned into a full on headache with aura which resulted in me retiring to my bed. I have now experienced my 3rd aura headache in my whole life! The aura headache meant I spend the day in bed as I just could not move without the flashing lights appearing in my eyes. I found a test kit and this proved that I had COVID. I really did not feel good and my fitbit recorded my heart rate as fluctuating wildly during the night. On one night my heart rate was recorded as being in the ‘fat burning’ zone, which is the zone I am normally in when walking, but this was while I was actually lying in bed sleeping. I think if it had been in the ‘peak’ zone then I would have worried more readily. Luckily, my fitbit was also the indicator that I was recovering as my heart rate reduced and I eventually started to feel better after a few days. I still feel quite tired and have felt a bit faint a few times, so have had to stop and have a breather before continuing with what I was doing. It shows how my body is not as good at fighting off viruses as well as it did in the past and illustrates how age starts to weaken me. At least I now have some natural immunity and hope that my system copes better next time and I don’t feel so bad or so wiped out by it.

It makes me even more focused on doing things for me now. I want to feel that I have lived my life and not wasted it on work, work, work. I have noticed a few ex work mates who have now taken career breaks which will possibly turn into full retirement from work. I have also noticed that jobs in the sector I used to work in are getting fewer by the day. I have also received a card from someone who did the same job role as me, they have found finding work more difficult this year and have now retrained as a financial consultant.

For me, the job market is shrinking as my role is not required in my original work sector. It does not help as more and more of the companies in the sector I used to work in have closed or merged with others. This is reducing the job positions and increasing the number of people applying for what is left as they are made redundant. I have been reading a few articles and seen a few products advertised which in theory make my old job role unnecessary. So technology is taking away the role I used to perform, anything left that requires a human to perform can now been delegated down removing the need for my role completely.

So when it comes to work for me, I need to start looking at a change and find something more rewarding instead. This could be like looking for a unicorn as it seems that the workplace is getting more competitive. It seems that team dynamics is all about encouraging competition and challenge rather than team building and cooperation, shared tasks and solutions. There seems to be less team cohesion and more individualism, no wonder we have poor productivity in the workplace. From the outside looking in, it is not looking very attractive and is probably disheartening potential candidates from applying for job. I know it is making me think twice about job vacancies.

Income

A little bit of paid survey income, another premium bond win too. Some more dividends in my ISA & SIPP. The interest from cash accounts continues, although for how long this will continue is up for debate. I have all my personal allowance available (no rental income now), I can use this to cover the savings interest & dividends earned so currently have no additional tax to pay. I also need to look at selling off some more of my ex employer shares, they are giving me a good dividend pay out but I need to use up the dwindling annual CGT allowances and sell off the shares and put the money into an ISA. It was part of my original FI plan to sell down my shares over my gap years, drip feeding them into an ISA and also provide income to carry me nearer to SRA before breaking into my pensions. The longer I can leave my pensions and ISA to grow the better.

Expenses

Expenses this month are much reduced from last month. I have tried to keep within my budget and make up for my overspend last month. I have a buffer of cash in my energy account so hope this will help to tide me over the winter months. With Christmas drawing nearer I need to buy my gifts and sort out my Christmas activities. After feeling so ill last month, I want to enjoy myself as much as possible. I am starting to feel my age a bit especially as I see more people around me retiring or sadly departing this world at what I feel is too young an age.

Month End Summary

A more frugal month for me as I prepare for the winter. My ISA and pension have both bounced back in value. My pension contains more bond exposure but the amount of red is reducing so I should end the year better than I started it. My ISA is looking better and I still have one more chunk of money to invest from my rental sale earlier this year. I am not trying to time the market but phasing it helps me roll up some of the other dividends received into the purchase and reduce my dealing costs.

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