Sep ’18 Go T’ Pub Performance

So, once again, I didn’t pay any attention to the GTP ISA again this month (even though I should probably start looking at the charges and maybe move it!).

For the full details over all of the portfolios as a summary please refer to the full month end report – this is specifically looking at what has happened on the Go T’ Pub portfolio only.

So, what activity did we have this month?

• New Funds added. As always, the regular contribution of £1,100 has gone in
• No dividends were paid out sadly this month
• No withdrawal was made
• Left over cash from the previous purchases was left in

Overall performance: The starting value was £24,669.21, with £1,100 in new funds added, and £0 withdrawals, meaning total starting value was £25,769.21. We finished the month on £25,774.98 so the total performance across the whole portfolio was 0.02%.

So basically things went absolutely nowhere. Even with the money in things just tick along.

So, now for the details….

VWRL ETF

So the standard units were purchased. I bought a further 16 units at £66.52 per unit, making the average cost per unit of £62.49. The average cost starting to keep ticking up, but I guess I can’t complain as all the other units I already have increase as well!

I am in a slightly odd position in that I would love a crash and for the shares to drop to say £40 to allow me to buy huge amounts more, even if it means my current holding drops massively.

Ultimately though, it doesn’t really matter – things will just keep ticking along

So – how does this now look as the graph data slowly builds up?

So a nice gap developing there between contributions and value. It’s still not as much as I would like but the main thing is that the total value keeps going up!

Cash vs. Investment Trust

So now for the fun, and highly not recommended, part. The money from my Cash ISA that was part of my emergency fund that I invested in the market to see what would happen over time.

So, how is it looking?

Cash	Now stands at £5,131.55
S&S ISA IT	Now stands at £5,346.64

So far then, the stock is just about keeping its head above the cash side of things (although remember there will be a dealing charge if I need to liquidate which I haven’t really included).

So far the experiment is good – more in the stocks than cash but still a long way from being “comfortable” with the gap as yet.

So far so good…

Conclusion

So the VWRL experiment is still good clocking up units and slowly paying out for beers in the future. The cash vs. CTY is still a little uncomfortable if that was my only cash reserves, but fortunately it isn’t.

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Sep ’18 Performance

So September flew by with a holiday meaning I hardly checked my portfolio all month and, you may not believe this, but it made absolutely no difference!

As I covered in my “How I measure performance” – basically I take the value of the portfolio at the end of last month, add on any contributions for the month, and that was my starting value. End value is the value at the end of the reporting period. Simples 🙂

	Perf.	Notes
Company Pension	-0.86%	No income generated as all funds are in growth or reinvested
Personal Pension	-2.12%	No income generated as all funds are in growth or reinvested
ISA 1	-0.38%	No income generated as all funds are in growth or reinvested
ISA 2	-1.00%	The performance does not include the income that was paid out into my account
ISA 3	1.69%	Although dividends are paid out, they remain in the ISA wrapper, and will get reinvested for growth. The performance figure includes both the Capital growth, and also income received which will get reinvested.
ISA 4	0.02%	Go T’ Pub ISA
FTSE-100	1.05%	This excludes any dividends
FTSE-250	-1.85%	This excludes any dividends
FTSE-All	0.53%	This excludes any dividends
S&P500	0.41%	This excludes any dividends
Dow Jones	1.90%	This excludes any dividends
VWRL	-0.17%
VHYL	-0.06%
GBP/USD	0.58%	This was taken on the spot rate on the close of the last day of the month. Going forwards I will pick up the exchange rate from www.xe.com for consistency and real life 🙂

So what to make of it all? Pretty much nothing to see as things just plod along apart from my IFA managed pension, which plummeted (not a surprise given the markets and where this is invested), and my ISA seems to do ok.

Things just tick along, money goes in, dividends pay out, and the slow progress just keeps going on. I still have a long way to go to make the FI point, but it keeps going.

How was your September?

Sep ’18 Income and Expenses

So September really did fly by – particularly with a 2 week holiday in there, and some colleagues on holiday making the day job busy, I really couldn’t tell you much of what happened!

I’ve had to do a little “jiggery pokery” this month, but I will explain as I go through.

Income

Ok, so for the first time this tax year, I have had two months in a row with the same income from my salary, and no new letters from Mr. Taxman – woohoo! I have also added in two months of income from my other half’s ISA – pulling forward what would normally be used for October to help cover some of the extra from holidays, All in all makes a bit of a higher monthly income, for which I will suffer a little in October.

Expenses

Item	Notes	Amount
Things I choose not to avoid*	Mortgage, Insurance, shared bills etc. – yes, we could move somewhere cheaper, not have insurance, reduce our bills a bit and so on, but we are where we are.	29%
Groceries	All the food and other stuff needed for home	3%
Alcohol for home	Home alcohol consumption only	0%
Bicycles / Car related	Any costs related to either the bikes or the car	0%
Alcohol Out	Generally, its the pub….	0%
Eating Out	I include purchased lunches in this as well as meals out etc.	1%
Other	My catch all for anything I may have missed….	13%
Holidays	Any spending related to holidays, flights etc.	10%
Savings	Anything left over! This includes money into ISAs, mortgage payments and non relief pension contributions. My company pension comes out before it hits my bank account so isn’t included, nor do I include the “top up” of money when my money goes into my personal pension (i.e. I put in £100, I register it as £100, not the £125 that gets credited in my pension)	44%

* This covers a number of things that I would class as essential for me. Yes, I could move to somewhere cheaper to reduce the mortgage (which in turn would reduce the insurance I have to pay), yes I could reduce my bills by switching energy supplier etc. but it comes down to what I am happy with. There are a few other things in there that are classified as essential that others may object, and so I have just lumped it into there. This has reduced as our mortgage has been redone, and the difference being used to overpay the mortgage, but is still counted by me as savings

Holidays – you may wonder why that isn’t a higher number, but our monthly savings into the holiday fund really did “save our bacon” – without it my savings rate would be close to zero. In addition, from our remortgage we got a refund which also helped towards paying for the holiday.

Other – also high this month for a variety of reasons (some car and other item repairs needed which were unplanned) – not ideal but shows I can cope with some strains on the finance.

All in all what felt like a very painful and spendy month – but I have taken the hit this month for everything, so next month I should balance back to normality for the first time since the end of last year! I have still had to keep dipping into my cash reserves to make sure my ISA keeps building up and this does worry me, as I need to change that!

How was your September?

Remember: This Friday (19th October), there is a FI London meetup in The Old Bank of England from 17:30

Aug ’18 Go T’ Pub ISA Performance

So no surprise – I paid absolutely zero attention to the ISA in August (as he is writing the update in October!) – not even log in to change the numbers to try and squeeze every last penny out – I will eventually get around to doing that… but don’t forget to get to the end of this post for notice of a couple more FI events coming up!

For the full details over all of the portfolios as a summary please refer to the full month end report – this is specifically looking at what has happened on the Go T’ Pub portfolio only.

So, what activity did we have this month?

• New Funds added. As always, the regular contribution of £1,100 has gone in
• CTY paid out an additional £56.82 (which will get reinvested) – so again a nice little improvement on the interest in my cash ISA!
• No withdrawal was made
• Left over cash from the previous purchases was left in

So once again a very quiet month just ticking along and the number of units keep ticking up.

Overall performance: The starting value was £23,416.27, with £1,100 in new funds added, and £0 withdrawals, meaning total starting value was £24,516.27. We finished the month on £24,669.21 so the total performance across the whole portfolio was 0.62%.

Not at all bad, although it is making the VWRL more expensive to buy again, but I guess I can’t have both!

So lets get into the detail…..

VWRL ETF

So the standard units were purchased. I bought a further 16 units at £66.63 per unit, making the average cost per unit of £62.27. The average cost starting to keep ticking up, but I guess I can’t complain as all the other units I already have increase as well!

I really am very very pleased with the way this is going – zero effort and money coming in.

So – how does this now look as the graph data slowly builds up?

A clear gap staying there between contributions and value – if that doesn’t make you think about getting going investing, I don’t know what will! Ok at some point things will drop, but for now, I will keep happily watching that spread!

Cash vs. Investment Trust

So now for the fun, and highly not recommended, part. The money from my Cash ISA that was part of my emergency fund that I invested in the market to see what would happen over time.

So, how is it looking?

Cash	Now stands at £5,131.09
S&S ISA IT	Now stands at £5,252.05

So far then, the stock is just about keeping its head above the cash side of things (although remember there will be a dealing charge if I need to liquidate which I haven’t really included).

So the rollercoaster continues, and still above the cash so the fun continues….

Conclusion

I really am rather enjoying this forgetfulness of this ISA – for a stress free life I couldn’t ask for more!

Want more FI?

So this month there are TWO events going on for anyone interested:

October 13th – at The Onslow Arms, West Clandon from 12 noon there is a FI UK group meet up

October 19th – at The Old Bank of England, London from 17:30, there is a FI London group meet up

Aug ’18 Performance

So I am still playing catch up and giving August’s performance when I should be giving September but please do forgive me..I need to hurry things along!

As I covered in my “How I measure performance” – basically I take the value of the portfolio at the end of last month, add on any contributions for the month, and that was my starting value. End value is the value at the end of the reporting period. Simples 🙂

‘folio	Perf.	Notes
Company Pension	0.97%	No income generated as all funds are in growth or reinvested
Personal Pension	-0.09%	No income generated as all funds are in growth or reinvested
ISA 1	-0.57%	No income generated as all funds are in growth or reinvested
ISA 2	-0.32%	The performance does not include the income that was paid out into my account
ISA 3	-0.72%	Although dividends are paid out, they remain in the ISA wrapper, and will get reinvested for growth. The performance figure includes both the Capital growth, and also income received which will get reinvested.
ISA 4	0.62%	Go T’ Pub ISA
FTSE-100	-4.08%	This excludes any dividends
FTSE-250	-0.90%	This excludes any dividends
FTSE-All	-3.46%	This excludes any dividends
S&P500	2.98%	This excludes any dividends
Dow Jones	2.12%	This excludes any dividends
VWRL	1.35%
VHYL	6.08%
GBP/USD	-1.29%	This was taken on the spot rate on the close of the last day of the month. Going forwards I will pick up the exchange rate from www.xe.com for consistency and real life 🙂

So what to make of it all? Drops across the board outside of the US. Not great, but means I get to buy a little more for all my direct debits (in theory!).

Whilst I never like to see my investments not performing, I really am not worried at present, the more and more I can buy the better.

To be honest, not a lot to see – keep throwing money in, and wait for time to do its magic!