Oct ’18 Go T’ Pub Performance

So in October I have to admit I didn’t really look at this portfolio – knowing that CTY will do what it does, and the VWRL will also just keep ticking along. Life continues to throw up blockers to my writing time, so please stay with me 🙂

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
• VWRL paid out a whopping £103.60
• No withdrawal was made
• Left over cash from the previous purchases was left in

Overall performance: The starting value was £25,774.98, with £1,100 in new funds added, and £0 withdrawals, meaning total starting value was £26,874.98. We finished the month on £25,534.68 so the total performance across the whole portfolio was -4.99%.

Ouch, so quite a drop there – but what does that actually look like in terms of the details….

VWRL ETF

So with the drop in the value, plus the extra income from the dividend, it allowed me to purchase a whopping 20 units this month at £62.87 per share, giving an average cost now of £62.52.

On the flip side – £100 quid. For doing nothing. That should cover a meal out this quarter with Mrs. FiL – but I of course wont yet, it will reinvest 🙂 Either way – two quarters in a row its been over £100, or in other words, about £30 a month – that will treat us to a couple of drinks down the pub each month – result!

So, how does this look in pretty pictures I hear you ask?

So even with the “crash” – having reinvested the dividends, the value is still higher than the contributions – so nothing really to grumble. I can’t believe just how fast the £20k has amassed either – seems to be there in a blink of an eye.

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 £5,132.34
S&S ISA IT	Now stands at £5,037.70

So once again, the value of cash holding it’s.. well… value… is showing through as I sit on a loss of the stock. Given how low it has been over the month, it is a great recovery!

So the rollercoaster continues! I know that next month I should get another dividend which will be reinvested so hopefully this will then make sure it keeps above the original starting value, but let’s see!

Oct ’18 Performance

So October came and went – but did the portfolio? I have to admit I did check it a few times with all the moving around that was going on – but I had to laugh at all the hype in the press about the “crash” and “billions wiped off” etc. etc.

Seriously? It’s only wiped off if you have to sell – and what about the profits people made before this? Anyway…

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	-5.10%	No income generated as all funds are in growth or reinvested
Personal Pension	-5.97%	No income generated as all funds are in growth or reinvested
ISA 1	-4.03%	No income generated as all funds are in growth or reinvested
ISA 2	-5.13%	The performance does not include the income that was paid out into my account
ISA 3	-5.60%	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	-4.99%	Go T’ Pub ISA
FTSE-100	-5.09%	This excludes any dividends
FTSE-250	-6.84%	This excludes any dividends
FTSE-All	-5.42%	This excludes any dividends
S&P500	-6.23%	This excludes any dividends
Dow Jones	-4.44%	This excludes any dividends
VWRL	-5.54%
VHYL	-3.86%
GBP/USD	-1.96%	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? Surprisingly everything came down pretty evenly – the surprise being the VHYL didn’t drop as much as others.

Am I worried? Nope – the dividends still paid out, I still bought more units and I still think markets are high. Am I going to change anything? Nope.

Did it hurt to see the amount of actual £’s disappear off my networth? Yes… but again it simply means that anything I do buy I buy more of so as I am still growing my networth, now is not the time to worry.

Onwards and upwards – or in this case at least, onwards!

Oct ’18 Income and Expenses

So it appears that it is that time of the month again – another month of my life flown by without me realising, and the inevitability of the grave comes to mind – or is that just because it was Halloween?

Income

I am on a roll here – third month in a row and the taxman hasn’t changed my tax code!

So the same old pay cheque dropped in the bank account for a fleeting visit before all of my direct debits and standing orders went out (savings mostly!).

My other half’s ISA seems to be truly powering ahead now – it is really making a significant (sorry, bad pun I know) impact on the finances, however I can’t claim it for this month as it had to help last month!

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.	31%
Groceries	All the food and other stuff needed for home	2%
Alcohol for home	Home alcohol consumption only	4%
Bicycles / Car related	Any costs related to either the bikes or the car	1%
Alcohol Out	Generally, its the pub….	1%
Eating Out	I include purchased lunches in this as well as meals out etc.	3%
Other	My catch all for anything I may have missed….	1%
Holidays	Any spending related to holidays, flights etc.	1%
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)	56%

* 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

WOWSER! I knew I had seriously tightened my belt, but 56% (ok rounded up as actually 55.69%). This is my highest EVER savings rate – that’s 3 times this year I have clocked over 50% savings rate

Could I do that level every month? As I was writing this, my view was no. Then I thought back, what did I do in October. One thing I love about writing this blog is it forces me to go back and look at things like this on reflection. I would have said I lived like a hermit, but actually there was the FI meetup, a friends birthday lunch, couple of meals down the pub and a few trips to Majestic / local vintners – so it wasn’t really that bad.

I think I need to challenge myself to do this more, especially for November with Christmas just around the corner!

The things I do nothing about is a bit higher this month due to me taking the income from my other half’s ISA for last month, otherwise it is all steady in absolute terms.

If I am truly honest – I wonder if my alcohol spend is maybe just a little high as it regularly seems to take up some of my income every month – it isn’t healthy, in terms of return on investment (assuming I consume it), it isn’t great either. But you know what? F**k it – I don’t half enjoy it 😀

Overall? A truly stonking month I think I would say after all that – a few more like this and I may even start to repair the damage done to my cash funds earlier in the year!

How was your September?