Millionaire Challenge

Thank you MKeynesMoneySaver. The items i bought were all antiques and they definitely do not seem to be selling at the minute .I definitely think that you are right ,i will be quite happy to recoup my money at the minute but if i made a small profit as you say it would feel even better ,i am just hoping that i wont lose money .
I think that as i move forward i will break down the number of items that i buy so for example if i had £1600 instead of 8 at £200 i would buy 2 at £200 4 at £100 and say 16 at £50 thereby giving myself a better chance of at least selling some and drawing even and hopefully taking a small profit and i realise that i wont always double up even a small profit on each would be good.
That is certainly true about ebax i have had the same thing happen many times it always amazes me .

Thats a very good point Kayalana ,i am definitely struggling to double up each individual item ,little steps do sound much easier i am definitely going to try that as i think i would get to goal much quicker each time .Thank you for helping me see outside the box ,i dont know why i have felt disappointed if i have not doubled up each time ,silly when you think about it

Morning all,

I’m just checking in with my yearly update as yesterday was the final payday of the year. The plan this year was to grow networth by 20k up to £162k, I’ve exceeded targets and I’m clocking in my final score for 2017 at £165,036! If someone could magic me up another 1630 quid or so, I would be writing this message as 1/6th of a millionaire instead of the “lowly” 1/7th of a millionaire I find myself at today. £166,666.67 will be a nice little achievement I hope to reach early 2018. 1/5th (200k) is probably out of reach for 2018 but I hope it’s not too far off?

I started recording networth sometime in 2013 (68k nw) and although I’ve always been a good saver it’s not really until 2014/2015 I started investing. Looking at the numbers I’m close to adding 100k to my nw over the last 4 years. So not just 166.67k but also 168k will be a nice milestone to look back on what I’ve achieved. “Money comes to money” so it will be interesting to see how long the next 100k takes... I would bet under 4 (and a bit) years though.

Dec 2013 NW 68k
Dec 2014 NW 82.5k
Dec 2015 NW 110k
Dec 2016 NW 142k
Dec 2017 NW 165k

So 23k gained this year and that’s with a decent holiday and a few overindulgences compared to my much more focused 2016. Of the 23k about half is from return on investments... when you look at minimum wage at £7.50 an hour? You are looking at £13650 a year (based on a 35 hour week) and although I’m not quite there yet, i almost earned minimum wage from my investments this year!! I feel like I need to say that again.. I nearly earned a whole extra wage this year! It’s like I’ve created a clone and sent him out to work. If I can get this clone earning minimum wage year after year (and maybe a little more again?) then the original me will be able put his feet up, turn off the alarm and stop working the 9-5. I have chosen to live on the equivalent of minimum wage over a year before and saved the rest in some years, Fair play to those who do get by on minimum wage as a necessity and not a choice, but I think I would want a little more than that if that is going to be my lifestyle forever. So 2 clones should do the trick just for the added security if I was going to pack in paid work.



So looking at 2018, using my usual calculations, I think 186k should be the target but I’ve overhit every year so far so let’s do a stretching target of 190k.

There’s no magic formula to my progress it’s just a high savings rate and the confidence now to invest instead of save. I’ve backed a few losers this year (but hope they will come good in the new year) but mostly my investments are just in balanced funds and then a fair bit in the Indian stock market too.

Hope everyone else can tally up this year and call it a success, whether that’s financially or just through knowledge gained to make 2018 something even more special. Have a great Christmas everyone.

Thanks LL, happy to race you to £190k.
These sort of targets are a little out of my control though.. If I could learn to live off of dust and air I still couldn’t gain 25k with flat returns everywhere, so although I can influence some of my gains the markets do have to be kind to me and my chosen investments do need to perform.

I really have high hopes for India’s future and it’s easy to get carried away when you get something silly like 29% returns but I have my percent allocation and have managed to stick to it. I try not to think about things like...if everything I had was earning 29% or if I got into bitcoin a year or two ago (I have no bitcoins)... because with that sort of thinking it’s easy to both gain and lose a lot. I want to do well under any set of circumstances not just have either the best or worst result. So although my allocation could earn me more than it has this year I hope when times are not so rosy it doesn’t mean I lose my shirt either!

Best of luck adding to the pile.

If the topic interests you, I found Martin ford’s rise of the robots a good read. I read other similar books but that one stood out.

My work recently announced they plan to automate a few processes leading to job losses. It didn’t effect me this time but no doubt there will be changes in the future that will mean I’m made redundant. I’m not currently concerned about my ability to get another job so bring on the payout when it comes!

There are a few jobs that you would expect to be safe whatever changes come along ... I could see myself being a counsellor if I wanted a career change. I can’t imagine people born today could get used to talking about their problems with a robot.

I wonder if people would go to pubs if there was just a drinks dispensing machine in a hall? Human interaction is always going to be favoured and so jobs relating to that won’t just disappear any time soon.

If changes are going to happen It would be nice if the job market drastically developed around a time when I have my finances in order, especially if the increased productivity of the robots mean a universal living wage is put into practice. That could be a very young retirement age for me if it all falls into place.

There will be changes in our lifetime and the positive, capable, motivated people will get ahead and adapt. Same as any generation before us really.