Millionaire Challenge

Muhren

Yeah I would be able to live quite comfortably I think. Even if I were to buy a new house, which I don't need anything bigger at the moment, that would still leave me with around £650-700k which I would invest and draw down for income.

On a different not I went and had a look at the start of your MFW thread, I can't really remember posting in that thread, I was going through a rough time of it then, but still thought I would have remembered those posts. So you have a mortgage at the moment, you would still need to spend an additional £800k on a new house?

Danni-R

Its funny how time changes your memory. 
Look at you being all sensible. I hadn't even thought about investing it just taking a modest salary from it (bit less than I'm on now). 
I don't think I'd sell where I live now. I've not got much (in the scheme of things) left on the mortgage and I could probably rent it for £1k a month which is a lot more than my mortgage. But I live in a flat with not much space so an upgrade would be nice. 

scaredofdebt

Danni-R said:

Muhren said

If someone put a million in my bank account tomorrow I would be handing in my notice the same day! 

Would you be able to give up work though? 
If I had a million I'd buy a house which round here is £500k+ or I could buy a house somewhere a bit nicer and that would be closer to £800k which leaves me £200k which is nice but I'd need 28 ish years of wages out of that. 

With £200k you could buy 6/7 properties around where I live (County Durham) and the rental income for each would be £300+ monthly for each.  So you could earn a wage for that depending on occupancy rate, maintenance costs etc.

unkle

scaredofdebt said:

Danni-R said:

Muhren said

If someone put a million in my bank account tomorrow I would be handing in my notice the same day! 

Would you be able to give up work though? 
If I had a million I'd buy a house which round here is £500k+ or I could buy a house somewhere a bit nicer and that would be closer to £800k which leaves me £200k which is nice but I'd need 28 ish years of wages out of that. 

With £200k you could buy 6/7 properties around where I live (County Durham) and the rental income for each would be £300+ monthly for each.  So you could earn a wage for that depending on occupancy rate, maintenance costs etc.

I've never seen so many properties for sale for £1k!

helensbiggestfan

hello everyone

just thought I'd drop by for a quick catch up.  Needless to say I haven't made it to the magic £m. Yet.!!!  In fact I have done very little on the money making front, basically just treading water this year.  At least my shares have now recovered to their pre covid levels, after taking a nosedive earlier.  

It's been a bit of a "annus horribilis" for so many. There's a lot of heartache out there and many people are very stressed and anxious.  I consider myself extremely fortunate in that everyone I know and care about has got through ok, no serious sickness and no job losses.  I did spend most of the year in isolation, shielding my pregnant DIL in our little bubble.  My second grandson was born in November, hale, hearty and very hungry😂 so we are now able to relax a little, nothing spectacular but it's nice to be able to grocery shopping again. Small pleasures.  😁

Hope you are all well and staying healthy.  Hopefully now that the vaccine is on the horizon we can put this awful year behind us and look forward to better times in 2021.  

In the meantime, wishing you all a lovely Christmas, and a happy, healthy and wealthy new year.  

droopsnoot

I've also done very little, although one of my little hobbies did bring in a bit of income during the summer as people realised that they had some unexpected time to use some of the things I make. Not likely to make me a millionaire any time soon, though.

For the first time this (tax) year I actually put money into an S&S ISA, as opposed to leaving it until a couple of days before deadline and going for a cash ISA because it was quicker. That went into a "recovery" fund which is entirely made up of companies that had lost a lot of value due to "these challenging times", hospitality, retail and holiday-related stuff, and automatically sells a holding when it gets back close to the pre-covid share price. It was showing ~40% up the other day, which isn't bad from March for something I don't have to be involved in, other than supplying the money. A mate that I run into in the pub (ah, I remember them) was doing something similar manually, it will be interesting to see how the results compare after all this is over.

Tropically

I've been having my best year ever, to be honest. A lot of it is because of following Boglehead principles (invest early and often) and by staying the course. I have kept investing. I kept investing in March and I've kept investing now. 
We started the year with a net worth of £377,799 and although December pay still needs to come in, we are currently at £469,000. Having stocks and shares has an exponential effect on our salaries as it grows so much. So much more than our paycheque. I can't wait until I crack £500,000. 
 

Ray_Singh-Blue

Tropically said:

Having stocks and shares has an exponential effect... it grows so much. So much more than our paycheque.

We started the year with a net worth of £377,799 and although December pay still needs to come in, we are currently at £469,000.

That's great! However, I feel posts like these should also acknowledge that investing is not a one way street. 
I also learned a lot from bogleheads.org. Although quite US-centric, there is some very good information there in the wiki and unpacked on the forum. One of the most important parts in my view, is considering how the numbers may plummet in bad years, and deciding how to deal with that possibility -psychologically, behaviourally.

For example, lets imagine this post rewritten for 2018, when global markets fell 4.4% on average:

Tropically might have said:
Having stocks and shares had a slight damping effect... it fell a little. But no matter, we had some decent paycheque.

We started the year with a net worth of £377,799 and although December pay still needs to come in, we are currently at £360,000.

Or in 2008, when markets lost 37% of their value:

Tropically might have said:
Having stocks and shares had a pretty bad effect... it fell so much. So much more than our paycheque.

We started the year with a net worth of £377,799 and although December pay still needs to come in, we are currently at £237,000.

Or heaven forbid, after the stock market massacre of 1929-31 where America's stock markets fell 67% :

Tropically might have said:

Having stocks and shares had a truly terrible effect... it's all gone to custard. So have our jobs..

We started the year with a net worth of £377,799 and we won't be getting paid in December. We are currently at £124,600.

Don't get me wrong.  I think that most people should consider investing, like you are doing. In fact I think it is the second most likely way for many of us to reach £1 million, after property.

But if so, they need to be able to stomach a bad year or two.

2020 has been a good year for stocks & it's great that this has bolstered your balance sheet & taken you nearer the £1,000,000 goal. Hope you carry on doing really well, Tropically.

Muhren

Muhren said:

So I managed to go quite a way beyond my end of year target, I am now standing at just over £279k including the house and just over £157k without. This has in part being due to the shares that I hold in the company I work for recovering, not quite back up to where they were but definitely a vast improvement from where they started the year.

So what is the target for the end of this year then.... I am going to aim for £320k, again that is going to be tough but I guess you have to aim high.

Happy New Year everyone, and I hope 2020 will be a great year for you all.

So now that we have got that **** year out of the way, here is to a healthy, happy and successful 2021.

It must be the first time in years that I have not had a hangover on New Years Day, so I have gone through and had a look at where my finances were at the end of 2020. I managed to hit my year end goal, finishing with £324k with the house and £198k without. That leads me onto my target for the end of this year, I am aiming for £375k, let's see how this year plays out then.

helensbiggestfan

Happy New Year Everyone.......

thank goodness 2020 can now be consigned to the history books.  I appreciate it will be a few months yet before things get back to some sort of normal but at least there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Well done Muhren.......congratulations on hitting your year end target.  Feels great doesn't it when that happens.  And yes, definitely aim  high.

I did my figures and forecasts a couple of weeks ago.  I'm happy enough.  I am really looking forward to surging ahead this year, even if the first couple of months will most likely have to be spent in semi lockdown. It will likely be a while before I can really swing into action, but theres  plenty I can be getting on with for now to keep a steady trickle coming in. Unfortunately i am going to need some pretty expensive dental work this year. Hey ho,  I'll just have to try even harder and earn more to compensate....turn that trickle into a torrent.  😂