Your 2017 Financial Review thus Far

Cotta

Hi All,

With 2017 now in its final quarter, I thought it would be interesting to look at our money successes and failures of 2017.

My best piece of information came from this forum which was to setup a regular saver and treat it like an expense each month. I ended up tightening my belt but eventually I began building a fairly decent savings base for the first time in over five years. Whilst I have still much work to do on this front the signs are positive. It has now put me in a position to consider looking at some small investments.

Financially how has 2017 been treating everyone?

tara747

Saved £9,442 so far this year. Not too bad.

chockydavid1983

No real failures for me.
Maximising amounts in current accounts and regular savers and have it now pretty much automated every month.
Saved the max amount into S&S ISA again. Only been investing for 3 years since buying a house so still awaiting my first big crash and hoping to hold my nerve through that.
Just started a small P2P investment, which seems fine for a small % of my portfolio.

bostonerimus

My investments are up 13% this year and I'm saving most of the money I earn from part time work to a personal pension......but it just can't last. I expect 2018 to be worse.

B_G_B

Cotta wrote: »

Hi All,

With 2017 now in its final quarter........

Personally, I run my finances April to April. Keeps things in sync with the financial world that I live in.

Apodemus

I also tend to only assess things on the basis of the tax-year, but I can’t pass up an excuse for some re-analysis! So for Jan to Sep:

The capital value of the investments held from the start of that period is currently 3.8% up (a meaningless figure, as they could easily drop 20% tomorrow).

Yield on the starting figure in January is currently sitting at 3.6% (with a reasonable expectation of the final figure to be about 4.7%). Unlike the capital value, this is actual money and meets my investment criteria.

Total value of my investment fund (capital value + dividends for reinvestment + monthly addition) is 13% up on January (additions = 6% of the 1st January capital value).

The period crosses two financial years and I’ve made two significant (for me!) payments into pension fund, one for each year and this has meant that my cash reserves have dropped by 28%.

I put cash aside monthly against the annualised total of household bills and this fund is currently up 10%. That is within the bounds of variation that can be caused by things like a change of date for a delivery of central heating oil, but close enough that I am confident that the fund is covering my bills.

All-in-all, nothing out of the ordinary. I’m holding more cash than I should be - partly “paralysis by analysis” partly uncertainty over a number of potential costs on the horizon.

Jeems

Last year was the year of high interest current accounts and regular savers. 15 of them, or something like that. This was the year I (finally) moved into S&S. Closed the majority of my current accounts.

My first dabble was with forum favorite VLS80 - I sold up when I was up around 7% and decided to go DIY. Up around 4% on those so far in about 3 months so fairly pleased. Really enjoying the learning experience!

ChesterDog

Across all my investments, currently I am up 11% in the year to date.

Across everything (all my assets), up about 9%.

Flobberchops

Pros:
Diversified across an additional two P2P platforms.
Substantially increased my monthly company sharesave contribution after realising (hindsight!) that last years option price was excellent and I really ought to have capitalised on that
Maintained savings for my daughter and have drawn up a projected plan for her finances from now to age 18 (to be modified as real life happens, naturally)

Cons:
The Halifax account I opened purely for the monthly reward is still sitting there unused
I need to move my very modest S&S ISA to a cheaper platform

bigadaj

bostonerimus wrote: »

My investments are up 13% this year and I'm saving most of the money I earn from part time work to a personal pension......but it just can't last. I expect 2018 to be worse.

Surely not, the trump rally is never ending, that's you negative liberal new Englanders for you.

Cotta

chockydavid1983 wrote: »

No real failures for me.
Maximising amounts in current accounts and regular savers and have it now pretty much automated every month.
Saved the max amount into S&S ISA again. Only been investing for 3 years since buying a house so still awaiting my first big crash and hoping to hold my nerve through that.
Just started a small P2P investment, which seems fine for a small % of my portfolio.

How are you finding S&Ss ISAs, do you self manage or does someone manage for you?

tara747 wrote: »

Saved £9,442 so far this year. Not too bad.

Almost £1k per month, very impressive.