Peering over the hill...

Grogged

Just when you thought it was safe to go back out...
...cue dark skies
...distant rumbling
...then it's back!
I think Rob McKenna may have recently moved here... 😱

coldcazzie

South_coast said:

Apologies for the weather watch - will stop now!

Still nothing here. It's been boring all day today. We've even dried a load of washing!

Grogged

The June Report
This is the first time using a dedicated MSE dashboard in the Master spreadsheet.

Mortgage

Jan 2020	£98,175
Jun 2020	£93,922
Change	£4,253
%Change	4.3%
Overpaid	£626
Jun 20 OP	£19

Unfortunately, I only started tracking monthly mortgage data from January 2019, so I'm just doing YTD numbers.
But I now have a dedicated mortgage forecast sheet using this data.
The original plan this year was for weekly TT and quarterly big OP which allowed me to reduce the mortgage term as well.
The quarterly OP payments have now been diverted to the EF instead.

EF/Cash
Jan 2020	£10,400
Jun 2020	£12,050
Change	£1,650
%Change	15.9%
Target	£18,000
In Jun 20	£154

Not much change this month as I've rejigged the pensions going forward so MrsG can have a bigger pot.
Most of this is with M@rcus split between 1 year and instant availability.

Pensions
Jan 2020	£186,400
Jun 2020	£208,200
Change	£21,800
%Change	11.7%
Target	£350,000
In Jun 20	£4,913
Retire at	3%
Jun 2020	£6,246
Target	£10,500

Most of the gains have come from the performance of the SIPP's.
I have topped up from the P2P accounts which are being closed in favor of the SIPP's.
My SIPP is about 50% invested, with the balance to be invested in the next 6-9 months.
Dividends this month were £240 and quarterly fees £40.
These should increase over time as funds are invested.

Just in case it's not clear the "Retire at 3%" section just shows what the annual retirement income would be if taken as interest only today or at current target.  The state pension would be added on top of that (another £9K at todays rate).
This could be boosted by drawing down on the capital, changing the rate, etc.

MrsG SIPP which just opened for business has received the transfer from the previous provider.
I'll give a full update on the regular monthly MrsG SIPP post at the weekend for those that want to play along at home. 

Grogged

The MrsG SIPP June update

This s a pretty long post, but is split into two parts depending whether you just want the numbers, the aims or both.

This is a shiny new SIPP started in June 2020 with an investment of £1,440 and a transfer from a previous plan.

As MrsG earns no income, her maximum contrubition per year is £2,880, which the kind tax man will top up to £3,600.

The remaining £1,440 will be contributed monthly, from April this will rise to the maximum £240 per month.

For those just interested in the scorecard:

Equities                                                      Value

FTSE Developed World ex-U.K. Equity Index Fund - Accumulation  £555

Global Small-Cap Index Fund - Income                                               £50

FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (VUKE)                                                            £55

FTSE 250 UCITS ETF (VMID)                                                             £54

FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield UCITS ETF (VHYL)                    £78

FTSE Developed World UCITS ETF (VEVE)                                     £629

Bonds 

Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF Distributing (VAGP)                  £314

U.K. Gilt UCITS ETF (VGOV)                                                             £211

 

Cash  £7,625

Total   £9,570

The portfolio grew by £6, of which £1 was in dividends from the bonds.

That isn't much of a surprise, given the transfer happened in late June.

The why?

MrsG has no real pension provision for herself, apart from an old pension that has been looked at in years.

Whilst this won't grow into a strapping oak tree, it's certainly worth being bigger than the acorn it is today.

The aim is to grow this to a pot of £30K over the next 5 years, funded with £18K from us and the tax man and the transfer of £8.1K.

The remaining £6K from investment income and returns.

Whilst you will notice everything is v@nguard, don't let this put you off if you're not a fan.

Every fund provider will offer equivalent funds to the above.

Originally we were going to have a mix of income and accumulation funds, but we've decided to go all in on income funds.

The accumulation funds will be replaced over time.

We had accumulation funds because we wanted to ring fence some of the pot for the 25% retirement drawdown.

Now we just want to live off the income.

We will look to replace these two funds:

FTSE Developed World ex-U.K. Equity Index Fund - Accumulation

Global Small-Cap Index Fund - Income

We'll add this fund to the mix:

FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (VWRL)

Eventually we'll just have 5 equity funds and 2 bond funds.

The bonds pay dividends monthly and the equities quarterly.

These 7 funds should give a well diversified portfolio with a split of 70% equities and 30% bonds.

Equities (70%)

FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (VUKE)                                            5%

FTSE 250 UCITS ETF (VMID)                                             5%

FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield UCITS ETF (VHYL)  30%

FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (VWRL)                                  30%

FTSE Developed World UCITS ETF (VEVE)                      30%

Bonds (30%)

Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF Distributing (VAGP)   75%

U.K. Gilt UCITS ETF (VGOV)                                              25%

The above covers all geographies and market segments.

The UK weightings should be 15-20% for equities and 30-35% for bonds.

Grogged

Seems ages since I've posted - probably because it is... 😯

A bit of a ramble follows, as I try to catch up as things pop out of my head...

It's definitely a slower pace than before CV19.

I can tell this from the bank statements, which are now down to around 25 transactions a month.

A dozen or so direct debits, 3-4 shops and the rest is high finance money moves... 💷

These are the weekly TT to the mortgage and transfers to the EF from r@setter and Z0pa.

I've also cancelled our homeserve cover and moved to BG, a saving of over £100 a year, plus a £30 Amaz gift card.

In music night news we've finally finished the top 100 USA albums (hooray - defo not up to the UK standards 🎶).

Now working through top UK albumns by year.

1961 was interesting - nearly all musical soundtracks - South Pacific, etc.

1962 had the Black & White minsteral show (from the BBC series no less).

Was selective in our listening that week.

It's been interesting to see how RS & Z0pa area treating those who want to get their money back.

With Mr Z, they cycle through all the rests and release a few from everyone.

So, everyone get a little something regulary.

Mr RS on the other hand is strictly chronological.

Looking at their stats, it's currently running at 8 weeks to process a days requests and they're only up to 13 March in their main markets.

Our grillpan has also bitten the dust, we've replaced it with a cheap 4man grill, which works a lot better for us.

As well as grilling it also double sup a panini/sandwich maker!

We did "two hotdogs wrapped in streaky bacon" from a utube video, with homemade wedges and salad.

Very tasty.

In spreadsheet news, decided to remove the bank accounts from the net worth figures.

All these do is start at 100% on payday and reduce to as close to 0% as I dare before next payday.

As they don't really contribute to our net worth by themselves, decided to remove them.

This has made the net worth more meaningful and future planning is more reliable.

And finally (about time I hear you saying!) have booked a tree surgeon to sort out a tree in the back garden.

It's had a growth spurt so we've lost 90% of our sunshine and the neighbours are missing theirs as well.

Won't be till mid September, but finally managed to book one.

Take care, G.

Grogged

The July Update

This is pretty much a functional update as everyday seems to blur together...

The Mortgage

Jan 2020   £98,175

Jul 2020    £93,303

Change     £4,872

%Change  5.0%

Overpaid   £636

Jul 20 OP  £9

A whole 2 days interest OP this month!

Everything else got siphoned into the EF, which is growing nicely!

EF/Cash

Jan 2020     £10,400

Jul 2020      £15,550

Change        £5,150

%Change    49.5%

Target         £18,000

In Jul 20      £3,330

A lot of this has been down to probate.

Saved around £500 from living the lockdown lifestyle.

Another £800 has come from winding down Z0pa and R@teSetter.

The remaining £2,000 from probate payments.

Pensions

Jan 2020      £186,400

Jul 2020       £206,100

Change        £19,700

%Change     10.6%

Target           £350,000

In Jul 20      -£1,818

Retire at 3%

Jul 2020      £6,183

Target         £10,500

July was the first month this year when investments went down.

Given the global pandemic, I'd assumed that investments would have tanked already.

All purchases should have been at rock bottom prices.

Clearly that isn't happening.

Indeed in August so far, back to profit.

What a weird world...

P2P Plans

I've sold out of Z0pa, apart from a rump of £110.

These are loans which can't be sold !!!!!! they're on payment holidays or otherwise late.

I can live with that and am expecting to get a further £60-80 back over the next 5 years.

I'm selling out of R@teSetter.

Most of the money was in the 5 year market, which is being released at warp speed compared to the Access and Max markets.

I expect to have cashed out all the 5 year by the end of August.

I intend to split the repaid money, with £3,000 going to the mortgage, and evenly splitting the rest between the EF and the pension pots.

Energy

Our 2 year OVO contract is now up for renewal, so I have gone with Octopus.

This will save us around £150 per year and also comes with a £36 TCB bonus as well!

There were cheaper options (some with CB), but I'd never heard of them...

Work

We're back to full time working and full time salaries.

As I can't really see our new lifestyle changing that much, guess we'll just have to save a bit more...

The Outside...

Have booked a tree surgeon for September.

Our garden used to have a tree in it, now we appear to have a forest and no garden.

The neighbours are pleased as its started to overshadow their garden as well.

Stay safe.

G

Grogged

The MrsG July SIPP Update

This is a shiny new SIPP started in June 2020 with an investment of £1,440 and a transfer from a previous plan.

As MrsG earns no income, her maximum contribution per year is £2,880, which the kind tax man will top up to £3,600.

The remaining £1,440 will be contributed monthly, from April this will rise to the maximum £240 per month.

The aim is to get a pot of £50,000 by retirement.

Investment                                                                            Value      Weight

Equities                                                                                 £3,156    32.4%

FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (VUKE)                                             £399         4.1%

FTSE 250 UCITS ETF (VMID)                                              £413         4.2%

FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield UCITS ETF (VHYL)     £611          6.3%

FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (VWRL)                                    £782          8.0%

FTSE Developed World UCITS ETF (VEVE)                        £951          9.7%

Bonds                                                                                    £1,108      11.4%

Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF Distributing (VAGP)     £635           6.5%

U.K. Gilt UCITS ETF (VGOV)                                               £473           4.8%

Cash                                                                                     £4,384       44.9%

Total                                                                                      £9,755     100.0%

The bonds paid a monthly dividend of £1.10 this month.

The bond funds pay dividends monthly and the equity funds quarterly.

The current weighting is 80/20 equities/bonds.

The plan is to move to 65/35 by retirement.

Once invested the bonds will be 75% global (VAGP) and 25% UK (VGOV).

The equities will be 5% each for the UK (VUKE and VMID) and 30% each for the global funds (VHYL, VWRL and VEVE).

Each £160 monthly payment buys one VAGP and one VEVE share, the rest is deposited cash, with a £40 government top up 8 weeks later.

This flexibility allows the right weightings to be maintained going forward.

Currently the cash is being invested weekly over 16 weeks, and will be fully invested early November.

As this is a long term buy and hold, there is an argument to just invest straight away.

If it had been a normal year, I'd have probably done that.

This year, I'm drip feeding over the first 16 weeks.

To date the portfolio is showing a profit of £21 and has paid £2.69 in dividends.

Stay safe,
G.

Grogged

Good Bye August...

What a rollercoaster ride that was (if you're a weather watcher)!

Soaring 30s and not an aircon in sight...

Here at Grogged towers we looked over the moat at CV19 land and thought that's not the postcode for us.

We tried really hard to spend money this month, so squeezed in a third supermarket shop as it was a long month.

That takes us to 3 supermarket shops and 8 DD days, but due to DD timings, that was only 10 spend days.

On the work front we wmoved from 80% pay and days to 100% pay and days, but still home bound.

The gold doubloons are fairly piled high under the bed for safe keeping.

In science news, as our daily walk takes us past a lot of blackberry bushes, we picked three bags for life of them.

After a complex process involving sugar, we turned them into three pots of jam...

Over to the MFW and MSE desks of news...

The Mortgage

Jan 2020         £98,175

Aug 2020        £92,678

Change            £5,497

%Change         5.6%

Overpaid         £660

Aug 20 OP      £22

The TT Gods were kind this month, an extra week and some nice rounds down.

Nearly 5 days of interest saved.

EF/Cash

Jan 2020       £10,400

Aug 2020      £30,700

Change          £20,300

%Change      195.2%

Target            £18,000

In Aug 20     £15,166

I'd like to say that I put the facemask to good use at the local bank...

...the reality is that we've cashed out most of our R@tesetter investments.

As you'll see in the Pensions section, that took a corresponding hit...

The plan is to keep £5K in savings, pay £5K off the mortgage and put £5K back into pensions.

The mortgage payment will be split 50/50 to reduce monthly payments and the length of the mortgage.

Pensions

Jan 2020       £186,400

Aug 2020      £196,200

Change         £9,800

%Change      5.3%

Target            £350,000

In Aug 20     -£9,906

Retire at 3% return:

Aug 2020    £5,886

Target         £10,500

Exiting R@tesetter obviously affected the pot.

It will be built up again fairly soon.

Energy

We switch to 0ct0pus, which has gone well...

...apart from final meter readings.

As we have smart meters, trying to manually read them is a PITA.

Unfortunately I read the Gas in kWh, not m3.

I've corrected that as there is a big difference (12x).

The Outside

Two weeks to go before our tree gets it's hair cut.

This should turn gloom wood into sunny vale.

Stay safe,

G.

Grogged

The MrsG August SIPP Update

August will still a growth month, with the portfolio is showing a profit of £38 and has paid £2.69 in dividends.

The tax man kindly topped up the pot with £360, due from previous monthly payments.

September will also probably show similar growth, unless the Covid boom goes south.

Every fund announces dividends this month, which will paid early October.

October is also when the quarterly fee is due, which should be around £4.

This is a shiny new SIPP started in June 2020 with an investment of £1,440 and a transfer from a previous plan.

As MrsG earns no income, her maximum contribution per year is £2,880, which the kind tax man will top up to £3,600.

The remaining £1,440 will be contributed monthly, from April this will rise to the maximum £240 per month.

The aim is to get a pot of £50,000 by retirement.

Investment                                         Value Weight

Equities                                                                                £4,079  39.6%

FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (VUKE)                                               £398    3.9%

FTSE 250 UCITS ETF (VMID)                                                £419    4.1%

FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield UCITS ETF (VHYL)       £919    8.9%

FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (VWRL)                                   £1,159   11.3%

FTSE Developed World UCITS ETF (VEVE)                       £1,185   11.5%

Bonds                                                                                   £1,347   13.1%

Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF Distributing (VAGP)        £811     7.9%

U.K. Gilt UCITS ETF (VGOV)                                                  £536     5.2%

Cash      £4,863      47.3%

Total     £10,290    100.0%

The bonds paid a monthly dividend of £1.10 this month,

The bond funds pay dividends monthly and the equity funds quarterly.

The current weighting is 80/20 equities/bonds.

The plan is to move to 65/35 by retirement.

Once invested the bonds will be 80% global (VAGP) and 20% UK (VGOV).

The equities will be 5% each for the UK (VUKE and VMID) and 30% each for the global funds (VHYL, VWRL and VEVE).

Each £160 monthly payment buys one VAGP and one VEVE share, the rest is deposited cash, with a £40 government top up 8 weeks later.

This flexibility allows the right weightings to be maintained going forward.

Currently the cash is being invested weekly over 16 weeks, and will be fully invested early November.

As this is a long term buy and hold, there is an argument to just invest straight away.

If it had been a normal year, I'd have probably done that.

This year, I'm drip feeding weekly until November.

Stay safe,

G.

Grogged

MFW Update

I done a proper OP of £2,000 (plus 7p in TT), taking the mortgage to £90.7K
This was done from the repayments from R@tesetter.

Still have the usual mortgage payment to go in, so I'll be about £100 shy of £90K...

Off to celebrate with a croissant and some of the homemade blackberry jam from last weekend! 🥐