Peering over the hill...

Grogged

Mid September Update

NW have written to confirm that my R@teSetter OP of £2,000 will be used to reduce the mortgage payment - so that's £18 a month saved, which is nice.
The mortgage currently stands at £90,000.
Together with a second RS OP of £2,000 and the remaining monthly payments, I should end the year close to £86,000.

We have the tree surgeon coming round today to give our tree a short back and sides.
This should give us and the neighbour back some light and us some garden!

Work
This has been a bit :poo emoji: this last few weeks.
The company is making redundancies, and whilst I'm not losing my job, I am having to make people redundant, many of whom I've worked with for years.
The only reason I'm mentioning this, is because I've been surprised by how many are treating their packages as "windfalls".
Whilst the majority are putting the money aside to live on until they get their next job, over a third are looking to spend a sizable amount, if not all of it, on high end electricals, cars, etc.
I just don't get it, especially in the current situation.

Anyhows, stay safe.
G

South_coast

I've been spending mine on OP's 😀😀😀 (and to live on!)

Grogged

We've invested in a George hoover (Henry's cousin), which had its first outing today shampooing the stairs.
Eugh! I think we'll need to do them a few more times, as they look dirtier than before, especially on the front edge.
*Disclaimer -  we do hoover regularly, but haven't had the carpets shampooed in over a year.

Grogged

The September Update

The September update is sponsored by rain, wind and occasional sunny spells (*witches not included).

Usual money stuff first; comfy chair, tea and biscuits follows... ☕🍪

Mortgage

Jan 2020      £98,175

Sep 2020     £90,045

Change        £8,130

%Change     8.3%

Overpaid      £2,675

Sep 20 OP   £2,015

The big OP is due to us exiting R@tesetter, where we've been repaid about 85% of the investment.

This has knocked £18 off the mortgage payments.

Decided to to round the mortgage to £800 per month and carry on with the Monday TT.

This should mean we continue to OP by about £50 a month.

The normal OP is still going into the EF pot.

EF/Cash

Jan 2020      £10,400

Sep 2020     £20,500

Change        £10,100

%Change     97.1%

Target           £18,000

In Sep 20     -£10,000

The R@tesetter money that found a home in the EF pot has been recycled back into the mortgage and the pensions.

What has been done is to open a new 1 year fixed term savings fro October.

This has had £1,000 paid into it.

The plan here is to end up with 12 of these, one per month, in case job is lost.

This should maximise the return on these.

Over time they can be built up to cover monthly outgoings.

Pensions

Jan 2020      £186,400

Sep 2020     £205,300

Change        £18,900

%Change     10.1%

Target           £350,000

In Sep 20     £9,147

Retire at       3%

Sep 2020     £6,159

Target          £10,500

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.

Currently the monthly income from dividends is £73.

By moving the R@tesetter money I'm now in the odd position of needing to move the V@nguard SIPP to another provider.

This is because the ongoing charge will exceed that of a fixed price provider.

As I don't trade regularly, I've chosen to go with Interactive Investor.

This will cost me £240 per year as opposed to about £245 with VG, but that would only go up with new investments and stock market gains.

Happily TCB gave me cashback and II have an offer on which means I get 6 months reduced SIPP fees and a bunch of free trades.

Given the current world economy, an election and Brexit looming; selling out, taking the gains and starting again in November may be a good move - who knows!?!

Grogged Towers News

The Cillet Tree man came and bang! the overgrown tree...

...had a severe hair cut.

We now have a garden again! (and so does the neighbour... oops!)

It was decided that the carpets needed a good clean, because, I was told so.

So bought myself a nice George (not initially mSE, but will be down the road).

My arch nemesis is the stairs.

There's four of them where the edge of the carpet refuses to go beige/light brown.

I have black stripes...

...These have had to be tackled individually with bottled carpet stain remover.

Stubben... watsits! 😡

As Boris has kindly made me a homeworker for another 6 months, I've had to find a more permanent work area.

I've been upgraded from dining table to own table, still using dining room chair.

I've also been put on short biscuit rations - apparently they evaporate from their tub too quickly!

A stern directive was issued by Mrs G... 😢

We been out walking twice a week at the local common and woods.
We're going early, so back home for about 08:30 after an hours walk.

And we've officially started looking for a rescue dog - Jack Russel to Spaniel size.

Which obviously means that every dog in the country is either reserved or Irish wolfhound size...

Stay safe,

G.

Grogged

The MrsG September SIPP Update

This is the story of the good SIPP MrsG which started her voyage 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 2021 this will rise to the maximum £240 per month.

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

September was still a growth month, with the portfolio is showing a profit of £10 and generating £1 a month in dividends.

The tax man kindly topped up the pot with £40, due from previous monthly payments.

I have no idea what fun October will bring, I can only assume another rollercoaster ride at the Covid/Donald/Boris fun fair...

Although only up £10, it has hit the heady heights of £80.

All the September dividends should be paid mid October, which will boost the average monthly dividend somewhat!

October is also when the quarterly fee is due, which was the expected £4.

Investment                                                                           Value       Weight

Equities                                                                                £7,270     69.4%

FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (VUKE)                                            £388        3.7%

FTSE 250 UCITS ETF (VMID)                                             £405        3.9%

FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield UCITS ETF (VHYL)    £1,666     15.9%

FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (VWRL)                                   £2,386     22.8%

FTSE Developed World UCITS ETF (VEVE)                       £2,425     23.2%

Bonds                                                                                   £2,196     21.0%

Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF Distributing (VAGP)    £1,419     13.6%

U.K. Gilt UCITS ETF (VGOV)                                              £777        7.4%

Cash     £996           9.5%

Total      £10,462    100.0%

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 90% global (VAGP) and 10% UK (VGOV).

The equities will be 5% each for the UK (VUKE and VMID) and 20, 30% and 40% each for the global funds (VHYL, VWRL and VEVE).

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

This flexibility allows the right weightings to be maintained going forward.
The portfolio will be rebalanced following payment of the quarterly fee. 

Currently investing cash weekly, which will all be invested by the end of October.

As there has been the odd day when the markets dropped significantly, top ups where made on thoses days as well.

What did happen was to invest all the Bond cash to gain the monthly dividend early (about £1.70 per month currently).

As the bonds are designed to help during economic downturns, it seemed sensible to invest in a lump sum.

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, so there!

Stay safe,

G.

themadvix

Have just read through from the beginning Grogged, having seen you about on other threads. Very sorry to hear about your parents.

 Will be following along from now on...

Grogged

Thanks @themadvix, appreciate the thoughts and for reading!
ATB,
G.

Grogged

Finished all the prep for the pension move to II.
For some (stupid) reason I decided to automate my budget by using the last 12 months of bank statements.
Apparently I'm not a rocket scientist... 😆😆😆
But, like Neo in the Matrix, I now know Excel.
(A bit too much if I'm honest!)

Grogged

So, really confused over the auto budget.
Apparently I should be overdrawn by a few hundred each month...
...reality is that, we're, er, not.
Hmmm, going to have to dig a bit deeper as it doesn't make sense. 🤔

In roast dinner news, we usually have roasted potatoes, but we've been trialling wedges instead.
So far have been a success, just cut potatoes lengthways into 4 or 6 wedges and cook as for roasties.
I'm sure it's diet friendly a well 🙄

longway2go

Hey Grogged, 
Just catching up with your diary, you seem like you are taking a really sensible approach with EF (which is nice and healthy) and pensions alongside the mortgage coming down nicely. The info on pensions has been helpful  so thank you.
Glad you have some garden back.