The Crossover Point

Grogged

Great work in getting over the 50%!
I take it you've not retired on your GameStop punt?
We were disappointed with the UK and American remakes, but loved the original.

Zola.

@Grogged thanks!
On the Bridge, we watched the Swedish version, i always prefer the original in these type of shows for sure.

Yes, I still have the GME for my sins, a sunk cost now haha. But it dod provide a couple weeks of crazy mayhem, but yeah i should have taken the $320 when it was there!

I have a very tiny and fairly dormant revolut fund account that i have one or two single company shares in that i may start to play with once a month, 30-50 quid or so. Moreso for a play thing / entertainment and to scratch that itch. 99% of my investments will always be in index funds but there's a part of me that enjoys finding and learning about different businesses on the small cap index who'll maybe be a giant one day. Like hydrogen fuel companies for example. 

Maybe its the lockdown boredom getting to me!! 😂

Zola.

The markets have lost a little bit of momentum and my portfolio dipped around 3% this month, which means a smaller update this month.

March update: 
S&S ISAs vs Mortgage Debt: 39.72% (+0.29%).  
S&S ISAs & Cash Vs Mortgage Debt: 52.33% (+1.27%). 
Combined Gap to Mortgage Neutral: £46,572 (-£2202)

Grogged

Are you still holding GameStop?
Been a bit of a mixed bag, I ended up ahead, but could easily have been the other way...
Currently March is looking the same as Feb...

Zola.

I do @Grogged   The greater fool theory is back on haha.. I plan to jump out when it goes to $300, which is it is only about 10/20 dollars away from! 

Grogged

You did well there! 🍾

Zola.

I am out at 303 

Zola.

Another month rolls on by... !

The vaccine feels just around the corner for us now, I know some colleagues who have had it who are just slightly older than me, so I know my time is coming.

I am looking forward to seeing the pub open / getting friends together and having a more normal life. Hopefully, the lockdowns will be a thing of the past.

I am however feeling a mild dose of dread at the thought of going back into the office on a more full-time basis. I don't know what that looks like yet, but I can definitely see my company trying to have people in more than at home. It has been a fast year and I much prefer working at home now. Although I do think some office presence is needed for career development (my boss is virtually unreachable these days), I hope for a bit of a hybrid approach.

The market recovered soon after my last update last month and everything is moving along well again.

In a hugely unexpected and grateful update, I received £25,000 from an inheritance right before the end of the tax year. I paid some of this into my toddler's S&S ISA, then invested the vast majority in my ISA (into Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Index). We then kept £2000 for a bit of house maintenance.

With strong markets and this great boost, my numbers have been given a massive turbocharge this month. 

April update: 

S&S ISAs vs Mortgage Debt: 60.29% (+20.57%).  

Investments & Cash Vs Mortgage Debt: 80.06% (+27.73%)

Combined Gap to Mortgage Neutral: £19,639 (-£26,933)

Grogged

We've just had our jabs and like you are wondering what happens when normality returns...
Not sure how I feel about going back to an office or shops for that matter! 

Zola.

May is here and the sun is finally back again more so than not...!
Some good news to share this month. My wife is now 12 weeks pregnant, so my little son should be a big brother for Christmas, which is very exciting. She has been suffering from morning all-day sickness which has been pretty brutal and is very random, some days are ok and others are not. 

Huge frugal win this month - my brother works in construction and managed to get lots of really nice paving slabs from the redevelopment project he is on, they would be scrapped otherwise and were discarding literally thousands of them. He already used some for his garden and they look fantastic. There's a little bit of work in tidying them up (grinding off the sand and cement from the edges)...  I have around 140 of these and plan to do up a nice BBQ/entertainment area in the warm sun trap part of my garden next month. 

The world seems to be opening up for business again which is great, hopefully, the Indian variant won't cause any further havoc for us all..

On the financial side, investments have been stuttering and as a result, haven't progressed my numbers much this month. 


May update: 

S&S ISAs vs Mortgage Debt: 60.42% (+0.13%).  

Investments & Cash Vs Mortgage Debt: 80.06% (-0.34%)

Combined Gap to Mortgage Neutral: £19,847 (+£208)