julicorn's journey 3 - The House on the Hill

julicorn

It's been a lovely weekend, but it went so unbelievably quickly, I don't even know what happened! We had some friends over to play board games last night, which was lovely. We also got quite a bit done today, finally planted out the garlic at the allotment, and Mr julicorn started chopping down a sycamore on our plot that's just a bit pointless and growing out of control. 

The matched betting is going well too. I've been doing a bit more last couple of weeks, and am quite close to £700 now. I've already made more this month than I did in November, which is promising - I thought it might just turn into a bit of a slog after completing the welcome offers, but I'm getting a good hang of the reloads. Even won a fiver on some free spins yesterday, can't complain!

Tomorrow evening is our choir concert, I'm quite looking forward to that. After this coming week I'll also have 2 weeks off work which is lovely, I'm really looking forward to that. We're kicking things off with seeing my favourite musician in London on Friday, then it's Burning the Clocks here in Brighton on Saturday, and then we're off to Germany. 

trix-a-belle

I really should have a crack at matched betting

julicorn

trix-a-belle said:

I really should have a crack at matched betting

I can recommend it, it really is good fun and a good return for the time / effort I out in. It can be a bit daunting when you first start but you'll get the hang of it in no time. 

julicorn

Happy New Year everyone! 

It's been a bit of a wild ride but also a restful time last few weeks, hence me not really posting any updates. We went to an absolutely magical concert in London on the 20th and stayed over, but I started feeling quite ill then, and am only probably getting over that now (still have a nasty cough at the moment). Christmas in Germany was very nice even though I was ill, just spent lots of time reading and eating biscuits.
On Monday we went to the light trail at Wakehurst which was wonderful! We then had a lovely and chilled start to the new year as well with 2 friends, combined it with a little Hanukkah candle lighting and eating lots of latkes, what's not to like? And yesterday we went to see Nosferatu in the cinema. 
Mr julicorn is back at work now, I'm only going back on Monday. There's still quite a bit of tidying to do, especially upstairs. We got a full size freezer delivered for a little storage cupboard / room we have, which prompted the clear-out of said cupboard and with it caused absolute chaos all around the house, starting to move things from one place to another but not quite having finished the job yet. I reckon that'll be our weekend, will be worth it when done though  

I'll post a financial update in a second. We made quite a few contributions in December, market performance wasn't fantastic, but still a good position to start 2025 from. 

julicorn

julicorn said:

End of November update:

Current figures:

Investment ISAs: £74,454.31

Mortgage: £213,005.57

% towards being mortgage neutral: 35.0%

Total retirement pot: £201,061.05

% of early retirement savings: 21.6%

End of December update:

Current figures:

Investment ISAs: £77,493.45

Mortgage: £212,517.37

% towards being mortgage neutral: 36.5%

Total retirement pot: £205,494.55

% of early retirement savings: 22.1%

julicorn

I should also add - that's a £97,256.90 increase in overall pot value from where we were on the first of January 2024. Madness! We moved some other savings into investments which played a role in here, I threw a lot at my pension, but a lot of this is to do with increases in the stock market. 

This year, I'm reducing my pension contributions right down to increase ISA contributions instead. It's not as tax efficient, and means I'll miss out on a bit of money, but it's needed for us to be able to retire as early as we'd like to. I'll keep an eye on things and adjust if need be, a lot of it depends on how the funds perform over time. 

RedLipstick

Happy New Year! The £97k increase sounds fabulous, well done! 

julicorn

RedLipstick said:

Happy New Year! The £97k increase sounds fabulous, well done! 

Thank you so much! I have to admit I have no real idea how the maths is maths-ing on that one, it seems absolutely wild and definitely doesn't feel like we've acquired that kind of money. I'm thrilled with it though  

trix-a-belle

julicorn said:

trix-a-belle said:

I really should have a crack at matched betting

I can recommend it, it really is good fun and a good return for the time / effort I out in. It can be a bit daunting when you first start but you'll get the hang of it in no time. 

Is there a thread on here covering it? I can't seem to find one & would have thought it was discussed once upon a time.

Well done on the increase that's amazing!

julicorn

trix-a-belle said:

julicorn said:

trix-a-belle said:

I really should have a crack at matched betting

I can recommend it, it really is good fun and a good return for the time / effort I out in. It can be a bit daunting when you first start but you'll get the hang of it in no time. 

Is there a thread on here covering it? I can't seem to find one & would have thought it was discussed once upon a time.

Well done on the increase that's amazing!

Thank you. I think back in the day there used to be a whole section of the forum on matched betting, but I think they removed it because it's a really bad idea to get into if you might have a gambling streak / some sort of addictive personality. 
I guess it's a bit like stoozing in that way, great if you use it correctly, but could get you into hot water if you get carried away?