I would just like to say thanks to everyone here for helping me get through my debt paying journey in 2025, all of you helped motivate me to stick at it right to the end of the year, and together i managed to pay off my debt successfully, so Thank you all 🫶🏼
I managed to go until Christmas day with no alcohol, where unfortunately i did have a few beers with the family. But i did manage nearly 12 months without a single drop before then. I think looking ahead to this year, i won't be too fussed about having a beer as much i had done previously either, maybe in summer when the world cup is on i might have a beer or 2 or special occasions like birthdays or xmas etc. But in general i now don't see much point in it tbh, it's all just a waste of money and bad for my health.
So, on to 2026, I am just looking to put aside a chunk of my salary each month to try and build up a savings pot for different things i need in the future. Mainly the debt i owe to my family, that is priority, then i would like 3 months salary to fall back on, then other things like holidays, new car, home improvements all come afterwards. Firstly in a couple of months i can see what my bank is offering on my mortgage renewal and then i can start to look at other providers and see if it is worth switching or not. But in the meantime i am going to concentrate on putting money aside each month.
I believe that because interest rates are falling (which is what i want to help to reduce my mortgage payments in the future) that investing is a much better idea than putting money into a bank/savings account.
I have a Trading212 account and i have made an investment "pie" in a Stocks and Shares ISA account, which will give me upto £20,000 of tax free investments per year (currently). My pie consists of 7 slices and is mainly diverse global funds with smaller proportions of Gold and Bitcoin for future diversification. It gives a rough guide that over a 5 year period my pie would generate an Average Annual Return (AAR) rate of 12.39%, which is better than the interest rates available in banks/savings accounts. You can read more about Stocks and Share ISA's here : https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/stocks-shares-isas/
I won't go into too much detail about the 7 investment slices in my pie, but they are all Accumulating (acc) which means dividends are reinvested into the fund boosting growth more quickly. If you fancy feel free to take a look yourself and let me know what you think : https://www.trading212.com/pies/ltzw4Wew651jgq4oGrepyrZJB4TgC
I plan to invest £20 daily, 5 days a week. I will make my deposits Sunday to Thursday as they will be in the evening when i have more time after i have finished work, the markets will be closed at this point but the money will be invested first thing in the morning the next day automatically by Trading212 (Mon to Fri). As the markets are only open Mon to Fri i will only invest on these days giving me a weekly deposit amount of £100 a week and hopefully roughly £5200 over a year (less bank/public holidays).
But initially i will start my investment journey today with my first £20 deposit as it is the start of the year. The markets arent open today with it being a bank holiday, but i will deposit today and for the rest of this week including the weekend (so Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun), just to get a bit of a build up of funds in the account. Then i will continue with my usual play of £20 per day Sun to Thurs.
I am doing a daily smaller amount of £20 a day rather than a larger lump sum weekly or monthly because i will get a much better price average of the markets over a period of time with roughly 260 daily investments a year, than i would with 52 weekly or 12 monthly investments. If for example there was a big decline in prices one day and a slow recovery to the previous level over a couple of weeks or so then i would benefit from my daily payments being invested at the lower prices, whereas a weekly or monthly investment might not see any or very little movement in price at all. So i think a daily payment is better in that respect. Also doing it daily helps me keep focused on actually saving also.
I have made a small Excel spreadsheet as always to update and keep track of my deposits and investment value daily and overall which i will update on here weekly and monthly. I will adjust this table as and when i need to, if i can think of anything that needs adding over time.
I won't update my expenses on here as i did last year as they are much the same each month anyway, as i don't really do much in life anyway, but i will update unusual, unexpected or large spends that crop up during the year. My main focus is on savings and keeping my balance in credit. I will continue with my savings/emergency account as this helps me to save my money for future expected bills and also for unexpected one off payments that i can use into dip into if needed.
Mainly im here to post my daily quotes which i enjoy finding, reading and posting for you all to enjoy, which i know some of you do and will post updates on my daily investments and how my little investment pie is getting on also.
So just to clarify i have just made my first £20 deposit today into my investment pie (which will get invested by T212 automatically tomorrow morning as soon as the markets open (LSE)). Total deposits this month = £20.00 Total Investment Value £20.00
I don't think i've missed anything but if i have then let me know 🫶🏼
