Statement of intent

StuartGMC

ali007 wrote: »

Mine too - now she loves You Are What You Eat - but salivates at the 'before' table, not the 'after' table. Am I a bad mum .

No Ali, you just provide an excellent meal so your daughter loves food, nothing wrong in that; reminds me that our DD was onto vintage mature cheddar when moving to solids many years ago. Wife then spotted info to say "mild cheeses only"; full of guilt tried Edam which was well and truly rejected. Needless to say, she was soon into curry, chilli etc and only this weekend prompted us to "buy some more of that lovely 3year old really strong cheddar" (AKA Lincolnshire Poacher I think).

Moral: feed them good "adult" food early, then when their appetite narrows, it is still able to accommodate a healthy balance. It'll broaden again later.

Stuart, really interesting read, em, not an accountant are you by any chance . £3,600 is nothing & will be turned around in no time :T

No, I'm not an accountant (no offence intended to the profession!); Manager related to materials R&D actually. However, once I got the spreadsheet pinned down it REALLY helped me see the picture on spend etc so I felt able to the tackle issues and it was at that stage that we took greater control than simply over-paying. Seeing the %interest rate on the mortgage drop as offset increases, %portions of income being saved, overpayment as a % of monthly repayment, totaled position on monies and nearing a net zero position etc are real drivers to keep up the effort rather than just the balances in the accounts.

Cheers

StuartGMC

Welshlassie wrote: »

Hi Stuart
Sounds like you are really on top of your situation. Loving the sound of your spreadsheet and would be interested to see a copy if possible. I'm still trying to find the best way of keeping on track of our spending and savings and don't think I'm there yet although it is always improving.

I'll see if I can produce a "blank template" (I use OpenOffice, but can save in Excel format - oh, forgot to mention I always use open source software rather than purchase where feasible. Must add to the "savings I've made list"). The problem is it grew like Topsy so it may not be entirely easy to populate alone.

Give me some time to review and I'll see what I can manage. The graphs include extrapolation data in addition to the numerical tables; these may not work but I'll give it a try.

We have a 9 month DS who loves his trike, unfortunately we're not in a position to all go cycling together, but am really looking forward to it when we can, we have recently bought 3 bikes off ebay to do up over the next few weeks so we have bikes available when we are ready to go.

Wow 9months a few weeks and he has to be riding a bike alongside mum... you've got some high targets for him. Has he got to also do up his own bike? (just kidding! :rotfl:)

Wanted to wish you good luck with your goals, I don't doubt you will reach your goal next year as you sound really positive, prepared and realistic about the economic sitation. (personal and worldwide)

Many thanks for the encouragement and best of luck with your endeavours.

StuartGMC

setmefree2 wrote: »

Hi

Do you think that Latin America will come on booming? Do you think it's a better bet than China and Asia?

It's anyone's call; the fund I'm using (Threadneedle Latin America Ret 1 Acc (ADLAG) if it is of interest) is mainly in Brazilian and Mexican equities. Brazil portion is heavily weighted to Petrobras who have made more massive offshore gas discoveries recently and of course Brazil has cleared the debt problems and been lifted to an investment rating. Much of the rest of the fund is mobile telecoms and minerals.

Much of Asian development has been export oriented, hence the jitters when USA consumers rein down on spending. So, my simple (non-professional) view is that Latin America may be a better bet. Also, we have to consider that the portfolio is balanced and I may later look to also buy into an Asian fund, it's just I want to focus investment realistically in terms of amount invested in each area.

I will probably look to have up to about 25-30% invested in high risk markets for next 3-4 years, top slicing where profits look good enough, but accepting these could fall a lot. That'll make me 47 so still time to recover thereafter.

I know others would argue invest in individual equities, "why pay someone to do the assessment and not guess any better than you?" However, I don't have time to look at a multitude of prices daily/review P/E etc and insufficient funds to spread out over 30 plus equities to get the balanced portfolio typically recommended.

As noted, I use www.iii.co.uk, as it has free information and cheap fees for your ISA funds etc but there are a wide range of resources out there to do your research within.

Good luck

abouttimetoo

Hi StuartGMC

I just wanted to pop my head round the door and say hi.

Thanks for a really interesting thread; I can certainly relate to your comments about how once you got your spreadsheet pinned down you could see what the situation was and then do more than 'simple overpaying', I only started with my own MFW quest 2 months ago and at that time i was literally thinking about using spare monthly cash to make the overpayments. I quickly realised I could do far more than that so started trawling through my dd's and s/o's, then made sure i had the best deals for things etc. (Plus I always love a pretty, whizzy spreadsheet:D )

Once I had the outgoings sorted out I turned my attention to my savings and investments which has proved errrm, 'interesting', not least to do with an ongoing tussle with a company I have shares in who currently won't fully admit I own c. £12k of their shares (a long story but they can confirm the certificate numbers are valid and have never been sold but because their system for pre 2003 has been archived they can’t officially confirm I own then and add them to my on-line account - I have to write to them with full details, photocopies to get them to amend my account). Something else I found when I was going through my shares were some I bought on a punt (only time I've done this) when the dot.com stuff was all the rage in 2000; I had thought they had gone to the wall pretty quickly but I've picked up a trail that they might still be in business, I only bought £500 worth at the time but you never know.

Actually, I say I've got my outgoings sorted out but I need to get my act together with British Gas as my upstairs neighbour in the same property as mine has his heating blasting 7 days a week nearly all day and night yet his bills are exactly half of mine and I only live there at weekends when the heating is on for a few hours (I work away during the week).

Deep sigh, there’s always something isn’t there but I must admit I’m getting a great sense of satisfaction from getting to the bottom of my financial situation, I’ve always been aware of where I am with money but now feel even more in control.

Good luck with all your plans, you really sound like you’ve got a firm grip on things.

setmefree2

Thanks for your thoughts on Latin America - I'm always thinking about what to do with my pension. The returms in Europe & America probaably wont be that great for a while, so need other options.

Thanks Again

SMF2

Jonbvn

StuartGMC wrote: »

Brazil portion is heavily weighted to Petrobras who have made more massive offshore gas discoveries recently and of course Brazil has cleared the debt problems and been lifted to an investment rating. Much of the rest of the fund is mobile telecoms and minerals.

Therein lies the reason for the recent good performance. My oil stocks have been going big guns this year, keeping my overall portfolio in +ve territory. However, some people (e.g. Soros) are saying that oil as a commodity is a bubble. What happens to the oil co. stocks when the bubble bursts? Interestingly, on the way up there was a significant lag between the commodity and the oil co. stocks.

StuartGMC wrote: »

As noted, I use www.iii.co.uk, as it has free information and cheap fees for your ISA funds etc but there are a wide range of resources out there to do your research within.

The general consensus on MSE is that H&L offer the best deal (cheapest fees).

Welshlassie

StuartGMC wrote: »

I'll see if I can produce a "blank template" (I use OpenOffice, but can save in Excel format - oh, forgot to mention I always use open source software rather than purchase where feasible. Must add to the "savings I've made list"). The problem is it grew like Topsy so it may not be entirely easy to populate alone.

Give me some time to review and I'll see what I can manage. The graphs include extrapolation data in addition to the numerical tables; these may not work but I'll give it a try.

That would be great if you could, but don't worry if you can't.

StuartGMC wrote: »

Wow 9months a few weeks and he has to be riding a bike alongside mum... you've got some high targets for him. Has he got to also do up his own bike? (just kidding! :rotfl:)

We bought 2 mountain bikes and a BMX (DH has always wanted a BMX for when we are camping), all 3 came up together with local collection. We only paid £30 for them all so thought it was too good a deal to miss. Thinking we might can one of those trailer things for DS in the meantime until he is big enough to join us. :T But there's no harm in getting him in the swing of fixing things up himself nice and early.

setmefree2

EVIDENCE FOR SPECULATION

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5dbd0ffe-30ef-11dd-bc93-000077b07658.html


Article about Soros and oil commodities bubble - what he is about to tell the senate

EVIDENCE AGAINST SPECULATION

However, another interesting piece here:-http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/4007#more

QUOTE from the oil drum forum

"Speculation
Financial speculation in oil futures is being offered increasingly as the reason for high oil prices. True, speculation is rife. However, the futures market is a zero sum game. For every long position there is a short position and the price is ultimately struck by the individual who takes delivery of the oil - which is then refined and purchased by a consumer. For so long as consumers keep demanding oil at ever higher prices, the price will continue to rise.
The only way speculation could impact the oil price is under accumulation. Inventories of crude oil and refined products have been falling for a year (see figures 14 to 17)."


Wish I knew?

kassytbag

Hi Stuart, as someone who is struggling to get to terms with spreadsheets etc can you tell me which one you use and is it easy to pick up?
many thanks

StuartGMC

kassytbag wrote: »

Hi Stuart, as someone who is struggling to get to terms with spreadsheets etc can you tell me which one you use and is it easy to pick up?
many thanks

Kassy
I use OpenOffice which is a full office suite which you can use instead of Microsoft Office. OpenOffice is open source, which means volunteers around the world develop the software and (with the help of Sun Microsystems) distribute it for free! It has versions on Windows, Linux, Mac OS etc.

You'll need a broadband connection to download from www.openoffice.org

Ease of use for what you'll need to do is no different to Excel. Most likely you'll want to add a few cells together etc and you simply start in the cell to do the sum as
=sum(A1...A6)

That would add the cells in Column A rows 1 to 6

I'll PM you with a link from my personal web site to other OpenSource and useful tips.

HTH