Statement of intent

StuartGMC

SMF2 best wishes in your research. Markets have dropped back as expected, may remain flat through the summer?

OH has highlighted the need to replace DD's bedroom furniture (her wardrobe is too small for her clothes now she's grown....) and I haven't accounted for this.

Wants to this in the summer break so I think that'll be another £400 or so to replace everything. Will need to see if I can then recoup a few pounds on the items we get rid of.

Car service is due very soon. Need to look at whether I can defer to mid-August. Not sure if it is a Saturday AM job with the MOT, or an "all day" booking. More money to spend :eek:

I get paid next week so should then be able to look at our remaining costs to September, but, not looking easy to clear mortgage in October, may need to defer a little. Will update as data becomes available.

abouttimetoo

Hi Stuart, how you doing? Your thread had been quiet this week? Mind you, I can talk as I never seem to get a second lately to do any updates on my own!

I loved your pie charts and the sensible spread of investments you have, I'm always very conscious that all my eggs seem to be in one basket and keep promising myself that I'll look into changing this situation but to date have not done this...

Now off to look at some travel insurance, I saw a cheap recommendation in one of Martin Lewis's newpaper columns and as I'm going away next month I'd better get cracking:rolleyes:

StuartGMC

abouttimetoo wrote: »

Hi Stuart, how you doing? Your thread had been quiet this week? Mind you, I can talk as I never seem to get a second lately to do any updates on my own!

Yes, been quite a busy week all round so limited to a few postings on other threads really.

I loved your pie charts and the sensible spread of investments you have, I'm always very conscious that all my eggs seem to be in one basket and keep promising myself that I'll look into changing this situation but to date have not done this...

The charts don't of course show the risk profile which is probably still a little high in balance. We're not putting more into Russia now and since rebalancing the portfolio in January (from 3 funds now spread over 6 funds, plus Russia) we're putting money across a wider range. This was helped by many funds (at least on interactive investor) reducing minimum investments from £50 down to £20 per month. Whilst we put £300 per month in, this is split 50/50 in ISAs for me and OH; both being identical which limits the total spread we can gain but avoids one performing significantly different to the other...

If you are getting away on a break, why not start to gather data now to review when there so you can run some comparisons once you are back?

I need to look in to green technology (cleantech as it seems to be now) and probably a fund focused upon Europe for us to utilise once MF and we can invest more each month. Money Observer actually has a good article this month on cleantech and the "Sinners" index....

However, we'll be looking carefully at how much is put to Funds and that we put to savings (Cash ISA, index-linked certs etc).Not sure about individual equities as I don't think I'll have the time but AIM listings may get something if we aere flush....

Presently we're back at >100% offset for a week or so. Not making savings at anywhere near the target which is very annoying; holiday spending cash to be obtained soon and car service, so July won't get a lot better :mad:

StuartGMC

Having bemoaned the spending position, I've just added to it

Succinctly, our printer is Epson Color 880 ink-jet, running off our network attached storage so it is accessible to the laptop too, but, this can be a little unreliable. Also, we've used compatible inks for a while not all of which have been good. DD needs more reliability for school work (presently printing pictures for a school project) and more so when she moves up in Sept, and OH often needs to print things for the Brownie pack she runs.

I've held off on a replacement printer for quite some time (you see I print only limited things and it does seem to work for me ) but conceded this morning it was time to replace the 10YR old ink jet, rather than buy more ink for it. I think we've had our monies worth from it

So, trawled around for colour laser printers. Didn't require one with scanner as we have a USB scanner (no extra mains plug or current demand) and I'm of the opinion that it's cheaper to have them separate and replace when needed. However, having recently moved to laser colour printing at work and seen the quality I thought this was the way to go at home too.

Checked the purchase prices via Google shopping / Kelkoo and the cost of replacement toners. Was looking at a Dell but then saw Xerox 6110 about £85 plus VAT. However, the Xerox Phaser 6125 at £109 plus VAT has offer until 30 June of a free set of replacement toners worth about £110, and it is a slightly better unit with by-pass tray for envelopes etc.

So that sealed it; via TopCashBack ordered the 6125 from Oyyy (3% back, and very good customer comments) and have downloaded and printed the claim form for Xerox for the toners (can't send it until I have the serial n° from the unit). Oh, and orders over £100 were on a special free delivery too :T

So got unit at a good price, should get about £3.75 cashback, saved £6 on shipping plus the £110 worth of toners which should see us through maybe 2years use.

StuartGMC

I had hoped to post this yesterday but Google docs had some problems. Anyway, I've mentioned our Funds ISAs and their movements, and our continuation with investing despite the downturn, However a picture is worth a thousand words... so here goes:


In this the yellow represents the monthly payments in (multiple points at same value are just artifacts linked with graphing) with the straight line showing trend; red shows the actual value of our holdings (plus trend) and blue the loss/profit position (on right had axis which is a different scale).

I think you can readily see why in Sept we got nervous and had a "decision" point scheduled for December. You will also see the rapid recovery in the first 6 months of this year - if only we had more cash to have risked in that period!

However we all know such investments should be for 5+ years and we've only had the earliest ones there for 3yrs so far. It does however help to have this in the household budgeting spreadsheet as it gives a good indication of how much the Funds need to further recover to return to breakeven. If we had put this amount into savings we at least would not have the shortfall, but, likewise we hope units bought now whilst cheap will be the ones to grow the most over the next 3+ years.

Remember, i) these are the long-term savings, we have cash offsetting too, ii) we have company pensions which (at the moment are final salary based) and iii) I have an annuity from 60 from previous employer which in today's terms is equivalent to a £100k annuity purchase. So these investments are there to grow and give us extra resources in the future.

What's your view?

Tesco_points_addict

Hi Stuart

Glad you are well, are you putting all these charts up to confuse blonde peeps like myself???:rotfl:

TPAx

StuartGMC

Even Blondes should be able to follow that..... :rotfl:
Basically as red is below yellow then we are in loss versus the sum invested. Blue shows the magnitude of this loss.

Now, if you had only started to invest from October 2008 you'd have seen about 35% return on your investment by now. "Timing is everything" but for us we'll continue with the pound cost averaging of a regular investment per month, and will hopefully be significantly increasing investments from early 2010 when mortgage free. The critical thing is that I am very aware that I need to be well informed to make decisions or to seek advice on same with some degree of understanding... that adds some pressure for sure!

My view - we'll see a leveling off now through summer and then a slow lift in Q4, with steady growth in 2010.

<<< You can quote me on that folks as it's the basis of our planning that we're buying now while cheap!>>>

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Stuart... I'm loving the graphs and charts. I can study them for a few minutes, I'm on MSE but my collegues think I'm working hard!

StuartGMC

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

Stuart... I'm loving the graphs and charts. I can study them for a few minutes, I'm on MSE but my collegues think I'm working hard!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Guess Martin should be putting these on a "hide now the boss is coming" button?

Of course, IT still know where you've been, when and for how long.... our draconian restrictions on personal use at work would soon have you under investigation tut, tut...;)

However, I would be interested to know how many here on MSE do record their data and view it graphically; is it common or, (gulp), a sign that I'm far too addicted to spreadsheets?

ShelleyC_2

StuartGMC wrote: »

However, I would be interested to know how many here on MSE do record their data and view it graphically; is it common or, (gulp), a sign that I'm far too addicted to spreadsheets?

No way I love the graphs. I think it makes things easier to understand other than to blondes (sorry TPA )

Very motivating. I have my savings on a spreedsheet make have to produce some graphs :j