Statement of intent

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

StuartGMC wrote: »

MRN
We had to replace the fridge (AEG) when it failed as I noted in March, the new unit was a good rated one on energy but, I just feel it runs more often....

Gas is another story though; the boiler is nearly 20yrs old and although the Energy Review indicated 21yrs to get return on replacement cost, this might well be worth looking at again. I was however, intending to get more awareness on the reliability of the condensing boiler designs before hand.

Our fridge (it came included in the house) is showing signs of failing... at the mo.

Back boiler is fully functioning... we're getting quotes at the moment for condenser boiler instead... from speaking to the gas men and friends it seems efficiency has largely improved in the last 25 years (yep that's the age of ours although we were told the fire front is only 5 years old) but reliability hasn't! I can't bring myself to ditch something that's working fine... apparently you can sometimes sell them on, especially the fire fronts, just another way to recoup a little of the cost. Also to 'others' the value of the house is improved because of a higher energy rating (bring on reliability ratings I say!) so its not just savings on reduced fuel costs that count.

I had a long conversation with one knowledgable gas man. I said that I could get two hot showers out of 10mins of the gas backboiler on. He said that if those two showers took 5 mins each then we'd be saving even if the efficiency was the same. There are minor flaws in his logic: I take 10 mins in the shower, I can't put the timer on for less than 10mins so less might be ok but I wouldn't know unless I turned it on and off manually every morning, about half the mornings MrMRN isn't here so we do waste about 5 minutes of gas on those days... but on the whole I can see his point.

StuartGMC

LilacPixie wrote: »

The problem with working 60+ hours a week and having 2 kids under 3 is the fiddly jobs like speard sheets, ironing washing windows tends to get put off until the twelf of never. I am getting there but needing a few moremonths of data to get a fuller picture

That's a lot of hours. I hope the averaging functions help in the spreadsheet, they did for us rather than the "estimates". However, when the numbers start to rise it can lead to a little tension OH "no I've not been buying anything different", me "so the 10% rise is real then?"

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

Our fridge (it came included in the house) is showing signs of failing... at the mo.

From our experience when our fridge freezer failed whilst we were on holiday a few years ago, replace it now... we came home at 0130hrs and had a hot fridge as the food was decomposing and generating heat. It had also resulted in fluids leaking out and need us to replace kitchen cupboards....

Back boiler is fully functioning... we're getting quotes at the moment for condenser boiler instead... from speaking to the gas men and friends it seems efficiency has largely improved in the last 25 years (yep that's the age of ours although we were told the fire front is only 5 years old) but reliability hasn't! I can't bring myself to ditch something that's working fine...

Yes the critical point is reliability and in my job I have some awareness of problems related to corrosion in these types of units, so I'm even less sure :eek:

StuartGMC

Interest on the mortgage in July was £1.86 so whilst it is less than a pint of beer, it still wasn't a 0% cost which I had hoped to target.

I'm one of the suspected H1N1 cases; was off work yesterday called Doctor and talked through. He thought there was a likelihood it is swineflu but they are also catching other ailments now we've stopped testing people....

Funds payments into our ISAs just went in so the data looks like this where you can see that whilst things fell back a little the past couple of weeks, there is still an upward trend in fund value (red line) closing on the investments made (yellow line). Any predictions on when the red will climb back above the yellow? Personally I think it will mid-late 2010 (sooner would be preferable!).

evab_2

Hope you don't have swine flu and feel better soon x Thanks for your comments on my thread, the kids bring a smile despite the difficult times.

StuartGMC

Ev
Thanks. It seems I do have H1N1 (based solely on symptoms but there are no checks now so it could be a fever etc due to another virus) so hope the Tamiflu eases symptoms. As usual with a fever I've lost my appetite but find I've lost 8-9lbs in weight since Thursday (hadn't checked in recent weeks but was about 11st 11lb) which is a bit severe! Hope to get back to normal appetite in the week. At least it is some weeks ahead of our holiday and fingers-crossed OH and DD are not showing any signs of contracting it; especially a concern with OH who has now been diagnosed as having asthma affecting the small pores in her lungs.

Just found I've got £2.50 on TopCashBack from a referral where someone has signed up from the link on my web site, which is nice to see and unexpected.

We're partway through the purchase of all the new uniform and sports kit necessary for DD moving up to next school and it is adding up to a pretty penny or two.

Had major problems with the Next online sale on Thursday with their system unable to cope with the demand. It kept crashing at the checkout stage and eventually lost the order, so OH had to try again for another slot on Friday evening (when some items were no longer available). Very frustrating and I'm awaiting a reply from them as I thought they kept numbers limited so their systems could cope!

StuartGMC

As I'm fit to do nothing whilst ill I thought I could at least fool myself that the little I can do is productive.... having sorted IP issues on our network (I thought all were static but the Gateway/router was still dynamically assigning so we "lost" the printer as it's IP address no longer matched etc!) a little gentle data review seemed in order, which I hope will inspire some of you into looking to the future investments you may be making. I mentioned in another thread the sort of returns people could have made if they had invested in the first part of this year so I thought why not substantiate.

I expect only SMF2 will read the following, but never mind!
The returns on the specific funds we hold since Jan 09:


So if we hadn't carried the loss from May-Oct 08 we'd be sitting pretty :rotfl: Seriously though, I'm quite pleased at the performance and the M&G will move down for a while as it is sovereign bonds from a number of governments (not UK!) which will be on lower yields as the market picks up. Thinking is to have something here for long term.

Now an update on the spread of the asset classes and regions:


You can see that the more recent funds are now at about 3% overall and we will continue to invest in these at a faster rate than the three established funds. I expect once MF to be in about 10-12 funds for good diversification, then need to look at income routes such as Index Linked Certs etc to augment Cash ISAs.

Finally the nice one; well you have to capture these things when they happen:

It is nice to see that my mix in the portfolio is out-performing the FTSE All Share significantly. In addition and surprisingly, volatility is similar which just shows how bad things are in the "stable" areas. Nice Growth Rate and other metrics.

As I've said before, Trustnet really is very good for looking at your complete portfolio (you can add cash holdings, gilts, property etc). Whilst you should not consider your home as an asset like the above (i.e.liquid if needed) some of you may want to drop it into the mix in terms of your total wealth.

Personally, I'm off to read more from the online version of Money Observer which has some interesting thoughts in the articles. (That is, provided I don't fall asleep thanks to this damned virus!).

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

If it is H1N1 strain... best have it now before it mutates and becomes worse in the winter!

Do I detect a graph of your weight loss during suspected-piggy-flu?

gallygirl

I found that really interesting Stuart and can't help thinking you're in the wrong job, the way you've outperformed the market!

Hmmmm, all active funds - remind me again why trackers are a good idea . Looks risky as well, but then you are considerably younger than me .

Nice to see one of my funds (First State Asia Pac) in your mix - I swapped to this from FP Asia Pac in Jan 08, although I have 25% of my fund in it (I struggle to keep up with basic research on the few I have, couldn't cope with more ). Having looked at my v basic spreadsheet and graphs mine have all picked up significantly, except Newton Int Growth. However, thanks to monthly trickle feeding, at least I have even more shares in a useless fund :rotfl:.

Hope you're felling better soon . I'm refusing to get it until the weather picks up

StuartGMC

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

If it is H1N1 strain... best have it now before it mutates and becomes worse in the winter!

Do I detect a graph of your weight loss during suspected-piggy-flu?

....mmmmm no. That would mean tracking it as it goes on whilst healthy too and could lead to OH impose diet cuts like my beer and the two cooked meals a day I enjoy. Far to great a risk losing that :rotfl::rotfl:

gallygirl wrote: »

I found that really interesting Stuart and can't help thinking you're in the wrong job, the way you've outperformed the market!

If only I had recovered the losses in total from 2008 I could then really be :j but I think it shows what happens with timing i.e. don't try to. The reason our funds took such a hit was I jumped out of a Schroder UK 350 fund in Spring 2008once it had returned to a minimal loss. Took the money and bought Russia & Greater Russia plus topped up Latin America to the same value. Therein lies the lesson.... did so just before the markets crashed. If I had spread that investment over 6 months it would have resulted in a smaller total loss. We live and learn, and it has certainly made the financial world more relevant to my daily life, which in itself has led to me actively realising I need to do more than just save and count on the final salary scheme pension (if it lasts!).

Hmmmm, all active funds - remind me again why trackers are a good idea . Looks risky as well, but then you are considerably younger than me .

Not all are risky but you need some High Risk to realise high returns. Future funds we go into will likely be income and perhaps medium risk. We are looking 15yrs out so will need to manage the balance of the portfolio over time. However, in theory we should have Cash savings going well and I have an annuity (joint life, incrementing I think) from when I get to 60 from a previous job. Now it's predicted to only be worth a little over £4000 per year, but that would cost about £100,000 to purchase now - not bad for 3 1/2 years work from 1989-1992 before they went bust, and should pay for an annual holiday for me and OH I hope in 15 1/2yrs time. I also need to look at things like Index Linked Certs etc over longer term for tax free income etc. All-in-all plenty to learn

Whether we can get ourselves financially secure to retire at 60 is another matter of course, especially as I have a few nice cars to buy in the interim

Nice to see one of my funds (First State Asia Pac) in your mix - I swapped to this from FP Asia Pac in Jan 08, although I have 25% of my fund in it (I struggle to keep up with basic research on the few I have, couldn't cope with more ). Having looked at my v basic spreadsheet and graphs mine have all picked up significantly, except Newton Int Growth. However, thanks to monthly trickle feeding, at least I have even more shares in a useless fund :rotfl:.

Pound cost averaging I think is best for people like us. I find Money Observer's tables quite useful to start comparisons but my plan is to watch things in general and have planned review points in December when any major changes will then be implemented in January. Interactive Investor lets you select a range of funds to "watch" (20 or so I think at any time) so you can compare them too over time.

Hope you're felling better soon . I'm refusing to get it until the weather picks up

Hot weather would not be good when feeling v dehydrated and temperature moving around like a feather in a strong wind. I'm pleased it's been cool and grey! Hoping some recovery may come about soon presently on a plateau.

twinklie

Wow Stuart, your a real inspiration! All this time you've been helping and advising me and now it's summer I've actually found the time to hunt down your thread! Your a financial genius!!!

I really wish I could be as focused as you...I am trying. I can't play the market like you though because I simply don't have the time to research or the money to invest! However, all my big expenses (except for the builders) are out of the way now - just need to settle the bills then it's full steam ahead!