Onwards to freedom!

I've decided to do a monthly net worth review from now on. It'll help me keep my eye on the ball, and give me something to post about here!

[FONT=Lucida Console][SIZE=2][FONT=Courier New][FONT=Fixedsys][FONT=Lucida Console][FONT=Fixedsys][FONT=Courier New]               CURRENTVALUE   +/-FROMJUL
House Value:   [COLOR=Blue]+£125,000.00[/COLOR]        £0.00
Cash:           [COLOR=Blue]+£46,859.37[/COLOR]   +£1,180.99
Pensions:       [COLOR=Blue]+£54,309.13[/COLOR]   +£5,932.63
Car Value:       [COLOR=Blue]+£9,500.00[/COLOR]     -£300.00
S&S:            [COLOR=Blue]+£10,751.18[/COLOR]   +£1,547.53
Mortgage:       [COLOR=DarkRed]-£28,501.88[/COLOR]   +£1,396.71
Due to HMRC:       [COLOR=DarkRed]-£408.82[/COLOR]      +£35.63
Student Loan:    [COLOR=DarkRed]-£2,418.38[/COLOR]     +£136.53
[B]Total:         +£215,090.60   +£9,858.76[/B][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT]

I nearly choked when I checked my pension - the value is now around £6k higher than it was two months ago. A little under £1,400 in new money has been invested during that time. That's crazy! On the 1st July, my investment units were priced at £1.71, yesterday they were at £1.91. That's an increase in unit price of nearly 12% in 2 months. Continue that trend for a whole year and you're looking at 70% year on year! Of course, it is not in the least bit realistic to expect the trend to continue.

A similar if less extreme story with stock and shares isa - portfolio value is now around £1.5k higher than it was two months ago, £700 paid in during that time. The value of my stocks and shares barely moved at all in my first few years investing, but I've seen quite large increases in recent months. Of course it can't last forever, and I'm expecting inflation to rocket in the near future too, so that will take the shine off things.

Thanks to these ridiculous increases, net worth is up a total £9,858.76 in two months. Most of the credit goes to the market, not us It's amazing to see our net worth increase far faster than we can actually earn money, feels like it's not really real... I'm sure it'll hurt seeing those numbers drop at some point in the future. My net worth chart does nothing but make me smile at the moment, a dirty great drop in those pension and S&S lines sometime in the future will smart a bit, but I know full well that's the game we're playing.

Of course an unfortunate side effect of having previously braced myself for lower share prices, reassuring myself that it just means I can buy more cheaply in that case, also means I now feel that I'm maybe paying too much... I guess the glass is always going to be either half empty or half full! I always try my best to see it as half full I'll also do my best to keep my emotions disengaged and be a good robotic monthly-drip-feed come-what-may investor. I've managed it so far, but it's easy when prices are flat or rising

Finally, I am over the moon to have crossed the 10% FI barrier. Right now it seems we are 11.2% independent (our interest earning assets would cover 11.2% of our annual spending using a 4% withdrawal rate). We have also crossed the 70% mark on the "achieve a 300k net worth in 2020 challenge", now sat at 71.7%

First of the month, net worth update time

[FONT=Lucida Console][SIZE=2][FONT=Courier New][FONT=Fixedsys][FONT=Lucida Console][FONT=Fixedsys][FONT=Courier New]               CURRENTVALUE       +/-MTH       +/-QTR       +/-YOY
House Value:   [COLOR=Blue]+£125,000.00[/COLOR]        £0.00        £0.00        £0.00
Cash:           [COLOR=Blue]+£47,369.27[/COLOR]     +£509.90   +£1,690.89     -£307.12
Pensions:       [COLOR=Blue]+£56,429.75[/COLOR]   +£2,120.62   +£8,053.25  +£19,335.14
Car Value:       [COLOR=Blue]+£9,350.00[/COLOR]     -£150.00     -£450.00   -£1,800.00
S&S:            [COLOR=Blue]+£11,160.59[/COLOR]     +£409.41   +£1,956.94   +£6,045.33
Mortgage:       [COLOR=DarkRed]-£27,794.80[/COLOR]     +£707.08   +£2,103.79  +£11,893.93
Due to HMRC:       [COLOR=DarkRed]-£478.61[/COLOR]      -£69.79     -£105.42   +£1,703.89
Student Loan:    [COLOR=DarkRed]-£2,343.75[/COLOR]      +£74.63     +£211.16   +£1,009.93
[B]Total:         +£218,692.45   +£3,601.85  +£13,460.61  +£37,881.10[/B][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT]

Another great month for pensions! Other than that, we're pretty much just plodding along in the right direction

72.9% of the way to 300k (2020 challenge), 22.2% mortgage ltv, £30,256.45 beyond mortgage neutral in liquid assets, 11.7% financially independent

The S123 rate drop comes into effect at the end of this month. I'm considering emptying the account and downgrading to lite. I currently near enough break even each month on fee vs cashback, downgrading would see me in around £4 profit each month. I've opened a couple of current accounts that will pay 3% on a total of 6k combined, and I think I might pay off my student loan with some of what's left over.

Thank you both for posting

I agree that repaying the student loan would be slightly backwards, but back in post 319 I worked out that for me it would be a total cost of £5 to repay it in full, if 1.5% was the best rate available on cash. Part of me felt desperate to do something with our finances, and I guess striking a debt off the balance sheet qualified as "doing something", even if in the grand scheme of things it has little/negative effect. Of course I then found various accounts paying 3%, so no contest, the student loan can remain for now

I'm genuinely interested to know about the other nice homes you have in mind for your money ed. 25℅ of my salary is paid into pension monthly, I don't want to increase this, or start a SIPP, I want access to the money when I choose, maybe 10-20 years from now, in my 40s/50s. I already have plans to increase the S&S monthly contributions, I could increase further I guess. I have a circa 20k fixed cash ISA maturing soon, at the moment I see my choices for that cash being a 1.5% 3 year fixed cash isa, or moving to S&S ISA, though paying a large lump sum when things may well be overvalued seems a bad idea. Happy not to second guess the market and keep drip feeding no matter what, but timing is more of an issue with a lump sum. I could drip it in over time, but to do that means finding somewhere instant access to hold it in the meantime. I think I have near enough all the high interest paying current accounts by now, and have a sneaking suspicion they'll all be dropping their rates sooner or later...

Things like premium bonds and BTL have crossed my mind recently, so better ideas for the early retirement fund really would be appreciated I note from your diary that your love affair with p2p may be coming to an end?

We're not really miles apart on strategy then

I think I might start shovelling more into the S&S ISA than I can afford from monthly cash flow soon. As a result, I'd slowly reduce my cash savings to the benefit of equities. Gets around the "lump sum" dilemma. Not sure now is the best time to start increasing what I put into S&S, but if I gave into these doubts nothing would ever get done!

I doubt the 3% from the scottish bank and the every little helps supermarket bank will last forever, so best to plan with 1.5% or lower cash interest rates in mind. Of course, I've been spectacularly wrong in the past (see >5% long term fixed mortgage), maybe the much anticipated inflationageddon will see base rate and savings rate rises. Won't hold my breath though, with QE funny money in the mix it seems the whole system is broken. Base rate may go up, but until banks need customer deposits to raise funds, I can't see savings (or lending) rates being boosted to match. In that case, why bother raising base rate in the first place, it won't necessarily reduce consumer spending, so won't slow inflation. Maybe stopping the funny money would have more impact, but I guess it could be fatal

Enough of that... 175k pension and then shifting to more accessible holdings, how did you decide on that figure?

I am torn between the more lucrative pension and more accessible ISAs. Since my employer contribution match is maxed out at 5% I could reduce my pension contributions quite a lot without leaving free money from my employer on the table. I benefit from basic rate tax relief on the way in, and don't anticipate having a massive income in retirement so taking the tax free personal allowance into account shouldn't pay much tax on the way out. Whereas the ISA is paid into from after tax income, but shouldn't be taxed at all on the way out. There's a clear (though not massive in my BR taxpayer case) advantage to pension over isa in terms of numbers, but then there's a clear advantage to isa over pension in terms of flexibility. I can't decide where to draw the line to best suit my plans for the future.