March 2021 update

After my ever-so-late-in-the-month update for February, I told myself to be better prepared.

So, on the day the clocks went forward, I made a start on my March update. This will hopefully help me remember some of the things that have occurred too.

Earlier in the month, when I was picking my son up from work, I went over a speed bump and heard this loud crack. I was only going slowly so was pretty surprised but when I parked up and took a look around I couldn’t see anything wrong.

A little while later I was hearing this metallic clanging sound occasionally coming from where I heard the sound. Driving around one of the bumpy country roads the other day I heard something fall off and bounce along the road, when I went back and looked I found part of the coil spring had come off 🙁

At least it explains the noise but I don’t fancy the repair bill which will be several hundred pounds.

I have been looking at moving to an electric car, with the MG ZS EV being the target of my attention but the difference between the asking price, even for an ex-demo, and my car is too great and the break-even point would be too far off.

No doubt I will revisit this in time though as I’m keen to reduce my impact on the environment. Talking of this, I watched a documentary on Netflix the other day called Seaspiracy and it was shocking to see the impact of fishing on the environment. Needless to say, I have now cut fish from my diet and got myself a supply of plant-based omega-3 – interestingly, omega-3 is only present in fish due to them eating these algae, I never knew that!

---

Have you watched Seaspriracy? What are your views on this – do you think the views are biased or are you glad that the issues are getting more attention?

---

Finishing on a positive note, the gym reopens on the 12th of April and I can’t wait!! It has been fine working out at home and I’ve noticed some gains but I also need the classes (restarting in May) to help shift some Covid pounds.

Additional Income Streams

• Matched Betting £-80 (Feb £232)
• Surveys/studies £8.79 (Feb £0)
• Amazon FBA £0 (Feb £30)
• TopCashBack £0 (Feb £0)

Matched betting went a bit sideways this month, the loss was due to part of a matched bet not being accepted. I usually make sure the lay bet is accepted before flipping on to the bookie’s site to place the back bet, this time however something must have happened that prevented the lay which I didn’t notice.

Allow the loss looked big, it was £120, it wasn’t money from my pocket as it was profit from previous months so “just” paper money. I would have preferred not to have lost it but it’s another lesson learnt.

I use a service called Odds Monkey to help with my matched betting, I’ve been using them for several months now and find the tools they provide to be essential in making a profit. If you are interested then drop me a message or you can sign-up via my affiliate link – OddsMonkey. The great thing is you can do as much or as little as you like and it fits around your life.

No sales on FBA this month as all my stock has been sold. I’ll be keeping an eye out for any more price reductions and bargains though…

How did I do in March?

Assets

• Emergency Fund £2,446.58 (Feb £2,226.39)
• ISA, Freetrade £3,009.24 (Feb £2,924.52)
• ISA, Hargreaves Lansdown £2,913.33 (Feb £2,783.11)
• Pensions £107,559.23 (Feb £103,498.91)
• SAYE £510.00 (Feb £480.00)
• House £360,099 (£350,883) *Nationwide HPI 2020 Q4

Liabilities

• Student Loan -£3,158.16 (Feb -£3,376.77)
• Mortgage -£190,069.79 (Feb -£190,464.67)

Total Assets (excluding house) – Total Liabilities = Net Worth
£116,438.38 – £193,227.95 = -£76,789.57 (Feb -£81,928.51 )

This month, I have decided to replace the tracking of my payments against my student loan. At my current rate of repayment, I should be able to clear the loan within 18 months. The interest rate is 2.6%, less than my mortgage, but I am focussing on the loan so that I can then turn the monthly payment against my mortgage in time.

Next month I’ll include my Freetrade General Investment Account (GIA) as I’ve got a few free shares in there plus I’ve just added Alibaba which is like the Chinese Amazon. They are massive in China owning nearly 60% of the eCommerce market share there, that’s compared to just under 40% of the American market owned by Amazon. They are different though as Alibaba are primarily a B2B company whereas Amazon is a B2C.

I’ll also try to remember to include some graphics for my other portfolios; income, and tech.

Some may say that tech is a risky market to be in but working in that sector, I have a pretty good understanding of good companies that will be around for a while and those that won’t stick.

Future Fund

My Future Fund is continuing to march in the right direction. If I have another couple of months growth like this month’s then I could be seeing £120k sooner rather than later.

Dividends

A great month for dividend payments this month, still tiny compared to other people but my portfolio is still in it’s embryonic stage really.

Guest Post

Just in discussions with another blogger so I should hopefully have a new guest post next month or May.

If you are interested in writing a guest post for my blog, you can reach out to me via the contact page or by taking a look at the let’s work together page – it would be great to hear from you!

Vanity Metrics

These are metrics which serve me no purpose other than to see progress, or lack of, in the social media universe.

I have reappeared on Modest Money so I am able to compare stats again, hopefully on a consistant basis.

Alexa ranking: #6,700,360 (Feb #6,700,360)
Twitter followers: 437 (Feb 437)
Blog followers: 48 (Feb 46)