Month-End accounts: June 2019

June was great! I had a great time and as a family we had some great adventures together!Our finances are looking good too!

Income – Steady

as last month more or less

Dividends – Super

I’ve got a range of different investments which pay dividends. The simplest and maybe best way would be to only hold a few ETFs and collect your quarterly dividends. But I’ve decided to go for a smorgasbord of financial instruments.

Our P2P investments paid over £900 through good returns from Abundance Investment and a very good return from Zopa – more about that in a later post. Share investment dividends were £460 and VCTs £680.

The best news was that two of our community renewable investments paid in June a total of £1685. The annual yield on these investments is now running at over 7% (or above 10% with tax relief). All of our 4 investments are now performing well and paying out. They provide strong cash flow as a bridge to retirement age. On an accounting note, some of this £1685 was share capital being repaid decreasing the nominal (and for now book) value of the investments.

Dividends as a percentage of total outgoings is over 80% which is great. In part due to the building up of dividends and in part due to controlled spending.

Outgoings – Back to normal

We spent a grand more than last month – this included costs from a family/business trip to London (which was great but a little expensive). I lost my credit card which meant that some purchases were paid this month instead of next.

Our spending on the month was in line with what we’ve spent in the last 6 months and our 6 month average Personal Withdrawal Rate was 2.8% and for FIRE Funds it was 6.7%.

Budgeting – Nightmare

In May, I wrote about needing replacement windows at a cost of around £20-30k. I had some people come out to look and we may opt for the stopgap measure of £1-2k to replace some of the rotten wood which is what is needed. It does make you wonder that if you believe your investments will make 8% a year, should you spend £2k now for a 2 year fix or spend £20k now to have a permanent fix? Answers on a postcard.

We are also looking at booking a ski trip. That’ll likely cost £2500 – which is a lot. A case of Fat Fire and Ice.

Assets, Net Worth & FIRE funds – Steady

Networth jumped 1.8% month on month. FIRE Funds were up 1.4%.

Summary

Half way through the year, it looks like we’ve managed to travel a bit and have some fun as a family without breaking the bank. It’s also good to see that our spending and dividends are becoming more sustainable – maybe even reaching a point where dividends > spending in a few months time.

How was your June?

Thanks, GFF