September 2019 Update

One more month of squirreling, and what has it brought? Not as much as last month even though my savings rate is the same.   My net work increased by…

• 0.43%

• £492

Nothing did very well this month, however one silver lining was I received my annual statement from my DB pension. I googled the transfer value and it is £273,106 (the calculator gives a range and I take the lower number), which is £35,023 increase from last year. Yippee!

Actions from last month

• Reinvest the RMG dividend due in Sept
  • Update: done, the princely sum of £37
• Increase investing and reduce saving. Invest the £225 of the £250 I usually save
  • Update: done, from this month I am starting investing a total of £670 into Vanguard Lifestrategy 80% Equity per month instead of £445
• Monitor my spending to see if I can increase my savings and investment
  • Update: this was a bit of a surprise, I did monitor my spending quite diligently. I am a fan of cash but to help me monitor my spending I used my debit card 95% of the time. Bearing in mind, this expenditure is purely my personal money for eating out, drinks with friends, clothes, weekends way etc, and came to £831.11 – with £200 on eating out and drinks down the pub. I did though have some exceptional one off expenses
    • nearly £300 on a 5 day cycle holiday in Scotland
    • £75 on a handmade woollen cape for my nephews wedding

In the end there was very little money left over in September to invest, however it did motivate me see if I can manage my going drinking and eating, I do enjoy it but maybe a month every now and again, I challenge myself not to. Not October though, I have lots already in my diary!

Action for this month

Following on from the FIRE meet up in September I am planning on investigate the DC part of my pension and do some scenario-ising around using it as a bridge between when I want to FIRE and taking my DB pension – avoiding at least some of the penalties of taking by DC pension early. I may then have an action to increase my DC contribution in additional to or at the expenses of my S&S ISA.

Inspired by TEA’s post ‘That stuff is money…‘ I am committing to selling stuff on eBay during October. I don’t have anything major just some books and stuff so aiming for £60.