August 2018 - Monthly report

My Overview

Total portfolio: £23647(-8672)
Debt: £2191(-1477)
External funds: ZERO
Car: No
Net Worth: £21456(-7195)

Investments UK: £8511(-8701)
Investments overseas : £3606 ( same)
Cash: £341(-362)
Pension: £10598(+383)

Total Income: £1703(-94)
Passive income: £183 (10.77%)
Savings rate: 30.58%

Side hustle 2 value: £4.10
Side hustle 3 value: £103 (Profit July 476.51)
Side hustle 4 value: £913 (Funds spent:4928)

I need to admit that i am an amateur, and all you need is lack focus for a moment for everything to go South. How shall i start? The experts use to state that a catastrophe is usually happening not because of one mistake, but a suite of at least 5 severe mistakes. Under 3 mistakes, we are still able to recover. Let's count my own. First, due to a moment of being distracted and not matching, I lost 400 on betting (Error no.1). Second, as you can see the side hustle number 4, if you did not guess, it is about cryptocurrency. Summer 2017, i made about 12.000 after investing 3000. All of them nicely invested. But Bitcoin was growing so fast, i was thinking that maybe i will make it second time. I did not want to take money from investment, so i made a loan. As you can see, the actual value of my loan is now £913, with 4928 spent. The loan is paid with the money invested on The House Crown, a sum of 5000 used one year ago (interest still to be paid). So i lost approx. 80% of what i invested in crypto. Greed is not always good. Third, the lovely Government found out that i need to pay £2200 as tax from some years ago (4-5 years ago, the last three are not yet calculated). I already paid 600, with everything to be paid in the next 4-5 months. Did i stop here? No, of course, i went to spend almost two thousand on two lovely holidays in August and September. (error no.4). And i used almost 500 from a credit card, with a very low interest, but still, error no.5. This is the story of how my net worth decreased with 25% (I have decreased with 7200 in 2 months).

What did i learn? Do not make any loans, if you do not have it cash, you cannot afford it. Whatever you do, check twice, and if it is to risky, just stop. Or, according to the previous rule, invest what you can afford to lose. Always pay your credit cards in full. And the final one, if you are having not enough cash, do not go on spending free.

Except all this ranting about my loss, the debt is clearing up nicely, the pension increase slowly every months, and my side hustles are not bringing much profit and are just using my free time. I will try a different approach, according to the Pareto principle, focusing 20% of my time on the activity that is bringing 80% of the results, and just stop doing the others. This series of unfortunate events will not deter me from my way, and i am restarting the quest adjusting my strategies once more. Main focus is on building a solid cash reserve, and only after to invest some more. I am thinking of maximizing my TSB account, as they are paying 3% up to 1500 and the Santander123 as they are paying 1.50% up to 15000. If you know a better alternative to keep cash available, tell me please.

Have a beautiful week!

G.