The portfolio paradigm

The world is changing fast. Faster than we can predict, and one after another, we've seen the aftermath of the Brexit effect. And not only. Bonds are going down, unable to provide the much needed stability, and we will probably go to the extremes, like in Japan, were the interest is negative. Yer, you read that right, there you need to pay for the right to keep a bond. The market is still going up and down, reaching the lower and the higher value of the last 5 years in just a 5-months interval. Gold and precious metals went up for a moment, just to go back to the initial value. Petrol based companies kept going down, again and again, but they paid good dividends despite this. Banks cutting down the interests, again and again, trying to prevent a future crisis. Housing market going down, despite the fact that we do not have enough houses to provide a home for everyone. It is a challenging period, but then, these are the times where you can ride the wave, and find new opportunities to reach your financial independence faster, even if nothing seems to be safe enough. We need to reconsider all our risk-taking strategy, but in the end we will prevail. Because we are following our final goal, and we gonna reach it, in one way or another. It is also the easiest time to buy a house for the first time, helped with instruments like First buy, Isa and different financial sticks and stocks. Is is possible for us to invest in a Cash fund, a Global equities fund and a Global property shares fund using your change, through moneybox app. The possibility to own a part of an ancient castle, via thehousecrowd. to invest in emerging market, in companies that can mark their own place via crowdcube and seedrs. The possibilities are endless. You only need to keep an open mind and to search, to search with obstinacy, every day of the week.

Good luck!
G.

Bonds are forever (fun fact)

Did you ever heard about perpetual bonds? One of the five oldest bonds ever, emited around 16th century, is still paying dividends today. Yale university is the one to be paid, and you can find more about at this link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-16/yale-to-be-paid-interest-on-dutch-water-authority-bond-from-1648.

What do you think about?

Blackrock, Vanguard, cooking from scratch and other travel hacks

I start with the brainy stuff.
I just look at few of the Vanguard and Blackrock funds as some article from monevator.com raised my interest. What was my research and my conclusions?


Fund name      NAV 31/7/2015      12 months yield   Fund charges%    Performance

Vanguard FTSE Developed world
Accumulated     2.23                        1.71%                        0.15                Good
Income              2.02                        1.74%                        0.15                Good

Vanguard Investment Grade Bond
Acc                   0.82                         3.20%                       0.15                  Good

Vanguard Investment Gov Bond
Acc                  1.44                         1.90%                         0.15                 Moderate - Good
Inc                   1.22                         1.92 %                        0.15                Moderate - Good

Vanguard Short Term Grade Bond
Inc                   1.00                          2.06%                        0.15                Moderate

Vanguard FTSE Developed Europe
Inc                   1.62                          2.59%                        0.12               Good

Blackrock Corporate Bond
Acc                 1.22                           3.34%                       0.17                Good

Blackrock UK Equity A
Acc                55.69                            2.86%                     0.52                Good but too big charges

Blackrock UK A
Acc                3.29                              1.80%                        1.67                WTF happen with
Inc                 4.48                              1.77%                        1.67                 all those charges?

I would definitely go for Vanguard 40% (FTSE Europe and Developed World, Bonds and Gov.Bonds) and Blackrock 60% (mostly UK and 100 UK Equity tracker - 0.07 charges and some Corporate Bonds)
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Saving hacks time, what i discovered lately?
1. Cooking from scratch. I just realized that i got enough food for a week, so i decided to just make a kind of meal plan to use everything and just after i finish it to go for shopping. I will tell you later what is the result of my experiment.
2. Travel hack no.1. If you go by train, but not so often to justify a yearly or monthly pass, you can just buy a Network Railcard. The cost is only 30 pounds, is valid for 12 months and you can save 33% from the cost of your trip. Plus you can take up to 4 children and save 60% on child fare. As a result, if you spend more than 100 per year on your train tickets, go to the station and make yourself a service. Network Railcard.
3. Travel hack no.2. If you are not from UK, but you would like a holiday here, or even if you live locally and have the time to travel across the country, National Express is offering a Brit Xplorer pass, and you can have unlimited travel 7 days (for 79 pounds), 14 days (for 139) or 4 weeks (for 219). I was imagining myself going around, choosing 7-8 hours trips just to sleep during my journey, and exploring every little corner on UK. I also heard that is some very cheap alternative for train and boat to go to Ireland, but i didn't look for it.

Wish you a perfect week! I'm out.