Companies that i start using on my early retirement plan

As i was asked with which companies i work on my plan, i will talk about them here.
As person to person lender i use ratesetter.com. Is very simple and intuitive to use it and what i like more is that you can make the process completely automatic. Set the direct debit, set what percentage under or over the interest level you want to lend the money and that's it. I tried to use wellesley.co.uk as they can add even the interest in this miraculous process of compounding. The only problem, or advantage, depending how you see it, is that you need to wait 30 days to move some money in your bank account.
As for online share dealing platform i use youinvest.com from AJ Bell. I tried share.com too but seems to be too tricky for me. On youinvest.com i can sort of automatize the process. Direct debit and automatically buy of shares every 10th of the month at £1.50 per transaction. But the inconvenient is that  i need to buy the mutual funds and trackers manually at £4.50 per transaction.
As for property crowdfunding i use propertymoose.co.uk. I also tried propertypartner.co but first one is more straightforward and is offering better rates than second one. Even if the minimum amount is £500 instead of £50 for propertypartner website.
As cash bank account i use TSB, because of the 5% interest for the first £2000.  They also have a saving account with 5% interest for 12 months.

This is what i use for the moment. I will update my plan again probably in December or January if is the case.

Acorns and Digit - a cry for help!

For any UK investing developer/start-up investor/angel/fairy/dwarf and others like this, i just readed those two blog posts of Jmoney and i want something like this here in UK. I already checked, they are only for US at the moment.

1.Acorns is an app that is rounding up change and invest it. At the moment is asking for a symbolic fee every month and some annual charge. Link here.
http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/2015/03/acorns-app-review/

2.Digit is a free service that is saving small amounts of money analyzing your spending habit. All you have to do is to attach your account and they will do the rest. Link here.
http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/2015/01/digit-review-save-money-fast-easy/

Sadly we still need to wait until they will cross the ocean. If somebody else will not do something like this here before they come.

Have a good night! And see you.

I start planning...

So i start planning, and i got to this monthly expenses:
Rent 350
Bills 165
Food 120
Transport 0 ( i moved 2 miles from my new work place)
Total basic expenses £635
Clothes 25
Luxury 122
Total actual lifestyle £772

Rate of savings 45%
Savings at end of July '15 £5200

Time until retirement 12.5 years

My investing strategy will be something like:
1. £2000 cash on TSB account with 5% interest as a buffer
2. £10000 on online p2p lending with an average 6% interest
3. £ 195000 on a mix of mutual funds and tracker equity funds from UK, Europe, World equity and corporate and government UK bonds. Dividents percentage 3-7%
4. £75000 on real estate crowdfunding with average 8% interest

I am open to suggestions if i can improve in any area.

Motivation and income

As someone said to me:
"If you earn only 100$ you can save only 100$, if you start to make more than that you can be even more successful in your journey!"

Motivation and the right mindset are two of the most important tools in our way to early retirement,
For today i have for you two blogs/podcast that helped me to start and keep going.

1. James Altucher

2. Timothy Ferris

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)
****************************************

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.

On a Monday

I just start a new job, working for the same money like the previous one, but only 37 hours instead of 60. So i gain some "me" time, an extra time of 23 hours weekly. Not bad for a new beginning. Like i said, i will work on my FIRE plan this week. I will say more about this later.

An interesting post to read for today here:
http://www.caniretireyet.com/is-early-retirement-irresponsible/

And for the next time i will write, i have two companies to check: Blackrock and Vanguard, to see which one is better at the moment to choose as my starting ER funds.

Monevator.com

Monevator.com seems to be a very professional and well informed website for UK based investors. I highly recommended.
And talking about other ideas. I will need do a earning income plan soon. At least for what is left of this year. Starting small, but thinking big. And we will deal with other problems as they appear.