With the new year came a review and update to my financial plan and I opened a new financial account.
I’m now only going to be reporting my savings and investments for my NET worth. I previously included the money I have in my current accounts, however, this fluctuates quite a lot depending on the time of the month and so does not give an accurate picture.
I earned £5,500 in December and put about £1,500 of that into my savings and investments.
Recap from last month…
Last month I was considering the possibility of moving house and made a plan to make this affordable, however, after discussions with the family and looking at property available in our area, we have decided to hold off on this idea for a little while.
I was also looking at finding a new home for my cash savings and tax money that is now earning a paltry 0.5% interest. Unfortunately, the whole instant-access savings market is pretty dire at the moment, so I tried something else (see Savings below).
Asset Table
| ASSET | VALUE |
| Marcus Savings | £4,700 |
| Vanguard ISA | £8,400 |
| Club Lloyds Current Account | £600 |
| Barclays Current Account | £1,800 |
| RCI Bank Savings Account | £2,000 |
| First Direct Current Account | £1,000 |
| Club Lloyds Monthly Saver | £4,000 |
| First Direct Regular Saver | £3,300 |
| CrowdProperty | £3,100 |
| Premium Bonds (NEW) | £8,900 |
| TOTAL | £37,800 |
Real Asset Table
The table above includes all my financial products, however, it is not a true reflection of my NET worth because some of that money is reserved for my income tax and National Insurance (when self-employed, it has to be paid in January and June). In addition, the above table also includes a snapshot of my business and personal current accounts at the time of writing. The amount of cash in these change quite regularly based on what I earn and what I pay out.
The table below shows only my savings and investments and is a better reflection of my NET worth.
| ASSET | VALUE |
| Marcus Savings | £4,700 |
| Vanguard ISA | £8,400 |
| RCI Bank Savings Account | £2,000 |
| Club Lloyds Monthly Saver | £4,000 |
| First Direct Regular Saver | £3,300 |
| CrowdProperty | £3,100 |
| TOTAL | £25,500 |
NET Worth
So, my NET worth for December 2020 is:
£25,500
Savings
Being unhappy with poor interest rates at the moment and after reading this article by Martin Lewis, I decided to invest some of my cash savings in premium bonds. Another reason for this decision was to separate the money I owe to HMRC from my own personal cash savings. I previously kept them both together in my Marcus Savings Account, which was a pain when it came to quickly working out what was mine and what belonged to the taxman.
So I bought almost £9,000 of premium bonds (all my tax money after paying £12,000 to them for January).
Regarding my own personal savings, I left about £4,500 in the Marcus account to act as an ’emergency fund’ (about 3 months of living expenses). I also have a Club Lloyds Monthly Saver and First Direct Regular Saver containing about £3,000 combined and a £2,000 5-year fixed-term account with RCI Bank.
Altogether, my savings value at:
£14,000
Investments
I increased my stake in my Vanguard Stocks and Shares ISA and it also grew in value (I’ve realised about 40% capital growth since I started investing in early 2020). Some of my CrowdProperty loans were paid back and reinvested. Altogether, my investments are valued at:
£11,500
Thoughts & Plans
Separating my personal cash and the money I owe to HMRC by putting tax money in Premium Bonds has certainly made understanding my finances easier. I’ll do a full write-up of my reasons for choosing Premium Bonds when I get time – hopefully, I’ll get a nice win as well (or at least enough to beat the 0.5% interest it would have received in the savings account).
I try to keep an even split between my savings and investments, however there’s currently a bit of disparity between the two with my savings at £14,000 and investments at £11,500. So I need to look at rebalancing soon.
I’m toying with the idea of investing in precious metals and cryptocurrencies but I have a whole lot of research to do first!