Simple Pound

Thanks for visiting! If you like what you're reading, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed.

The first month of 2008 is over and we’re 1/12 through a year which may not enjoy as much economic growth as we’ve seen since the beginning of the decade. No, I don’t want to call it a recession. Just because we’ve seen some increase volatility on the stock market does not necessarily mean we’re heading towards a Japan-style recession. Unfortunately, the more “so called” experts are discussing the likelihood of exactly this happening, the more probable a real recession becomes.

In any case, I’m losing myself in a rather dull rant that I don’t want to subject you to (well, at least not beyond this short introduction to make sure everyone knows what I think of pessimists… ). Let’s get started on the actual purpose of this post - my monthly review. The good news is that I’ve had a sizeable increase in my net worth of 11.30% in comparison to last month’s figure. This was mainly brought about by an increase in my assets of 11% and a total elimination of all my outstanding debts. The bad news is I’m unlikely to be able to repeat this whopping increase because much of it was related to my January bonus or “discretionary incentive award” (depending on whether you like to call things by their name or not… ).

Sticking to a budget was strange and needless to say I didn’t always manage. Especially as we had dinner at Hakkasan, one of my favourite yet slightly more upmarket London restaurants - that totally ruined the concept of having a budget for dining out. To even it out I spend less on taxis, clothes and cosmetics than I could have and didn’t get that monthly pampering session (manicure, facial, hair cut - you know the girly ways of relaxing!) either. Moreover, I did not spend a single penny of my bonus but put it all into a 6-month high-interest bond (Icesave!) with a rate of 6.76% AER that I probably won’t be able to get for much longer (assuming the Bank of England will cut interest rates again fairly soon).

All in all, it was a good month but I’m still determined to spend less next month. Especially on things like coffee and lunch as I should simply overcome my laziness and prepare some sandwiches to take to work. It shouldn’t be that difficult, should it?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites