Simple Pound

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It’s June 1st and that - as usual - means it’s time for reflection. I haven’t posted much in the last half of the month as I’ve been struggling with some issues at work and needed a lot of time to reflect on non-financial issues. The good news is that I’ve got a new series in the works that will hopefully be useful to many of you, but more on that in a separate post…

Overall the May results aren’t too bad… an increase of 3.67% in net worth translated into a 1.5% step towards my next net worth goal. The stock market didn’t do too badly and hence both my pension and life insurance were up. Those developments, however, are masking the fact that I have dipped into my deposit savings to fund my piano purchase.

The good news is that it didn’t have too bad an effect on the “bottom line” but on the other hand it’s forcing me to live paycheck to paycheck at the minute. The reason is that I haven’t fully funded it using savings, but paid for it using my credit card (for those reward points!) - hence most of my salary that isn’t already allocated to fixed costs (rent, utilities etc) goes towards the credit card payment.

For the last two months it has always been enough (just!) to cover the total so I wasn’t forced to carry a balance (yet?). My aim now is to drastically reduce my spending to get back in a position where I have money left over from my previous paycheck to go towards the bill.

I guess the fact that I’ve just paid for my summer holiday won’t necessarily help with next month’s bill either… *blush* But hey, blame the British spring and the miserable weather it has brought with it ! Who doesn’t need a little bit of sunshine to compensate??

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I’m running rather late with my end of the month review for April and I’m pretty sure I know why - the stats for this month have been rather disappointing. I’m nowhere near the targeted 0.5% asset increase this time as yet another major purchase has led to an asset decline of 1.30% which in turn reduces my net worth figure by 0.83%.

However, the “major purchase” is now sitting in my study in the form of a digital piano - the Yamaha P140S and I’m still convinced that (a) it was worth it and (b) I got a good price for it as it was reduced by more than £100 from its RRP and hence cheaper than any other quote I could find (including Internet shops…). I will probably have to use some of my savings in order to pay off the credit card I used for the purchase, but I’m hoping to reduce that to a minimum and instead fund it out of my regular salary by simply cutting back on other excess.

A few other things contributed to my negative net worth result this month: most notably a trip “up North” to Harrogate for my friend’s wedding which set me back about £300 in total (2 return tickets plus hotel). It was obviously more than worth it and I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it regardless of the expenses attached.

The only good thing to report is that my miscellaneous income is still rising, mainly due to a steady increase in interest income. My expectation for this year has been raised from £250 in January to about £600. Barclays have finally managed to open my cash ISA for this tax year. Luckily it’s only taken them about a month (*sarcasm*). But when I enquired about the progress of my application I was told (without having to ask) that interest would be credited to my account from the day the application was made - despite the cheque only being cashed 4 weeks later! This effectively means that I will have earned double interest on the initial amount I deposited…

That’s all from me for this month. I’m hoping to have a much better net worth result for May, even though I’m not 100% confident I’ll be able to achieve this as I won’t have much opportunity to increase my savings as a result of having to put all my income towards April’s purchases… Keep your fingers crossed!

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