June Update
Each month I update my accounts and monitor my spending and ensure I am on target with my savings goals. Here I will list my assets that make up my long term savings and a few comments on the rationale behind including them in my portfolio. The asset allocation changes from year to year depending on where I see value or what interests me at the time. However I do like to try and spread my money to achieve smoother returns. Below I’ve listen them in order of their current weighing:
Buy to Let £51,363 (58.8%)
This makes up the vast majority of the total fund. The property which is a 1 bedroom apartment in Glasgow, UK is currently valued at £67,123 on zoopla.com. It was purchased in January 2016 for £57,000 with an home report valuation of £70,000. The property is mortgage free but I did use a personal loan and some low interest credit card cash advances to help fund the purchase. Unsecured debts amount to £11,260 personal loan at 3.7% interest (about 3 and a half years remaining) and £4,500 credit card debt at 2.3% (which expires in September). The apartment is currently let at £500-a-month giving a net return just under £400-a-month.
Pension Funds £17,726 (20.3%)
This includes 3 funds from current and previous employers and a small UK index tracker fund. This is also the only stock market exposure currently in the portfolio. Some of the funds are invested in Emerging Markets and Asian Stocks with the smaller funds in UK and other Global Stocks.
Zopa £12,674 (14.5%)
Zopa is a peer-to-peer lending platform which I have been using for many years now. The money currently invested yields about 4.5% including the “early adopter” bonus of 0.5%. About £500 of the total is in the holding account earning zero interest. This will be moved when needed to pay down some of the debts on the buy-to-let.
Crowd Property £2,000 (2.3%)
This is a fairly new addition to the portfolio. Crowd Property is a peer-to-peer lending platform for housing developers. I’ve been using it for about 18 months and had two loans paid back so far. The current total is spread over 4 developments with an 8% interest rate. A further loan of £1,000, again at 8%, is in the pipeline.
Thai Bank Account £1,720 (2.0%)
A regular savings account which pays 2.5% interest. As I am currently based in Thailand I wanted to offset some currency risk by having some assets in the country. Currently adding 25,000THB (£572) a month to this.
Gold £1,621 (1.9%)
A total of 7 gold sovereigns which have been periodically bought over the last 10 years. The valuation is based on the spot price of gold which is probably a bit lower than the actual resale value of these. They make up a very small portion of the total portfolio and they look nice.
UK Bank Account £141 (0.2%)
A nominal amount in a UK savings account with an interest rate of 1.05%. Used mainly when money is earmarked for investment and can earn a minimal amount of interest rather than sitting in my current account.
NS&I Premium Bonds £100 (0.1%)
The minimum investment possible and really just incase I get lucky and hit the £1,000,000 jackpot.
So there is the long term savings portfolio. The portfolio is currently valued at £87,345 up from £83,761 the previous month. The net gain was 3.35% for the month thanks largely to increases in the buy-to-let valuation on zoopla.com and increases in the pension funds as a result of the bull market in stocks. In addition to the net gain £778 of new money was added to the portfolio.
In addition to the long term savings portfolio there is £4,404 in cash held in bank accounts in UK and Thailand giving a total net worth for June of £91,749 (May: £87,896).
Over the coming weeks I will go into more details of each other these assets and how I allocate my income streams each month. Thanks for reading and I welcome any comments or questions you might have.
