March update

 Nearly End of month stats.
  Its 1.30 am and i could not sleep , so I've sneaked down without waking my wife to write this.
Contents:
1- Stock stats and current holdings
2- The house sale update
3- unit rental
4- The economy
5- How i think things are going.


 1- The Stock portfolio  Stats

Total Month Dividends  £15.78
Total Month passive income  £889.84 :) Biggest ever so far.
March Contribution £650
Total Contribution  £3500.20
Stock market value  £3335.04
Portfolio dividend 7.3%
PE 9.8


Current stock holdings -




 New one added is SSE. I don't hold any utilities so i thought i better get some. I looked at many markets both here in the UK and the rest of the world. SSE is UK based and ticked all the boxes for me, so i bought.
The second one i bought is City of London Investment group. This ticked the box of  Diversified Financials and is now 20.5% of my portfolio.


2- The house sale
Its still dragging on and doing bits of paper work here and there. My current tenant has been paying weekly. But as i've not received the money in advance it has made running the passive income account a little harder as it's being paid in arrears. Next month as part of the deal they are having it rent free, so im hoping the house will be left in a good condition.
I'm currently waiting on a gas certificate for the new buyers. I have thought what happens if the new buyers pull out. Its ok, my current passive income can cover the shortfall but it means i will have nothing to reinvest.
From the house sale the plan still stands to use 30K to buy another property £10k into stocks. Though after speaking to my mortgage adviser i might even spend 40K and get two properties. It sounds crazy for little amount of money but the sums do add up. If it worked my passive will really will increase immensely and provide even greater  monthly contributions. This might make better sense. The last  10K on a few bills i want to clear and a new car. Our current car has served its purpose with our children growing up , but now its starting to drink water which is not a good sign.
If the buyers pull out im going to raise the price of the house as i'm in no rush and i believe it would still sell.


3- Unit rental
I do have a small unit that i rent out to a friend for £100 month. He'd fallen on hard times back at the end of last year and said he cannot afford the rent for a while. Well great news as he owed me £300 coming the 1st march and hes has just deposited into my account £150. So its  coming in (though in 4 days he'll owe another £100 making it £250 in total) which is a good start and better than nothing. It was deeply needed to be honest as I've got the property rental situation giving me a short fall.


4- The Economy
Things are changing and its going to effect the way I'm entering the stock market. Everything seems to be booming, so much so we have reasonable inflation and interest rates are going up. These are my thoughts : Oil is rapidly going up (sign of a economy overheating), Governments are raising rates but really need to get them at around 5% desperately.Everyone is in work. People still carry a ton of debt and raising rates is really going to hurt .
Houses are on the market for short periods before selling. I'm just getting very uncomfortable the way things 'feel', its as if we are on the verge of hard and fast mini boom or on the verge of a recession.
Are you currently saying to yourself when you fill your car "its getting expensive!"


 So where's the bubble? I honestly don't know. It could be a stock market bubble from excessive QE printing. It could be caused by Trump creating a trade tariff war. I'm leaning towards the QE problem.



5- How I think things are going
Its very early to tell but im happy the way things are and very comfortable.If a recession does come it won't make much odds to me as my stock account is still small. I'm just going to keep buying and keep adding come rain or shine.
Housing wise things are looking excellent. My tenant has left (the house is empty) and i'm just waiting for them to hand me the keys and pay the last £100 they owe. Hopefully that will be today as today is the last day of the month.
My mortgage advisor
 I have tried loads and loads of times to do mortgages myself but if one thing that i cannot emphasis how important it is its to get a mortgage advisor.  Late last year i needed to get a 80K mortgage. Its nothing as i already have one but wanted to renew it for a better deal. So there's me thinking i can do this myself. I hopped along to my local bank and we had a meeting. Cut the story long and short i pay little tax because i reinvest my money, this of course reflects that i earn very little.Even though i ,already have the money borrowed,  never missed any payment, excellent credit score, loads and loads of collateral and yes you've guessed it. I got turned down. I did this twice. So after my failure i phoned my mortgage advisor  (thinking i could have beaten him). He sorts me out an even better mortgage than i was chasing, he did all the paper work and....... Bingo i pay him £300 and i have my new mortgage. I best say that again. You must have a good mortgage advisor.
 In preparation in interest rates going up and caution i have remortgaged all my properties (that have mortgages) to 5 year fixed rates. Funnily enough they all became cheaper than what im currently paying.
Oh and here's the good news. I tell my mortgage advisor I'm going to reinvest the money back into property from the sale. I ask is 30K going to be enough. He explains for rental my target window is  150K. Wow, so now Im thinking the 10k i was going to use on stocks to also use on property and then reinvest the rental into stocks. This could give me two properties with total mortgages of £250 and rental income of £780 a month. That's a profit of  £530 a month!! Thats an increase of my passive income of  £400 a month, just by selling a house reinvesting and having 10K left over. (to keep my wife happy).
The exchange date for the house is the 1st May so i will get zero income from that property for April. Now if the buyers pull out i'm not too worried as i can afford the temporary loss. But what i am going to do is actually raise the sale price by 5K. I know it sounds crazy right , but i believe it would still sell and i can make more money.

 Passive income is the most exciting thing ever!

End of Feb update

Goods news first:
Got my first dividend for £6.53 from SVCA. I'm well chuffed.

Here are the stats:
Total Month Dividends  £6.53
Total Month passive income  £310.35
Feb Contribution £830
Total Contribution  £2826
Stock market value  £2454
Portfolio dividend 7.39%
PE 6.9(could do with going slightly higher, but not over 20)


Current stock holdings -

.

House sale update:
Hmmmm well where do i start. The house is sold and the exchange date is set for 1st May , yay :) .
Oh god here comes the but. I have kept the tenants in the loop the whole time  but their rent was not received on the 1st May. They have never missed a beat in the last 7 years, so alarm bells quickly rang. I sent them a couple of messages to ask is everything ok (i had no reason to think otherwise) but none of my messages were replied. So i decided to pop round.
I went to the house and knocked on the door; they were clearly ignoring me at the door. I stay persistent  so much so, one of the children even shouted that someone was at the door. They reluctantly opened.
I really did not like doing this as they are a nice family, but at the end of the day i had to keep telling myself that while its their home its still my house; and it will be landing on my shoulders to pay the property works that are looming if i hold. This is something i cannot afford. I must and have to sell.
The wife opened the door and i explained i had not received any rent. In no uncertain terms she explained to me that im not getting any and basically i should go.

Anyway i explained the property needs to be vacated by the 1st May and they have received it all in writing. I've also explained i will pursue the loss of rent money through the courts. The wife walked away. I was left talking to the husband and we met for a chat later that evening down the road away from the house. We have agreed a handshake deal that he will pay the rent weekly, i won't take them to court and as a good will gesture from me they can have April rent free as long as they are out for the 1st May and the house is left in good order. He gave me a weeks rent there and then.
Oh i hope this works out.

First Major Correction

Today 06/02/2018 is day 6 into a market correction.

  This post is just a general one as part of my diary and something i will look back on in the future and smile. All the index's are down and everywhere is red; its all over the news. The reason they "the news" are giving is because "the world economy is growing on average 4% and the markets are expecting an increase interest rates". The Standard and Poor is currently down nearly 10%. As a dividend growth investor im not too worried.

1- This is now a buyers market though i currently don't have funds to buy (arggggh) . All i can do is watch as i miss out on this great opportunity. So what will i do for the future.....Nothing. I cannot time the market and as a drip DGI investor all loses are soon recouped over time. My money allowance is normally at the end of the month so i just missed this by a couple of days.

2- I can also now see the weak stocks in my portfolio for when a real crash comes.

Lesson learn't

Lesson Learned






After i left school i decided that i would work for my self. It was awesome at 17 earning money with little expenses except the pub at weekends and running a business. I'd advertise my skills in the local paper, go price it up, do the work, and get paid, it really was that simple. I'd keep spending and  buying more equipment so i could do bigger jobs and get paid more.
Fast forward to about when i'm 24. My business now employs a couple of guys and a secretary and everything is going great; well that is until a brown envelope containing a letter from the tax man comes through the letter box. At first i'm not too worried as 'most' of my money was declared and anyhow, how would he know how much i don't declare?
 I'd send in my accounts to him , thinking he will find something wrong (as they always do i guess), i'll get a small penalty to pay and Bobs your uncle i can carry on as usual. And.............. No he was not happy! He wanted more information and he started digging really deep and hell i mean deep into my accounts. My accounts came back looking like i had sat an exam in top set though, really i'm in bottom and i had zero chance of getting a A* mark.
2 years later
No progress has been made - he asks for paper work - I supply - it all goes quiet then he asks for more paper work . It goes round and round like this for a  2 whole years .Im not stressed now as things are going forward and i've not paid any money (so i thought). "We need a meeting" the tax man writes to me. Of course i agree. We agree a date and i go to his tax office. Oh my god within 2 mins of sitting down i know i'm in trouble. I need this, i need that, i need to show this and that. Ok i'm no expert so im thinking "how much do you want and lets get this finished".  He finally says "you need to get an accountant and i cannot yet give you a final bill though you currently owe roughly 15K.
Jeez now thats alot of money considering the average weekly wage was around £220 a week. So i asked can he recommend an accountant, on which he did and i still use today.
5 years later 
I have to write that again in case you think i miss printed. 5 years later.
Business is still growing and has now amalgamated with another company and there are two owners with myself being one of them. The investigation is still going on and i and my account cannot supply any more information. I have a child on the way and pleased that  i had never ever been on any benefits of any kind from the government. I'm now paying alot of taxes as i employ a number of people, and i feel that i successfully contribute to society.
Going Bankrupt
One morning my business partner says to me "i hear your going bankrupt", Of course i ask where did you hear that and he goes on to explain that he has a friend who has a friend that is a tax man. Yep this tax man has a big gop on him and has been telling people about me in his local pub.
Of course as i often am, i'm onto the phone to  my accountant and tax man to get this finished. This time it was different as my accountant had that morning received a letter for the final bill to close the investigation. OMG it was bloody 22K and it had to be paid within 14 days other wise i faced going to court.
Smelling of Roses
Let me explain what i had learned at point. It was truly amazing , over these years of the investigation i got to see all my mistakes and all the loop holes that were available. (This is the point  where i have a evil laugh a i write this).It also turned out that out of the 22K bill only 7k was actually what i owed , the rest was interest, fines and interest on fines. Fortunalty at his time i had bought and moved into a second home and my first one had just sold that same week with 30k going into my bank account. I can pay the bill :)
I wanted my 22k back.
Even to today i still use the same rules that i learned and i certainly had my money back.
1- use an accountant

2- don't be a sole trader , be a company.

3- Put as much as you can against the company.

4- Pay yourself as little as possible to receive maximum allowances.