Moving to Sweden.

Oh dear, it's been a long while since I last wrote anything here. I haven't lost my inspiration at all, but rather saved more than I have before. At the moment my fixed costs lie at about 58% of what I take home every month. I save about 35% and live off the rest! It's not a rich life as such but for now I feel quite content doing this.

In 6 months my boyfriend and I are moving countries, from the UK to Sweden and to give us the best start I want as much money as possible before then.

My Challenge

So, I seem to be doing okay with my physical challenge.

I went to the gym again yesterday and managed to do 10km in 62min 46sec. That is near enough 1.5 minutes faster than last week and as such is a rather substantial improvement. To be fair I think that I wa sa bit scared last week and thus didn't give it my all. I still think I could run it faster but whether I can do it 2min 47 sec faster is doubtful. Will have to see next Saturday...I managed a rather, if I may say so myself, impressive sprint the last 1.5 km but was thinking that next week I might increase my overall pace and cut down on the sprint maybe.

Will have to see if it works better.

Rhydian!

So completely and utterly off topic but I just have to say - I LOVE Rhydian in X-factor! I don't usually even watch the show at this stage and I have NEVER before voted but I can't help myself. Ever since the first live show when he did I'd Do Anything For Love I just have not been able to help myself...An adult teenage crush? How embarrassing!

How To Escape Debt and Start Saving

When I first started to consider sorting out my financial situation a necessity I relied pretty heavily on Martin of the moneysavingexpert website. Thanks to him I went through all the necessary steps of tidying up my personal finances and giving me a better chance at actually being able to save some money. As I’ve had great use of many of these tips I though I’d share some “beginner’s advice”.

Firstly, look over all your utility bills. There are several comparison sites nowadays where you can type in exactly what your needs are and which will then show you how much money you can save through switching providers. Many of them even offer you a switching incentive.

Through using energyhelpline I now have green electricity, pay £14 less a month and even received a cashback of £15 straight into my account about 2 months after the switch took place.

The same method can be used for your phone, broadband and similar bills. As I was already on the cheapest deal on these I have remained with my current suppliers although I regularly check to ensure they are still the cheapest for my needs.

Loans, mortgages, credit cards and other debts are necessary to look over regularly as you may be losing hundreds of pounds a year through not keeping an eye on them. With your mortgage, as soon as your current deal comes to an end (terms are usually 2,3 or 5 years) you will normally be automatically switched to the lenders standard variable rate which may increase your monthly mortgage greatly. Through simply speaking with your current supplier regarding cheaper options you may be able to cut this cost. If they do not offer you a deal that seems competitive do think about remortaging.

Credit cards, whereas very handy for large purchase are also a very expensive debt if you fall behind with repayments. If this has happened to you DO shop around for a better card where you can pay off the debt at 0%. This may mean switching cards frequently or even holding 2 cards, one for balance transfers and one for any new purchases if you still need it. As my credit card debt was very small I didn’t really benefit from this but I know those who have decided to sort out their debt who have saved a great deal of money through being proactive and ensuring they had the best deal going at all times. It does require quite a bit of work, but it's definitely worth it if your debt is large.

Apart from this it is also worth looking over any other monthly outgoings you may have such as maybe a gym membership or cable TV. Have you got the cheapest/best deal going? It is easy to get complacent and just stick with what you know but there is money to be had so do make an effort.

Sorted!

All presents sorted, lunch about to be made for Thursday and Friday and I have made a few pence on writing reviews so all is well on that part. Refusing to look at any of my long term investments at all at the moment which is normally one of my favourite hobbies....

Cheap Presents

This month has been a bit painful on the wallet as I paid off several smaller debts, decided to save a chunk of my wages and also have 2 birthdays coming up. As we will celebrate the birthdays at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen it will not end up being cheap – should be a good night though!

All is not doom and gloom though as I found some amazon e-vouchers that I’ve earned through filling in surveys and writing reviews. £50 in total so presents have been bought from there! I’ve also bought a couple of other things but the £50 certainly came in very handy. It’s probably not the best way to get rich as the hourly pay is way below minimum age but it’s pretty nice once you’ve managed to collect enough money to make a difference as happened with me this month!

I also love the Boots vouchers that I get from Ipsos. Every other month or so I’ll get £20 which always helps me to get the not completely and utterly necessary things that all girls need such as a new cream, glittery eye shadow for Christmas or a celebrity endorsed hair serum…

Investment Stress

Right! So today all but 2 of my investment funds have fallen to below zero! I had decided not to check how they were doing as I happened to have a quick glance at the markets as they opened this morning but couldn’t quite resist it. Seems like my BRIC fund is doing the best- lucky I stuck some extra money into it at the beginning of this month…

I’ve also decided that my exposure is not correct as I have 2 pure funds investing in China, in spite of one of them being higher risk than the other I think the combination with the BRIC market fund means that I’m overexposed to one particular country. It’s just difficult not to get dragged along by all the enthusiasm from experts and novices alike so I slipped up a bit in my choice.

What to choose instead I have no idea about yet but I have been ever so tempted to invest in the New Star Heart of Africa fund as I think there is some serious long term potential. The minimum investment is £12,500, however, and it’s deemed (understandably) as very high risk so in this case I will just keep dreaming and keep my money safe(er).

Success at Last!

How could I possibly forget! It's update time on my physical challenge and I have good news that really I should have bragged about yesterday...I managed to FINALLY do my 10km at the gym!! The bad news is that it took me 64 minutes and 23 seconds so I still need to improve but it's still a massive step forwward to me.

What's even better is that it felt good - I didn't feel sick like I often do when I push myself and I felt that I had more than enough energy for a sprint the last kilometer. I will do some more intervals this week and try to improve my time on 5 km before doing another 10 km (fingers crossed!) next Saturday.

As I was running yesterday I thought of how my off topic physical challenge actually is not all that off topic at all. Sure, it's not a means to making or investing money in any way but it is a way to prove to myself that I can do anything that I set my mind to - all you need to reach your goal is absolute determination.

Running really does help to clear my mind and I keep coming up with all these ideas as I'm running so it can't be as bad as I imagined it was for most of my life...

Changes

I can't seem to decide on a template for this blog! I've changed it again to one that I think is a bit clearer if anybody minds please let me know! Any suggestions on layout, colour etc is of course also heartily accepted as I'm a beginner at more things than just investing...

Safe Investments?

So the last week has been a bit of a roller coaster on the markets of the world. I know I shouldn’t keep checking how my investments are doing as they are all long term but I just can’t help myself…

It’s fun to log into my internet bank and see how the value of my China fund has risen by 20% over just a couple of months but it’s a lot less fun when all the markets are as unstable as they are at the moment and you log in to see that same fund is now only at +1.2% - argh!

Overall my investments are still on + but not by a great deal. However, I have absolute faith that the markets will again stabilise, at least in the long run, or else I wouldn’t keep my money here. Let’s just hope that next week will bring some more positive news so I can relax again!