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!

How to get Rich Quickly

A couple of issues ago Money wise (August 2007) had a really interesting article about the best ways to get rich quickly (no, none of them involved the lottery or internet blogs sadly). Although the suggestions are fairly obvious I still found it an inspiring read.

• Business

According to Moneywise starting your own business is a surefire way to make a lot of money quickly. Quoting Duncan Bannantyne of Dragon's Den they suggest that everybody with a bit of enthusiasm, a good idea and some hard work has a great chance to use this towards creating their wealth.

It seems a sensible suggestion to me, although I do think that it's not that quite easy. You need to be passionate about what you do, willing to work very hard not to mention a great idea! Being fairly entrepreneurial myself starting my own business is something that I have considered many times in the past and something I am hoping to be able to do in the future. The smaller projects I have started have managed to earn me a little bit of money over the years, but have failed to keep my interest in the long term - not ideal for investing in your own business! What I found particularly interesting was Bannantyne's suggestion that your idea doesn't have to be big, revolutionary or even new as long as you can perform/produce it better than anybody else's.

• Property

That property can help you create wealth is something that more or less everybody's very aware of today. Whether you choose to develop properties for the purpose of selling or buy-to-letting, there has been a great deal of money to be made for those with project managing skills. That it has been such a successful project in the last few years is hardly surprising considering the way house prices have gone, that is up. Whether it will continue to be such "easy money" in the near future is anybody's guess, although in the long run a good property developer should always be able to make a decent profit.

• Investing

This is my personal favourite and what I'm hoping will help me rach my target in the future. At the moment I'm mainly investing in funds but I will progressively move on to shares as my money grow and as I learn more about it...

Moneywise's suggestions on how to invest successfully are close to my own ideas i.e. you must do your own research and leave yourself plenty of time to keep updated within the market in general and within your investment area(s) specifically. You must learn to shy away from following the crowd, a natural reaction for most people, in order to make big money and you must learn from your mistakes! Pretty basic advice but true nontheless.

Personally I don't feel that I have enough capital to invest yet, and I want to learn a lot more before I venture into this project but it is part of my short term goals to start investing more heavily in the stock market. At the moment I'm giving myself 6 months after which I think I should have enough capital and will hopefully have managed to read up on share investment!

I couldn't find a link for this article online sadly but the Moneywise website has many other interesting articles.

Savings

No spending today, I've got to be good to catch up after my "indulgent" weekend. It's lucky I have a very nice boyfriend who treats me to Wagamamas when I crave it on a Sunday afternoon...

It makes me feel so much better when I can get through a few days keeping my costs to zero. At least I may have a chance to pay for the birthday presents and possibly also survive until the end of the month. The savings this month have been more of a token saving of £80 but I guess paying off overdrafts and credit cards can also be considered a saving in a way.

But from this month on:
ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!

Disaster!

Not my greatest triumph yesterday. I went to the gym intent on running for an hour to see how far I'd get. Seems like my pasta lunch had a different idea as after about 10 minutes I started to feel as sick as anything. I did keep going for another 15 minutes but then had to stop.

Don't know if there's something wrong with me, surely it's normal to eat about 3 hours before you go to the gym? I seem to have to starve myself before I go as the only times I feel strong and as if I can keep going forever is when I'm starving hungry. Maybe it was the type of lunch or maybe it was something completely different? Does anybody have any idea why it's like this?

Anyway, I felt like a big failure, especially as my training companion managed to do the full hour and then some, so I did 2 very naughty things. As soon as I was finished I popped over to the shop and spent money on a big bar of chocolate. So not only did I fail at the gym, I also did not stick to the detox or the no-spending rule!

Why is it when I fail with one thing I think everything is ruined and have to purposefully ruin everything else, I wonder? I felt so disappointed with myself last night but have now decided to think of it as merely a small mistake (hm, well or 3 small mistakes I guess) and just keep going as if nothing happened. Just on my way to the gym now to make up for yesterday, after having thoroughly starved myself...WISH ME LUCK!

My Round and an Unexciting Month

Went out for drinks with work last night. I did end up having water but sadly it was my turn to buy so I still ended up spending a good £20 - typical. On the other hand, I don’t want my savings and plans for the future to interfere with friendships or in any way affect people around me so if it’s my turn to buy then so be it. Sort of ruined my plans for the weekend though - I will do the weekly shop tomorrow but will have to try to reduce the amount spent to make up for the over-indulgence yesterday!

And another thing…

My monthly money report has been done - I do love the end of the month when I can sit down and go through everything properly, it’s so much fun! This month wasn’t all that much fun though as I don’t have much to show for my money. I paid off the very last bit of the money I owe the boyfriend (for some reason I let him pay all the rent while I was studying, it has taken me about 18 months to pay it all back - interest free, sure, but I still wish I‘d have been a bit more sensible during this period).

I also paid off a trip I booked on my credit card and reduced my overdraft to just £100. Furthermore, as I have my student loan in another European country I transfer money towards that which then sit and wait (obviously in a high interest account) to be paid towards my student loan which is only taken out every quarter. In the mean time this money I count as “lost” money, although realistically it’s not. Anyway, all this means that it I don’t seem to have moved much closer towards my million….

Cheap Meals

So far I haven’t spent a penny since Saturday. I’ll have a home-made tomato soup tonight using ingredients that we already have at home. In all I think it will have cost me about £1 which is not too bad! If I can manage to make most of my meals come in at around the pound mark I’ll be laughing. Think I might experiment and try to do that. That will be my challenge for this month I think!

It should be alright, I have porridge for breakfast anyway, then some cheap carbs like pasta or rice together with seasonal vegetables and a small amount of protein for lunch and dinner. No wine for me either – how sad! My goal for next year will be to save 40-50% of what I take home each month, but more about that later.