Though my Lifetime ISA is full for 2019/2020, now is the time to start thinking about how I'm going to find the £4,000 for next tax year.
I'm currently drafting up an article about 'filling your LISA' and sourcing the £333.33 per month needed to do so.
As luck would have it this week I managed to get a month's payment by one of my favourite money-making endeavours - taking advantage of online casino bonuses.
Perhaps I'll do an article on it in the future (or maybe not as gambling always tends to polarise opinion) but in this case I turned a £37.50 bonus into more than enough to cover one month's LISA contribution.
On Friday I deposited this in my stocks and shares ISA for safe-keeping until April when I will transfer it into the LISA.
There are two main reasons for putting this little windfall in the stocks and shares ISA rather than keeping it in my everyday bank account, for example.
The first is that it creates a bit of a barrier between me and the money.
Money sat in a current account may get spent, despite my best efforts at discipline. Money sat in an ISA needs a conscious effort to get it from the ISA into a current account so it can be spent.
Secondly, any stocks and shares ISA money also serves as an emergency fund in that I can get it if I really need it.
Obviously once it goes into the LISA it's gone until I turn 60 in 2039. The penalty for withdrawing early from a Lifetime ISA is 25% of the withdrawal amount so I have already promised myself I will never do this.
As for this week's performance, there isn't much change and not much to report.
Haven't needed to sell anything, haven't been able to buy anything as I'm still fully invested.
Here's how it looks as of close of play on Friday:
| Code | Sector | Date Bought | Cost | Value | Gain/Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LM001 LM001-2 |
Equity Investment Instruments | 11/06/2018 16/09/2019 |
£2020 | £2190 | 8.19% |
| LM009 | Gas, Water & Multiutilities | 05/02/2019 | £1010 | £1140 | 12.14% |
| LM012 LM012-2 |
Real Estate Investment Trusts | 20/05/2019 28/11/2019 |
£2030 | £2250 | 10.45% |
| LM014 LM014-2 |
ETF | 17/06/2019 02/12/2019 |
£1950 | £2430 | 24.55% |
| LM015 | ETF | 27/08/2019 | £970 | £900 | (5.84%) |
| LM016 | Travel & Leisure | 29/08/2019 | £1020 | £1090 | 7.42% |
| LM017 | Media | 11/09/2019 | £1000 | £1020 | 1.75% |
| LM018 | Construction & Materials | 11/11/2019 | £1020 | £1100 | 8.44% |
| LM019 | Travel & Leisure | 11/11/2019 | £1020 | £1130 | 11.54% |
| LM020 | Software & Computer Services | 28/11/2019 | £1010 | £1020 | 1.32% |
| LM021 | ETF | 16/12/2019 | £1010 | £1010 | 0.41% |
There were worrying headlines from other parts of the world but as the week went on these seem to have petered out. There's nothing I can do about 'World Events', all I can do is keep an eye on my portfolio. I'll continue to do the daily checks and the more thorough weekend checks to try and make sure I don't lose money.
Watching or reading world news has never been a top priority for me and not being up-to-date has yet to adversely affect me in life. Many times I've been in social situations where people are discussing some recent news that I have no idea about and I often get astonished looks when I ask someone to explain what's happened.
Perhaps sometimes it's better to be out of the loop on these things. If it's really important I'm sure I will find out about it but most of what you see on the news websites and especially the 24 hour TV news shows is just noise. In terms of investment I imagine I might have sold out of positions too early by learning of some news of questionable accuracy via one of these news channels. Being oblivious has likely kept me in good trades.
Being distant from news sources relates well to the events in another book I've started reading this week. It's an old favourite that I tend to read every couple of years and once I've finished I will put a review up. This is one 'classic' stockmarket text that should be read by anyone with an interest in investing.
On Friday I had an email from my broker - "Your [x] shares - new research" - which was informing me of some news about one of the shares I hold. I really need to find out how to stop these as I don't see the point. If I've bought a share then I'll only sell it when I find a reason to do so. Independent "expert research" from the people employed by my broker's website won't make any difference to my choices.