There are only a handful of websites I visit regularly and usually they are money related. One is a blog site run by a UK investor who only invests in individual shares. I read this as he's in a similar position to me and I find his updates very interesting. I'll cover this blog in a future update.
I also skim through ThisIsMoney.co.uk quite regularly and also occasionally go on Fool.co.uk (Motley Fool).
Another site I read is "Middle Age to Millionaire". This is a blog I found when I was looking for people who were following the "Double Your Way" plan.
While the author of this blog isn't going through the doubling steps as per the standard document, she is documenting her progress trying to get rid of her debt. It's been a while since the last update but reading through all of the previous updates I found myself willing her on.
You can find the Middle Age to Millionaire blog here:
https://www.MiddleAgetoMillionaire.com
Discovering one person's blog will often lead to discovering other similar sources of information and it's from Middle Age to Millionaire that I heard about Dave Ramsey. Given what he does for a living I'm very surprised this is the first I've heard about him.
I'm sure he's massive in the US as he has written several books and hosted a radio show that is heard on over 500 stations. Over here in the UK he may be known but I don't think he's particularly famous.
His podcast is very entertaining to listen to during an hour-long commute and certainly offers some good ideas about personal finance.
The calls are typically about debt and people ask how they should pay off their debt and whether they should make some purchase or other. Dave will hand out no-nonsense advice which is usually *don't* buy that, eat rice and beans for the next few years and pay off all your debt before you invest in anything.
I've looked into his "baby steps" method a little bit and I think it makes a great deal of sense.
Strictly if I was following Dave's advice I would need to stop investing into a Lifetime ISA until I had built up 3-6 months' worth of living expenses. Building that kind of money up would take a year or so and mean not filling the LISA that year. That would leave me in the unfortunate position of missing out on the 25% bonus.
Instead, rightly or wrongly, I'm following the pay yourself first method.
With very little in debt, save for a small amount on an interest-free credit card deal, my priority will maxing out the LISA every year. After that I will work towards filling the remainder of my ISA allowance (a further £16,000 per year) and use this as an emergency fund.
I've been self-employed for several years now and have a very good idea of what my cashflow will look like month to month so I feel confident to have the emergency fund as a second priority to my investments.
Each to his own though, your mileage may vary (YMMV) and so on.
Should you wish to find out more about Dave Ramsey and his podcasts it's easy to find his sites using your favourite search engine.
With regards to the LISA Millionaire portfolio it was one position shorter for a couple of days after I closed off an investment (LM021) first thing on Monday. On doing my checks last weekend I was given a clear signal that I should sell to close that particular trade.
It was a long position in Brent Crude Oil opened in December 2019. I invested via an ETC hoping that it would do the job of accurately following the price of Crude Oil. In that respect it did a reasonable job but the trade itself didn't work out so I've sold it for a small loss. I'll continue to do my weekly checks on the Brent price and go in again should any of my indicators get triggered.
On Wednesday morning I decided to invest in another UK share (LM022) using some of the money which came back from the Crude sale. Early days for this one but it's in a different sector to the rest so hopefully gives me a little bit of diversification.
Here's the updated table:
| Code | Sector | Date Bought | Cost | Value | Gain/Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LM001 LM001-2 |
Equity Investment Instruments | 11/06/2018 16/09/2019 |
£2020 | £2330 | 15.42% |
| LM009 | Gas, Water & Multiutilities | 05/02/2019 | £1010 | £1220 | 19.75% |
| LM012 LM012-2 |
Real Estate Investment Trusts | 20/05/2019 28/11/2019 |
£2030 | £2320 | 14.11% |
| LM014 LM014-2 |
ETF | 17/06/2019 02/12/2019 |
£1950 | £2590 | 32.50% |
| LM015 | ETF | 27/08/2019 | £970 | £920 | (5.12%) |
| LM016 | Travel & Leisure | 29/08/2019 | £1020 | £1030 | 0.82% |
| LM017 | Media | 11/09/2019 | £1000 | £910 | (9.42%) |
| LM018 | Construction & Materials | 11/11/2019 | £1020 | £1070 | 4.99% |
| LM019 | Travel & Leisure | 11/11/2019 | £1020 | £1040 | 1.92% |
| LM020 | Software & Computer Services | 28/11/2019 | £1010 | £1100 | 8.41% |
| LM022 | Household Goods | 29/01/2020 | £1020 | £980 | (3.36%) |
After I sold off my Crude Oil position I decided to add a new page to the site which has a table showing all of the closed trades so far in the LISA Millionaire Lifetime ISA.
You can find the new page here or click on the link on the homepage. This page will be updated everytime a trade is closed off.
In 10 years time it should show many successful trades all adding up to a far greater amount than the losing trades. If it doesn't then you will know this experiment failed!