Thursday, November 23, 2017

Net worth - November 2017

It's been a while since I did one of these and since one of the companies I have an old pension with finally got with the times and decided to provide online access, I may even start to try and make this a more regular thing. Just need to contact my German Riesterrente provider since I seem to have managed to lock myself out of that account. So frustrating. I've given up and just started writing down all the passwords and usernames and user numbers and various other identifiers that all these accounts need.

At any rate, the markets seem to be going up and up at the moment, so things are all looking pretty good. But even better because in addition to the long-term pension stuff, I have finally paid back my sister what she loaned me for my move last year and started building up some cash savings. Only a few hundred so far, but it feels like it won't be long before I have, finally, a proper baby emergency fund of one thousand tucked away. If I were to include my annual expenses and travel accounts, I would actually already be there. But I have to exclude them because that is money earmarked for known upcoming expenses.

I have had so much translation work in the last few months that I have quite a bit of money coming in soon, which means that when my tax bill for 2016 and my tax bill for 2017 arrive, I should have enough to cover them both. And, of course, from now on I will be doing what I should have been doing from the start but didn't always manage to do: putting aside enough of every invoice that gets paid that I do not need to worry about the tax bill coming in!

So, all in all, from a financial point of view, things are sort of starting to settle a bit. It's actually making me a bit nervous but I am trying not to catastrophise. I do kind of need a new phone but not so badly I have to rush out and get one next week. Same goes for my five-year-old laptop. One or two strange things have happened recently (so I'm getting much better at remembering to back-up regularly) and it's been nearly two years since I started having to basically use an extra cooling pad if I want to use it for more than 15 minutes, but again, no need to rush out next week to get a new one. I'll keep it going for as long as I can and then be easy, knowing that I have some savings to cover the cost of replacement, from my baby EF even if I haven't managed to save separately for it by the time I need it. Anyway, here goes:

November 2017
Increase in net worth overall: 5.81%
Made up of:
Irish pension: 2.85%
Irish retirement bond: 8.59% (increase since February, this is the one I just got online access to)
German Riesterrente: 4.91% (actively paying in to this one but have locked myself out of website so this increase is just what I've actually paid in since last statement received)
German BAV: 0% (no updated information)
Vodafone shares:  13.98% (increase since February, found my password!)
ETF savings plan: 310.87% (mostly what I have paid in, at 50 per month, but definitely gains, too, as the value is now above what I have paid in, even after the fees have been deducted)

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