Friday 29 December 2017

Trusting the internet ratings?

In one brilliant take on TripAdvisor, a legendary joke will place someone's shed in 1st place restaurant in London.

Read here

Saturday 23 December 2017

About patience

Motto: "Surrender is the inner transition from resistance to acceptance, from no to yes."
- Eckart Tolle -

I remember when i discovered from first time the financial independence concept, and i was so hyped up, that i would probably calculate my net wealth twice per day when i will receive some income or pay few bills. Same with the shares trading account, and lately with the cryptocurrency account, i would check them at least twice per day, once in the morning and once before sleep, to see if something changed. Oh, the times of the beginning, and how i will never learn. I made few wrong decisions based on rush, and i probably lost the opportunity to make at least 10-15 thousands more. But i improved with time, and i gradually increased my checks to one week, and to one month after. Now, after most of my trades happen automatically, i should probably do it every six months, in order to avoid the internal noise taking control of my thoughts inside my mind. I learned to be in the present moment, and to live life fully (I do it few times a day, and i am improving). I learned that once the investment done, i should set some limits, and then i should just let it go, and check again at the end of the term ( i try, i really try, but sometime i need reassurance, and i go online to check the numbers and to confirm myself that i am on the right way).

In order to achieve results, we should let the time to help us. We should be consistent with our saving and investing strategy, but to avoid to do decisions in the rush of the moment. Retrospectively, if i would let any major decision to be done after one good night sleep, the results should improve with some degree. So now and then, every time when i find myself in the same situation, i am just switching of the computer and try again in the morning. It is for the best, at least in my case.

How are you dealing with the fear of missing out and other kind of crisis? What are your strategies?

Monday 18 December 2017

Bitcoin and other flying piglets

As someone who dealt with this option extensively and has 20% of investments in cryptocurrencies (I know, i know, i aim to 10% on the long run, but they got value very, very fast), i would like to point few directions:
- You can can rich over night, but this will happen only if you have a lot of luck or knowledge. For us mere mortals, we only need to learn about it and invest diligently.
- Learning about it, this is critical, and you need to have a basic knowledge of a block-chain, what is the difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum in terms of utility, how many transactions per second will be added by lightning technology or why Dash and Zcash serve the same purpose, but differently. Investing in some coin because your taxi driver made some bucks of it is very often a way to loose a big part of your investment. Never forget the golden rule, invest only in what you understand and see and utility. Be a trader, not a speculant. 
- Scams: as in any lucrative business, scammers appear and try to take money from the uninformed ones. As you know, if it is too good to be true, it isn't. I would estimate that more than 50% of the offers are scams, but some experts go as up as 90%. Beware at the very higher returns.
- You can use this as a store of value, and invest a minimum amount that you are fine losing it completely, if you like to experiment. If you do not know what a cryptocurrency is and how it is working, do not do it. Stick with what you learnt.

Hope it helped!

G.

Friday 1 December 2017

November 2017 - Monthly report

November 2017 - Monthly report

My Overview

Total portfolio: £32328(+5772)
Debt: £6305(+6110)
External funds: ZERO
Car: No
Net Worth: £28023(+1652)

Investments UK: £18193(+7381)
Investments overseas : £4160( Same)
Cash: £3262 3126(-1218)
Pension: £7747 8263(+74)

Total Income: £2099 2212(+113)
Passive income: £865 (39.10%)
Savings rate: 20.52%

Side hustle 2 value: £1.50
Side hustle 3 value: £446 (Profit October = 318)
Side hustle 4 value: £384 (Funds:6511)

How shall i start? I am recovering after all the moving/renovating/improving house storm. I had a decent income, given the zero hours done on my second job (part time one). Almost 40% passive income, which is great, doing a temporary investment/speculation for as long as it is sustainable. I had no time for side hustle 2, again, but i supported the no.3 nicely (matched betting from time to time). I started to create a cloud mining cryptocurrency  portfolio, with very good result on Bitcoin, decent returns on Ethereum and Litecoin and loss on Zcash and Dash (which is only 3% of my portfolio for both of them). I ride the bubble for as long as is worth it. I took a loan, hopefully it will be paid in 3-4 months, but it is also covered by some Housecrowd  investments (around 6000 plus interest - to be paid in December-January.

Our future rental house is getting painted at the moment, with carpet changed and new curtains to be done after. I will probably change the furniture/elements in the bathroom. With a bit of luck, it will be rented before our January Holiday. Or at least until the end of the month. The main goal next year is to fully pay all the mortgage and put £200 every month in the Account - help to buy ISA.

Monday 27 November 2017

Individual choices - shares

I am advocating to use a fund that it is automatically following the FTSE100 or FTSE250 (in my case), but i also like to allocate a small percentage to some individual choices.

What i would like lately?
Let's see.

Kansai Paint - a Japanese company who invented an odorless paint containing mosquito repellent insecticide (see Zyka crisis this year).

Teladoc - telemedicine - remote healthcare

Dexcom - sensors attached to the skin to monitor blood sugar level in real time - great help for diabetics.

Alibaba and Amazon - as they will evolve even more in something we had never seen before.

Samsung Electronics, Tencent and Line - house assistants market will be big in the next years.

Alphabet (GOOGLE's parent company)
Apple
Geely
Tesla
Toyota

Those last companies are trying to improve the autonomous car, which will become a reality very soon.

Did you know that in 1900 28.5% of the cars in US where electric cars?


Sunday 26 November 2017

Cryptocurrencies and the Big Brother state

I do not want this page to become a cryptocurrency one, even if I got a hot corner for them. But this is a very interesting article about this year (2017) changes on this market. 

Check it here

I will also write something about individual stock picking a bit later .
Have a nice weekend. 

Tuesday 21 November 2017

New interesting way to save

What about this unconventional way to save money and boost your health?
Read here.

Wednesday 8 November 2017

October- end of the month report

I have no internet as I just move, but it will be done soon.

Crypto-currency protection

As I spoke about Bitcoin and other crypto currencies in the past, I think it is imperative for you to read this.
You need to learn about how to not get hacked and be prepared for a brave new world.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Wednesday 18 October 2017

FI feelings

I got a temporary income source that will provide me monthly with a sum bigger than my actual wages, completely passive. A short term Financial Independence, i could say. And despite my romantic view on the far away goal of Financial Independence, with a mystical feeling of "I did it!", nothing changed. I am the same, i do the same things. Sometimes the journey is more important than the goal. The things that i learn will provide for me anytime, anywhere.

Tuesday 10 October 2017

Cryptocurrency corner

As i was mentioning in some past posts, there are many opportunities with bitcoin and his alt-coins. Any other digital coin except bitcoin it is called an alt-coin. The ones worth trading right now are bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin.

The main option to make a profit are:

1. Day trading, as they are very volatile. If you plan to become a day trader, be vary of the fees charged by your exchange. I am using Coinbase to store the biggest amount of the digital currency, because i can send money from and into it using my bank account, and also because they have the vault option, where you can protect your coins from a hacking attack. But there are other options too, even if they lack some of the choices offered by the exchange mentioned before.

2. Mining - can be solo-mining, using your computer (which it is not efficient anymore because of the increased difficulty of the block-chain) or dedicated equipment (such as Ant-Miner S9). The second option is pool-mining, where more individuals join together and share the benefits and the risks. The last option is the cloud-mining, where you buy mining power from somebody else, in exchange of an amount of money (which can include the rent, the daily maintenance fee or the transaction fee). Most of the contracts offered today are slightly over or under the money paid for mining, and they can be for life (meaning they run as long as the company is getting some profit) or for 1-2 years. You can find online calculators to check their return on investment. But there are always alternatives, and you can make your own mining farm if you have a room available, and some solar panels or a eolian windmill to get free electricity, just to give an example.

3. Faucets - but this is only to experiment with the cryptocurrencies, as we are talking about a small amount. I was talking about this here.

My idea is to redirect the profit obtained from cryptocurrency to classical ways as shares, Ratesetter P2P lending and TheHouseCrowd real estate crowd-funding, to name a few options.

Thursday 5 October 2017

September 2017 - Monthly report

September 2017 - Monthly report

My Overview

Total portfolio: £26556(-1313)
Debt: £195 (-202)
External funds: ZERO
Car: Sold
Net Worth: £26371(-1601)

Investments UK: £10812(+1042)
Investments overseas : £4160( Same)
Cash: £3262(-1218)
Pension: £7747(+74)

Total Income: £2099 (+214)
Passive income: £573(27.30%)
Savings rate: 59%%

Side hustle 2 value: £2.50
Side hustle 3 value: £529 (Profit August = 393)
Side hustle 4 value: £27 (Funds:1030)

How shall i start? A month full of changes in most areas of my investment's strategy. A massive drop in net worth of £1601, and i am proud of it, because i rented a house close to work, and, even if i spent £2080 on deposit and first month rent, and another £1100 on getting the house ready, i sold my car (this move alone will bring me £100+ less in monthly expenses), and i will walk to my workplace (added health benefits also). Next month i will finish paying my loan, another small victory is coming. Thinking at the future house/flat that i want to buy, i made a Help to Buy ISA with Santander, and i saved 1000 initial deposit + 2 x 200 for September and October => 1400 already in the account (hence the jump in the UK investments total amount). A decent month for matched betting with almost 600 (573 to be exact). Side hustle 2 is still there, but i did not had enough time to work on it. I am experimenting with cryptocurrency, as i suggested in some of my previous posts, testing a "scam the scammer" operation, but also trying some combination of faucets (see post no.1 and post no.2 about it) and mining(no posts about this yet, as i had some technical difficulties because of the China ban on Bitcoin and co). But this month i will reap the rewards from my initial investments, hoping to a complete payment, and maybe something extra.

My plans and hopes for October are: to move all my staff in the rented house and stop paying the previous place rent, to move all her stuff and start to reconvert her house for the future tenants (still 13K to pay on mortgage) after a general mending and cleaning, to continue to learn about and explore more opportunities related to cryptocurrency.

Wednesday 27 September 2017

Making money by addition or subtraction

Ideas to achieve it:

1. Addition: October will be the month when I send all the cryptocurrency profit into my account (30.10.2017)

2. Subtraction: Sell the car and reduce monthly expenses by £120. Call insurance to cancel the contract (Done). Call to cancel road tax after i sell it (29.09.2017)

I will see what else will pop through my mind. Need 8 more ideas until the end of October.

Thursday 21 September 2017

Wild at heart

A new adventure is beginning now. I will move in a rented house, in a strategic switch meant to rent a property and finishing the mortgage completely in one year, and then saving for buying the second. Real estate, here i come. I will also sell one of the cars, and walk to work, saving more than 80 pounds because of this. Freeview instead of Virgin TV channels, another £40 saved. My simulation is full of hope, and i want to explore the domain of cryptocurrency mining and try to get a decent profit from there also. I was not writing as much lately, i had few ideas, but i did not explored them fully. So much work, so little time. I will also need to change my recording formats, as i need to add new areas of both expenses and saving methods. But, this is a challenge i gladly take, and i cannot wait for this year to end to see my final moves results.

Monday 18 September 2017

Quote of the day

"If stock market experts were so expert, they would be buying stock, not selling advice."
(Norman Augustine)

Sunday 17 September 2017

Time management - exercise 1

I tried a time management technique - writing every hour what I am doing for a week. The final results are here, and it is fascinating.

Most time consuming activity is sleeping with 31.6%, followed by working time with 30% of my time. Add to this the time for transport - 8%, and I have 69.6% gone, more than 2/3 of my life. Then I got time spent with my other half - 18%, time spent online on the phone or laptop, big part of this also work - 10.41%. The rest it is used for cleaning the house (6.95%), social activity (3.82%), eating (1.74%) yoga (1.74%) and personal hygiene (1.04%). This is my life now.

On my personal notes, financial independence will free up to 30% of my time, huge benefit, which I hope to use it for family, social meetings and relaxation. Need just to get there.

Maybe I will do this exercise again in a couple of months. See you soon!

Finance and life - Jay Leno

When you find out that Jay Leno is also a genius in finance...

Read here.

Friday 15 September 2017

Cryptocurrency - Faucets - No.2

As i said, this is my second post in the interesting and full of danger world of digital currencies.
The faucets will let you have small amounts of bitcoin and other alt-coins, at regular intervals. I tested for a period, and recorded the performance of the best rated faucets and miners. But about miners i will talk maybe with other occasion, so let's keep it simple. This is a long term strategy, which eventually can provide a good 100% passive income, completely free, at the expense of 5 minutes daily.

1. First you gonna need a very good add-block. Once this is set up, you can go to the next step.
2. Make one account on Eobot. This is a miner/main deposit account, where you can use the coins gained from other faucets to mine something for the next 5 years. This website also has a faucet to access once per day. Ideally you switch on Cloud mining 5 years - GHS 4.0,  (last position on the mining menu) before using the faucet, avoiding the 35% fee when you buy it with some of the coins. If you are in UK, switch from dollar to pound.
3. Make one account on Coinpot. This is a micro-wallet where you can store bitcoin, litecoin and dogecoin. For the moment we gonna focus on these three alt-coins, as they are the most lucrative.
4. You need to make one account on each of these faucets. I will also put in the brackets the faucet refresh interval. Moon Litecoin (5 minutes) Moon Bitcoin (5 minutes) Moon Dogecoin (5 minutes)
Bitfun faucet in offers (3 minutes) Bonus Bitcoin (15 minutes) All these faucets get automatically collected in Coinpot wallet.
5. There are other 2 faucets that are not collected in Coinpot, so you need to transfer them manually in the Eobot account, using the Eobot bitcoin and dogecoin addresses. Free Bitcoin (1 hour) Free Dogecoin (1 hour).
6. Strategy: click on all faucets at last once per day, as you get 1% bonus every day up to 100% more after 100 days. Every month transfer the coins from Free Bitcoin and Free Dogecoin faucets to your Eobot account. On Coinpot, at the end of the month convert all the dogecoins and litecoins to bitcoins. Transfer the bitcoins to your Eobot account. Once you have everything on Eobot, buy GHS 4.0. You can use it to mine whatever you fancy, bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin will be easier to sell. Keep using all the coins you gain to buy additional cloud mining (GHS 4.0 for 5 years).
7. Exit strategy: after you get paid a decent amount per hour, you need to make one account on some good wallet to link it with your bank account. I use Coinbase for this. You can sell you coins here on Coinbase and send the money straight in your account. This last account need to be properly protected by a decent password. As an additional layer of security, you can make a separate account in bank to use only for mining (and match betting, as i do, to record the profit i make each month easily).

I provide you with one example of my exploits in the mining/faucets area, which is not too impressive, but still, free money gained with minimal effort are always good, right? You can ask me any related question here, on this post, and i will try to answer if i know.


Disclaimer: Some of the links are referral links. 

Monday 11 September 2017

Cryptocurrency - Faucets

I am testing a little something called Faucets, a paid-by-click feature where you gain digital currency. It is not a lot of profit, unless you make lots of referrals. However, if you are a child between 8 and 14, this could be an alternative to the traditional paper route. I will come back to talk more about it after i finish my experiments. It works for cryptocurrency like bitcoin, litecoin and dogecoin (last being an elaborate nerdy joke).


Thursday 7 September 2017

August 2017 - Monthly report

August 2017 - Monthly report

My Overview

Total portfolio: £27869(-189)
Debt: £397(-370)
External funds: ZERO
Car: £500
Net Worth: £27972(+181)

Investments UK: £9770(+68)
Investments overseas : £4160( +912)
Cash: £841 7184 4480(-2704)
Pension: £7673(+107)

Total Income: £1885(-8101)
Passive income: £426(22.60%)
Savings rate: 33%

Side hustle 2 value: £0.57
Side hustle 3 value: £393 (Profit July-328)
Side hustle 4 value: £25 (Funds:482)

Continuing to pay all debts, as they decrease i registered a jump in the net worth, small as it is, but it is a plus never the less. I am looking to sell my car, which in return will decrease my monthly expenses with  70-80 pounds on average.

Saving rate is decent, i am also trying on new things, like bitcoin mining, coin collecting, rare books collecting, this being some long-term projects. I have also started a Help-to-buy ISA, in the eventuality of buying my first house for rent in few years from now.

The income this month was alright, with more than 20% semi-passive. I need to dedicate some time to side hustle no.2, as i did not take care of it from March. The other two are fine, side hustle no.4 being 100% passive, and no.3 needing 15 minutes daily.

Probably in the next months i will be faced with massive change, moving house and re-doing the whole finance stuff in another manner. But i will know it when i will be there. Until then, keep saving, until you are ready to be financial independent. Never stop.

“The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time.”
– Willem de Kooning

Monday 28 August 2017

Knowledge and rabbits

Motto:
"While others attempt to win every lap, it is crucial to remember that to succeed at investing, you have to be around at the finish line."
(Seth Klarman)

For today, i got few articles in my mail that made me wiser.

16 types of securities fraud - link here

Early retirement - ideas for mortgage when you have assets but no regular income - link here

Page 30 of this newsletter - one good interview with Shane Parrish - link here

Friday 18 August 2017

Interest, scams and fair trade

Another interesting article about commission and fair trade, related to the American market, but you can read it even if you live in another country.

Link here

Saturday 12 August 2017

Creating Wealth

Some interesting principles relating to create wealth, on this article here.
Read it and learn something new.

Enjoy it!

Wednesday 2 August 2017

July 2017 - Monthly report

July 2017 - Monthly report

My Overview

Total portfolio: £28058 (-4451)
Debt: £767(-2101)
External funds: ZERO
Car: £500
Net Worth: £27791 (-2350)

Investments UK: £9702(-10901)
Investments overseas : £3248 ( +/- 0)
Cash: £841 7184(+6343)
Pension: £7408(+107)

Total Income: £9986 (+7155)
Passive income: £8640(86.52%)
Savings rate: 5.30%

Side hustle 1 value: £400 (+8) Liquidated
Side hustle 2 value: £5.7
Side hustle 3 value: £328 (Profit June-433)
Side hustle 4 value: £3 (Funds:482)

Some massive changes and one seemingly big loss, which in fact it is a win. The story of my cryptocurrency adventure ended this month, with £3150 as initial investment, going to a maximum of £21000, and cashed in at the value of £9500. A nice profit, even if my net worth seems to jump up and down in these past months. I liquidated my side hustle no.1, as this it was a business that i never started. I made £8 profit in interest, while i kept the money in my account.

Thursday 27 July 2017

Financial preparation

You need to learn always, and to know what is it going to happen around you. Crypto-currency, tech, electric car laws, anything that can have a major impact on economy, you need to see it before the general public. Only if you are prepared you can survive in the today's world. Everything is happening so quickly, that 5 minutes can be the difference between going broke at 85 or living a meaningful life until 102. The little holes can sink a ship. Beware!

I will end this up with a nice Japanese story.

"A student said to his Master:
-You teach me about fighting, but you are talking about world peace. How do you reconcile the two?
The Master said:
- Is it better to be a warrior in the garden, or a gardener in a war?"

Tuesday 25 July 2017

Adjusting to the incoming Brexit

I am trying to find new ways to improve the elusive Net Worth.

Until now i am looking to sell the car and buy a monthly bus pass. This will half my expenses with transport or even better, estimating value is £46 instead of 80-100 per month.

I am looking to finish with one side hustle, the one that i set the money aside and prepared for it, but i never started, while i will also try to improve another side hustle, the matched betting, by setting a plan and increase the monthly income.

I am also trying to simulate a way to find out what is cheaper, to do major repairs and cosmetic adjustments to the house, or try to rent another close to work, cutting the transport also. Still looking for different ways to do it.

If i manage to solve this until the end of the year, i will be proud of me.

Thursday 13 July 2017

The cryptocurrency adventure

At the beginning on May i invested approx. £3200 in a new cryptocurrency called Ethereum, and i paid an exchange rate of £36 per 1 Ethereum. My deposit run fast to almost 22.000 pounds, but i was greedy, waiting for a bit more, and after few unfortunate events such us a fake news about the dead of the Ethereum public face (which was not true, but resulted in 10% price drop), and one 10 seconds spike from £299 to 0.10 and back, the value steadily decreased, trying to reach some equilibrium value. Today i decided to take my money back, and i just get £9800 sent to my bank. I was hoping to make at least £500, but in the end i got a £6500 profit for 75 days, which is an annual ROI of 31633%. Out of my last side hustles, this is, surprisingly, the second best. With the worst of them hustles resulted in losing £600, and other making zero profit (never started), the three remaining provided a decent return.

I personally think that the potential for any cryptocurrency is to invest at the moment of the ICO (initial coin offering).

Tuesday 4 July 2017

June 2017 - Monthly report

June 2017 - Monthly report

My Overview

Total portfolio: £32509 (-806)
Debt: £2868 (-710)
External funds: ZERO (-450)
Car: £500
Net Worth: £29787 30141 (+354)

Investments UK: £20603 (-1030)
Investments overseas : £3248 ( +/- 0)
Cash: £841(+21)
Pension: £7301(+203)

Total Income: £2831(+1351)
Passive income: £1642(58%)
Savings rate: 26.13%

Side hustle 1 value: £392
Side hustle 2 value: £2.3
Side hustle 3 value: £433 (Profit May-215)

Working on to reduce the debt, while still making the best out of the loan (reduced with £1160 this month). While the portfolio decreased with £806, the Net Worth increased with £354. So, it is still a win. The cash available is along the same values (+£21), and the pension slightly increased. The income this month is considerable higher, as as withdraw some money from the Ethereum account, in order to use it for a future hustle. I made a good £435 from side hustles this month, using some trials to find a better way to do this. I will probably look for liquidating the side hustle no.1, as it was never started as a business. July should be a quiet month, or not. We will see what future brings!

Good luck to you too!

Friday 30 June 2017

Mistakes - part two

If you understand something intellectually as a concept, but you are not integrating that emotionally, sometimes you can make mistakes. As i did few days ago. Do not do like me, train yourself to not answer emotionally, but to follow the proven knowledge. Even if i know that i am prone to this kind of mistakes, i guard myself, but i am still doing them. Twice this year, my emotions got me in trouble. Same scenario, and i still not learned my lesson. So, from now on, i will give a 6 hours interval to react to this events.

What it this about? When you invest in something, you do your research, and you know that is a proven investment, and it starts to drop in value, fast. Normally, first response is panic. And you want to sell. If you age going for the long term, you should buy, not sell. But talking about me, i sold instead of buying, and this lack of control made me to potentially lose £5500. How do you deal with this emotional response? Is this something related to experience, or we just need to buy and forget until the time will come? Because to me seems that micromanaging too much will get you less profit than doing everything automatically, like a financial robot.

Monday 5 June 2017

The 12 months plan - finished

Motto: All the wealth in the world worth nothing for you, if you are not healthy.
(Financial freedom wizards manual)

Weight: Between 80 to 85 kg at 1.80 m (5'9'') Aiming for 77 kg and 15% body fat on 1st of June.
Body fat: Between 14% to 24%
BMR (basic metabolic rate) = 1818 kcal
PAL (physical activity level) = 1.375
Energy requirement daily = 2499 kcal
BMI = 24.69 to 25


1. Body
- Yoga techniques (postures, breathing and meditation)
- Running  - endurance and sprint
- Strength and power/stamina building exercices


2. Diet
- A 70% plant based diet (with a twist of 70% alkaline food daily), no chemicals, less to no sugar, less to no caffeine, better hydration (300 ml water every 3 hours when possible) - I achieve this 80% of the time, i would say.
- One day a week - 24 hour fasting - Most of the time. Now i am thinking at some part fasting, where i eat all the food in 8 hours interval, followed by a fasting time of 16 hours. There is some research supporting my theories.

3. Mind
- Mindfulness techniques aka meditation:
- Brain boosting supplements - For the this month i tried: Omega 3, Magnesium, Ginseng and Ginkgo biloba solution, My herbal remedies (but for the herbal treatments i did it completely only 10% of the time).
- Memory enhancement techniques


I would like to think that i achieved a great deal in all those 12 months, even if i still have work to do.

Conclusion:

Physically speaking - I need to train harder, with conditioning for joints and bones, and mobility (yoga). Ideally I need to do 3 strength training of at least 30-45 min (unless is high intensity training, which can be done faster), 2 running sessions - one speed, one endurance, and 15-30 minutes of yoga in the morning, followed by mindfulness techniques for 15-30 min.

Diet - should be all organic, vegetarian, with no sugar and caffeine, and a decent amount of water per day (no fizzy or sugary drinks). Supplements like Omega 3 and Magnesium all the time, with ginseng,ginkgo or other mind booster  from time to time. 1-3 day fasting when possible.


Sunday 4 June 2017

Connected, empowered and finding the meaning of life

"We are all connected: to each other -- biologically, to the earth -- chemically, and to the rest of the universe -- atomically."
- Neil DeGrasse Tyson -

And this connection is real, binding ourselves to hidden realities. And, in doing this, changing ourselves will change others, and the universe itself. Improve every day, close the gaps and raise your weaknesses to main skills.

"People's great creativity and diversity, our desire for contribution and relationships, blossom when the heart of our community is clear and beckoning, and when we refrain from cluttering our paths with proscriptions and demands. The future of community is best taught to us by life."
- Margaret Wheatley -

But what is a community? It is the work microcosm? It is our relatives as a family? It is our nation?
Or the whole humanity? Jung was talking about Egregors, the nation Egregor, the family Egregor and so on. This is some kind of a magical being, created by the conversion of all the energies that are common to all the members of one group. The stronger is the group, the more powerful the influence of the Egregor will be. And the more groups you become a part, the better for you.

"And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything."
- William Shakespeare -

We look for meaning, even if it is not, we are still finding it, according to our own beliefs. We find gods pictures in bread, in leaves or trees, but the whole world  is nothing else than a Rorschach test, and we only see outside of us what in fact it is inside. Next time when you see something that you don't like in the real world, check inside you too. Maybe there is some work to be done there.

Friday 2 June 2017

May 2017 - Monthly report

May 2017 - Monthly report

My Overview

Total portfolio: £33315 (+6910)
Debt: £3578 (-442)
External funds: £450 (-750)
Car: £500
Net Worth: £29787 (+8002)

Investments UK: £21633 (+8412)
Investments overseas : £3248 ( +/- 0)
Cash: £820(-231)
Pension: £7098(+502)

Total Income: £1480(-64)
Passive income: £228 (15.41%)
Savings rate: 36%

Side hustle 1 value: £392
Side hustle 2 value: £3.6
Side hustle 3 value: £215 (Profit April- 65.5)

Finally a side hustle that worked better that i hoped. Last month i invested £3300 in digital currency (Ethereum), hoping to make couple of hundreds. Funny enough, the value went up five times, so now i have in my portfolio well over twelve thousands. I am waiting to see what happen, seems that my house deposit will be ready soon.  Hence the big portfolio growth. I am also reducing the external funds and the loan, while i try to reach the magical 50% saving rate (over 30% in the last months). Not much passive income as i was (again) in some kind of holiday (went home to see family). Pension increased with a nice £502,  And i have quite a work to do in June, as i just buy the flight tickets for my August trip (quite expensive - around 350). I hope that next month my external funds to be close to zero and my net worth to go over the 30K limit.

Good luck to you too!


Monday 1 May 2017

April 2017 - Monthly report

April 2017 - Monthly report

My Overview

Total portfolio: £26405(+2254)
Debt: £4020 (+20)
External funds: £1200 (+200)
Car: £500
Net Worth: £21685 (+2034)

Investments UK: £13221 (+1653)
Investments overseas : £3248 (+476)
Cash: £1051 (-49)
Pension: £6596 (+170)

Total Income: £1544 (+170)
Passive income: £81 (5.27%)
Savings rate: 36%

Side hustle 1 value: £392
Side hustle 2 value: £2.5
Side hustle 3 value: £65.5 (Profit March - Zero)

This was another good month, despite me getting ready for my next holiday. Quite a big plus, mostly due to the valuation of Bitcoin and Ethereum. A bit of extra debt, just to patch some activities here and there, but i will start to tackle it from May on. Net worth went up with £2034, investments growth both in UK and overseas, pensions up with a bit more than £170 as usual, and i am proud of my 36% savings rate. Still recovering after the catastrophic March mistake, probably fully recovered at the end of May. Two months without profit from the side hustle is a costly experience, but then, this is how we get wiser, right? Side hustle talking, i started to make a small profit again, i am waiting to see how this month goes.

Thursday 27 April 2017

One bitcoin, two bitcoins...

One interesting area to play with, although highly volatile, it is the digital currency market. In this last year we could see Bitcoin going up from 380 to 1000 pounds, and other secondary currencies such as Ethereum from 1 pound to 49 in less than one year. Just think about, if you got 1000 to spare and invested last august in Ethereum, you would have close to 50 thousand today. Of course, others have not such a sum to risk, but this was only one example. And they are probably still growing, so it is a bit more to get from it. (Truth to be told, it was a massive impact due to the India money reform and to the fact that some of the financial options in Japan got zero or negative interest, so the Indian and Japanese market play a huge part on the market.)

Check yourself, familiarize with the concept and invest a small amount of money every week or month in digital currency, you will be rewarded if you play the long term game.

Wednesday 26 April 2017

A millionaire advice

This is so good that I cannot keep it only for me.

"How to make lots of money with Facebook:
Step1: Go to My Account.
Step2: Log out.
Step3: Do some real work. "

(Via JMoney - celebrating Jokes day)

Mistakes

They say that the intelligent person learn from his mistakes, the wise one from other's mistakes. Despite reading about this specific one, and learning about the psychological mechanisms behind this kind of behaviour, i did it myself 6 weeks ago. Seems like i am only intelligent, not wise, at the moment. A costly error, in fact a suit of 4-5 wrong decisions that spiraled in a catastrophic result, wiping out almost £1500. Took me 60 days of consistent work to recover, with more than 120 hours of real work. I will make this kind of error again? Probably not soon. As i had the feelings related to this and i learn. We are not perfect. And we need to realize that sometimes we will make the wrong decisions. Ideally, we should learn and never do it in the same way. A genius is the one that make hundreds on mistakes, but not the same one twice. And sometimes, in between our 101 mistakes, we do the right kind of mistake, and we discover something revolutionary. This is one way. The other way is to not test, to choose the traditional verified course of events, and to reach our objectives. But in the end, we will not have a story to tell. Perhaps we do not even need to tell a story. As long as we are there, where we aim to be.

Which way is the best to follow?

Thursday 13 April 2017

Health plan

I am trying a new way of reaching my training goals, with a loose suggestion table instead of well defines goals. let's see if this one is working better than the rest.


Sunday 2 April 2017

One year health plan - month 10

Motto: All the wealth in the world worth nothing for you, if you are not healthy.
(Financial freedom wizards manual)

Weight: 80 kg (2 kg lessthan 60 days before ) at 1.80 m (5'9'') Aiming for 77 kg and 15% body fat on 1st of may.
Body fat: 14%  (4% less)
BMR (basic metabolic rate) = 1818 kcal
PAL (physical activity level) = 1.375
Energy requirement daily = 2499 kcal
BMI = 24.69

So, a decrease of 500 kcal per day should be sustainable if i eat enough fruit and veg.

1. Body
- Yoga techniques (postures, breathing and meditation) once per week - done
- Running or other kind of training - 1 sessions -10%

2. Diet
- A 70% plant based diet (with a twist of 70% alkaline food daily), no chemicals, less sugar, better hydration (300 ml water every 3 hours when possible) - I achieve this 80% of the time, i would say.
- One day a week - 24 hour fasting - I did not fast in March. I did not decreased the sugary and caffeine rich foods and drinks this month more than usual.

3. Mind
- Mindfulness techniques aka meditation: 40%
- Brain boosting supplements - For the this month i tried: Omega 3, Magnesium, Ginseng and Ginkgo biloba solution, My herbal remedies (but for the herbal treatments i did it completely only 10% of the time).

Physical training -Was fine at the beginning of the month, but based on walking during the holiday, which holiday disrupted my normal routine.
Diet - Was  fine, predominant vegetarian, without too much dairy and almost no eggs.
Mind - I am getting a bit unfocused lately, wasting far to much time on unessential activities. Training focus is a must.

Two months left until the end of the program, and i tested different approaches to solve the health equation. In April i aim for running seriously, building a bit of strength and clearing the emotional body. Focus training should be added too.

Saturday 1 April 2017

March 2017 - Monthly report

March 2017 - Monthly report

My Overview

Total portfolio: £24151(+2910)
Debt: £4000 (+4000)
External funds: £1000 (+400)
Car: £500
Net Worth: £19651 (-990)

Investments UK: £13221(+3352)
Investments overseas : £2772( N/A)
Cash: £1100 (-186)
Pension: £6188(+199) 6426

Total Income: £1374(-1412)
Passive income: £13 (0.94%)
Savings rate: 2%

Side hustle 1 value: £392
Side hustle 2 value: £0
Side hustle 3 value: £0 (Profit February £1700)

Short story of March: I managed to loan 4000, invest more than 3000 and even spend more than 1000 on a special project. I also noticed that all my side hustles are geographically limited, so during my extended holiday, travelling in Italy from north to south and visiting most important places (in my opinion), i was just spending and spending. First two days I was a bit clingy, but i decided to enjoy it and focus on recovering the expenses in April. Also my next holiday is in May, for 3 weeks again, so this year i will relax a bit on the side, on work when is needed. I have many tests and projects related to finance, and i will be very happy if at least half of them will be successfully completed.

Let's talk about money! My portfolio increased with a considerable amount (3k), but my debt also, even if i will pay it when i have some extra to spare. Investments and pension together made it to one 3.5k this month, only 500 spend in holiday from the borrowed money. But when someone is giving you 4k to do the dream trip that you are planning it from 3-4 years ago, you do not argue with the one offering this to you, right? The cash reserve is mostly the same, the real passive income was almost nonexistent this month, and the savings rate is the lowest in the past 27 months. I have high hopes for April. But we will see what happens next.

Take care!

G.

Tuesday 21 March 2017

Holiday thoughts

It is funny how our mind will play its new tricks on us, again and again. I was in holiday, in some 3 random countries of Europe. Nice company, nice views and all that, but for the first 2-3 days in the beginning i was kind of annoyed, as the matched betting did not work there, and i needed to fight with my perception that i am loosing money each day i am away. Of course, logically i understood the mechanism, and after a while i just enjoyed being away and not doing anything. I even went over my proposed expenses, just to fully embrace all the new experiences available to me. And it was worth it. Retrospectively, i can see what happen, learn from it and use the acquired knowledge on my next trips. But i also realized that a good bunch of my income is relaying on me being in a specific geographic area (90% of it, i will say). And it will push me to find new, better activities, that i can use in any place, at any time. Working on this now, we will see what future brings.

Wednesday 1 March 2017

February 2017 - Monthly report

February 2017 - Monthly report
My Overview

Total portfolio: £21241(+234)
Debt: £0
External funds: £600
Car: £500
Net Worth: £20641(+1634)

Investments UK: £9869(+187)
Investments overseas : £2772( N/A)
Cash: £1286(-742)
Pension: £6188(+199)

Total Income: £2786(+1009)
Passive income: £1425(51.15%)
Savings rate: 74%

Side hustle 1 value: £392
Side hustle 2 value: £1.13 ( Profit January £123)
Side hustle 3 value: £1700 (Profit January £370)

Another good month passed by. As you can see, even if the total portfolio was not growing much (+234), i was working on returning the funds needed for past side hustles. So the net worth increased significantly in February, with a whooping £1634. Investments in UK and pension fund increased and the total income was boosted up by Side Hustle no.3. Speaking about side hustles, you can see which one i was working on this month, with not enough time to follow the other two. Passive income this month was more than half, and the savings rate was decent enough. For the moment, because i am getting ready for two holidays in the next three months. So, we will see how it will go.

Have a wonderful March, full of happiness and fulfillment.
G.

End of the month

Working out the results for this month. Financially good, health and exercise - a bit of a struggle, but overall was a decent month. Ready for a March holiday, soon followed by an April/May one.

Life is beautiful / La vita e bella!

Tuesday 21 February 2017

Self pity

"I, who have never willfully pained another, have no business to pain myself. "
- Marcus Aurelius -

It is true. Think about, it is as simple as that, if you will not accept for others to treat you, at least at the same level of you being upset when someone treat your best friend badly, you will be in a much better place. That's all for today.

Matched betting 101 (minimum skills)


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Tuesday 14 February 2017

Rockstar Finance

One of the most complete personal finance blogs directory here. Enjoy it!

Friday 3 February 2017

January 2017 - Monthly report

January 2017 - Monthly report
My Overview

Total portfolio: £21007(+570)
Debt: £0
External funds: £2500
Car: £500
Net Worth: £19007(+720)

Investments UK: £9682(+1565)
Investments overseas : £2772( N/A)
Cash: £3761 2028(-1733)
Pension: £5669 5989(+320)

Total Income: £12386 1777(-10609)
Passive income: £517(29.11%)
Savings rate: 91%%

Side hustle 1 value: £392
Side hustle 2 value: £123 ( Profit December £10950)
Side hustle 3 value: £370 (Profit December £191)

This month was good, as I was expecting. I have a decent increase in savings and investments, but i also paid in advance for two of my future holidays, buying 3 sets of return flights and booking 2 hotels, as it seems to be cheaper if i will do it earlier this year. I will go in holiday in March and May, and another time in August most probably. So i was spending approx. £500 for this goal. External funds - i need to explain this, one colleague just gave me his £2500 bonus to save it in my account or whatever until he will ask it back, as he is sure he will spend it if is available. I want to invest or save more than £800 every month as secondary objective for 2017. This month - 1530, secondary goal = achieved. Passive income was close to 30%, not so bad, but my real deal in January was my time - i had almost no free time whatsoever. This need to change. 

One year health plan - month 8

Motto: All the wealth in the world worth nothing for you, if you are not healthy.
(Financial freedom wizards manual)

Weight: 82 kg (0.2 kg more than 60 days before - 85 kg) at 1.80 m (5'9'') Aiming for 81 kg and 19% body fat on 1st of January.
Body fat: 18%  (2% less)
BMR (basic metabolic rate) = 1818 kcal
PAL (physical activity level) = 1.375
Energy requirement daily = 2499 kcal
BMI = 25.88

So, a decrease of 500 kcal per day should be sustainable if i eat enough fruit and veg.

1. Body
- Yoga techniques (postures, breathing and meditation) once per week
- Running or other kind of training - 3 sessions -30%

2. Diet
- A 70% plant based diet (with a twist of 70% alkaline food daily), no chemicals, less sugar, better hydration (300 ml water every 3 hours when possible) - I achieve this 90% of the time, i would say.
- One day a week - 24 hour fasting - I did not fast in January. I did not decreased the sugary and caffeine rich foods and drinks this month more than usual.

3. Mind
- Mindfulness techniques aka meditation: 30%
- Brain boosting supplements - For the this month i tried: Omega 3, Magnesium, Ginseng and Ginkgo biloba solution, My herbal remedies (but for the herbal treatments i did it completely only 20% of the time).

Physical training -After recovering almost completely with my foot problem, i did not run much. I did a training now and than, but nothing spectacular.
Diet - Was  fine, predominant vegetarian, without too much dairy and almost no eggs.
Mind - I am getting a bit unfocused lately, wasting far to much time on unessential activities.

Thursday 2 February 2017

Another month is gone

January finished already, this year time is speeding. I will try to check my facts and results tomorrow. Health was a bit under the radar, but financially it was a very good month. Let's see what February will bring into the equation.

Saturday 28 January 2017

Soon

The monthly report is almost ready, seems that I am over-delivering, according to my schedule. We will see what will happen in the next 3 days. It was a quiet month, with some extra expenses aiming to save some serious money over the year. I already paid for 6 flights and some of the accommodation price already. The future is bright!

Tuesday 24 January 2017

New plans

It feels good to have no debts. But now i need to go even a step further. I need to increase the savings percentage over 50%. How hard can be? I will see. It is even that or i will set a minimum amount to be saved monthly, and i will just work more to achieve it. I do not know which will be the final choice. Let's see how it is going.

Have a nice fruitful week!

Thursday 12 January 2017

"Work is better when you don't need the money" - quote of the day

"Work is better when you don't need the money"
Mr. Money Mustache

No comments on it, just a little video for all to enjoy.

Click here to see it.

Friday 6 January 2017

2016 - yearly report

While in 2015 i earned 16506 with only 114 passive income ( 0.7%), in the year 2016 the total income was 35073 with 19202 passive income (54.7%), coming from 8 different sources of income (one being plain old work in a full time job and few part time ones - 15871). I started several side hustle projects, 5 worthy to mention, one with 10950 profit, one with 1023 profit in the last three months of 2016, still ongoing, one with 1 pound profit from interest (still on the paper), one with 700 spent and only 45 returned and one with a loss of approx. 600. Overall, was fine, and i have at least one side hustle to continue in 2017, with an possible profit of 4-5000.

I paid 500 for a car in December 2016, with additional expenses of 74 for road tax, 20 for petrol and 57 per month for insurance. MOT due in September. I used only once and i will probably sell it, as my other half already got a car and she use it every day. Or I will start to use it. Whichever of tow happen first.

I met James Altucher and Tony Robbins (also walked on fire and trained for 4 days for 649, but these were money well spent). I paid 1500 for three holidays in Dublin/Ireland, Mallorca/Spain and Herculane/Romania.

I implemented a 12 month health plan, and I improved my health every month, managing even to get out of my daily thyroid medication at the moment.

I paid all my debts in December 2016.

So, it was a fruitful and beneficial year for me, i just with that 2017 will be at least that good, if not even better for me and you.

Take care and keep saving, because in terms of business, it is totally worth it to invest 5 years of your life working hard if the result is close to 20-22 years worry free before your retirements ( return on investment higher that 400%, you cannot get that nowhere in real life financial investment, and we talk about time, a resource much valuable than money.)

G.

Thursday 5 January 2017

December 2016 - Monthly report

December 2016 - Monthly report
My Overview

Total portfolio: £20437(+10233)
Debt: £0 (-2870)
Car: £500
Net Worth: £18287(+10863)

Investments UK: £8117(+6211)
Investments overseas : £2772( +808)
Cash: £3761(+2843)
Pension: £5669(+253)

Total Income: £12386 (+10239)
Passive income: £11131(89.9%)
Savings rate: 92%%

Side hustle 1 value: £392
Side hustle 2 value: £118 ( Profit December £10950)
Side hustle 3 value: £191 (Profit December £154)

December was awesome. I managed to cash in one of the many side hustles started in Spring 2016. Not so bad. Almost 11 grands to go to my portfolio. Half of it i invested in TheHouseCrowd.com website, to try something different than my usual partners. My portfolio value doubled up, debt erased completely and the net worth just bumped  out with the already mentioned 11k. 20% of the profit i will also invest it in overseas instruments, just in case. I keep some cash in my TSB account for the 5% interest (was good while it lasted, i think it will go from 5% on £2000 to 3% on £1500 from January). The double record, savings rate of 92% and passive income of almost 90% for this month, was astounding, I hope i will manage to reach a better one in 2017. I will do some fact checks and statistics for the entire year very soon.

Have a perfect week,
G.