Hello fellow Steemians,
I was thinking of sharing how I did financially during 2017, so here it goes. Hopefully this will motivate someone else in the quest of financial freedom.
In 2017 my net worth increased from 314k£ to 370k£. 31.5k£ came from savings, 3.5k£ came from dividends, 16.5k£ came from stock portfolio appreciation, 3.5k£ came from decreased debt and 1k£ came from earned interest. My savings rate was slightly below 75% (annual net income after taxes/annual costs).
Stock portfolio
- Is now worth 213k£.
- I added positions in Brown Forman, Canadian National Railway, Novo Nordisk and Svenska Handelsbanken.
- I sold my position in Varian Medical System and used the proceeds to buy Johson & Johnson in order to earn dividend income.
- Increased by 10.6% in my local currency.
- Increased by 40k£ of which 20k£ was capital gains and dividends.
Bond portfolio
- Is now worth 128k£.
- I purchased two corporate bonds from UK both with 10k£.
- I now have in total 3 high-yield corporate bonds worth 30k£ in total.
- I initiated a small trial worth of 3k£ in a peer-2-peer lending site.
- 95k£ in CDs expired at the end of the year.
Apartment
- Nothing special except that debt is decreasing at a slow pace.
- Value 110k£.
- Debt 81k£.
Job
- I have had the same title and salary for four years now in technology sector. I was offered a raise a year ago but I turned it down because I had the possibility to get a promotion in another organization. The promotion has not progressed anywhere so this is looking really bad.
Expectations for 2018
- I estimate that I will earn around 6200£ in dividends before taxes.
- I estimate that I will earn around 1400£ in interest from bonds and CDs before taxes.
- I will purchase three new stocks where I am planning to allocate 20k£ to each. Philip Morris and Essex Properties are high on my watch list.
- I will not purchase any new bonds but instead will allocate capital slowly from bonds to stocks.
Goals for 2018 in order of importance
- Invest 60k£ in stocks (three stocks, 20k£ to each). Yield should be at least 3%, investment grade, high margin company and dividend achiever.
- Bust your ass of for promotion/raise in current job or find a new one.
- Invest cash in highest yielding CDs.
- Allocate more capital to peer-2-peer lending if it looks profitable.
- Evaluate whether it would be feasible to purchase an investment apartment.
- Continue debt payments.
Reaching a net worth of 400k£ by the end of 2018 is completely justifiable providing that my stock portfolio does not drop by more than 2% excluding dividends.
Thanks for reading and Steem on!
Please follow if you enjoyed reading.