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My Investments Update December 2021

My Investments Update – December 2021

As regular readers will know, I recently started posting monthly updates about my investments. These partly replace the ‘Coronavirus Crisis Updates’ I was posting from March 2020. You can read my November 2021 Investments Update here if you like

I’ll begin as usual with my Nutmeg Stocks and Shares ISA, as I know many of you like to hear what is happening with this.

As the screenshot below shows, my main portfolio is currently valued at £21,963. Last month it stood at £21,940, so that is a modest rise of £23. Those figures don’t tell the whole story, though. In the early part of November, the value of this portfolio rose as high as £22,398. Unfortunately then news of the new Omicron variant spooked the markets and share prices fell dramatically. In the last few days there has been a modest recovery, resulting in the small month-on-month gain referred to above.

Nutmeg Main Portfolio Dec 2021

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha option. This has followed a similar trajectory, though it has actually done a bit better than my main pot. It is now worth £2,795 compared with £2,756 last month, a net monthly increase of £39. Here is a year-to-date screen capture showing performance to the start of December 2021.

Nutmag Smart Alpha pot Dec 2021

As I always say, you shouldn’t judge the performance of any equity-based investment on a month-by-month basis. But in these strange times I remain very happy with how my Nutmeg investments are doing. Hopefully the initial panic over Omicron may prove to have been excessive (it may help that there is growing evidence that this new variant typically causes only a mild illness). That being the case, I remain optimistic that the modest recovery in the markets over the last few days will continue.

You can read my full Nutmeg review here (including a special offer at the end for PAS readers). If you are still looking for a home for your 2021/22 ISA allowance, based on my experience they are certainly worth considering. If you haven’t yet seen it, check out also my blog post in which I looked at the performance of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 (my main port is level 9). I was actually pretty amazed by the difference the risk level you choose makes. If you are investing for the long term (and you almost certainly should) in my view opting for a hyper-cautious low-risk strategy may not be the smartest thing to do.

As regular readers will know, this year I am using Assetz Exchange for my IFISA. This is a P2P property investment platform that focuses on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing on long leases). I have invested a total of around £1,000 in AE so far (I began with £100 in February 2021 and topped up twice).

Since I opened my account, my portfolio has generated £29.50 in revenue from rental and £45.86 in capital growth, for a total return of £75.36. I won’t bother publishing a statement on this occasion as it’s not massively different from last time. The bottom line is that I (still) have investments in 21 different projects with them and all are performing as expected, generating income and in most cases showing a profit on capital. So I am very happy with how this investment has been going.

  • To control risk with all my property crowdfunding investments nowadays, I invest relatively modest amounts in individual projects. This is a particular attraction of AE as far as i am concerned. You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.

As mentioned, my investment on Assetz Exchange is in the form of an IFISA so there won’t be any tax to pay on profits, dividends or capital gains. I’ve been impressed by my experiences with Assetz Exchange and the returns generated so far, and intend to continue investing with them. You can read my full review of Assetz Exchange here if you like. You can also sign up for an account on Assetz Exchange directly via this link [affiliate].

Another property platform I have some investments with is Kuflink [referral link]. They appear to be doing well, with new projects launching almost every day. I currently have just over £2,000 invested with them, quite a large proportion of which comes from reinvested profits. To date I have never lost any money with Kuflink, though some loan terms have been extended once or twice. On the plus side, where this happens additional interest is paid for the period in question.

My loans with Kuflink pay annual interest rates of 6 to 7.5 percent. As mentioned above, these days I invest no more than around £100 per loan (and often less). That is not because of any issues with Kuflink but more to do with losses of larger amounts on other P2P property platforms (such as this one). My days of putting four-figure sums into any single property investment are behind me now!

Nowadays I mainly opt to reinvest the monthly repayments I receive from Kuflink, which has the effect of boosting the percentage rate of return on the projects in question

You can read my full Kuflink review here. They offer a variety of investment options, including a tax-free IFISA paying up to 7% interest per year with built-in automatic diversification. Alternatively you can now build your own IFISA, with most loans on the platform being IFISA-eligible.

I’d also particularly draw your attention to their revised and more generous cashback offer for new investors. They are now paying cashback on new investments from as little as £500 (it used to be £1,000). And if you are looking to invest larger amounts, you can earn up to a maximum of £4,000 in cashback. That is one of the best cashback offers I have seen anywhere (though admittedly you will need to invest £100,000 or more to receive that!).

Kuflink has some similarities with Assetz Exchange (see above). However, it’s important to note that with Kuflink you are investing in loans secured by property, whereas with Assetz Exchange your money is going into actual bricks and mortar. Kuflink loans typically pay around 7% annual interest. With Assetz Exchange projected yields from rental are generally a bit lower at around 5%, but you do of course have the potential for capital appreciation as well. There is also an argument that investments on AE are more secure as properties are typically rented out to organizations such as housing associations which are publicly funded. But I should emphasize that over the years I have been investing with Kuflink I have never lost any money with them and I understand nobody else has either. That is of course no guarantee it couldn’t happen in the future, but personally I find it quite reassuring.

I haven’t mentioned my trial investment on European loan crowdfunding platform Nibble for a while, so thought I should remedy that this month. This has been proceeding without any issues. My initial test investment of 20 euros matured in September so I reinvested the entire sum at the same annual interest rate of 9.7 percent (see screen capture below).

Nibble Dec 21

I get weekly updates from Nibble confirming how much interest has been added to my account. Money has been a bit tight recently so I haven’t topped up my initial investment. Once I start getting my state pension (see below), however, I should have more available to invest, and Nibble is definitely on my list. My full review of Nibble can be found here.

Moving on, I have another article on the always-excellent Mouthy Money website. This is about how to save money on your motoring costs. I enjoyed researching this and learned some new and surprising things while doing so!

I’d also like to remind you that I am participating in not one but two pre-Christmas giveaways. One of these offers the chance to win a Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser kit worth around £150 in total. And the other giveaway has an amazing prize of cash and goods from homeware brand Arca valued at over £1,000 in total. Do check them both out (if you haven’t already) and get your entries in. It would be great if a Pounds and Sense reader were to win one (or both) of these great prizes 🙂

Finally, as I mentioned in this blog post, December 2021 marks a landmark for me, as I shall reach my 66th birthday and qualify for the new state pension. I am due to get my first payment on Christmas Eve. Tempting though it is, I probably won’t be blowing it all on a big party! 🎈🎈🎈

That’s all for now, so please stay safe (and warm) in these challenging times. And please don’t let scare stories in the mainstream media freak you out. At the time of writing hospitalizations and deaths from Covid in the UK have actually been falling steadily for weeks. So despite what the fear-mongers would have you believe, it really isn’t all bad news!

Have a lovely Christmas, enjoy socializing with friends and family, and I’ll be back again with another investments update at the start of 2022.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

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Win a Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser in the UK Bloggers Christmas Giveaway!

Win a Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser in the UK Bloggers Christmas Giveaway!

Hot chocolate must be the ultimate cold weather comfort drink – and what with everything in the news just now, we all need a bit of that at the moment!

So I have joined forces with some of my fellow UK bloggers to bring you the chance of winning a fantastic Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser, worth around £100.

On the Hotel Chocolat website they say:

When you need a morning boost or a flavanol-rich post-gym pick me up, you’re just 2.5 minutes away from barista-grade hot chocolate. Or curl up on the couch with a velvety and indulgent cup in the evening. Whatever your lifestyle, the Velvetiser delivers.

Just choose your flavour. Add our flakes of real chocolate to your choice of dairy, plant milk or water. Then press the button and let the patented velvetising process deliver luxurious cloud-like chocolate velvet.

Your Velvetiser takes up the same space as a kettle and adjusts easily for a left and right hand pour. It might not be suitable for dishwashers but as it’s so quick and easy to clean, why wait? Just pop out the whisk and rinse the non-stick coating with water and you’re ready for the next cup.

The classic copper clad Velvetiser is chic, stylish and on-trend, with looks good enough to grace any kitchen countertop. And we even supply a pair of podcups that just fit into the palm of your hand. So you can cradle that chocolate goodness as you savour every sip. Rich, creamy and decadent, why not indulge yourself with the ultimate in hot chocolate?

In these challenging times we all need and deserve a treat, so here’s your chance to win one of these amazing machines just in time for Christmas!

This giveaway has been organized by my blogging colleague Emma Drew (with a small amount of help from myself), so I should like to thank her very much for this. More details provided by Emma herself, along with instructions on how to enter, can be found below.

The Bloggers Taking Part

This giveaway couldn’t happen without the bloggers below taking part and contributing towards the prize. Please take a moment to visit them and show your support.

At Home With Alice | Two Hearts One Roof | Catch Up With Claire | Make Money Without a Job | Nine to Three Thirty | Hannah and the Twiglets | Rice Cakes and Raisins | Jennie Pennie | Ecoralive | thriftychap | Life With Jupiter & Dann | The Geordie Grandma | Christmas With Katie | Doing the ImPCOSible | Real Girls Wobble | Mamma Prada | The Heaton Family | A Life of Lovely | Me, Him, the Dog and a Baby! | Pounds and Sense | Positively Lifestyle | Robyn’s Photography Academy | Stressed Mum | Life in a Break Down | Renovation Bay-Bee | Reduced Grub | The Mini Millionaire | Thrifty Husband | Mrs Pinch | Good Life and Mind

The Prize

Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser

This prize is a copper Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser with 2 x Everything + Milky Pouch + Classic Pouch + 500ml Chocolate Cream Liqueur.

Terms and Conditions

1. There is one top prize of the Hotel Chocolat velvetiser and 2 x Everything + Milky Pouch + Classic Pouch + 500ml Chocolate Cream Liqueur.
2. There are no runner up prizes.
3. Open to UK residents aged 18 and over, excluding all bloggers involved with running the giveaway
4. Closing date for entries is midnight on 12.12.2021
5. The same Rafflecopter widget appears on all the blogs involved, but you only need to enter on one blog
6. Entrants must log in to the Rafflecopter widget, and complete one or more of the tasks – each completed task earns one entry in the prize draw
7. Tweeting about the giveaway via the Rafflecopter widget will earn five bonus entries into the prize draw.
8. One winner will be chosen at random.
9. The winner will be informed by email within 7 days of the closing date and will need to respond within 28 days with their delivery address, or a replacement winner will be chosen.
10. The winners’ names will be published in the Rafflecopter widget (unless the winner objects to this).
11. The prizes will be dispatched within 14 days of the winner confirming their details.
12. The promoter is Drew Media LTD t/a www.MakeMoneyWithoutAJob.com
13. By participating in this prize draw, entrants confirm they have read, understood and agree to be bound by these terms and conditions

ENTER NOW

Simply complete any or all of the Rafflecopter entry widget options below to be entered. You can also tweet about the giveaway daily to earn bonus entries.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

One final small point is that if a winning entry comes from following someone on social media, the organizer (Emma Drew) will check before awarding the prize that the winner is still following the account in question. If they aren’t, they will be disqualified and a new winner drawn. So, please, don’t follow and immediately unfollow, as your entry won’t then count.

Good luck, and here’s hoping we can all look forward to better and brighter times soon 🙂

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:
Arca Christmas Comp 2021

Win a Prize Worth £1,000 in the Arca Christmas Giveaway!

Christmas is coming, so here’s a chance to make it extra special for one lucky winner!

I’ve joined forces with some of my fellow UK bloggers in this festive giveaway with a prize valued at over £1,000 in total. That’s made up of a unique homeware upgrade package worth over £600 from Norwich-based lifestyle and homeware brand Arca, plus a cool £400 in cash. You can read more details about this amazing prize below.

Entering the giveaway is free of charge and full instructions can be found below. There are multiple ways to enter, and the more you do, the better your chances of winning. But note that where an entry requires following a social media account, you will need to continue following this account until the winner has been drawn on 20 December 2021. Before the winner is announced the organisers will check that they are still following the account in question. If not, they will be disqualified and another winner drawn.Xmas tree

2021 has undoubtedly been another challenging year, though (fingers crossed) we are emerging from the pandemic now and life is slowly getting back to normal. Whether you win this giveaway or not, I wish you and yours a very happy and peaceful Christmas 2021. Here’s hoping that 2022 is a better year for us all, and we can finally put the spectre of Covid in the past where it belongs!

This giveaway has been organised by my fellow blogger Neesha Rees, who blogs at Reinventing Neesha. Please check out her blog and those of the other talented bloggers taking part (listed below). And read on to find out how you could win this mammoth prize!

Bloggers Taking Part

Reinventing Neesha | Mummy Fever | Lipgloss and Curves | Melanie’s Fab Finds | Rachel Bustin | Home and Garden Things | Thrifty Chap | Boxnip | Millenial Saves | Jupiter Hadley | Pounds and Sense | We Made This Life | Renovation Bay-Bee | Ami-Rose | Futures | At Home With Alice | Lisa’s Notebook | Alice in Sheffield | On Your Journey | Two Hearts One Roof | Life in a Breakdown | Monethalia | The Diary of Jewellery Lover | Pink Oddy | Skinned Cartree | Stapo’s Thrifty Life Hacks | Wander & Luxe | Reality in Reverie | Christmas with Katie | Make Money Without a Job | Rice Cakes and Raisins | Just Average Jen | Life Loving | Scandi Mummy | Real Girls Wobble | Five from the Swich | The Financial Wilderness | The Amazing Adventures of Me | Spilling Life Tea | Voluptuous Chatterbox

The Prize

Arca giveaway prizes

Your home is your sanctuary, so surround yourself with things you love.

One lucky winner will win a unique homeware upgrade package worth over £600 from Arca plus £400 in cash!

Arca Lifestyle is an eclectic lifestyle and homeware brand based in Norwich. With a range of hand-curated products from across the globe, Arca provides the latest trends to brighten any home as well as original gift ideas for those you love.

Arca has been created with the goal to help individuals find homeware pieces and prints that spark their soul, offering unique products that are not available elsewhere.

Visit www.arcalifestyle.com to see the full range of products and prints available.

How to Enter

Follow Arca on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arcalifestylestore/

Follow Arca on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/ArcaLifestyleStore/_created/

Once you have completed the above entry options, via the Rafflecopter widget below you will unlock more ways to enter. The more you complete, the more chances you have of winning.

The competition ends at midnight on Sunday 19th December and a winner will be drawn on Monday 20th December.

For full entry terms and conditions please see the rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:
A Christmas Gift Guide for Older People

A Christmas Gift Guide for Older People

Christmas is barely six weeks away, and it’s a safe bet more of us than ever will be shopping online this year.

Pounds and Sense is aimed at the over-50s, so today I thought I’d set out a selection of products you can buy online suitable for people in this age category. Though in my view most would be very well received by younger people too 🙂

Quite a few of these are things I’ve received for free this year as an Amazon Vine reviewer. Others are simply products that I’ve bought for myself – or friends or relatives – and am very happy to recommend to others.

  • Please note that I am using some affiliate links in this article, so if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission for introducing you. Of course, this will not affect the price you pay or the product you receive.

(1) Music Hat

Music hat

My first thought when I received this unisex beanie hat to review for Amazon Vine was that it was just a novelty product – but it turned out to be a lot better than I anticipated!

The hat itself is made of stretchable acrylic and is warm and comfortable. It’s available in a range of colours to suit all tastes. And in addition to keeping your head warm in the winter, it boasts an LED light at the front and built-in Bluetooth earphones.

The LED light has three brightness settings, with the brightest illuminating the area in front of you quite impressively. I’ve found this useful for putting the bins out at night and (on a lower setting) to ensure I can be seen when walking at night along poorly lit roads and pavements.

The stereo headphones are surprisingly good quality. Obviously you wouldn’t expect super high fidelity, but for listening to music or podcasts on the go, they are more than adequate. Setting up a Bluetooth connection with my Android smartphone was easy, and I’ve been enjoying listening to my choice of music on my daily walks. In theory you can also use the hat for making and receiving phone calls, though I haven’t tried that myself. Even if you only use it for listening to music, though, it’s still a very nice piece of kit. And for around £20 at the time of writing, this unisex beanie hat won’t break the bank either!

I also got this two-light beanie hat (without built-in earphones) for my sister Annie. At this time of year she has to walk home in the dark from her job at a prison, and she goes running in the evening sometimes as well. Annie sent me the following mini-review: ‘That fluorescent hat is actually really good! Very bright front and back light. Great for being seen by others so makes you feel safe at dusk (I don’t run in the dark nowadays so much). Nice snug fit especially round the ears and easy to put the lights on (front and back) even when it’s on your head! Have had lots of positive comments. Definitely recommended!’

Running Hat

(2) Fruit Wines

Clives Wines

I am not much of a drinker these days, but I will always make an exception for these delicious fruit wines, especially at Christmas!

Clive’s Wines is a small, family-run company based barely a mile from where I live. They offer a range of high-quality fruit wines, including damson, cherry, raspberry, strawberry, elderflower, plum and (my personal favourite) gooseberry. For special occasions they also offer a premium sparkling ‘Rhubling’ made with rhubarb.

You can order individual bottles and gift packs online for delivery anywhere in the mainland UK and Europe, with free delivery for orders of over £60 in the UK. If you are looking for an unusual gift that will also support a small local business, I can promise that you (and the lucky recipient) won’t be disappointed 🙂

  • You do, of course, have to be over 18 to order any product containing alcohol.

(3) Hand Warmer and Power Bank

Handwarmer

I have two of these devices now (the first came my way as an Amazon Vine reviewer). As you may gather, they are dual-purpose devices, serving both as a hand-warmer and a power bank for charging your phone or tablet.

The product pictured above is the OCOOPA Rechargeable Handwarmer and Power Bank. This has a powerful 10,000 mAh battery and doesn’t therefore need frequent recharging. You can have three levels of heat (though I find the lowest is more than sufficient for me). It only takes a few hours to charge fully and can charge up my Android phone in under an hour.

Currently I am using this device more as a power bank than as a hand warmer, but that may change if and when sub-zero winter weather conditions arrive. For under £30. it would make a nice, practical gift for any older person (especially if they suffer from cold hands!).

(4) Amazon Echo

Echo Show

Unless you’ve been on Mars for the last few years, I’m sure you’ve heard of these devices. There is a growing family now. The picture above is of an Echo Show, which also has a visual display. I have one of these in my kitchen and use it all the time. I also have an Echo Dot in the bedroom, a standard Echo in the living room, and a tiny Echo Flex in my office. And I’m still thinking of getting more!

I use my Echo devices primarily for listening to music and radio. But I also regularly use them for checking the weather forecast, getting news updates (‘Alexa, read my flash briefing’), asking random questions (‘Alexa, how far is the Earth from the Moon?’), checking the time, setting alarms and timers, finding out what’s on TV, and much more. Alexa has become part of my life now, and I have to admit I actually miss her when I am away. How sad is that? 😀

In my view an Amazon Echo device would make a great gift for any older person, even if they aren’t at all tech-savvy (though they do of course need wifi to work). Once the device has been set up – which is easy enough – you can control it entirely using your voice, just using the ‘wake word’ (Alexa by default, though you can change it if you like) to activate it.

For an older person living alone especially, having an Amazon Echo device can provide companionship as well as reassurance in the event of an emergency (you can ask Alexa to call any of your contacts for you, though currently you can’t get it to phone 999). And an Echo is a present that will go on giving through Christmas and well beyond. Highly recommended.

  • Amazon often have some great offers on Echo/Alexa devices in their Black Friday sale.

(5) Christmas Hampers

Traditional Treats Hamper

This is quite a traditional Christmas gift, but none the worse for that. I have been sending Christmas hampers to various elderly relatives for many years, and they are always well received. The hampers include a selection of luxury food and drink that people on a limited budget wouldn’t typically buy for themselves. I often get quite in-depth feedback about what they liked or disliked about this year’s hamper and whether it was better or worse than last year’s!

There are various suppliers you can order hampers online from (Marks and Spencer have a good selection, for example). But these days I normally order from Amazon. They have a vast range from a variety of merchants, and you can easily search for the type of hamper you want (including by price, with/without alcohol, vegan/vegetarian, and so on).

Amazon also sell hampers aimed specifically at older people, such as the Traditional Treats Hamper (from Clearwater Hampers) pictured above. This costs £49 at the time of writing and includes luxury chocolates, a tin of afternoon tea, hand-baked lemon biscuits, rhubarb and custard sweets, almond biscuit thins, clotted cream fudge, and more. Guaranteed to put a smile on the face of any grandparent 😀

Of course, there are lots of other options as well, for younger folk as well as older ones. Prices range from around £20 to £200 or more if you really want to push the boat out!

(6) Red Letter Days Vouchers

Red Letter Days Afternoon Teas

Red Letter Days sell gift vouchers for a huge range of experience days, for single people or for couples.

Among other things, they include luxury spa days, hotel mini-breaks, afternoon tea (see picture above), driving experiences (e.g. supercar driving, go karting, truck driving), sky diving, hot air ballooning, river cruises, visits to historic houses/gardens, restaurant meals, and many more. Some will obviously appeal more to younger folk, but there are plenty that are equally suitable for all ages (and plenty of older people still enjoy a bit of thrill-seeking as well!).

In the last 18 months many of us have have spent months on end cooped up in our homes. So the chances are your friends or relatives will really appreciate the chance to enjoy an exciting (or relaxing) experience day such as these.

(7) Salter Electronic Scales

Salter Aquatronic ScalesFinally, here’s a great, inexpensive gift for anyone who enjoys cooking.

I was lucky enough to get these Salter Aquatronic digital kitchen scales as an Amazon Vine reviewer, and have been using them regularly ever since.

No bowl is provided with these scales, but because of the way they work you don’t need one. You can place any container you like on the scales and press the button to zero the display (so the scales disregard the container’s weight). You can then add your ingredient and the weight (or liquid volume if you prefer) will be shown. If you want to add more ingredients, you can zero the display again before doing so. Once you get the hang of this, it’s amazingly quick and simple. I use it all the time now, and even weighed a parcel on it recently 😀 I also like the way it hardly takes up any space at all in my kitchen when stored on its side.

So there you are – seven great ideas for Christmas gifts you can buy online that any older person would be delighted to receive (and a lot more exciting than slippers or socks!). As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

Note: this is a fully updated version of an annual post.

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Twelve Ways to Save Money and Stay Out of Debt This Christmas

Twelve Ways to Save Money and Stay Out of Debt This Christmas

Speak it softly, but there are now just seven weeks till Christmas. Touch wood, new Covid case numbers are falling steadily, and hopefully we can all look forward to a much more normal Christmas this year than last.

Of course, one thing we can definitely say is that – just like any other year – Christmas 2021 will be expensive. So today I thought I’d share a selection of tips for saving (and making) money while still enjoying the festive season and not having to face a mountain of debt in the new year.

1. Declutter for Cash

Chances are you’ll be planning to tidy up anyway before putting the decorations up, so why not take the chance to get rid of any bits and bobs you no longer need but someone else might want? You can then put the money to good use for Christmas. You could sell the items on eBay, your local Facebook sales page, or the ‘boot sale’ app Shpock. I’ve also heard good reports about Vinted, a website where you can buy and sell second-hand clothes.

2. Buy Discounted Gift Vouchers at Cardyard

Cardyard is an online marketplace for buying and selling gift vouchers. If you know where you want to do your Christmas shopping, you could buy a discount voucher for that store at Cardyard and get up to 25% off. Both physical and electronic vouchers are available. When I looked just now, you could buy a range of eGift cards for fashion store New Look at a 12% discount, e.g. a £148.50 eGift card for £130.68 (a saving of £17.82).

3. Make Good Use of Cashback Sites

These pay a proportion of your money back when you click through a link on the cashback site and make an online purchase at the store in question. In the UK the two best known are Quidco and Top Cashback. You can read more about cashback sites in this blog post. See also my post about new cashback site My Money Pocket.

4. Get Free Delivery at Amazon

If you’re planning to do some of your Christmas shopping on Amazon – and let’s face it most of us do nowadays – remember that if your total order value is over £20, delivery is free of charge. If you’re just under the £20 threshold, it can make sense to buy a small item to bring it to the magic £20. Before I joined Amazon Prime (see below) I often bought a pen for this purpose.

If you can’t find a small item for the right price, visit Filler Checker. At this website you can enter whatever price you require to bring your order up to the free delivery threshold. It will then display items you can add to your order to achieve this.

5. Consider Joining Amazon Prime

Okay, this does require an annual or monthly fee, but for this you get free next-day delivery of millions of products on Amazon (and same day delivery in some cities). There is a growing range of additional benefits for Prime members as well, including instant streaming of millions of songs and thousands of movies and TV shows, free borrowing of selected Kindle e-books, and secure, unlimited photo storage with anywhere access. If you’re a regular Amazon customer – or planning to do a lot of your Christmas shopping there – it’s well worth considering Amazon Prime, especially as you can try it free for 30 days.

6. Make the Most of Black Friday Sales

Black Friday is a US tradition that in recent years has been imported into the UK (though not without some controversy at first). Officially Black Friday is Friday 26th November this year, but in practice many retailers are starting their Black Friday sales earlier than this. Just beware of being swept up by the hype. Check that the discounts on offer really are worthwhile and not just reductions of prices that were artificially inflated before.

7. Consider Part-Time or Short-Term Work

Okay, this won’t appeal to everyone, but even in these challenging times there are various seasonal opportunities on offer with companies from Amazon to the Post Office. Many supermarkets also take on additional seasonal staff, full-time and part-time. Take a look also at my blog post about Viewber, a company that needs people with a bit of time available in the day to show prospective purchasers around houses. You can earn from £20 a viewing for this, plus expenses. There are also growing numbers of part-time and full-time delivery driver opportunities (including e-bike riders and couriers) – the Service Club website lists a range in the UK and Europe. Another resource for part-time or short-term work of all kinds is the Labour Xchange app.

8. Abandon Your Shopping Cart!

When shopping online go as far as the checkout page and then close it. The stores will see this and many will send you a discount voucher or other incentive to try to persuade you to complete your purchase.

9. Use Live Chat to Haggle

This can be another effective tactic for getting money off when online shopping. Don’t go straight in with a request for a discount, but ask a few questions first. You’re unlikely to get a massive discount this way, but you may be offered 10-20% off, or a free bonus.

10. Check for Discount Codes

If you know where you want to shop, it’s always worth checking whether any discount codes are available for the store in question. Voucher Codes UK is a great place to start. When I checked just now, some of the top offers included 30% off at Adidas and a huge 52% discount on orders over £40 with The Protein Works.

11. Use This Free Service to Get Price Drop Alert Emails

A website called Love Sales lets you add items from hundreds of online retailers to your ‘wish list’ and name the price you’re willing to pay, or ask for an alert when the price drops.

You first have to register on the site. Then when you’re browsing a particular item from one retailer, add it to your list. After that, the wait is on for the price to fall and the email to arrive in your inbox.

12. Check Out This Christmas Deals Predictor

Finally, you can be ahead of the game with the annual Christmas Deals Predictor on Martin Lewis’s Moneysaving Expert website. Based on previous years (and any other info they may have), this predicts the likelihood of certain offers being made in the run-up to Christmas. They say last year they predicted more than 70 deals across dozens of top retailers, and got 81% right. At the time of writing the Christmas Deals Predictor is not yet operational, but based on previous years it is likely to launch any day now.

I hope that by following these tips you will have the best Christmas possible, and a happy and debt-free new year!

If you have any comments, questions or additional suggestions for saving money at this time, please do post them below.

Note: This is a fully updated version of an annual post.

Disclosure: this post includes affiliate links. If you click through and end up making a purchase, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect the price you are charged or the product or service you receive.



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My Investments Update November 2021

My Investments Update – November 2021

As regular readers will know, I recently started posting monthly updates about my investments. These (partly) replace the ‘Coronavirus Crisis Updates’ I was posting from March 2020. You can read my October 2021 Investments Update here if you like

I’ll begin as usual with my Nutmeg Stocks and Shares ISA, as I know many of you like to hear what is happening with this.

As the screenshot below shows, my main portfolio is currently valued at £21,940. Last month it stood at £21,046, so that is a rise of £894. That means it has recovered from the £675 drop last month and is now £250 higher in value than it was two months ago.

I know some PAS readers were worried about the falls in their Nutmeg portfolios (and equities generally) in September 2021, so I hope this will provide some reassurance. As I said last time, stock market investments in general should be regarded as medium- to long-term. In the short term some ups and downs are entirely to be expected. 

Nutmeg main portfolio Nov 2021

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha option. This pot also rose in value in October. It is now worth £2,756 compared with £2,633 last month. That’s a rise of £123, which again covers the fall last month with a bit to spare. Here is a six-month screen capture showing performance to the end of October 2021.

Nutmeg Smart Alpha portfolio Nov 2021

You can read my full Nutmeg review here (including a special offer at the end for PAS readers). If you are still looking for a home for your 2021/22 ISA allowance, based on my experience they are certainly worth considering. If you haven’t yet seen it, check out also my recent blog post in which I looked at the performance of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 (my main port is level 9). I was actually pretty amazed by the difference the risk level you choose makes. If you are investing for the long term (and you almost certainly should be) opting for a hyper-cautious low-risk strategy may not be the smartest thing to do.

As regular readers will know, this year I am using Assetz Exchange for my IFISA. This is a P2P property investment platform that focuses on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing on long leases). I have invested a total of just under £1,000 in AE so far (I began with £100 in February 2021 and topped up twice).

Since I opened my account, my portfolio has generated £24.80 in revenue from rental and £59.97 in capital growth, for a total return of £84.77. I won’t bother publishing a statement on this occasion as it’s not massively different from last month. The bottom line is that I (still) have investments in 21 different projects with them and all are performing as expected, generating income and in most cases showing a profit on capital. So I am very happy with how this investment has been going.

  • To control risk with all my property crowdfunding investments nowadays, I invest relatively modest amounts in individual projects. This is a particular attraction of AE as far as i am concerned. You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.

As mentioned, my investment on Assetz Exchange is in the form of an IFISA so there won’t be any tax to pay on profits, dividends or capital gains. I’ve been impressed by my experiences with Assetz Exchange and the returns generated so far, and intend to continue investing with them. You can read my full review of Assetz Exchange here if you like. You can also sign up for an account on Assetz Exchange directly via this link [affiliate].

Another property platform I have some investments with is Kuflink [referral link]. They appear to be doing well, with new projects launching almost every day. I currently have just over £2,000 invested with them, quite a large proportion of which comes from reinvested profits. To date I have never lost any money with Kuflink, though some loan terms have been extended once or twice. On the plus side, where this happens additional interest is paid for the period in question.

My loans with Kuflink pay annual interest rates of 6 to 7.5 percent. As mentioned above, these days I invest no more than around £100 per loan (and often less). That is not because of any issues with Kuflink but more to do with losses of larger amounts on other P2P property platforms (such as this one). My days of putting four-figure sums into any single property investment are behind me now!

Nowadays I mainly opt to reinvest the monthly repayments I receive from Kuflink, which has the effect of boosting the percentage rate of return on the projects in question

You can read my full Kuflink review here. They offer a variety of investment options, including a tax-free IFISA paying up to 7% interest per year with built-in automatic diversification. Alternatively you can now build your own IFISA, with most loans on the platform being IFISA-eligible.

I’d also particularly draw your attention to their revised and more generous cashback offer for new investors. They are now paying cashback on new investments from as little as £500 (it used to be £1,000). And if you are looking to invest larger amounts, you can earn up to a maximum of £4,000 in cashback. That is one of the best cashback offers I have seen anywhere (though admittedly you will need to invest £100,000 or more to receive that!).

Kuflink has some similarities with Assetz Exchange (see above). However, it’s important to note that with Kuflink you are investing in loans secured by property, whereas with Assetz Exchange your money is going into actual bricks and mortar. Kuflink loans typically pay around 7% annual interest. With Assetz Exchange projected yields from rental are generally a bit lower at around 5%, but you do of course have the potential for capital appreciation as well. There is also an argument that investments on AE are more secure as properties are typically rented out to organizations such as housing associations which are publicly funded. But I should emphasize that over the years I have been investing with Kuflink I have never lost any money with them and I understand nobody else has either. That is of course no guarantee it couldn’t happen in the future, but personally I find it quite reassuring.

On the subject of property investments, I also have a modest amount in the property crowdfunding platform Property Partner. At one time I was a big fan of this platform, but I lost a bit of enthusiasm when they introduced a raft of extra fees and charges.

Nonetheless, I do still have investments in around a dozen properties with PP, valued from about £30 to £2000 (in one case). The five-year-anniversary process restarted a while ago after being suspended due to Covid. For those who don’t know, after five years investors in a property are given the opportunity to exit at the current market value, as long as there are enough other investors on the platform willing to buy their shares at this price. If not, the property concerned is sold on the open market.

About half of ‘my’ properties have now gone through this process. I voted to sell on each occasion, as I am looking to reduce the total I have invested in property (as I feel too much of my portfolio is still in this form). In some cases all went to plan and I received payment for my shares, which I then withdrew. In other cases, however, not enough investors wanted to buy the shares that investors such as me wanted to sell. Consequently these properties are now being sold, which may of course take many months. Unfortunately the property in which I had £2,000 invested is one of those. To add to the joy, dividends are suspended on all properties that are being sold, so all I can do now is wait for the sales to go through.

On the plus side, Property Partner was taken over a while ago by the US digital home-ownership company Better. One of the first decisions taken by the new owners was to scrap the unpopular £1 monthly account fee and reduce the AUM (Assets Under Management) fee from 1.2% p.a. to 1.0% p.a. They are also offering fee rebates for their most active traders. All of this means that Property Partner may be worth another look now, especially as there’s a steady flow of opportunities to invest in properties going through the five-year process. That means you can buy shares in these properties at a fair market price without having to pay the usual fees associated with new listings.

Anyway, if you’d like to know more, here is a link to the Property Partner website [affiliate]. Note that if you sign up with Property Partner via my link and invest with them, I will split the commission I receive with you, meaning you could get up to £750 cash back.

You can also read my original review of Property Partner here, although this is obviously somewhat out of date now.

Moving on, I have another article on the always-excellent Mouthy Money website. This is all about the difference between saving and investing and why, in my view, you should do both.

In addition, last weekend the Express newspaper published an article about me and my blog, in which I shared some top tips for saving money on food shopping. Do check it out!

That’s all for now, so please stay safe and warm, and look out for your friends and neighbours as well as we head into the cold winter months. I’ll be back again with another investments update at the start of December.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

Disclosure: I am not a qualified financial adviser and nothing in this post should be construed as personal financial advice. You should always do your own ‘due diligence’ before investing and take professional financial advice if in any doubt before proceeding. All investing carries a risk of loss.

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Always wanted to write a novel? Let NaNoWriMo spur you on!

Always Wanted To Write A Novel? Let NaNoWriMo Spur You On!

Many people dream of writing a novel one day, but of course actually doing it can be a daunting prospect.

If that applies to you, maybe next month’s NaNoWriMo could provide the spur you need to get started.

In case you don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s a challenge to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in a month, and it comes around every November. From humble beginnings in the USA in 1999, when there were just 21 participants, NaNoWriMo has grown into a huge world-wide event.

There is no entry fee for NaNoWriMo (though donations are always welcome), and no prizes either. Essentially, it’s a challenge to help you write that novel you had always meant to write but keep putting off.

By registering with NaNoWriMo, you are joining a world-wide community of aspiring writers who are all seeking to achieve the same end, and are thus able to encourage and support one another.

Although there are no prizes for completing a novel for NaNoWriMo, if you do (and you have to prove it by uploading your work to the NaNoWriMo site), you will be able to download an official ‘Winner’ web badge and a PDF Winner’s Certificate, which you can print out.

And, of course, you will have the first draft of a novel you will be able to polish and submit for possible publication (or publish yourself). According to the NaNoWriMo website, hundreds of NaNoWriMo novels have been published. They include Sara Gruen’s Wa2ter for Elephants, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, Hugh Howey’s Wool, Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, Jason Hough’s The Darwin Elevator, and Marissa Meyer’s Cinder.

There are lots of useful resources on the NaNoWriMo website and blog, including wordcount widgets, web badges, flyers for downloading, motivational articles, and much more. There is also a busy forum where you can compare notes and get support and encouragement from other participants.

NaNoWriMo 2021 is obviously taking place in the shadow of Covid, with many of us still living under restrictions and life still some way from normal. Nobody knows what this winter will bring, but one thing that’s undeniable is that it could offer an ideal opportunity to write that novel you may have long thought about. My old friend Trevor Belshaw wrote his historical family saga Unspoken (see image below) during the first national lockdown in 2020 and it is now riding high on the Amazon sales charts. There is no reason you couldn’t do likewise!

I wish you the very best of luck if you do decide to register for NaNoWriMo. Please do let me know if you succeed in completing the challenge 🙂

This is an updated version of my original NaNowriMo blog post.

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My Investments Update - October 2021

My Investments Update – October 2021

As regular readers will know, I recently started posting monthly updates about my investments. These (partly) replace the ‘Coronavirus Crisis Updates’ I was posting from March 2020. You can read my September 2021 Investments Update here if you like

I’ll begin as usual with my Nutmeg Stocks and Shares ISA, as I know many of you like to hear what is happening with this.

As the screenshot below shows, my main portfolio is currently valued at £21,046. Last month it stood at £21,690, so that is a fall of £644. That is obviously disappointing, but as the value rose by £675 the previous month, I am not going to lose any sleep over it. Most equity-based investments had a rocky ride in September, with my BestInvest SIPP also taking a hit. Stock market investments in general should be regarded as medium- to long-term, and you have to expect some ups and downs in the short term.

Nutmeg Main Portfolio October 2021

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s new Smart Alpha option. This pot also fell in value in September. It is now worth £2,633 compared with £2,710 last month. That’s a fall of £77, though again the value is still higher than it was two months ago. Here is a screen capture showing performance in September 2021.

Nutmeg Smart Alpha portfolio Oct 2021

As I said above, September was a disappointing month for stock market investors generally, and Nutmeg is far from alone in seeing falls. I make no claim to being an expert on the markets, but from what I read this has resulted from various developments that have worried investors, including the withdrawal of fiscal stimulus packages as we come out of the pandemic and a rise in the inflation rate.

The drop in September is still nothing like what happened in March 2020 – at the start of the pandemic – when the value of my Nutmeg portfolio fell by a third in just a few weeks. On that (admittedly worrying) occasion, the value of my investments swiftly bounced back and turned into a good overall profit for the year. I remain optimistic that something similar will happen again as the UK and world economies get back on a more even keel.

So, especially if you are a new investor, I would strongly advise you not to panic. Remember that if you sell up you are simply crystallizing any losses rather than giving the markets a chance to recover. Personally I am considering investing more in my Nutmeg account now while valuations are down. Obviously I am not offering that as financial advice, just sharing my own thoughts and plans at this time.

Anyway, you can read my full Nutmeg review here (including a special offer at the end for PAS readers). If you are still looking for a home for your 2021/22 ISA allowance, based on my experience they are certainly worth considering. If you haven’t yet seen it, check out also my recent blog post in which I looked at the performance of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 (my main port is level 9). I was actually pretty amazed by the difference the risk level you choose makes.

As regular readers will know, this year I am using Assetz Exchange for my IFISA. This is a P2P property investment platform that focuses on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing on long leases). I put £100 into this in mid-February and another £400 in April. Touch wood, everything has been going well, so in June I added another £500, bringing my total investment on the platform up to £1,000.

Since I opened my account, my portfolio has generated £20.79 in revenue from rental and £87.14 in capital growth, for a total return of £107.93. Here is my current statement:

Assetz Exchange October 2021

As I have noted before, Assetz Exchange has had a big influx of new members, meaning all available investments were quickly snapped up. At the same time, some of the new projects that were due to launch were delayed. Only a small number of new projects went live on the platform in the last month, so I haven’t added any more to my portfolio.

To control risk with all my property crowdfunding investments nowadays, I am investing relatively modest amounts in individual projects. I don’t therefore put more than around £100 into any one project. As you can see, I have a well-diversified portfolio with Assetz Exchange comprising 21 different projects. This is a particular attraction of AE in my view. You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.

My investment on Assetz Exchange is in the form of an IFISA so there won’t be any tax to pay on profits, dividends or capital gains. I’ve been impressed by my experiences with Assetz Exchange and the returns generated so far, and intend to continue investing with them. You can read my full review of Assetz Exchange here if you like. You can also sign up for an account on Assetz Exchange directly via this link [affiliate].

Another property platform I have some investments with is Kuflink. They appear to have been doing well recently, with new projects launching almost every day. I currently have just over £2,000 invested with them, quite a large proportion of which comes from reinvested profits. To date I have never lost any money with Kuflink, though some loan terms have been extended once or twice. On the plus side, where this happens additional interest is paid for the period in question.

My loans with Kuflink pay annual interest rates of 6 to 7.5 percent. As mentioned above, these days I invest no more than around £100 per loan (and often less). That is not because of any issues with Kuflink but more to do with losses of larger amounts on other P2P property platforms (such as this one). My days of putting four-figure sums into any single property investment are behind me now!

  • Nowadays I mainly opt to reinvest the monthly repayments I receive from Kuflink, which has the effect of boosting the percentage rate of return on the projects in question

You can read my full Kuflink review here. They offer a variety of investment options, including a tax-free IFISA paying up to 7% interest per year with built-in automatic diversification. Alternatively you can now build your own IFISA, with most loans on the platform being IFISA-eligible.

I’d also particularly draw your attention to their revised and more generous cashback offer for new investors. They are now paying cashback on new investments from as little as £500 (it used to be £1,000). And if you are looking to invest larger amounts, you can earn up to a maximum of £4,000 in cashback. That is one of the best cashback offers I have seen anywhere (though admittedly you will need to invest £100,000 or more to receive that!).

Moving on, I have another article on the always-excellent Mouthy Money website. This was for their Meet the Blogger feature. They asked me a number of thought-provoking questions, including what personal finance tip I would give a younger version of myself and what I would do if I was made Chancellor for the day! You can read my answers here.

Finally, it’s not investment-related, but I did just want to mention an act of kindness that saved me several hundred pounds last month, and a lot of anxiety too 🙂

I drove up to Yorkshire for a family reunion with my sisters Liz and Annie (and Liz’s family, who live there). I went just before the fuel crisis broke, and found myself marooned when all the local petrol stations closed after running out of fuel.

I was staying at Hewenden MIll Cottages near Bingley (the cover image shows the bungalow I booked this time). When I explained my predicament to the owners, they immediately said I could stay as long as I liked free of charge until the situation improved. I don’t mind admitting I was almost reduced to tears by the unexpected kindness. I ended up staying for three extra days – double the length of time I originally booked (and paid for).

So I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly thank Janet and Susan and family for their kindness, and give Hewenden Mill Cottages another plug. As some of you may remember, I last went there two years ago and was bowled over by the quality of the accommodation and the stunning location (see sample photo below).

Hewenden Mill

You can read my original review of Hewenden Mill Cottages here. It is the best self-catering accommodation I have ever stayed in, and I am obviously even more impressed now. If you want a short break (or longer) in beautiful Bronte Country, I very much doubt you will find anywhere better. They also host some retreats and residential courses.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

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Virgin Experience Days Giveaway

Summer Giveaway: Win a £100 Virgin Experience Days Scarlet Collection Voucher!

Summer is here, so it’s high time for another exciting giveaway on Pounds and Sense 🙂

I have joined forces with some of my fellow UK money bloggers to bring you the chance of winning a fantastic Virgin Experience Days Scarlet Collection voucher, worth £100. You can use this voucher on any of a huge range of experiences: from an introductory microlight flight to dinner for two at Coombe Abbey; a pamper day with cream tea for two at a Hallmark Hotel to a three-hour oriental cookery class at School of Wok.

After the last eighteen months we all need and deserve a treat, so here’s your chance to grab one for free!

This giveaway has been organized by my colleague Dan from The Financial Wilderness blog, so I should like to thank him very much for this. More details provided by Dan himself, along with instructions on how to enter, can be found below…

The Prize

The wonderful prize on offer today is a voucher allowing a choice of experience from the Virgin Experience Days Scarlet Collection.

This voucher worth £100 gives you the opportunity to choose a variety of exciting experiences, with something for just about everyone. To give you a flavour of the options on offer in the Scarlet Collection:

  • For the adventurous – A rally or Porsche driving thrill experience
  • For the foodies – A range of afternoon teas and dinner options
  • For the sporty – Have a round of golf at some great courses or learn archery
  • For the relaxed – A collection of overnight breaks around the country

You can view details of all the available experiences with the Virgin Scarlet Collection on the Virgin Experience Days website here.

The Bloggers Taking Part

This giveaway in run in conjunction with some of my fellow UK Money Bloggers – we run these events to help each other out, so please do visit at least some of the excellent blogs concerned 🙂

The Financial Wilderness | Make Money Without a Job | The Twenty Per Cent | Savvy Dad | Stapos Thrifty Life Hacks | Pounds and Sense | Thrifty Chap | Joleisa | Money for Monday | Mind Over Money Matters | Save like a Bear | The Green Purpose | Financial Expert | Monethalia | UK Voucher Deals | Koody | Inspiring Life Design | Mums Money Corner | Shoestring Cottage | Earn Money Do Good

Enter to Win a Virgin Experience Days Scarlet Collection Voucher!

Use the Rafflecopter Widget below to make your entry. You’ll need to fill out your basic details and click ‘claim 1 entry’ to be in for the competition.

You also have the opportunity to claim bonus entries by performing an action relevant to the above websites, such as following an account on Twitter or visiting an article. You can do as many or as few of these as you like.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and Conditions

1. There is one top prize of a voucher for Virgin Experience Days “The Scarlet Collection.”

2. There are no runner up prizes

3. Open to UK residents aged 18 and over, excluding all bloggers involved with running the giveaway

4. Closing date for entries is midnight on 18.09.21

5. The same Rafflecopter widget appears on all the blogs involved, but you only need to enter on one blog

6. Entrants must log in to the Rafflecopter widget, and complete one or more of the tasks – each completed task earns one entry in the prize draw

7. Tweeting about the giveaway via the Rafflecopter widget will earn five bonus entries into the prize draw.

8. 1 winner will be chosen at random.

9. The winner will be informed by email within 7 days of the closing date and will need to respond within 28 days with their delivery address, or a replacement winner will be chosen.

10. The winners’ names will be published in the Rafflecopter widget (unless the winner objects to this).

11. The prizes will be dispatched within 14 days of the winner confirming their address.

12. The promoter is www.thefinancialwilderness.com

13. By participating in this prize draw, entrants confirm they have read, understood and agree to be bound by these terms and conditions.

This giveaway has been arranged by www.thefinancialwilderness.com

 

Sunset

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My Coronavirus Crisis Experience - August 2021 Update

My Coronavirus Crisis Experience – August 2021 Update

Another month has passed, so it’s time for another Coronavirus Crisis Update. Regular readers will know I’ve been posting these since the first lockdown started in March 2020 (you can read my July 2021 update here if you like).

As ever, I will begin by discussing financial matters and then life more generally over the last few weeks.

Financial

I’ll begin as usual with my Nutmeg stocks and shares ISA, as I know many of you like to hear what is happening with this.

As the screenshot below shows, the value of my main portfolio remained pretty steady in July. It is currently valued at £21,015. Last month it stood at £21,045, so that is a slight drop of £30.

Nutmeg Main portfolio July 2021

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second pot using Nutmeg’s new Smart Alpha option. This pot is now worth £2,625, compared with £2,635 last month, so a small decrease again. Here is a screen capture showing performance in July 2021.

Nutmeg Smart Alpha July 2021

Although it’s a little disappointing both portfolios are down slightly, over the last six months (and longer) both are still well up overall, so I’m certainly not going to lose any sleep over this. This is a long-term investment and some ups and downs are to be expected. In 2021 the overall trend has been mainly upwards, so I hope and expect this to be resumed soon.

You can read my full Nutmeg review here (including a special offer at the end for PAS readers). If you are still looking for a home for your 2021/22 ISA allowance, based on my experience they are certainly worth considering.

  • If you haven’t yet seen it, check out also my recent blog post in which I looked at the performance of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 (my main port is level 9). I was actually amazed by the difference the risk level you choose makes.

.As regular readers will know, this year I am using Assetz Exchange for my IFISA. This is a P2P property investment platform that focuses on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing on long leases). I put £100 into this in mid-February and another £400 in April. Touch wood, everything has been going well, so in June I added another £500, bringing my total investment on the platform up to £1,000.

Since I opened my account, my portfolio has generated £11.57 in revenue from rental and £52.29 in capital growth, for a total return of £63.86. Here is my current statement:

Assetz Exchange JUly 2021

As I said last time, to a degree Assetz Exchange has been a victim of its own success. They have had a big influx of new members, meaning all available investments were quickly snapped up. At the same time, some of the new projects that were due to launch were delayed. As a result I still haven’t invested all the money in my holding account. One new project did come on stream last week, so I put £100 into that.

My colleagues at Assetz Exchange assure me that more new projects are coming very soon. They are also limiting how much members can invest in the first few weeks of any new launch, so that everyone has a fair chance to purchase shares. And as time goes on more members may opt to offer their shares for sale on the exchange, opening up additional buying opportunities.

I am investing relatively modest amounts in new projects as they come onto the platform, so I don’t therefore put more than around £100 into any one project. As you can see, I already have a well-diversified portfolio comprising 20 different projects. This is a particular attraction of Assetz Exchange in my view. You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.

As mentioned above, my investment on Assetz Exchange is in the form of an IFISA so there won’t be any tax to pay on profits, dividends or capital gains. I’ve been impressed by my experiences with Assetz Exchange and the returns generated so far, and intend to continue investing with them. You can read my full review of Assetz Exchange here if you like. You can also sign up for an account on Assetz Exchange directly via this link [affiliate].

I haven’t mentioned my trial investment on European loan crowdfunding platform Nibble for a while, so thought I should remedy that this month. This has been proceeding without any issues and my initial test investment of 20 euros has accrued income of 0.65 euros, corresponding to an annual interest rate of 9.7 percent (see screen capture below).

Nibble August 2021

I get weekly updates from Nibble confirming how much interest has been added to my portfolio. Based on my experiences to date I am considering investing a more substantial sum with them soon. My full review of Nibble can be found here.

Finally, in July 2021 two more PAS readers signed up with the low-key sideline-earning opportunity mentioned in previous updates. They will have received their initial £100 reward payments about now. I still have a few more invitations available if anyone else would like to take advantage.

This opportunity is based on matched betting, a sideline I have been pursuing for several years myself. I was asked not to divulge too many details about it publicly, for good reasons I will explain privately to anyone who may be interested (and no, it’s not illegal!). It doesn’t require any financial outlay and is risk-free and entirely hands-off (once you have set up your account). No knowledge of betting is required and you don’t have to place any bets yourself (this is all done by the company’s clever software). You just have to set up a separate bank account for bets to go through, but running the account is entirely financed by the company.

The company has changed its terms somewhat for new members. You now get a larger £!00 initial reward payment once your account is up and running, and then £25 every month you remain a member. I think this is a good move personally, as setting up the account does involve a little work on your part (though it’s certainly not rocket science). So the £100 in effect compensates you for your time, and once it’s done you continue to get £25 a month for no effort at all. The company is constantly developing its offering, partly in response to feedback from PAS readers. They recently launched a new mobile-friendly website to make it even easier for new members to sign up (once you’re up and running you shouldn’t need to use the website at all). They also recently incorporated an Open Banking app so that members don’t have to provide their online banking info to the company, as some people were concerned about this.

Please note that this opportunity is only open to honest, trustworthy people who haven’t done matched betting before and have no more than two accounts already with online bookmakers. For more information (and to receive a no-obligation invitation) drop me a line including your email address via my Contact Me page. And yes, I will receive a reward for introducing you, but this will not affect the service or the rewards you receive.

  • Finally, in the interests of full transparency, I should say that if you do matched betting yourself, you may be able to make more money than what is being offered by the company. However, you will have to research the techniques in detail, place all bets yourself, and probably subscribe to a matched betting advisory service such as Profit Accumulator [affiliate link]. This opportunity is really for those who want an easy way to make some extra money without the hassle (or expense) of learning/applying matched-betting methods themselves.

Personal

The big news in July – in England at any rate – was that so-called Freedom Day took place as promised on 19th July 2021. Most of the legal restrictions on our lives, including mandatory masks and social distancing, were lifted from that date.

Since then – to the surprise of many experts and pundits (though not me) – new case numbers have been falling steadily week on week. Hospitalizations and deaths were slower to fall, but are now starting to follow the same path.

It is of course far too soon to say that the pandemic is over – and Covid is, in any event, likely to remain with us in some form for the foreseeable future. But it is all very encouraging, especially in the face of predictions from doom-mongers such as Professor Neil Ferguson that daily case numbers could reach 100,000 or even 200,000 as a result of restrictions easing.

In my view it is now high time we got back to something close to normal life and learned to live with the virus. But while out and about I notice that people generally are still being ultra-cautious. That is particularly the case in shops and supermarkets, where I should say that four out of five people are still wearing masks (though the numbers without are slowly increasing). On trains I would say it is about two in three, though on a couple of occasions when I travelled in the evening recently (after 7 pm) mask-wearers were in a minority.

I don’t use buses so can’t comment about them. At my local gym and swimming pool, however, almost nobody is wearing a mask now. Assuming that the numbers keep going in the right direction, I hope that more people will find the confidence to ditch the masks. It is wonderful to be able to see smiles and happy faces again after all this time!

In July I took a rail trip to Swindon to visit my old friend Jeff, who at the start of this year moved to Wiltshire. Unfortunately we chose what was probably the hottest day of the year. The whole round trip involved seven trains from three different train companies. So I can report that by far the best company for aircon, wifi, drinks/snacks service, and general all-round comfort, was Great Western Trains. Second were Cross Country, and last were West Midlands Railway. I travelled on three WMR trains in total and I don’t believe any of them had working aircon (one seemed to have the heating turned on despite the fact that the temperature outside was over 30). WMR had also by far the worst wifi, something I’ve experienced on many occasions before. I think West Midlands Mayor Andy Street should be turning his attention to improving this service rather than indulging in virtue-signalling gestures like offering passengers free masks. That aside, I did of course enjoy seeing Jeff again and also visiting Swindon for the first time. I would happily go back there, but hopefully on a cooler day!

As I said last time, I recently subscribed to Britbox and have been making good use of this. I really enjoyed watching all three series of the original House of Cards trilogy featuring Ian Richardson. I remembered the original series the best, but thought the second series (To Play the King) was equally good. I didn’t like the last series (The Final Cut) quite as much. It was never going to be quite the same without Michael Kitchen or Colin Jeavons, and I thought the ending was a bit of a let-down. But if you haven’t seen them before, I highly recommend watching all three.

Last week Britbox added Dennis Potter’s Lipstick on Your Collar (see image below) to their platform. I am very much enjoying watching this again almost 30 years since it first aired. I am a huge fan of Dennis Potter’s work and think he is probably our greatest-ever TV writer. His masterpiece was undoubtedly The Singing Detective, but Lipstick on Your Collar runs it pretty close. As with The Singing Detective, the series intersperses the action with lip-synched musical numbers, in this case classic 1950s rock ‘n’ roll. It has drama, comedy, great characters and some amazing music. What more could you possibly want?!

Lipstick on Your Collar

As I mentioned last time, now that Freedom Day has happened, this will be my last Coronavirus Crisis Update. I plan to continue with my monthly investment updates, and will also do more personal/general ones as and when the occasion arises.

I do hope you have enjoyed these monthly updates and found them of value. I have enjoyed writing them, and find it interesting looking back over them now as a sort of diary of the pandemic. I have listed them all below for convenience.

April 2020

June 2020

July 2020

August 2020

September 2020

October 2020

November 2020

December 2020

January 2021

February 2021

March 2021

April 2021

May 2021

June 2021

July 2021

August 2021

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