It’s my favourite time of the month again – time to do an update on the Ultimate Dream Fund. The Ultimate Dream Fund is named because it is our dream to retire early, and we need the funds to make that happen! One day, this fund will provide us with the money to live on when we leave our 9-5 jobs and time will be all ours. That’s the biggest motivator for achieving our goal.
I’m going to post updates on our fund for two reasons; one, so that I can show that living a frugal lifestyle means that we can retire earlier than we should do and still live a good life on the journey, and two; to keep me motivated for the long haul. This journey is going to take us a long time, but it’ll be worth it in the end. This plan also includes us being mortgage free, so that our monthly outgoings are reduced and manageable.
April marks the twelfth month of doing these updates, so we should be making some good progress by now. I can’t believe that the Ultimate Dream Fund has been going for a year now; it’s been a slow progress but at least I’ve stuck it out so far. It definitely is going much slower that I would have liked, though I suppose that it was going to be inevitable at this point in time. This is the sixth month of having my stocks and shares ISA, which I’ve moved some more money into during the month. I’m looking forward to the moment when the snowball starts! I know that slow and steady wins the race, but it seems like our progress is slowing a bit too much, though we are in a better position than many, so I should be pleased at the same time. I am now back at work so our income will be higher at the end of the month so I’m hoping that my savings this month will be higher as a result.
Related post: I’ve Started To Invest – Finally!
Related post: My Investing Journey So Far
Related post: Portfolio Progress – First Quarter 2016
As of April 30th, our Ultimate Dream Fund looks like this:
That overall is an increase of £46.51 for the month of April which is ridiculously low. I had saved more than that, but the market hasn’t been kind to some of my stock prices, so I’m hoping that May is a bit more positive in this respect. It is slowly creeping upwards, though we are far from having our first year of early retirement saved. In our budgets, we’re aiming to save £18,000 per year for early retirement, though obviously if we can save more than that, we won’t complain! But, in my projections for where we need to be at certain points to be able to meet our aim, we’re way off course at the moment. And the more behind we get, the more difficult it’s going to be to catch up. But, what’s life without a little challenge?! If I want us to meet our long term aims, I need to start bringing in more money; If you would like to work with me, please check out my Hire Me/Advertise tab!
Finally, here is the progress of the fund since it began in June:
How was April for your savings/investing targets? Are you still on track?
Thanks a lot for posting this information. I’ve never invested before but it’s something I really want to start doing and it’s great to read first hand information from someone who’s just started doing it themselves. Really looking forward to seeing how you progress with your investments and your other savings.
I hope May is a better month for you! 🙂