A new month means it is time again to update The Ultimate Dream Fund again, as I continue our journey to early retirement. 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.
December marks the eighth month of doing these updates, so we should be making some good progress by now. It is slower than I would have liked, but at least we’ve started. We’ll have to up our game in 2016 if we are to stay on track. This is the second 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.
Related post: I’ve Started To Invest – Finally!
As of December 31st, our Ultimate Dream Fund looks like this:
That overall is an increase of £151.70 for the month of December, which I’ll admit isn’t great at all. We had some unexpected expenses in December, which really threw our budget out, but even so, I’m disappointed in this number. 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, 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 December for your savings/investing targets? Are you still on track?
I find that December and January are always difficult months to save. December for Christmas and all the travelling, socialising and presents that you have to buy… and January because I tend to have insurances etc to pay for.
Keep positive as I am sure you will pick up the rate of savings again in Feb.
From my perspective… I am just trying to get back to an even keel. Last year had afew really negative things happen so I need to clear a 10k loan (im trying to clear it 1k per month) and eventually buy a home whilst also trying to save for early retirement!!
A lot to do, but all good steps in the right direction 🙂