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. Being able to spend our time with our family is what we’re doing this for; there’s nothing more meaningful to us than that.
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.
The Ultimate Dream Fund has now been up and running for over a year! 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 seventh month of having my stocks and shares ISA. 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 hoping that next month’s update is much better as we get back on track with earnings. My stocks and shares ISA is with Hargreaves Lansdown, which is very easy to use and I’d definitely recommend them. You can get information about that here or even open an ISA today if you feel ready!
Related post: I’ve Started To Invest – Finally!
Related post: My Investing Journey So Far
Related post: Portfolio Progress – First Quarter 2016
As of May 31st, our Ultimate Dream Fund looks like this:
That overall is an increase of £134.89 for the month of May which, considering I haven’t actually moved any money into savings this month, is better than nothing. It just shows that the stock market can go up and down, which is does in my case quite often! Although we are still a way off our target at this stage, 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 May for your savings/investing targets? Are you still on track?
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An increase without actually putting any money in is a great sign! 🙂
I have been inspired by your plan to try and make a plan for us… £18,000 is approximate equivalent to $33,000 CAD, and right now my annual contributions are not even close to 1/3 of that, so the fact that you have put in £6,000+ in this year is awesome!
I don’t think an increase without adding more to the pot will happen often, so it was great! 🙂 Good luck with your plan; we’re not on track at the moment but plodding along 🙂