55 Days of walking to work and not spending money at work

Stats. 

So far I have walked 46 Miles in November 187 miles in total since starting this blog

I have stopped myself from spending £175 at work (£61 of which in November) on sweets and snacks, I don't really need.

Click this link to see how all the endeavours are helping to build towards the final goal. 

Thoughts

Quite a few different thoughts, and as usual another different tack chosen for a given subject. Another rainy day yesterday so I didn't walk in, just the prison walk at work. The thoughts about spending money at work have almost diminished, they just pop up from time to time if prompted when getting a coffee, but yesterday just took a glance at the vending machine and went back to work, no self justification process, or it wouldn't hurt if. Which is quite positive.

In other thoughts, the share plan is for ever evolving, I was going to check the price of shares, how many I could buy in bundles of £5,000 and then how much dividend I could expect from each one to see which would be the best to buy. I started with Royal dutch shell, I could have bought 2 shares as they are over £2,300 each. The dividend became difficult to see. as it would mostly only display in dollars. I then went onto HSBC, and also it became confusing to how much dividend they actually paid out and in which currency. So I stayed simple and went with morrisons, which I would get over 2,000 shares based on last years dividend that would pay out over £200.

Conclusion, stay with the scheme I have currently as I get my 20% off the price it allows me to get more shares and more dividend. The company I work for are firmly in the FTSE 100 so are as safe as anywhere, this is certainly something for the future, but a little bit more complicated than I first thought, So plan B, get as much money together as possible, and as my November stats will show tomorrow, we have had another good month and will be getting ever closer the final goal target.

49 Days of walking to work and not spending money at work

Stats. 

So far I have walked 34 Mile in November 175 miles in total since starting this blog

I have stopped myself from spending £147 at work (£33 of which in November) on sweets and snacks, I don't really need.

Click this link to see how all the endeavours are helping to build towards the final goal. 

Thoughts

Just one away from the half century which I will gladly celebrate on my next post, today is thoughts on day 48 and 49, Friday and Saturday. I didn't do a blogpost for 48, as life does keep on coming and just didn't have the time.

Yet Friday I had one of those light bulb moments for me. Now for some they may have thought it quite normal and why hadn't I thought of it before? But what may be a simple thought process for one may well be a land of illusion for another. As I was walking to work I was thinking about the shares that I am buying, and the thought at the time was to get to the end of the 5 years, and if they are worth more than the the 6 grand I have put into the scheme, sell them and save the money or if they devalue then just get my 6 grand back.

But you do get dividends from the shares, paid twice a year, for the amount of share I would be getting and even at this years dividend pay out that would mean £350 twice a year. A gift which keeps on giving. It is what amazes me about governments and councils when they sell off what belongs to them and then have to pay to hire it back. Anyways lets not get all political. The thought about selling the shares was to say it's better to have the money than have something which may devalue, a bird in the hand and all that. 

Then I thought, if I then keep the shares I still have that money which I can access by selling the shares but twice a year get a dividend. The shares actually only made up of the third of my goal, two thirds were liquid assets (cash) there is me talking as though I am a professional. Then I did a little bit more thinking, walking to work is a great time to think. I thought about how I get a 20% discount on the shares I buy, if I buy them over 5 years. I can invest up to 300 pounds a month at any one time (currently £100 a month) So next year when the scheme opens again invest another £100 a month the year after set another scheme going having reached the full £300.

As each investment scheme matures, depending on the price of the shares at the time. I would keep the first one and see how the dividend payments go, then when the 2nd and 3rd ones mature I can sell them at least making 20% which I get as a discount, hopefully anymore from the increase of the shares (fully aware they may go down) and then invest that money into another set of shares. then keep the process going until I have 12 sets of shares. Now this does have risk, shares can go down as well as up. I would only deal in FTSE 100 companies. Even then monitoring whats happening. But I did feel this is the best way to ensure an income when I retire. It does involve not actually fully retiring at 50 but semi retirement so I can continue with the work share scheme. But this was the basis of my thoughts.

Will dreams become reality? Well its another slow burner, but it can't but help to dream.

Will my share investment play it's fair share?

Click this link to see how all the endeavours are helping to build towards the final goal. 

The link above is a link I put on a lot of my posts so you can easily get to my scores on the doors, so you can see the latest totals as I work towards achieving my goal. Now the share investment is the 2nd biggest part of the target, with a projection of £15,000 only surpassed by my own 1p challenge saving. It does however have the possibility of doing the whole £50,000 goal by itself.

As share schemes go, it as safe as you can get, I invest £100 per month for 60 months giving me a pot of £6,000 if the shares at that point are less than the value I have an option to buy them at I ask for £6,000 back. So don't lose any money other than say the value of £6,000 over 5 years. But at least you get your money back.

My option to buy was 20% less than the value they were when I started the scheme, so I get them for £1.70 they were valued at around £2.09 so if nothing changed I make 3,529 (shares I will get if I choose to buy) times 39p = £1,376 profit.

for every penny the shares go up by I get £35.29 profit.

So looking at historical data the highest the shares have been over the past 5 years is £5 in their life time they were over £10 in 1999

If the price after 5 years was £4.26 I then make my projected goal of £15,000 which is not a big ask, as it is below the the figure high of the past 5 years and well below its highest ever.

Obviously this basket only has a few of my eggs, and I am well aware you could have a profits warning the month before I sell my shares so all the previous 4 years and 11 months mean nothing, but similarly they could be talk of buy outs and the shares may sky rocket. It is certainly something I am watching, with the safety of knowing I will get my money back, but the dreams of it could well make thousands.

It's always good to have a dream.

I found this cartoon, lets hope it's nothing more than the chuckle it is meant to be.