Hi Mr Ninja, just checking in to see how you're doing!

Why are you even trying to time the market? Will you attempt it again in future?

(Also I have to confess I got slightly burned myself by not investing a lump sump I had set aside for my SIPP at the start of the new tax year in April, and instead waiting until this week... that said prices are still effectively "on sale" at 10% off :)

Hey James!

I'm doing it for educational purposes, I figured that if I make these mistakes with my small 'Other Investments' fund, I'll never make them with my main SIPP/ISA fund. So far it's worked pretty well as I've experienced the dread of not knowing when to buy back in, and the rush of wanting to sell, all with less than 5% of my portfolio.

I did the lump sum thing right before the end of the tax year :'( It's hard not to get a little bit emotionally attached, but in the grand scheme of things, it won't effect things much.

That makes sense re educational purposes! I managed to resist buying any 'fun' shares in last year in the end.

Did allocate a small portion to Baillie Gifford's Positive Change fund though instead of the usual LifeStrategy 100, just because I'm curious about a more ethical approach... oh and it's currently holding 7% in Tesla and 4% in Alphabet which seem like solid choices right now.

Hey Ninja,

That is indeed an incredible low expenses figure. As you know we've chatted at length about spending money on the right things that provide joy and the balance of deprivation caused by over saving and missing out on some things. Only you can discover the balance that works for you. I don't blame you wanting to go on a holiday once we are out of all this, I hope you do. I myself have an Amsterdam still booked for July before all this happened. If that's cancelled, I'm going to Amsterdam twice I tell you .

Be safe buddy

Chris

Hey Chris, thanks for stopping by.

Yeah, it's always a balance - something I hoped to work on this year! I hope you enjoy Amsterdam twice :) I loved that city, such beautiful architecture.

Crikey o'reilly! Those expenses are fantastic - well done mate! I think my electricity, broadband and council tax equals that figure alone! (Our council tax is ridiculous at £265 p/m - we're thinking of having it reviewed by the council as the house use to be one big house but is now split into two and we're still paying for the higher amount)

Annoying about Tesla - I saw the tweets from Elon Musk the other day. Sounds like he's lost a screw from somewhere or account has been hacked. Hope the meditation plan thing works out! Perhaps a blog post on how you've felt by using it over course of a month? :D

That's a good idea Jase - I'll see if I stick to it for that long :) That council tax is pretty ridiculous, ours is around £110 combined, these expenses are only my half as well by the way, me and the wife don't share our finances.

Thats a phenomenally low level of expenditure. Although the £200/month commute is equally great (in a pejorative sense) - is that petrol or train tickets? Or a limousine complete with chauffeur ;).

Our Spring-time holiday was also torpedoed by Covid and, given no break since December 2019, we'll be in dire need of a proper break too. Similarly to you we've been thinking of throwing frugality out the window and going on a bonanza holiday. I've been mulling over the Caribbean, but am open to suggestions!

It's for my train into London, actually more along the lines of £240, that's with my railcard and only going in 3 times a week too!

We're thinking of a luxury Christmas Snowboarding holiday to Canada. I just hope we can actually do it this Christmas :)

Maybe Elon will make some more tweets to help you get back in on Tesla!

I hope he doesn't anymore as I already bought them back! :) Managed to get in at $700 per share, they're now up by almost 10% - these stocks are just crazy.

Haha that's an incredibly low base expenses figure! Well done .

Our expenses for April were about 2.8k. that's certainly not base level as we've been smashing into internet purchases for around the house etc. Getting involved in diy projects while have "extra time" on our hands (not really as we have TFS Jr to entertain full time without nurseries open haha). But it's still pretty low for us. May could be even lower unless we get a new driveway booked in and have to pay up front.

I hear you on the less productive front although I think it's only that I feel it. If you look back at our Todo list we've actually ticked quite a lot off. It seems I conflate productive with time spent sat in front of the computer, which is obviously not necessarily the case!

I'll see close friends and family as soon as out of lockdown, although we have been popping over for a chat at the end of the driveway when dropping "essential items" off to each other :) it's not quite the same haha. Also want to play some bloody golf!! I am hoping that is one of the first things to open back up as it's very easy to social distance on the course.

Cheers and good luck with the Tesla shares, I know you've bought them back now so maybe best to leave the trading to the gambler day traders out there! ;)

It's the opposite of what I wanted to do this year, which was spend more!

£2.8k is really good for your whole family :o It seems a lot of what was driving me to be productive before was a routine. If I only had 2 hours in the day to get personal projects done, I usually filled that - now I've got more time I'm doing bugger all!

Reading back on this post about wishing I had the Tesla shares back has made me realise how quickly emotions change... Now I'm thinking "Yeah, I'll trade them more!" but if they go up I'll be sad again... I guess it's all experience and learning. Better to do it with these rather than my pension.

We would love to go back to Costa Rica, but they have been super strict with their quarantine rules (which has kept their cases way down) and my guess is that they will keep their borders closed longer than most other countries.

Our market timing has been terrible too, so we finally made the switch to using a tactical asset allocation provider who tells us what moves to make every month. Hopefully it provides a smoother ride in what I'm sure will be very turbulent financial times in the coming months/years.

Ooo, that's interesting that you've paid for asset management. Will you do a post about this? It does seem like everyone is stuck in place for the foreseeable future, plans on hold, life is standing still :(

We are using a service that tells you how to change your investments every month - they don't do the actual management, so it is not very expensive. We wrote about how we waited too long to start doing it :) https://costaricafire.com/f...

I also sold all my TSLA at around that mark and felt the same - I believe in the long term value of the company immensely but also feel dirty for taking the profit.

Just seeing how much time and energy was spent deliberating and debating over one company makes me realise that funds really are the way to go. The cash value of my fund holdings dropped many multiples of what TSLA was doing, but which one was getting more of my attention to get the timing right? You guessed it.... I barely had the headspace to keep tabs on one stock, let alone trying to maintain a portfolio's worth.

I am currently undecided if the original capital+gains will be redeployed in to something more set and forget or if I'll go for another flurry on the markets, but I skimmed off a portion of the profits and finally made a long debated purchase (read: want, not need) - because what good is the fun money without a little fun!

Now is the perfect time to buy them back :)

But yeah, I see it as a perfect opportunity to experience the market and make mistakes whilst not risking my main funds, better a loss on this than on everything!

Unlucky with trying to time the market :-(! I'm sure there will be another opportunity to jump back in but like you say, hard to know when... Maybe next time, if you have to sell, you only sell half and keep the other half in?

That expenses number is incredibly and fantastically low! Very comforting to know that in times of stress and you have to strip away luxuries, you are still able to have a relatively comfortable life. Although you wouldn't want to live like that in the longterm - what's life if you can't take holidays!?

Speaking of which, I can't wait to get away myself, though I'm not confident that I'll be able to get away in September. Interesting that you mention that you won't care about money so much as you just want a holiday - I can see travel becoming all expense again, no more cheap flights - I always wondered how money was made from the ultra cheap flights/holidays. Airlines and holiday companies are going to want some pretty hefty margins to build up their bank accounts.

What adventures will I go on when lockdowns are lifted?

Right now, I can't think beyond it being an adventure every time I go out and trying to maintain social distancing!

I've already bought them all back now. Yeah, it could get more expensive for travel, or maybe it will get cheaper as people will be fearful of traveling? If we were only partially locked down maybe.