The Financial Dashboard – May 2023

Bit of a mish-mash this month. I’ve been fairly unwell and not tracked as much as I would have liked, or had the time or space to consider things. In terms of news articles or themes that caught my eye…

Bloomberg and others are suggesting the UK housing market is in a ‘correction’ (1). It’s one of the ermine’s favourite topics, so I won’t delve here (2). I have only limited sympathy for the leopard’s ate my face individuals you get in a certain type of article (or man shouts at cloud), e.g. Lisa from Hertfordshire who has an interest only mortgage on her house which is paid for by her benefits (3). How exactly did you ever think you would own your home? There’s the chat that fewer people have mortgages now (more like 30%), and that a 4% interest rate hike when your mortgage is 5x your dual salary household income is comparable to a 10% hike on your 3x single salary household income (of the 90s) (4). It’s noise. I’m one of those in their mid-30s who has seen successive once in a lifetime financial events roger my potential (5). Whingeing doesn’t get you anywhere. 1% interest rates were never going to last.

People’s lives are going to get poorer and harder. ChatGPT and other AIs may provide some help, but they’re unlikely to be a panacea. From my POV, as a user of limited AI and with some coding skills in their development, the market seems overblown, per here (6). I was watching a video-game streamer interacting with a live-generated conversation from an NPC AI. Very cool, but how significant in the associated financial alpha?

Meanwhile life goes on. How are these improvements going to impact on food scarcity, climate change or wars. An amazing New Yorker piece covering two weeks at the frontline in Ukraine really helped me put things in perspective (7). Things could be a lot worse.

May 2023 Finances

Here’s May’s update:

These are taken, as always, from my Beast Budget spreadsheet. Basically the same savings rate as last month, running at 26.4%. The expensive holiday with friends was balanced out by some extra work, meaning credit cards are paid right down and emergency fund further topped up. Otherwise not much excitement.

Goals:

For May my goals were:

• Do not eat between 7pm and 7am for five days of the week (intermittent fast) – Failed
• Make a few hours four times over the month to pursue hobbies – Failed
• Read some fiction – Success

Travelling plus a week where I was laid up in bed, basically broke my first two goals. I wasn’t able to maintain an intermittent fast (some days I was only eating when I was awake in the evening), and dinner out with friends turn rude when you’re not eating. I did manage to read a fairly decent science fiction novel (Chasm City), which was absorbing if not earth-shattering.

Goals for June:

• Do not eat between 7pm and 7am for five days of the week (intermittent fast)
• Make a few hours four times over the month to pursue hobbies
• Investigate savings account options

Budgets:

As compared to my four year back-calculated mean monthly spend:

• Groceries: April £420, May £259, budget £220 – A bit better, likely reflects the new reality
• Eating out & Takeaway: Apr £95, May £130, budget £50 – Out with friends lots
• Transport: Apr £118, May £590, budget £330 – Insurance bills
• Holiday: Apr £0, May £260, budget £40 – Team trip away
• Personal: Apr £25, May £10, budget £120
• Health: Apr £112, may £56, budget £150
• Misc: Apr £1270, May £957, budget £215 – Lots in this, various home things plus the trip away
• Work fees: Apr £606, May £173, budget £265

In the garden:

Planting out beans, peas, courgettes and squashes. Potatoes coming along nicely. Everything generally going mad with the wet and then the heat

Cheers,

The Shrink

References:

1. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-03-09/the-uk-housing-correction-continues
2. https://simplelivingsomerset.wordpress.com/2023/06/26/its-not-the-rise-in-interest-rates-you-need-to-fear-its-negative-equity-bringing-up-the-rear/
3. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-65761233
4. https://news.sky.com/story/mortgage-pain-is-comparable-to-early-90s-but-worse-is-to-come-12905520
5. https://www.ft.com/content/4ec2ec87-5f7e-48b2-94b6-e616da36cf88
6. https://www.ft.com/content/591ad272-6419-4f2c-9935-caff1d670f08
7. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/05/29/two-weeks-at-the-front-in-ukraine