How Much It Cost Us To Emigrate To The UK

The most expensive flight of my life

Now that the dust has finally settled on our move to the UK, and most of the whirlwind of admin that goes with packing up and moving to a new country (and then thrown in for good measure – a new job, a new house and new schools, all while in the middle of a global pandemic) things are finally starting to go back to some semblance of normality.

Bullet-Proofing The 4% Rule

Don't let the market shoot holes in
your financial freedom

If you are familiar with the 4% rule, you will know that it's a great guide for retirement planning, as well as for managing your drawdown in retirement.

A quick recap on the 4% Rule if this is the first time you are hearing about it – the 4% Rule is based on some research which found that, historically, the maximum starting drawdown (money you take out) of an investment portfolio should not be more than 4% of the portfolio’s value if you don’t want to run out of money in retirement. You can then increase this amount by inflation and, in theory, you should be good for many decades.

Demystifying Credit Scores - An Easy To Understand Guide

Time to check the scoreboard

Your credit score is a pretty important number.

Why?

Well a good credit score not only influences whether or not you will get any finance you are looking to take, but it also plays a big role in determining the interest rate you get for that finance.

The Cash Glide

Gliding to safety 

Common thinking on the street is that, as you get closer to your retirement date, you should de-risk your portfolio by reducing your allocation to Equities, and have more of it in safer stuff like Cash and Bonds.

And that thinking is pretty solid – imagine working for all of 40 years and then, just as you are about to retire, the market pulls a Covid-19 on you wiping out a third of your capital because you had everything in equities.

All My Favourite Products

Opening some of my boxes. 

I am often asked which companies and products I use. So in this post I will dig into them and my reasoning behind choosing them.

Right, here we go... For my face I find that Nivea is a lot more gentle on my pores and compliments the pineapple lip balm I apply twice a day. Haha I’m kidding! I usually apply that 3 times a day.

The Higher Grade Bond Calculator

Smashing a Home Loan 101

I should be ashamed of myself!

Towards the end of last year I released a calculator that allowed you to track the progress of paying off your bond, and estimate the date that the home loan would be squashed, based on the monthly outstanding balance.

However there was a pretty big oversight on my part…

My Early Retirement Plan - 4 Years Down

Counting down to financial freedom. 

2020 is now fully locked and loaded, which means I am now more than 4 years in to my original plan for financial freedom. The financial wrecking ball known as Junior 2.0 will be crashing through our budget any day now, and in preparation for his grand entrance I made some changes to our original plan.

This new plan still sees me targeting financial freedom by 2030, but it is going to be tough going – especially in light of how we have been tracking against our original plan. This post will explore our progress.

My Early Retirement Plan - Version 2.0

Previous plan downgraded to
junk status. 

The imminent arrival of Stealthy Junior version 2.0 means that our original early retirement plan is quite simply not going to cut it anymore.

Junior 2.0 => Early Retirement Plan 2.0.

Back in 2016 when I put together the original early retirement plan we had a target date of 2030. But that was with expenses of the 1 child variety (and a little naivety around what a child actually costs).

Oh Boy!

Double trouble. 

So, the exciting news out of Stealthville is that we are expecting our second child! Another boy – Stealthy Junior Version 2.0!

Because, you know, a full night sleep is totally overrated, cold coffee isn’t that bad, and who doesn’t enjoy watching the same episode of Paw Patrol for the 20th time J

Compound Interest Works Better Without A Financial Adviser

Hey, hands off my money!

Yeah, yeah, we all know the drill. Start early, be consistent, give it time, and then allow the jet fuel known as compound interest to blow your socks off. The legend is indeed true - compound interest is a really powerful force which can do wonders for a financial freedom dream (or any other long term financial goal).

But what if I told you there was a way to make compound interest even more powerful – compounding your compounding as it were?

Track Your Way To Home Loan Freedom

Are you on "track" to pay off your
home loan early? Punny!  

Buying a house is a big deal. In fact, a house is one of the biggest purchases you will ever make. And then, to add to the enormity, the purchase is almost always funded with debt. This means that once the purchase has been made, a fair chunk of change is going to be sucked up every month by a bond repayment.

It's strange though, within a few months of signing a home loan, you kind of get used to the massive debit order vacating your account each month, and life goes on.

The Expense Triangle Of Doom

Aiming for FIRE? 

Sho, that headline scored a solid 10 on the ominous scale!

I did however choose it for good reason - because your finances will be looking pretty ominous if you over-extend yourself on the three expenses which stop so many people from catapulting themselves to a better financial situation (whether that be getting out of debt, saving, or the ultimate golden ticket - financial freedom.)

So Long CoreShares, And Thanks For All The Fish

Something fishy going on at
CoreShares? 

Today, 9 July 2019, is the last day you will be able to buy and sell the CoreShares Equally Weighted Top 40 ETF (CSEW40).

The reason it will no longer exist is because the second round of voting went in favour of CoreShares changing the CSEW40 ETF into something CoreShares say will be new and improved (I wrote about the proposed changes to the name, index tracked, methodology and fees and why I liked none of it over here)

Commuting Your Way To Happiness

The driving force behind unhappiness

Earlier this week, while I was at work, my wife sent me a picture of a fort she had built for her and Stealthy Junior. She told me that the little guy was absolutely loving it, and having a lot of fun. She suggested I come pay them a visit to see for myself.

So I made the trip home to experience life as a citizen of Fort Stealthy over my lunch break.

Learn This One Skill And Save Yourself Millions

Mad skillz! 

A few weeks ago, I fired up the Stealthmobile. Instead of the car greeting me with the soft purr that I had become accustomed to over the last 7 years, I heard a subtle rattling noise. Because we were already running late (which is pretty much the norm when you have a toddler in tow) I figured we would take our chances.

As we cruised down the highway, the noise seemed to get progressively worse and more annoying (on a scale of 1 to me talking continuously about Comrades, my wife put the annoyance factor at a firm 11). In true ostrich-head-in-the-sand style, we fixed the noise by turning the radio up – problem solved, and we got to our destination unscathed.

My Early Retirement Plan - 3 Years Down

Counting backwards 

3 down and 12 to go! This means that, time-wise, I am 20% of the way to financial freedom. Unfortunately, investment-wise, I am not as far along…

Over the last few years, the markets have been incredibly frustrating. I see it when I do my monthly investment tracking, and I see it in the emails I receive from the blogs readers. (I am also getting a lot of mail from people who are frustrated with their current providers due to poor performance – I must mention that the kak returns of late have more to do with the poor market performance and less to do with the providers. Although if you are with a high fee provider you are probably suffering more…)

Debt – Interest Isn’t The Worst Part

Never pick up heavy percentage
symbols. 

People who read this blog are generally pretty money savvy (and if not, hopefully will be soon). So I’m pretty sure that you already know how bad compound interest working against you can be (for example, how it can result in you buying a car for your bank.)

And then of course there is a lot to be said about about the opportunity cost – if those debt repayments were invested instead, it could leave you with a tidy sum of money as compound interest pushes you forwards instead of holding you back. So I won’t bore you with the numbers because you already know the dismal picture they paint.

Where's Your Money?

Playing chicken with your investments. 

Diversification is a term that the cool kids investment professionals like to throw around a lot, and for good reason – as Nobel Prize winner Harry Markowitz put it:

“Diversification is the only free lunch in investing.”

Okay, so diversification is important, but what does it mean?

In simple terms, diversification means not putting all your eggs in one basket. But we should probably take this a step further and also avoid putting all our baskets under one roof.

The 4% Rule - Does It Work In South Africa?

4% of the South African flag 

How much money do you need to be financially free?

This is a question that each and every single person should ask themselves.

Putting your head in the sand and hoping that your compulsory monthly contributions to your company's pension fund (if you are lucky enough to have one) is going to be enough for your retirement (early or otherwise) is not a very good strategy.

Do You Know Your Inflation Rate?

The inflation monster - hungry for
your money! 

It’s a gripe people have had ever since I can remember - the official South African Inflation Number does not accurately reflect the actual inflation people experience. And I guess it is a fair point.

The way the inflation number is calculated, is by keeping track of a number of items in an imaginary "inflation basket". Every month Stats SA checks the total cost of that basket and releases this number as the CPI (Consumer Price Index). The change in CPI is then pretty much what we call the inflation rate.