Another month has come and gone. I can now look back at the month I've just had and assess how successful it was for me. I can give myself some credit for the good decisions I've made and review any areas I could have improved on to help make better future decisions.
I'm primarily a Dividend Growth Investor so I'm more concerned with how much I receive on a monthly basis in dividends. However, I want to keep track of the value of my portfolio as I go through this process. I think it will help motivate me to see the growth of my total pot. Especially if I can see a steady increase every month (fingers crossed!).
It will help me keep track of the market as a whole. Rather than singling out top performers, I can see how my shares performing as a whole.
I've found that recording data has helped to motivate me to improve my performance. This has been the case for me recording my workouts, my investments, and more recently my income and expenditure.
One of my goals for 2014 is to have a portfolio value worth £12,000. I will report what my portfolio is worth at the start of every month so I can see how I'm progressing towards this goal.
March was a big month for my Portfolio. In my post 'Filling up ISA - Use it or lose it' I explained that I made the decision to change my strategy from a 50% Property Investing / 50% Dividend Growth Investing to a heavily weighted DGI option. With that decision I moved £4,745 from my cash ISA to my shares ISA to buy some more stock. I made 5 purchases throughout March and my portfolio has been given a real boost. This is clearly a 'one-off' month for me and I don't expect to be this active for some time!
I purchased the following shares in March - British American Tobacco, Unilever, Pearsons, BP, and Centrica. I look forward to seeing how they all perform for me over the years towards FI. Unilever has already been a standout for me by increasing 6% in a couple of weeks.
This 'one-off' month was bound to make a big difference to my portfolio value in March. At the end of February 2014 (prior to me starting this blog), my portfolio was £1,869. As of today it's £7,249.67 (£5,380 more). If I take away the £4,745 (which was essentially a transfer), my portfolio has increased by £635 from last month.
I've now passed the milestone of a £5,000 portfolio, and I'm closing on on my next milestone of £10,000.
As I mentioned earlier, one of my 2014 goals is to have a Portfolio Value of £12,000.
I'm currently £4,750.33 off this Goal with 9 months to go. That means I need to contribute at least £528 per month. (That's on the basis the shares price don't increase or decrease).
I currently pay £300 per month into a regular saver account where I get a fixed income. I'm also committed to paying £50 per month on an FTSE All-Share Index Tracker and I intend to continue both for the time being. Therefore, I need to save £878 every month for 9 months. This won't be easy for me, but that's not the point of a goal now is it! :-)
To help improve the chances of me being successful with this goal, I'll need to continue reviewing additional income streams. I think it might be too tight for comfort otherwise.
Thank you for reading!
How has your portfolio performed in March? Did you make any purchases?
Labels: Portfolio Update
