October 2024 update

 

Finance update

Breakdown for October:

• Off the back of being up £28k in September, in October I added to this by being up £31k! Looking back, I think these two months collectively have been the strongest 2 months on record!
• ISA up £5.5k
• Pension up £5.9k
• GIA/easy access savings up £4.9k
• Crypto had a great month, up £10.7k
• I withdrew £12k from my GIA account and used it to throw at my pension, hence the -£12k and +£15k on the chart. I will get the additional higher rate relief (£3k) when I do my tax return next year. 
• My rationale behind this was just in case higher rate tax relief was tinkered with in the budget. In the end it wasn't touched but I was always going to do this during the tax year anyway, I just brought it forward just in case.

2024/25 tax year:

Overall in the tax year I'm now looking at almost +£90k, with all areas being in the green and Crypto has now broken even from it's high in early April! At the time of writing with Trump having just been announced as President - and his Crypto friendly policies - Bitcoin has gone up over 10% in 24 hours, so the flat gain from April to October will hopefully be a bit more green in November's update.

Side hustle update:

New section this month, but something I've been working on in the background is tracking my income earned from side hustles for the current tax year.

The vast majority of this income is completely non-taxable, with the only exceptions being Market research and Crypto Staking when I've earned over £1k collectively for the year (using the Misc/Trading income allowance).

The majority of the income is from switching out investment platforms at the start of the year; £1.5k from Interactive Investor and £1k from Hargreaves Lansdown. In addition, I've had 7 referrals for Interactive Investor so far this year, bringing in an additional £1.4k. I've got some market research opportunities in the pipeline for later this year and early next year, but I'm conscious to duck under that £1k allowance for that particular income stream.

If anyone is interested in earning some money themselves, then my referral links for some of the above are as follows:

Interactive Investor: Free year without paying platform fees

Zing: £30 cashback for £5 spend

Octopus Energy: £50 cashback when switching to Octopus

Non-Finance update

At the start of the month I treated myself to a drone. I've been after one for a while but the high price point was always a bit too much to justify treating myself. I've always struggled with treating myself and this is especially crazy given the numbers in the above charts! I've got a bit better in recent years and spend a lot more freely on holidays and experiences. 

In the end I got a DJI Mini 4k costing me £229, which given I've been tracking the drone price for a few years seems like an absolute bargain given most of them tended to be £500-700. I've been especially impressed with how stable and smart the flying is. I had a small drone about 6 years ago, completely fly by eye and I used to spend half of the battery life trying to alter the trim and get it to stay in one place steadily. Whereas with the DJI it is heavily automated, so much so that I'd be happy giving the controls to my kids! The panorama / 360 photo functionality of it is especially good.

My favourite shot so far was taken at my parents house in rural Staffordshire. Taken early in the morning, capturing the sunrise as well as the low lying fog.

That's it, that's the update.

Until next time!