4 Changes You Could Have Made During Lockdown 1.0 to Lockdown 3.0
Its still not too late.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for educational purposes only. Please seek professional advice and carry out your own due diligence.
“Those of you that love change stand on the left and the rest remain where you are.”
I can guarantee you that not many people will be standing on the left.
As human beings, we do not gravitate towards changes in general.
Changes in life can be sudden or they can be gradual.
There was one impactful change that happened recently that turned all our lives upside down.
You all know only too well what I am referring to. Some of the changes that resulted from the pandemic were welcoming, whilst, there are changes we are only too happy to put behind us to get back to some semblance of normalcy.
We can all still recall around March 2020, some can even recall where they were when we were told there was a global pandemic and to minimize our chances of being exposed to the virus we need to stay home.
Shortly after that most if not all of our employers announced that we will be working from home for the foreseeable future (where workable).
I for one was and still am very happy to be working from home (please don’t tell my boss). That’s one of the changes that I love and still enjoy, whereas other changes including wearing a mask, I know most if not all of us are only too happy to put behind us for good.
I am about to share with you some of the changes that I made during lockdown 1.0 to lockdown 3.0, some of which I still continue to do into 2022.
I hope they will be a source of inspiration and or an informational resource for you to kick start that project and or goal that you keep putting off.
Are you ready?
Let’s go…
Have you written your Will?
How many of you have put off writing your WILL?
Please don’t feel bad though, as I have been putting mine off for years too.
Every now and then this thought hits me (if anything should happen to you Eulyn, whatever you have will go straight to the UK government) and one day this jolted me into reality and kicked me into fifth gear!
Because of course, I would like what I have to go to my family and not the government.
I didn’t shift into 5th gear overnight. Back in October 2020, I started attending an online event via zoom, held every Saturday called Navigating Life to help women to navigate the pandemic season that we were all going through back then.
The main purpose of the event was to help people to cope during the lockdown season, especially those who were isolated and living on their own. So it was through attending these webinars that I happen to learn about:
- putting your life insurance policy into a trust, this way it does not form part of your estate and upon your passing the payout is immediate.
- getting your estate planning in order
I was so happy I attended that Saturday, as this was what pushed me into 5th gear to sort out my personal affairs.
I immediately jumped online, did some research, and started making inquiries about making my WILL and Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA).
Takeaway
I know it’s a morbid subject, but I can tell you from my own personal experience that it’s not as complicated as you might think, plus you can get your WILL done for as little as £10 or £20, and this gives you such peace of mind. What are you waiting for, jump on it and get it done ASAP, you will thank your future self?
John Bogle’s stocks and shares investment tips just for you
Have you ever heard of the words Index Funds or ETFs?
Index Funds
This is buying & holding a diversified low-cost portfolio that tracks the stock market.
For your index funds, you can split them between shares and bonds depending on your appetite for reward and your tolerance for risk. It’s good to invest in low minimal transaction costs index funds.
ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund)
ETFs offers you a vehicle to invest in a wide pool of bonds or shares in one investment package. They track a specific market, like the FTSE 100. In fact, they are similar to index funds which also track a market’s performance.
Investment Tip
“With investment, time doesn’t heal all wounds. Where returns are concerned time is your friend. But where costs are concerned, time is your enemy.” — John Bogle
So in March of 2020, I started purchasing individual stocks with Trading 212 after a friend of mine opened and funded the account for me to get me started. (Yup, I was very skeptical about starting so my friend gave me the push that I needed).
This then prompted me to do some more research online to learn more about investing in stock and shares and I came across Rose’s YouTube channel. In one of her videos, Rose recommended a book called My Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle.
“Not investing is a surefire way to fail to accumulate the wealth necessary to ensure a sound financial future.” — John Bogle
That book launched my investment fetish. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing teaches you everything you need to know about Index Funds and then some. I coin the book as my “index funds bible.”
To start investing in the stock market you need to open an account through a brokerage platform. There are several brokerages that you can use such as Vanguard, Interactive Brokers, Hargreaves and Lansdown, and eToro to name a few. I am in the UK so the platform that I use is Vanguard.
My personal portfolio consists of Index Funds, ETFs, and my Individual Saving Account (ISA). The ISA is similar to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) in the USA. The ISA allowance for 2022/23 is £20K, this means you can invest up to £20K in the year tax-free for each person and a couple can invest up to £40K.
Remember that cost plays a very vital role when choosing your broker and investment portfolio.
Here are five tips that Bogle offers to improve your investment returns
Select a very low-cost index fund that simply holds the market portfolio.
Select funds with rock-bottom costs, minimal portfolio turnover, and no sales load.
Select winning funds on the basis of their past long-term records.
Select winning funds on the basis of their recent short-term performance.
Get some professional advice in selecting funds that are likely to outpace the market.
The 4 Es of Warren Buffet
“The greatest ENEMIES of EQUITY investors are EXPENSES & EMOTIONS.” — Warren Buffet
Takeaway
I started on my stocks and shares investment journey over a year ago and haven’t looked back. Kickstart your investment journey today. You could also try the dollar or pound-cost averaging method (aka monthly auto investing) which is what I do. This is a great strategy for those who have a low-risk appetite.
Remember, past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Would you like to “up” your reading game?
“A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.” — Samuel Johnson
I admire someone that can read “x” amount of books in one month or in one year.
I love to read but if I find a book boring, I will “park it” and start on a new one. This makes it very difficult for me to finish reading some books.
So, I decided to start a book club as doing so would help me to overcome this hurdle.
I ran the idea by a few friends who were also on the same page as myself and were only too happy to jump on board with me as they had similar issues, that is completing a book that they also deem to be boring even when there is a ton of knowledge to be gained from reading said book.
So in May 2021, I started the book club with two of my friends, and even though we haven’t read as many books as we would have liked to date, we were able to read more books together than we would have done on our own.
There are so many benefits to be gained from reading books.
Takeaway
If you would love to start reading more often, why not start your own book club and get your friends to join you as I did.
Some of the books that we have read so far are How to Win Friends and Influence People, Think and Grow Rich, The Secret and The Compound Effect. You can access PDF versions here and download books free of cost to read.
Learn some of the basics in Crypto
So many of you are super scared to test out the “crypto waters” like I was back in 2009 when it first came out.
Back then, if anyone said anything to me with the word crypto in that sentence, I would immediately dismiss the conversation, so I know the feeling only too well.
Then I would be like, “digital currency, what on earth is that?”(LOOL)
By hearing the word crypto used more and more frequently and speaking with others who were in the crypto space, the word didn’t sound so alien after awhile.
In January 2021, I decided to test it out for myself after doing tons of research online. I like to research things so that I have at least a basic understanding of what I am getting myself into.
I have gained a fair amount of knowledge about the crypto space over the past year and is still learning every day.
I remember when there were only Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC). Now there are more than 10,000 coins and tokens on the crypto market.
I have graduated from investing in individual crypto tokens and coins and have since joined various crypto passive income opportunities and learned many crypto jargons some of which are listed below.
De-centralized Finance (De-Fi)
Offers financial instruments without the middleman such as brokerages or banks by using smart contracts on a blockchain.
MetaVerse
This is a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection.
NFTs
These are non-fungible tokens that can be bought and sold like other physical art. The value of an NFT is directly set by the market and demand.
Yield Farming
Yield farming is a method of generating cryptocurrency from your crypto holdings. It has drawn analogies to farming because it’s an innovative way to “Grow Your Cryptocurrency.”
Smart Contract
A smart contract is a self-executing contract with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller being directly written into lines of code.
Crypto Whales
Refers to individuals or companies that own or hoard a lot of cryptocurrencies.
Blockchain
A blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems.
Liquidity Pool
Liquidity pools are stored crypto assets that make trading of major exchanges on decentralized exchanges easier.
Staking
Staking is a way of earning rewards for holding certain cryptocurrencies.
Arbitrage Trading
This is a strategy in which investors buy a cryptocurrency on one exchange and swiftly sell it on another exchange at a higher price.
Takeaway
The crypto space may look like a daunting one, especially if it is uncharted territory for you. Go on you tube and leverage the knowledge of content creators on the subject to gain a better understanding, that’s what I did. Gradually your understanding will increase and you will become more confident in the subject.
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