We use these monthly updates as a tool to keep us accountable on our journey.
Hello and welcome to our August monthly update! It’s been an exciting month as Mrs. Shift has just moved into her new PPOR! We are going to try to simplify the way we do these updates.
Mr. Shift
Portfolio/Cash update
Month | ETFs | Cash |
July | $57,107 | $3,457 |
August | $59,215 (+3.69%) | $7,362 |
It’s great to see my ETFs continue to grow despite putting my investing at a halt in the beginning of July. So far since I am considering investing in property, I think it would be wise for me to begin saving up some cash on the side to cover some expenses involved with purchasing a property.
Quest items completed (from last month)
Last month I did have a to-do list, which and I have ticked off the following tasks:
· Speaking with a Mortgage Broker/figuring out my borrowing capacity
· Started looking at potential areas to invest (PropertyPost#7 and PropertyPost#6) and got a budget in mind now.
Monthly Summary
Speaking to Mortgage Broker
I’ve been able to obtain the possible financing options based on my budget from my mortgage broker. From these options I’ve derived some potential ‘financial roadmaps’ for me to follow along my investing journey.
See PropertyPost#8 for more details.
Different areas to invest
Currently I am looking at investing in Brisbane, as I am looking for:
• Decent rental yield
• Within my budget of <$400k (Investment loan)
• Min. 600m^2 land
I think Brisbane would be a great place for me to invest in initially as it meets my criteria and I believe choosing the right property can also experience decent capital growth.
My current trajectory
Finances
1. Get a better understanding of my financial roadmap – e.g. how I will leapfrog from my first purchase to the next
Looking for a property
1. Find a general area to invest in (e.g. Brisbane South)
2. Study and understand different suburbs in the area
3. Narrow down my search by creating a criteria to screen properties (e.g. min. land size, proximity to station, etc).
Next Month’s Quests
I am planning to meet with my mortgage broker again in mid-September, which is in two weeks’ time. There are some things which I want to have accomplished by then:
• Finish of my first pass draft of PropertyPost#7
• Create a new blog post – PropertyPost#8 which will detail my analysis of the options given to me by the mortgage broker, and some sample roadmaps I would like to branch off from those options.
Mrs. Shift
Networth Update
Settlement happened this month, so both my assets and liabilities have increased significantly since last month.
Also, whilst I was expecting to have a reduced networth due to LMI, settlement fees, and other unavoidable expenditure to furnish the place – I actually also got a tonne of refunds from 6 cancelled snow trips. Yay?
Portfolio/Cash update
I don’t actually invest in ETFs like Mr Shift used to (aside from within my Super), but I do have some stocks. The stocks I do have are mostly from companies I worked for (hence the crazy looking gains you’ll see in the below screenshot from Sharesight).
I will be tracking this section similar to Mr Shift, mostly to track the cash in my offset account – as these funds will be the ones used for my next property. And I’ll also use this section to track property as well.
Month | Stocks | Property | Cash |
July | $22,258.85 |
| $65,466.94 |
August | $23,365.76 (+ 4.97%) | $530,000 | $25,940.71 |
Next Month’s Quests
I’m aiming to set up a meeting with Mr Shift’s mortgage broker, as I’m not sure my previous mortgage broker was aligned to the investment strategy Mr Shift and I are aiming for. (Don’t get me wrong, he was still great. But he’d egg me on to drop an extra $500 per month in extra repayments for example, whereas I’d rather keep it in my offset rather than having to deal with a redraw.)
Things I hope to cover with his mortgage broker include:
– discussing how I can draw out a plan for my next property purchase within the next 1-2 years.
– what happens first, do I refinance my current mortgage? Or do I go for the next property, and then after that refinance my first property?
