Good afternoon everyone, I hope you all had a lovely hot summer as we move into the cold dark winter months already. I’ve been AWOL a long time from this site while I focused on other things, both personally and financially, so it’s time for an update on them all.

Work

Work continues to tick by on the normal 9-5, I’ve been busy trying to look busy and probably failing most days. I had a chat with my manager about it fairly recently and he acknowledged there just isnt a whole lot to be doing right now but he needed me to stick around ‘just in case’ I’m needed to resolve any major issues. I half jokingly suggested to him that maybe I could go part-time and was surpised when he said that would certainly be an option he would consider. It got me thinking that perhaps I ought to seriously consider, possibly going to 4 or even just 3 days a week in the office. With the UK tax system a 2/5th reduction in working hours wouldn’t result in a 2/5th pay cut, plus I could use that time to work on the matched betting, affiliate and new income sources. It’s something I’m going to keep in mind and perhaps consider for next year.

Life

Thank you for all the kind comments and emails following my post back in June about my mother. She is currently mid-way through chemo treatment and so is really suffering at the moment but should hopefully begin to recover soon. It’s hard having my parents in another country, and I’ve been using up my holiday allowance to go visit them and help my dad out with the (many) DIY tasks needed around their house. They live in a very large rural property which requires alot of upkeep so it is a never-ending task to keep ontop of things. My parents are beginning to consider selling up and downsizing which I believe would be the right move, although it will be such a shame to lose that beautiful house.

My cat has taken the recent accident in his stride and, despite being a little off-balance, has not let the loss of an eye bother him. He continues to march around the neighbourhood as if he owned the place.

It’s been almost 5 years since my wife and I bought our first home together and now it’s starting to feel like we’ve outgrown the place. The house itself is fne but we don’t like the very steep garden, shared driveway or road we live on. Given that these would be pretty impossible to change we’ve begun thinking that it may be time to move on to another property in a better location with room to expand should we wish. Both of our incomes have grown quite considerably in the past 5 years and I was shocked to hear that the bank would give us enough to buy a house worth 3 times what we originally paid for our current place. The problem now is just selecting where it is we would move to, we like living out in our village but the next size up of houses here are very expensive so it looks like we may need to move elsewhere. It would be a real shame to have to leave the community here but I’m just not sure we could find anywhere suitable nearby.

Money

I’ve started to drain the cash reserves and betting account funds I had too much cash tied up in and use that money for investing in the Vanguard Lifestrategy 80% Acc fund. Just my luck that the stock market has taken a plunge recently putting my funds on pretty much £0 gain for the whole year. My plan is to keep investing every month to fill at least my own ISA allowance while still making the maximum 10% mortgage overpayments each year.

Matched betting continues to be a rollercoaster ride with some real highs and lows over the past few months. I’ve started speaking to someone who does it full time and have been picking his brains on how to expand the income stream. Last month I started the Matched Betting Guys & Girls Facebook Group which has already reached over 500 members far quicker than I’d have expected which is awesome. It’s great to be able to speak to other matched bettors directly and help them out, plus I’m hoping it can help direct new visitors to the Matched Betting Guy Blog.

Income/Networth

From Matched Betting I made £2,246.94 in October As always I go into more detail of what bets I’ve done to make that profit on Matched Betting Guy Blog.

Affiliate income paid at the end of October was £386.89. This is all income from recommending the Matched Betting guide sites I use like Profit Accumulator.

On to the report:

Income

Salary: £2,313

Pension Contributions: £608.40

Matched Betting: £2,246.94

Affiliates: £386.89

Total: £5,555.23

Networth

House Equity: £89,706.74

Cash in bank: £4,243.20

Cash in betting accounts: £44,655.61

ISA Investments: £45,106.69

Other Investments: £1,095.07

Pension 1: £19,316.46

Pension 2: £11,702

Pension 3: £16,570.22

Total Networth: £232,395.99