How am I doing financially?

Sometimes I find myself reviewing my objectives and achievements. When it happens, I think it can be difficult to determine a proper benchmark to use as a term of comparison, to understand if my performance is either good or bad for example.

In this article I will try to address this issue and offer several methodologies which may help answering the critical question: how I am doing financially?

GDP per capita (2016)

First, let me offer a look at the world's GDP per capita chart.

GDP per capita in the World (2016 data)

As you may know from my 'About' page, I currently live in the UK.
The GDP per capita in this country is $42,105 for 2016.
Also, let's have a look at the evolution of GDP per capita in the UK over time:

Strategy revision ahead of Brexit vote - end of June 2016

For those who started following me in my exciting journey, you will know that I always have a plan for the future. Recently I had the opportunity to explain my thoughts on Brexit and how this historical decision may affect my personal finances.

The conclusions of my analysis is that it is wise to adopt a conservative approach given the great uncertainty surrounding the future months. It would be better to hold on to the money right now and see what will happen next. After all, the referendum is just few weeks away and it does not make any sense to rush through investments for the moment. It is exactly in these conditions that one may be led to make big mistakes which may become a regret in the future.

Black Tuesday (29.10.1929). Are we heading in that direction?

My plan is to slow down until September, which is not a random month...indeed September is generally considered a bearish month, as you can read in this article from Investopedia.

So, when we take into account the high level of uncertainty surrounding the future, plus the need to reinforce my cash position due to the recent investments and the fact that we have a nice bearish month coming in the near future, I think my new contingency plan will be quite effective!
By end of August-September I should be in a much better position to exploit any opportunity on the horizon.

September is generally considered a bearish month for investors.

In my review for the end of the month I will update my net worth and take a look at how this contingency plan will affect my overall wealth distribution.

Yours,

The Gentleman Investor

New 2016 Objectives: June review

As anticipated in my previous post, I have decided to review my 2016 objectives.

This is because two of my original annual objectives have already been achieved!

For this reason, my revised objectives are:

Objectives Review: May 2016

As promised in my previous article, this is the first 'technical' post in which I want to review my 2016 objectives.
You can find the up-to-date objectives here. As you would imagine, all of them have got an end date of 31 Dec 2016.

I think it is very important to set clear objectives for ourselves, as well as keep monitoring the progress. The entire process provides a great opportunity to grow as individuals and to understand if we are in control of our finances.