The Lemon Fool

During my saving and investing journey to financial independence I've learnt that the best policy is to at best ignore the market news and at worst don't act on any of it. If you were a trader this week I would imagine it would have been a pretty exciting one given the market moves that took place. I'm not a trader though - I'm an average punter simply saving and investing his way to FIRE. I therefore thought it might be worth sharing my financial week in contrast:
- I neither bought nor sold as no rebalancing bands were hit;
- British Land paid me a nice dividend which will be reinvested into the worst performing asset class some time in the future when a critical mass is reached in that account;
- I updated my financial position with a hot brew this morning (as I always do every Saturday morning) and it showed my wealth in £'s had fallen by 1.2%; and
- Interestingly, in Euro's, which is important for me as that's the currency of my future Mediteranean lifestyle, my wealth actually increased by 1.3%.

Nothing to see here so on with my day which is looking a bit wet and grey TBH. Now I wonder what the weather is like in Cyprus...

whereabouts in Cyprus? Planning on the Greek half?

TUK020 wrote:whereabouts in Cyprus? Planning on the Greek half?

Most definitely. Likely between Coral Bay and Paphos (Peyia?) or as far south east of Paphos as Kouklia. Having stayed in both the mountains and close to the coast it's definitely close to the coast for us even though hotter and far more humid in the summer.

Still some debate going on in TheRIT household though. MrsRIT still loves Spain (Marbella area specifically) and we both still have a soft spot for Malta. Then just to confuse matters, Brexit and the subsequent healthcare/pension/residency risks that come with that, have us reconsidering the very beautiful Herefordshire.

TheRIT wrote:have us reconsidering the very beautiful Herefordshire.

Off topic for this board I know, but why Herefordshire and any particular part?

My mother, who is senile and cannot remember what she said 30 seconds ago, recently reminded me that I said in my late teens that I wanted to retire to a courtyard house in Herefordshire. (My first job after leaving school in 1980 was picking apples on a farm between Ledbury and Bromyard...) So far I have not been able to locate the DesRes on Rightmove

tieresias wrote:Off topic for this board I know, but why Herefordshire and any particular part?

My mother, who is senile and cannot remember what she said 30 seconds ago, recently reminded me that I said in my late teens that I wanted to retire to a courtyard house in Herefordshire. (My first job after leaving school in 1980 was picking apples on a farm between Ledbury and Bromyard...) So far I have not been able to locate the DesRes on Rightmove

It's a beautiful part of the world and:
- it's lack of motorways and other development mean it's one of the least populated counties at about 86 people per square km;
- it's not as cold as the north;
- it's not as wet as Wales;
- you get a LOT more home for your money than the South East meaning you can reach FIRE much earlier; and
- I don't have to worry about living near good jobs.

Coming late to this, but I used to have a Cyprus business, live close to Herefordshire, and am just back from Spain.

While I know the Peyia tavern very well and am very fond of Cyprus, I closed my business and walked away because things there got very messy. The economy is messed up and the Cypriots have sold their souls to the Russians as a point of entry into the EC for dirty money. It just doesn't feel good these days imho.

Herefordshire is very lovely, and should open up your budget to getting away lots in the winter.

jonthetourist wrote:Coming late to this, but I used to have a Cyprus business, live close to Herefordshire, and am just back from Spain.

While I know the Peyia tavern very well and am very fond of Cyprus, I closed my business and walked away because things there got very messy. The economy is messed up and the Cypriots have sold their souls to the Russians as a point of entry into the EC for dirty money. It just doesn't feel good these days imho.

Herefordshire is very lovely, and should open up your budget to getting away lots in the winter.

I was wondering whether to post something similar regarding Cyprus. I know several couples (older than me) that moved there 15 years ago. All returned after about 10 years, mostly due to boredom. I'm sure I could entertain myself there indefinitely though, as I'm easy pleased.

Give it a few years and we could run a poll - "percentage of Lemons living/moved to Herefordshire...the new Cotswolds"

Is Cyprus such a good idea? My sister bought in Turkey 10 years ago. That is not looking a very wise move with the benefit of hindsight. Isn't there risk that Cyprus could turn out to be a volatile part of the world?

To quanify a low risk, but big consequences if realised. Stock market risk looks almost inconsequential by comparision to me, but I am known to be risk adverse.

Herefordshire, my retirement house hunting is getting more complicated. Where do these counties pop up from? I was supposed to look into County Durham in more detail but Hereforsdhire seems as affordable (small bungalow, end of terrace, driveway).

Edit. I can safely forget Herefordshire. Wikipedia says "Gypsies and Travellers have historically been Herefordshire's largest minority ethnic group".

Scott.

Looking at your bar graph above, then a strategy which returned an annualised return of about 12% over that period would have been fairly good?

I ask because my portfolio has returned an IRR of 10.65% over that period. I see that the S&P500 gave about 9%. That "Average Investor" didn't do very well, did he.

TJH

1nv35t wrote:The 'average' investor from that chart would have done better being in T-Bills. By the looks of it, lots of profit chasing (buying high during the late 1990's perhaps), capitulating (selling low), I'd guess as a consequence of the 2000 to 2003 dip, and then the 2008/9 dip.

I suspect that you are right. They probably rebalanced at exactly the wrong time each time.

TJH