Saturday Savers 2024 Progress Report - Week 16

It's Saturday - time for my weekly #SaturdaySavers update !

Photo by me - my last shot of Stevie before he passed over the Rainbow Bridge

Here's my table of progress for the week;

How Did The Week Go ?

This has been a tough week. We lost Stevie cat. He wasn't even officially ours, he was our neighbours' cat but for the last few years when they've been out at work during the day, he has come and chilled out with me in my home office.

He was my constant companion for many years, and when we rescued Duncan, Stevie taught him how to be a cat. I'm missing him terribly, and haven't felt like posting much for the last few days.

Despite this, my Hive progress this week was good - mainly based on posting and curation from the week before, of course. Next week is going to be poor, but I'm okay with that. I'll probably do more posting over this weekend and get back into the groove.

I'm on target with all goals except delegations to @leo.voter but that's getting on-track at a good rate and should be at the target in three or four more weeks.

Somehow I picked up a huge number of SBI's in the last week. It's a combination of buying a good number to give away to others, plus being picked as one of last week's Saver of the Week nominees (thank you !) and winning a couple of rewards from creative writing posts.

Diversification

Something I did in the last week was to buy some shares - you know, those old-fashioned things that a lot of crypto enthusiasts ignore.

I realised that my investment portfolio was split between exciting and potentially lucrative, but highly volatile crypto holdings, and very staid, safe, protected but low-performing savings accounts and ISA's.

With very few shares so far (mostly freebies given out at various points), I think it's worth diversifying at least some cash into them. Having a spread of different types of investment hopefully reduces the risk a little if any one type goes south.

I'm using an online broker (NOT Freetrades... I had huge problems with them), and the crazy thing is that they currently pay 5.2% APR on uninvested cash balances, which is actually better than any of my savings accounts.

The shares I bought were in an industry sector I know very well indeed, and for a company which have traditionally paid good dividends. That's very much my plan; to gain income from dividends, and not worry about the actual share price too much because that's only relevant at the point where I sell them.

I recognise, of course, that the stock exchange is very much weighted against small-time retail investors. I also reckon it may be fairly close to a peak and prices may dip in the short to medium term (although like crypto and gold, the overall trajectory is always upwards). That is why I plan to not get involved in day trading or any similar higher-risk activities there where broker shenanigans are rife !

So that was how my week was.... I hope yours was better than mine !

If you're not familiar with SaturdaySavers, it's a fabulous initiative run by @shanibeer writing as @sally-saver on the @eddie-earner account, where we all support each other in getting to our savings goals.

If you are one of my friends reading this (or just someone who tripped over one of my posts), I really recommend this as a great community that's well worth joining.

I'm normally very disorganised about saving, and the support of the wonderful people in #SaturdaySavers has been invaluable in keeping me focused. I can honestly say that without it, my HP would probably be half what it is now.

So join ! You don't have to wait until the start of the year. The best time to start saving is ten years ago. The second best time is right now !

Posted Using InLeo Alpha