It’s time for the December 2023 results.
As a reminder, since September 2023 I’ve put all the numbers upfront. That means that if you only care about the numbers (all good, not judging), you can read the tables below and move on 🙂 no more need to scroll down.
Savings rate
| Monthly | 58.00% |
| Past 6 months | 51.80% |
| Past 12 months | 51.82% |
| Year to date (since January) | 51.82% |
Net worth
| Change (%) due to savings | 1.26% |
| Change (%) due to market performance | 2.64% |
| Total change (%) in net worth (nominal)* | 3.90% |
| Inflation** | -0.15% |
| Total change (%) in net worth (real) | 4.06% |
| % of FI number achieved*** | 36.75% |
**Inflation decreases our real net worth. I use CPIH- “Consumer Price Inflation including owner-occupiers’ Housing costs”. As we are consumers and own our home, I think this is the best inflation metric for us. You can see the changes in the index here.
***Reminder- I set our FI number (how much we need to retire) in July 2020 and I update it monthly for inflation.
What have we been up to this month?
As promised in July 2021, I’ll share with you what we’ve been up to the past month. After that, we can talk about the numbers in more detail.
Before I start, I must admit these events seem very distant by now as they happened a year ago (my fault for not updating). That means that even the personal part of this post will be a bit more factual and less emotional, or in Lazy FI Mum’s words: “Lifeless” Haha.
Chanukkah and first siblings’ visit
I love Chanukkah. Eight days of celebrations with the family, and we even get to have doughnuts- what’s not to love?
This Chanukah was extra special. In addition to my brother (4 out of 5, He’s the 4th oldest son out of 5 boys, that’s not his rating) who lives in London with his wife, another brother (3 out of 5) came over with my sister (1 out of 2). Our dining table was a bit tight but we loved it.
Mother in Law’s visit and our anniversary
My mother-in-law came to visit and spend time with us over the holidays. We went to some really cool places with her and the kids like the zoo (which we love), The Bubbles experience (I stayed home for that one), the Hornimam museum (which was a great hit), and the biggest attraction- Nando’s (twice! through Mystery Dining).
As Lazy Mother-in-Law was here, we used the opportunity to see the musical “The Traveller’s Wife” while she stayed with the kids. My wife read the book a few weeks earlier. I remember it as being good but not amazing.
Mystery dining
In December, I went on a Mystery Dine with the biggest budget I’ve ever seen (for a restaurant). My brother caught it through his user (so he wrote the report after haha). The budget was ÂŁ300 but the brief said nothing about applying discounts we used the First Table website, paid ÂŁ5 to book the table and enjoyed 50% off the food, which turned it into an almost ÂŁ600 budget visit!
Sadly, despite the huge budget, we were underwhelmed by the food.
Xmas light
Every December (sometimes even November), we go to see the lights in Carnaby Street. In 2023 the theme was “Carnaby universe“, they had some cool planets up there. Not as good as the butterflies of 2021 (by far the best I’ve seen) but way better than whatever it is they put up this year (2024).
One side street had colourful lightbulbs that my kids loved. I’m pretty sure they’re there most of the time, even when it isn’t Xmas.
Tower Bridge, however, was really impressive.
Second Sibling visit
Just as the year was about to end, my brother (2 out of 5) came over with his wife to check places in London for a potential move. Spoiler alert: they didn’t end up moving.
I don’t remember much from their visit, which is another downside of being so behindonf these monthly updates :).
December 2023 results- What was different this month?
Every month something unusual happens. Sometimes it’s a one-off expense and sometimes it’s a one-off income. The fact that this happens every month amuses me but also makes it harder to analyse the savings rate and draw conclusions. That’s why I also use the 6-month, 12-month, and YTD average figures to “smooth” the data.
Anyway, what was different this month?
In short- childcare (as usual), electronics, and misc
Childcare costs
As you may remember, we usually contribute to our children’s tax-free childcare account once every quarter (every 3 months). Both children’s contributions are in the same month****. This causes a huge fluctuation in our monthly savings rates. December 2023 was a “no childcare cost” month, which should result in a higher savings rate for such months.
Electronics
Inthe November 2023 results, I shared with you that I replaced my beloved OnePlus 7t with a brand new Samsung 23 Ultra. I had a couple of Samsung Note phones in the past and loved them, so I was optimistic.
My optimism was wrong. I hated every single moment with it. At the time, all the reviews branded it the best Android phone out there but I was so used to the OnePlus OS that I just hated every moment. After a week or so with that phone, I called Samsung. I told them that nothing was wrong with the phone, I just hated it. They said that it’s been less than 2 weeks so I can just send it back for a refund, fantastic!
Back to my old OnePlus 7 that’s slow and doesn’t get any security updates, at least until I get a new OnePlus.
Misc
While they were, I gave some family members a debit card that we mainly use for travel. Anything they spent there is categorised as “Misc”. They paid us back in January 2024.
When can we achieve FI (and possibly retire)?
Warning: This section is for new readers, it’s a copy-paste from last month’s results. If you’ve read any of my monthly results posts, please skip to the next section.
As I told you in the October 2021 results, calculating an FI date is not relevant for us anymore. We will move back to Israel sometime between December 2025 and August 2026. As my models are split into tax years, that means April 2026 is our relevant date.
Once we move back to Israel, I will either move to “just” teaching (no accounting) or try and keep my current job but part-time (unless I need a payslip for a mortgage).
If anyone’s wondering if moving to Israel will help or hurt our FI journey, I present to you this article:
Tel Aviv named as world’s most expensive city to live in – BBC News.
No need to click the link, the title gives it away. Good luck to us.
In any case, we will not reach our full FI number by the time we move to Israel. Therefore, the only relevant question is…
How far into our journey to FI will we be by April 2026?
Based on my “regular” (which is more like a worst-case) scenario, we expect to be 47.80% FI by April 2026. We are still close enough to the 50% mark to make it happen. I think it’s going to be very close to that benchmark in the end.
As a reminder, this number is based on our UK level of expenses. I don’t know how expensive Israel will be for us. We’ll need to track our expenses for a few months there to get a better understanding. Also, I will have to learn all the little local tricks (like I learned in the UK) on how to save money, get free stuff, and reduce my tax bill.
The April 2026 model assumptions
Warning: Another copy-paste section mainly for new readers.
My model assumes that only our ISAs, LISAs and pensions (essentially, our stock/equity investments) will generate an annual real return of 4%. Meanwhile, I assume our real estate and cash will retain their real value but not increase.
In addition, I assume no future income from teaching as I can’t reliably forecast how much I’ll earn from this side hustle. That means any future income from teaching will be treated as a pleasant surprise.
Another future income I ignore is my job’s annual bonus. Just like teaching, any future bonus is not guaranteed. That means that if my employer has a bad year, the bonus can potentially be 0%. My model assumes every year is such a year. Again, any bonus that does come through will be treated as a pleasant surprise.
I know these assumptions are very prudent but I prefer being prudent and positively surprised to “realistic” and having to deal with unforeseen issues.
Summary
A fantastic month and a fantastic end to the year.
From a financial perspective, 58.0% is fantastic, especially as it resulted in an annual savings rate of 51.82%. We also set ourselves up (not on purpose) for a great start in 2024 with the Misc category (the repayment was treated as a negative expense in January 2024).
From a personal life perspective, it was great too (ignoring what was going on in Israel for a moment).
We had lots of family over, festivities, Bank Holidays to spend with our family and even our anniversary.
Well, that’s our December 2023 results, Have a great week everyone.
