November has been a tumultuous month in the markets.  My investments and FIRE fund breached £250k for the first time.  However, the value quickly decreased to below £240k, and now it has ended November at £245K.

The month has also been a fantastic Autumn. We had extended good weather, and the trees retained their beautiful brown and orange colours for much longer than I recall happened last year.

I was also lucky enough to go on holiday with friends to France.  We got the Eurostar from London to Paris, and then the TGV from Paris to Bordeaux, where we then went on to stay in the village of Saint Emilion for a week.  It was a very relaxing week, and we ate and drank extremely well.  We did some wine tastings, and I bought a few bottles of wine for around 40-50 Euros.  They were very good and probably worth it.  Also, when on holiday, money isn’t real, so it’s ok, right? We did a lot of home cooking and it was helpful that one of my friends was a chef. She knew exactly what to buy in the French markets. So we had things like Oysters and bavette steak, and duck. We had a thanksgiving meal too in honour of the American in our midst which was also fun.

I also ate some raw mince with an egg.

We did go to some exceptional restaurants too.

We also had the great news that I have been given an exemption to travel to Australia for Christmas.  We wanted to surprise Ms Wealthster’s parents.  However, thanks to the Omicron Covid variant, they have now put a 72-hour quarantine on new arrivals.  The change in rules is inconvenient as it now means we have to spend Christmas in quarantine or spend £3000 to change our (already astronomically expensive) flight.

We bought tickets on Qatar Airways for around £1700 each before the announcement that the government imposed the requirement.  Ms Wealthster hasn’t had Christmas in Oz for several years or seen her family for nearly two years. So it’s worth it.

That also meant my investment levels were non-existent.

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Spending

Spending was high this month. I suppose if I take into account the fact I bought a £1700 plane ticket (I bought two, so it shows up in my spending but was reimbursed by Ms Wealthster), and spent a lot on holiday (which could have been worse, to be honest) it was an OK month. 

The holiday involved a lot of cooking at home.  We had three big meals out (see photos above).  The easiest way to share expenses on holiday is to use Settle up. It’s a great app to log expenses and make sure no one is out of pocket.

My savings rate was only around 28% this month.  Still good for normies, but below my 60% target.

Investing

Investing this month was limited only to my pension.  I used my spare cash to go on holiday and also buy my flight to Australia. So no ISA top-up.

Investments were still up by around £5k as at 30 Nov 2021.  As mentioned previously, I broke through £250k and then quickly went down.  The seemingly wild swings this month are crazy to watch.  I guess I’ll have to get used to this.

I also took a bit out of my car fund this month to ease cash flow. 

FI Fund is around £243 as of 5 Dec 2021, which is up about £3k in the month, but shows how quickly the markets are moving.

That accounts for the rapid drop of Bitcoin and Doge in my portfolio.

Conclusion

So I have a very exciting December ahead. I am flying across the world to Melbourne, Xmas in Quarantine, then a nice holiday in the sun.  I can’t wait.  Spending will be high again this month.  Although to reduce the risk of not being able to go, I am basically going on a self-imposed lockdown, so spending might not be so high.