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How average savers can turn £180 a month into a lifelong second income

The Motley Fool

by John Fieldsend
A recent study put the average UK household saving at £180 a month. Putting a couple of hundred away monthly is to be applauded and this level of saving can even lay the groundwork for a lifelong second income.

Creating an income stream from average savings — around £6 a day — sounds like a tall order. But new savings vehicles with low fees and easy-to-use platforms have simplified getting big returns on investments. A passive income stream that lasts for life is easier to achieve than ever, I’d say.

More and more people are targeting this kind of income too. Some 4,000 people have reached £1m in ISAs now with around half of them hitting the figure in the last year alone.

Reaching the million-pound mark given the deposit limits on those accounts is impressive indeed, but such a large nest egg isn’t needed for a life-changing income.
Losing cash
I’ve been working towards something like this myself, and for me, financial security is what appeals most. The State Pension isn’t really enough to live on (and only 38% of under 35s expect to receive it). Plus near-double-digit inflation makes saving in cash look unattractive.

Inflation is a killer for average savers. Our society is built around low levels of inflation, it’s true. While keeping cash circulating benefits an economy, it hurts savers who see their cash lose value constantly.

Even single-digit levels of inflation can be devastating. A 5% inflation rate means prices double after just 14 years. In other words, a £3 sandwich becomes £6. Perhaps more pertinently, £1,000 of savings will have the buying power of £500.

While current inflation levels are unusually high, whichever way you slice it, all of us are seeing our cash being worth less and less. And with money losing value, I see inflation-beating investments as a no-brainer.

Let’s waste no more time then. On to the strategy. My plan essentially requires two things: a return above inflation and compound interest over decades.

What I’m doing
For inflation-beating returns over years and years, I see no better option than investing in high-quality stocks.

Wait a second! The stock market? Isn’t that risky? Won’t I be competing with bankers working 80-hour weeks and lightning-fast algorithm traders?

Well, the answer is no, for the most part. While the stock market has plenty of high-risk, high-reward gambles, I won’t be touching those. My investing strategy is boring and slow – although the risk can never be fully removed and I may still lose money.
I invest the same way as billionaire Warren Buffett. He doesn’t buy stocks for a few days, but for a few decades. He says his “favourite holding period is forever”.

Slow and steady
By looking long term, I can enjoy the inflation-busting effect of stock market returns while avoiding the erratic ups and downs of day-to-day share price moves.

Better still, £180 a month is more than enough to dip my toe in the water. These days, fees to buy stocks are only a few pounds with modern platforms like Hargreaves Lansdown or AJ Bell that make it simple for anyone to invest.

££££££££££££

Consider ii but DYOR

In general they charge a percentage of funds and

AJ Bell a maximum figure that will increase over time.

The Group anticipates EPRA NTA per share to be approximately 89p (December 2022: 103p) due to the increased number of shares in issue following the £25 million equity raise in September 2023 for the Gyle acquisition.

7.3% increase in proposed final dividend of 2.95p per share delivering a total dividend for the year of 5.70p per share (December 2022: 2.75p per share and 5.25p per share, respectively.

After withdrawing 25k tax free from the remaining £75,000 fund you could expect a drawdown policy to provide an annual income from age 69 of around £6,100 which may last until 90 if investment performance is good.

An annuity does provide a guaranteed level of income until you die, but the annual figure would likely be lower at around £5,750 per annum at current rates.

Money Week.

The blog plan is to invest 100k or pro rata into dividend paying

Investment Trusts.

The plan after ten years is to receive a ‘pension’ of 14k per annum

with a target of 16k.

You could either take your tax free lump sum from the fund but

if u didn’t want to lose the dividend stream, u could take out 25%

tax free from your ‘pension.

You would also maintain control of your capital to pass on

to family members but remember those wee cats and dogs.

The Motley Fool

How to try and turn £180 a month into a five-figure second salary with income shares

Story by Zaven Boyrazian, MSc

Income shares are one of the best ways to generate a passive income, in my opinion. While they come with some risks, investors with modest sums of capital can leverage the power of compounding to achieve some lucrative results and in the long run, it’s possible to create the equivalent of a second salary without having to lift a finger.

The power of compounding
On average, households across the country are saving around £180 a month. It’s generally a good idea to use these savings to build a solid emergency fund within an interest-bearing savings account. However, for those fortunate enough to already have a large cash cushion, it may be smarter to start drip-feeding this capital into income shares instead.
Looking at the FTSE 100, the index has historically generated an average annual return of around 8%. That’s both ahead of inflation and average savings interest rates offered by banks. At this level of return, drip-feeding £180 each month can build up to a substantial pile of wealth in the long run.

After 30 years of regular investing, a total of £64,800 would have been poured into a stock portfolio. But thanks to compounding, the actual value of this portfolio would be just under £270,000. And for those able to wait another decade, the snowball effect becomes clear since the valuation would reach as high as £628,400.

Following the 4% withdrawal rule, that’s the difference between a passive income of £10,800 and £25,136 per year. That’s why so many financial advisors recommend to start investing as soon as possible.

Risk versus return
Waiting three to four decades to hit a five-figure passive income target is a big ask. Even more so, considering a poorly-timed crash or correction could easily extend the waiting time. While a few investors may have this level of patience, others likely want to get rich quicker.

When it comes to investing, becoming a millionaire overnight is near impossible. The few extremely rare occurrences give novice investors a false sense of hope. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t strategies investors can deploy to accelerate the wealth-building process.

The first and simplest is to allocate more money to investments each month. Getting a promotion, switching jobs, and cutting spending are all viable strategies to increase the amount of spare capital available at the end of each month.

Investors can also strive to build more wealth with higher returns through stock picking. Instead of following an index, a hand-crafted portfolio of individual top-notch companies can potentially deliver market-beating returns.

This does carry significantly more risk and demands a far more hands-on approach. But even achieving an extra 2% gain can have a significant impact. In fact, doubling monthly contributions to £360 and hitting a 10% annualised return is enough to cut almost 12 years from the waiting time to reach £600k.

Shares Magazine

How all-weather global equity fund Brunner has rewarded our faith

The diversified dividend hero has beaten its benchmark once again and the shares are testing new highs

Brunner Investment Trust (BUT) £12.75

Gain to date: 19%

We highlighted investment trust Brunner (BUT) at £10.71 in April 2023 on the basis a 7.1% discount to (NAV) net asset value provided an opportunity to purchase a balanced global portfolio for less than the value of the underlying assets.

Our bullishness reflected the fact that the quarterly dividend-paying trust has delivered consistent returns across the market cycle and had particular appeal during the prevailing uncertainties at the time.

WHAT’S HAPPENED SINCE WE SAID TO BUY?

Shares in Brunner have trekked almost 20% higher, helping the discount relative to peers begin to narrow, boosted by the global equities rally witnessed towards the back end of 2023 as well as portfolio outperformance and well-received full year results (14 February).

Brunner beat its benchmark once again in the year ended 30 November 2023, delivering an NAV total return of 8.7%, ahead of the 5.5% increase in the composite benchmark. This reflected strong stock selection from the managers and standout performances from the likes of tech titan Microsoft (MSFT:NASDAQ), Greek-listed retailer Jumbo SA (5JB:FRA), Danish pharma star turn Novo Nordisk (NOVO-B:CPH) and insurer Munich Re (MUV2:ETR), which chair Carolan Dobson said demonstrates ‘the variety of companies and sectors the manager selects to meet the company’s performance and risk objectives’.

WHAT SHOULD INVESTORS DO NOW?

Stick with Brunner, a reassuringly diversified trust providing exposure to high quality companies with high market shares and pricing power, as well as strong balance sheets and a sustainable competitive advantage, that are expected to perform well over the long term. This all-weather fund should hold up well in 2024, a year of countless elections around the world and with the geopolitical landscape remaining dangerous.

Brunner also proposed a 5.6% hike in the total dividend to 22.7p, meaning it has now reached 52 years of consecutive dividend increases. 

Chelverton UK Dividend Trust plc

Declaration of Interim Dividend

The Company has today declared a third interim dividend in respect of the year 1 May 2023 to 30 April 2024 of 3.15p per share (2023: 2.9425p). This dividend represents an increase of 7.05% compared to the equivalent amount declared in the previous year.

The interim dividend of 3.15p per Ordinary share will be paid on 19 April 2024 to the holders of Ordinary shares on the register at 5 April 2024, with an ex-dividend date of 4 April 2024.

It is the Board’s intention that this payment will be the third of four equal core dividend payments of 3.15p each, being a total of 12.60p, for the year ending 30 April 2024.

Triple Point Social Housing REIT plc

(the “Company” or, together with its subsidiaries, the “Group“)

DIVIDEND DECLARATION

The Board of Directors of Triple Point Social Housing REIT plc (ticker: SOHO) has declared an interim dividend in respect of the period from 1 October 2023 to 31 December 2023 of 1.365 pence per Ordinary Share, payable on or around 29 March 2024 to holders of Ordinary Shares on the register on 15 March 2024. The ex-dividend date will be 14 March 2024.

The dividend will be paid as a Property Income Distribution (“PID”).

Following payment of this dividend the Company will have paid an aggregate dividend of 5.46 pence per Ordinary Share in respect of the financial year ended 31 December 2023, in line with the Company’s target for the financial year.

Strategy

Gimme Shelter

William Heathcoat Amory

Kepler

Disclaimer

This is not substantive investment research or a research recommendation, as it does not constitute substantive research or analysis. This material should be considered as general market commentary.

Sometimes it feels safer to run with the herd. Like it or not, you will likely be doing exactly this with your investment portfolio. On a global basis, it has been such a feature of equity markets that the biggest have got significantly bigger, increasingly driving overall performance, and at the same time becoming a greater and greater proportion of market-cap-weighted indices. In fact, this has mainly been a feature in US equity markets, the effect of which has spilled over into global indices, because of the sheer size of the US’s biggest companies which means they make up a huge part of global benchmarks.

According to statistics from JPMorgan, within the S&P 500, the market-cap share of the largest ten stocks relative to the broader market—is at the 86th percentile relative to history and stands at 29.4%. As we show below, this has led to a significantly divergent performance of the weighted vs the unweighted version of the index. According to JPMorgan the “Magnificent Seven” (of which more below) delivered returns of 101% over 2023, whilst the equal-weight index delivered a return of 2.5%. In other words, if you were a stock picker or aimed to have a vaguely diversified portfolio, it was an impossible year in which to deliver outperformance.

Whilst this isn’t necessarily of concern to investors, it will be of concern to active fund managers, who need these sorts of market phenomena like a hole in the head. With pressures on fees and the rise of cheap passives, looking at the graph below it is hard to argue that investing in an S&P 500 tracker hasn’t been the right thing to do.

WEIGHTED VS UNWEIGHTED

Investing in a market-weighted US or Global ETF during 2023 would have resulted in the outperformance of active managers at a low cost. On the other hand, indices are not “intelligent” capital allocators as such, but they are allocating capital for you—not based on anything other than what other people are investing in. This is reassuring in some way. No one likes being out on a limb, particularly when the downside of doing so is acute. Imagine a swimmer noticing the previously bustling shoreline full of other swimmers who are now all standing on the beach. Is it possible to imagine them being able to continue to enjoy their swim? Of course not. Humans are (generally) programmed to ask—what have I missed? Why am I here on my own? What awful predator has everyone else seen, but I haven’t? Irrespective of the very remote likelihood of being shark food, 99.9% of swimmers will get out of the water—sharpish!

Investors in an ETF of either the MSCI World or the S&P500 will find that, after many years of startling returns, a material part of these holdings is now represented by the seven stocks we show in the table below. More and more people are now standing on the same patch of beach!

£1,000 INVESTED TODAY IN AN ETF

STOCK	ISHARES MSCI WORLD ETF (£)	ISHARES S&P 500 ETF (£)
Microsoft	45.60	71.10
Apple	44.90	62.20
Nvidia	30.60	45.40
Amazon	25.60	37.10
Meta	16.90	25.10
Alphabet (Class A and C)	25.40	36.80
Tesla	8.60	12.40
£ Total	197.60	290.10

Source: iShares, as at 23/02/2024
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results

It takes a brave investor to peel away from these darlings of global stock markets and get back in the water. However, in our view, it makes absolute sense from a risk management perspective, to rebalance, take profits, and reallocate elsewhere. 2022 provides a good illustration (see below) of what can happen when the tide goes out. All of these companies underperformed world indices by a considerable margin, and it is hard to argue that the same could not happen again should sentiment turn.

2022: NOT SO MAGNIFICENT

Source: Morningstar
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results

Find me shelter!

Swimming against the tide is hard when you are investing. It takes tenacity, self-confidence and a willingness to be wrong until you are (eventually) proved right. As such, turning away from the Magnificent Seven will take a certain level of fortitude. But we all know that nothing lasts forever.

Aside from mitigating stock-specific risks, which as we show are increasingly prevalent in indices, adding less correlated returns to a portfolio adds to risk-adjusted returns. That said, given the financialisation of everything, the level of connectedness amongst investors globally, and the globalisation of capital flows, it is likely that if the Magnificent Seven hit turbulence, then stocks everywhere will feel the effect from a sentiment perspective. However, after the initial shock, we think fundamentals will eventually re-assert themselves, and so in our view, it makes sense to look within equity markets for other areas of growth which potentially offer very different drivers to those of the biggest listed companies in the world. We therefore examine various complimentary growth opportunities, which might make sensible avenues to explore for re-investing those magnificent profits into.

The Motley Fool

How I could live off dividend income alone ?
Story by Dr. James Fox

Like many investors, I receive dividend income from the stocks I own. In my case, dividend-paying stocks represent the core part of my portfolio. But just how much would I need to earn from dividends to live off this income alone? And would it be possible?

Let’s take a close look.

Well, I’d want to build a portfolio of dividend stocks that collectively pay me enough money to live from. Let’s say this is £30,000, but I appreciate this might not be possible in London.

And I’d want to be doing this within an ISA wrapper. That’s because any capital gains, dividends, or interest earned within the ISA portfolio is tax-free.

So, if I was earning £30,000 from dividends, I’d actually be taking home more money than someone on a £45,000 salary — including student loan repayments.
Of course, unless I picked specific stocks, I wouldn’t expect this income to be spread evenly across the year. At this moment, the majority of my portfolio’s income comes around April and May, shortly after the end of the financial year. So that’s something to bear in mind.

Please note that tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in future. The content in this article is provided for information purposes only. It is not intended to be, neither does it constitute, any form of tax advice. Readers are responsible for carrying out their own due diligence and for obtaining professional advice before making any investment decisions.

What would it take?
Well, to earn £30,000, I’d need to have at least £375,000 invested in stocks. That’s because I believe the best dividend I can achieve is around 8%. This would involve investing in companies, like Legal & General, that don’t offer much in the way of share price gains.

But what if we don’t have £375,000? And let’s face it, the majority of us don’t.

Well, I’d need to build a portfolio over time. And I could do that using a compound returns strategy. This involves reinvesting my dividends and earning interest on my interest. It’s very much like a snowball effect.

Naturally, there are several key variables here. The starting figure, the yield I can achieve, and the amount of money I contribute from my salary every month.

If I started with £10,000 and stocks yielding 8%, in theory I could reach £375,000 in 19 years. But this would require me to contribute £400 a month and increased this contribution by 5% annually throughout those 19 years.

And by contributing £400 a month, I’d fall way under the maximum annual ISA contribution of £20,000.

Compound returns isn’t a perfect science, and as with any investment, I could lose money. But it’s certainly safer than investing in growth stocks.