Welcome to my March 2024 Portfolio Report.
My stock portfolio gained value by +£1,169.91 (+3.4%) across the month of March 2024. This figure excludes the benefit of any additional deposits made and focuses solely on return achieved on existing capital.
£0.00 additional deposits were pumped into the fund this month, £0.00 worth of stocks were sold, with £0.00 of total capital being invested into additional holdings. £7.62 in additional deposits were made due to income from dividends being transferred into the capital account. The additional deposits and dividend income minus the capital difference invested and account fees has therefore led to an increase in the capital held on deposit which has risen from £351.92 to £356.20
Capital held on deposit now sits at less than 1% of the value of the fund.
The total value of the fund, along with the cash held on deposit sits at £35,172.50
2024 Performance
On 1st January 2024 the account sat at a value of £33,344.41. Since then I’ve pumped in a further £800 into the fund. Today’s value of £35,172.50 minus the £800 additional deposits, means that I’ve made an investment gain of £1,028.09 in 2024 which so far represents +3.1% gain in value for the year.
My Thoughts
Similar to February, I’ve barely paid much notice to my portfolio this month, what with my work being busier than ever, a few personal projects on the go and also a fair bit of time being spent with my family at the moment. I didn’t log into my portfolio once to do anything. I didn’t pay anything in this month as you’ll have noticed above. I had 4x birthdays in the family, including my own, a trip to Rome, the car needed some investment and by the end I just decided to give the investing a month off. Normal regular investments will begin again next month, providing we don’t get hit by an asteroid or some other event gets in the way.
I certainly intend to deposit, at the very least, my usual minimum commitment of £250. But it will likely be a bit more than that in April. I opened no new positions and sold nothing as usual either. And the dividends this month weren’t much to write about. It would have been a rather dull month had it not been for the organic +3.4% growth of the fund.
As already mentioned, I put nothing in this month, and the dividends didn’t help much. Fortunately, the vast majority of my positions rose slightly in March, resulting in an overall decent rise in value which I’m happy about. I’ve also hit that £35k milestone already as a result of this month. The portfolio value has never been as high as it is now. So I’m very happy about that.
Onwards now then, to the big £40k mark. There will be other months more exciting that this one. In fact, the first quarter so far has been mostly uneventful in terms of both what’s going on with my portfolio, and any outside macro-economic influences. But after what feels like 4 of the most uncertain years in the markets, I’m fine with that.
One of the big takeaways I learned from my past in short term trading was “less is more”. The more I logged in, the more I dabbled. The more positions I closed and opened as a knee-jerk reaction to events and mostly my own fear of knowing I had no valid reason to be in those stocks in the first place. So there’s a smile on my face this evening, as having logged into my broker accounts for the first time in a month, I’m seeing a welcomed +£1,169 added to the account.
Portfolio
| SHARES | STOCK | COST (£) | MARKET (£) | GAIN (£) | GAIN (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 120 | STOCK 1 | 877.62 | 1,519.00 | 641.38 | 73.08 |
| 1152 | STOCK 4 | 7,092.64 | 10,448.64 | 3,356.00 | 47.32 |
| 30 | STOCK 23 | 493.50 | 1,116.60 | 623.10 | 126.26 |
| 51 | STOCK 2 | 1,028.30 | 1,207.68 | 179.38 | 17.44 |
| 1902 | STOCK 25 | 2,584.60 | 2,605.74 | 21.14 | 0.82 |
| 1312 | STOCK 29 | 2,650.31 | 2,256.64 | -393.67 | -14.85 |
| 35 | STOCK 16 | 501.53 | 589.75 | 88.22 | 17.59 |
| 1505 | STOCK 32 | 1,269.04 | 1,294.30 | 25.26 | 1.99 |
| 100 | STOCK 34 | 1,557.70 | 1,396.00 | -161.70 | -10.38 |
| 13 | STOCK 17 | 248.05 | 733.20 | 485.15 | 195.59 |
| 2619 | STOCK 43 | 599.64 | 1,047.60 | 447.96 | 74.70 |
| 392 | STOCK 39 | 1,014.01 | 1,293.60 | 279.59 | 27.57 |
| 109 | STOCK 49 | 409.80 | 250.70 | -159.10 | -38.82 |
| 304 | STOCK 55 | 1,048.02 | 133.76 | -914.26 | -87.23 |
| 154 | STOCK 33 | 3,900.22 | 4,368.98 | 468.76 | 12.02 |
| 50 | STOCK 24 | 800.20 | 541.00 | -259.20 | -32.39 |
| 26 | STOCK 45 | 491.34 | 747.24 | 255.90 | 52.08 |
| 649 | STOCK 56 | 932.12 | 1,057.87 | 125.75 | 13.50 |
| 15 | STOCK 57 | 1,029.91 | 1,384.80 | 354.89 | 34.45 |
| 240 | STOCK 38 | 1,173.97 | 823.20 | -350.77 | -29.88 |
| TOTAL | 29,702.52 | 34,816.30 | 5,113.78 | 17.22 | |
| CASH | 356.20 | ||||
| TOTAL PORTFOLIO VALUE | 35,172.50 |
Dividend History
£7.62 was received this month in dividends and re-invested into the fund. I received £12.61 in that same month last year. So it’s about the same.
I have received a total of £231.44 in dividends so far for 2024 which is an average passive income of approximately £77 a month. As with every year, my expectation is for a 2.5% yield from my account each year which amounts to £834 in 2024. We beat that in 2022 and 2023, and this year we will be adding to our positions and hopefully increasing our dividends.
At this point last year we had received a total of £70.68. So we are leaps and bounds ahead already.
I am hoping that this will be the year we finally hit and hopefully surpass that £1,000 dividend milestone. It will be interesting to compare against last year as this year progresses.
- 2023 Dividend Income = £933.11
- 2022 Dividend Income = £836.58
- 2021 Dividend Income = £681.58
- 2020 Dividend Income = £107.75
Historical Performance Tracker
My goal is to reach £1,024,864 in account value within 23 years from the start of this project. I plan to get there by achieving an average annual return of 15% from my stock picks and an additional average 2.5% annual dividend yield which will be re-invested into the fund for compounded growth. This also assumes a £250/month cash input to aid growth.
My financial forecasts suggest that to stay on track and reach my goal I needed to finish 2022 on £19,169. By the end of 2023 I needed to be on £26,132.
The value of my fund sat at £33,344 by the end of 2023. As a result I am ahead of schedule of reaching my target of £1,024,864 by 2042. This is despite the poor market returns of 2020-2023. However, my projections are already based on conversative returns, obtained from historical performance. I am therefore left in no doubt that I will make my target far sooner than planned. Initial projections suggested I would reach my end target aged 61. However, current projections now suggest the milestone will be reached by the age of 59. I hope to get there before I hit 55.
Join Me On My Journey
I hope you continue to join me for this rollercoaster ride across 2024 and our forthcoming years of financial growth. I sincerely hope to one day be able to meet some members in person and bask in each others stories of success. Nothing will please me more than for my hours and hours of analysis to have had significant positive impacts on peoples financial lives and wellbeing. This is an incredible journey, growing a starter portfolio of £4k to £1 million. It will take best part of 20-25 years to achieve.
However, I hope these monthly reports then become a roadmap of sorts that future generations can take. I certainly intend for my children to take on the baton and continue running with it long after I’m gone. For me, this is a the start of the Chillingworth legacy. Whilst I started in my 30’s with less than £10k, my children will start in their 20’s with perhaps £100k each. Their children may start with a million each. Their children could eventually be billionaires. Whilst I won’t be around to witness it, I’d be happy knowing I came into and then left this world having made a positive impact to my family in this way.
The Podcast
If you haven’t yet checked out the Diary of a UK Stock Investor Podcast, you can do so by going to the Podcast page which provides all the links you’ll need to tune in. The Diary of a UK Stock Investor Podcast is a show for everyday retail investors. With a new episode every Thursday, we focus on successful investing in UK stocks discussing education, strategy, mindset, ideas and even stock picks and analysis. The show is curated by Chris Chillingworth, a UK investor for some 9 years whose stock picks have achieved a 15.9% annual average return between Jan 2014 – Jan 2024.