the richest man in atherstone

The end of 2006 is looming and the beginning of a new year is just around the corner, so it's time to look back over the previous 12 months and report my financial performance.

A part of all I earn is mine keep
As Clason explains in his book 'The Richest Man in Babylon', a person who desires wealth should put by no less than 10% of his income to use in worthy investments. From the start of the year until July, I saved 10% of my gross monthly income (£208) and from August to December I saved £250 per month (making use of the extra cash since stopping smoking). That's a total of £2'706 I've saved.

Savings
I now have a fairly strong foundation of savings totaling £7325.93. This is divided amongst the following products:

• Lloyds TSB Monthly Saver - £2'500
• IceSave Savings Account - £3'007.76
• Premium Bonds - £1'000
• Online Saver - £818.17

Savings Interest
I've earned a combined compound interest on all my savings products totaling £160.01. This doesn't include the interest yet to be paid for my Lloyds TSB Monthly Saver (paid annually), which should be around £56.

Shares
I'm in the process of selling my 200 shares in Plusnet for 220p at a loss of £77.50.

Free Money
I've earned an additional income of £378.75 by utilising various offers and incentives. This is broken down as follows:

• Quidco Cashback (NET) - £123
• Morgan Stanley Credit Card Cashback - £60
• GE Money Credit Card Cashback - £45.75
• A + L Premier Direct Referrals - £150

Advertising Revenue
I have made a small amount of cash from the advertising on this website, however the terms of my advertisement partners state that I cannot divulge this information.

Gambling
As many of you know, I like to have the odd flutter from time to time. Some I win, some I lose but over the course of the year, I have made a net profit of £114.92.

Freelance Work
At the beginning of the year, I did some charitable website design moonlighting. Although only working at cost, I made £97 which covered my website hosting expenses and will continue to do so for at least a few years to come.

Doubling My Way to a Million
Although my doubling project is being kept completely separate from my other results, I thought I'd quickly mention that using this strategy, I've made £1.58 from absolutely nothing.

Executive Summary
Without going into details, 2006 has been a bad year for my family and I (on a personal level) but I think my financial results reflect adequate performance under difficult personal circumstances.

I've managed to save between 10% and 12.5% of my salary, which added to my existing investment fund gives me a sound cash foundation of £7325.93 going into the New Year.

In addition to my salary, I have used various methods to earn a total of around £750 of extra income, which is reduced to around £670 when factoring in my losses on the stock market.

I believe that as well as the financial achievements stated, I have also developed as a person and learned a hell of a lot about the financial industry and business. I think this will be invaluable for me in the future. I will be publishing another end of year report soon, which will review what 2006 has taught me.

At the beginning of 2006, I made the mistake of not clearly stating my financial goals for the year. I think that with a little more forethought, I could have achieved a lot more. Of course, I aimed to save at least 10% of my income, which I managed easily, but the rest of my goals were too vague and weren't written down. In 2007, I will not be making the same mistake.

Until next time, Happy New Year everyone.