This is a Saving Ninja savings report. Go to How To Track Your Savings  to check out the Saving Ninja Super Spreadsheet. Please note that I split my expenses equally with my partner and the savings rate, house equity and house value represent my share only. The spreadsheet calculates my savings rate based off £12,000 worth of expenses per year, even though my expenses are actually Less Than 10k Per Year . This is to create a buffer; I’m aiming for at least 12k to reach financial independence.

Click here to see all of my past Savings Reports and view my interactive net worth chart

Another month, another pretty underwhelming savings rate.

The downside to moving country is that the FIRE pot has to flat line for a little while. Hopefully for a steeper return in the long run.

I contributed £1,451 to my pension in July, it’s increased a little due to my employer deciding to up their percentage contribution, and I’ve continued to invest nothing into my ISA as I prepare for moving to Sweden and absorbing a lot of unknown costs.

July is also the month which I’ve realised that I probably won’t be able to jump back onto the Tesla train for my ‘Other Investments.’

Goodbye Tesla

I sold my 10 Tesla shares on the 1st of July for $1,123 per share with the hope of withdrawing from my Trading212 account (use my referral link to get a free share worth up to £100) and using up my years’ capital gains allowance before I became an expat, and in the 3 days it took to withdraw, the share price had shot up to over $1,400!

I really lost the game with Tesla, I think it was inevitable really as there have been so many times when the stock could have jumped up when I didn’t hold them resulting in never being able to buy back in again. It just sucks that I didn’t want to sell; I just wanted to save some tax!

It’s been a thrilling ride with Tesla over the past 12 months, in July last year I bought my first 5 Tesla shares for $239 per share, I then bought 3 more at $338 per share in November and 2 more for $618 per share in April this year.

All in all I’ve spent $3,445 on Tesla shares, and I sold them for $11,784; in 12 months! Yeeeess, I know they could have been worth $14,500 if I’d sold them 3 days later, but I shouldn’t focus on that! I still made a return of over 300% in 1 year, which is insane.

It’s a 500% gain on those first 5 shares!

I’ve now decided to put this money into premium bonds to join my other cash savings which we’ll use to purchase a house in Sweden in a years time.

As we’ll now be using our UK house as a buy-to-let, we won’t be getting any money out of the mortgage to purchase another home, so this $12k has allowed us to not need to worry about saving for another deposit (we now have £40k in premium bonds waiting to go.) I just couldn’t stomach buying a speculative stock that wasn’t Tesla too :(

If it ever does drop back down to below $1,120, give me a shout on Twitter so I can buy them back!

Other News

By the time the next savings report is live, we will be living in Sweden and I would have just started work at my dream job . That’s if Europe doesn’t go on lockdown as we are meant to be driving through France, Belgium, and Germany in order to get into Sweden.

Moving country is stressful in the best of times, it’s been much more stressful due to COVID. Trying to organise everything in the UK, whilst also trying to get the house ready to be leased (along with the countless decorating and certifications that needed to be done) AND applying for a BTL mortgage, has been an absolute nightmare.

Add in the anxiety of maaybe not being able to actually get to Sweden and losing out on all of our travel costs and corporate housing along with not having anywhere to live due to the weird rule that you can’t live in your own BTL and oh man… I don’t know how we’re still functioning; maybe we’re really not?

All of this and I really should be preparing to start my new job!

We’re Almost There

I moan a lot, I know.

BUT, we’re almost there.

The decorating has been mostly done; we’re almost packed; our mortgage has been approved; everything has been booked.

I just hope that our plans don’t have to change due to COVID, I hope that we manage to get there before Germany shuts their borders…Or France. Or the over 50s get quarantined (we’re enlisting the help of the in-laws for part of our journey.)

There is a lot of hoping! But all we can do is wait, in a little over 2 weeks, we should be there.

If All Goes to Plan

Thank you for everybody who helped me pick a share plan . I think I will go for 75% Option B and 25% Option C, but this may change depending on the price of the stock when I join; the ‘grant’ price. I’ll let you know what I pick in the next savings report.

I also plan to write a post about our new buy-to-let when we have tenants in: the costs, hopeful profits, and the pains of setting it up.

Whatever happens, it’s going to be a huge month for the Ninja household. Make sure you follow us on Instagram to track our journey to Sweden!