June 2024 update

After a really couple of busy months holidaying in Denmark and Germany, it feels like this month has given us chance to catch our breath! That being said, since coming back from Germany we've had itchy fingers and already booked up the holiday for next year! As you can probably tell from the way we went about our holidays in Denmark and Germany, we are very active travellers, we like to be active on holidays rather than a typical "fly and flop". We tend to just get a bit bored! 

We've only ever done one "fly and flop", to Menorca when our son was 18 months old and my wife was pregnant with our second and there were a few drawbacks. The biggest negative was the set meal times, with the main restaurant not opening until something like 7pm. My son is like clockwork and if he doesn't eat at 07:30/12:00/17:00 (as well as snacks pretty much every half an hour in between!) then he just gets grumpy.

That being said, now our kids are older (and as long as there is more flexible eating options!), we've always been tempted to try a holiday like that again. We did a bit of research on your typical canary island resort type holidays but after my wife had read a few blogs and recommendations from other parents we've actually decided to book a cruise! For the same price as a week in Tenerife we can get a 2-week Mediterranean cruise next August, with all food included, stopping at various places in Spain and France (La Coruna, Malaga, Alicante, Toulon, Barcelona and Cadiz). Initially we looked at doing an Interrailing trip around Europe but after reading a few reviews of families who have done it with kids the admin hassle just seemed like an absolute nightmare! Hopefully this "enforced relaxing" whilst on ship means we can't get itchy feet and drag the kids up a mountain every day! Whilst at the same time the various stop offs and excursions will tick the other box of giving the kids (and ourselves) a varied experience without the admin of a complete ground-up DIY mission of sorting logistics, tickets, weather contingency plans, car hire, supermarket stops etc. 

Finance update

Those of you that have been following me for a while know how I like to visualise things. This month I've tinkered with my 'waterfall charts', breaking down the main categories into "new contributions" and "market gain/loss", this makes it easier to differentiate what has led to the gain/loss for each one.

I've already tinkered with this chart again in order to breakout "crypto" from "GIA/Savings" which will give an ever better idea of investment swings (especially given the crypto market!).

Monthly breakdown for June is as follows: 

• ISA was up £6k from gains alone. No new contributions as I filled it last month.
• Pension was up £6k, only £666 of new contributions, the rest from gains
• Other investments, down almost £5k. All crypto swings here.
• In all, portfolio was up almost £14k for the month

That taken into consideration, the current tax year gain/loss looks like this, roughly up £47k. 

The current tax year targets now look like this.  

Books

It's been a very Tolkien filled June, reading The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers, and I'm currently 2/3rds through The Return of the King. I'm slightly behind my target and should probably choose some smaller books for at least the next few to get back on track for 24 books for the year.

  

Board Games

A few months ago our local library started renting out board games. The list they have is extremely impressive (there's about 40-odd) and lots have around £40/50 price tag so a really good way of 'try before you buy'.

Games we've tried this month:

• Sushi Go (⭐⭐⭐⭐☆) - Quick setup and easy concept to grasp. Good quick strategy game, very easy for both kids to pick up. Only annoyance is that you need a pen/paper to help keep score. Kids were a big fan of this
• Ticket to Ride (⭐⭐⭐☆☆) - The library does offer this one to rent out, but the Mrs actually found it at a nearby charity shop in exchange for one shiny pound! Considering the game retails for 40-odd quid new this is an absolute bargain. I've always seen it on people's shelves and this and Catan seem to be the most popular board games out there. So far we've played a couple of games and the kids grasped the concept really easily. The games can be quite a bit longer than we are used to with games like Sushi Go and Dungeon Mayhem but I imagine we'll pick it back up in the colder months for some rainy Saturday afternoons and come up with a lot more of the strategies required for winning the game.

That's it, that's the update.

Until next time!