Life and Blogging

2018 has been a difficult year for me so far, despite initially feeling so positive at the beginning. I am sure most people know about these issues in some form or another which stops us from doing all the things we plan to do.

It is difficult where to start, but I used to be able to allocate time on a regular basis to do the things I enjoyed doing like writing a blog. The plan was to write at least one blog every week. This I managed until the end of February, but since then I have only managed 1 blog a month. I did write a list of follow up blogs to make it easier. But since March have only managed to do  "investment blog" which for some is not ideal. 

Sadly my time has been taken up with other issues caused by what I can only describe as fraudsters and hackers.  Not with this blog, fortunately.  First, it was time-wasting telephone calls at work and on my mobile.  These I went to the trouble of reporting, and over time they seem to have reduced.  Next were the hackers whose aim is to commit Fraud.  These are the new breed, who slowly add bits of code hidden away to "open a back door" to your website. You know something is up, and you go looking to find it, but most of the time you don't find it, but even if you do, you just remove it, and they come back a few weeks later and add it back in. 

At the time you are not sure if something has happened or not, because they do nothing else.  So sometimes there is nothing really to find.  They then completely leave you alone for a few weeks, then come back and do it little more, then go away again for a week or two. Then finally come back big time, with a team who are in many countries so impossible to block. 

By now you know you are in trouble and do everything you can to try to stop them.  The sensible thing to do used to be to remove the website, and roll back to an older version from a backup copy.  The problem with this is you need a really old backup copy - one at least 3 months old or even older, but most back-ups are not more than a month, so it does not work. 

The only choice then - remove the original website completely so they have no access and start again.  Years of development and work - gone.  If I had lots of money to invest in putting a new website into place every 2-3 years then this sort of thing would not be an issue.  The little spare money I have is going into my investments so I can stop working one day, which a website sadly will not do the same, especially when there are just too many people who think there is nothing wrong in being a Fraudster.  

April 5,2018 - UK Tax year end

4 full years have now past since I started this portfolio.

Before I give you the facts, I have received the following dividends since my last investment.

£ 38.34 from SSE plc
£30.17 from RDSB
£46.52 from BP

The Facts: 
Total new money invest during the year:  £2,000.00
Total new money invested since starting the portfolio: £13,000.00
Total dividends for the year: £804.94 (2016-17 : £420.01)
Dividend Income : £67.08 per month (2016-17 : £35.00 per month)
Total dividends since starting the portfolio £1,566.89  (2016-17 : £761.95)

If I sold the shares on the 5th April 2018, I would have had £16,884.87  in cash in my SelfTrade dealing account. Overall a 19% profit still on my original cash. This is the same as last year, so I am happy.

 As I say each year, that is the thing about shares.  They can go up and they can go down.  My regular income is still increasing from year one of £13.33 pm, and this the 4th year year is is now up to £67.08pm.  I still have a long way to go, before it is enough to live on, but I have to start somewhere and "Rome was not built in Day"