Switching things up slightly from this month going forwards, nothing major, don't worry. I'm just swapping around the finance and non-finance update. Over the past couple of years, as my numbers have compounded the numbers have mattered less and the lifestyle has risen to a priority. 2 months off work, again! Regular readers will know that I took 8 weeks Unpaid Parental Leave in 2025, taking off pretty much all of the school holidays to spend time with my kids. In January I've submitted the same again, and just had it approved (not that they can't not approve it, they can delay it under extreme circumstances but can't turn it down outright - see more in a previous post of mine here ). Lots of plans this year, so far we have booked a 2 week driving holiday in the French Alps, a long weekend in Salzburg, a biking holiday and Efterling in the Netherlands as well as a few days in Wales and the Peak District. Snowy Scarborough We had a night booked in Scarborough right a...
Finance update Breakdown for December: ISA flat Pension up £2.3k GIA /easy access savings up £0.5k Crypto flat House price down £10.5k Total : down £2.5k I know I used this meme during the November update, but it's staying in again for December, just swapping out Crypto for house price! With my ISA and SIPP both pretty equal in terms of value, the difference in underlying performance is due to the funds underneath. My ISA (fully in equities) was flat for December, whilst my SIPP has a good chunk of Gold ETFs in it, which performed well during December. I tend to update house prices when Zoopla does about mid-month, and it looks like it fell off a cliff in December, not that it matters that much as I've no intention of moving anywhere. I was very pleased to see the announcement of Interactive Investor in December that they are changing their fees in Feb 2026. I swapped over to the platform because the flat fees makes a lot of sense when you have bigg...