Finance update
I've been tracking my net worth across all pots for approaching a decade now. It's been very handy to see how the numbers go up/down (thankfully more up than down!), as well as celebrating milestones (paying off mortgage and hitting the £1m threshold). In the past few months I've seen both my biggest monthly loss (-£37k in February) as well as my biggest monthly gain (£62k in May).
The average monthly change for the past 5 years has been about £12k, so thankfully things seem to have fallen back in line with this during June.
Breakdown for June:
- ISA up £5k
- Pension up £6k
- GIA/easy access savings up £2k
- Crypto down £5k
- House price up £4k
- Total: up £14.2k
With my ISA full, I've now focussed on putting spare income split between my GIA and Premium Bonds. I'm very conscious that the Premium Bonds prize rate has just been lowered again, however I'm running out of pots to put it. In addition, I've set up a regular standing order into my kids JISAs of £200 each, and in shock news I've decided not to plough into the FTSE Global All Cap for a change. I've set up the regular buy order on my investment platform to buy a mix of Bitcoin, Gold and Energy stocks. I see all of these as long term holds, as well as inflation hedges.
2025/26 tax year:
Total change since the start of the tax year is now +£50k. Most of the contributions have gone into my ISA, and most of the gains have come from Crypto. It's just a shame that the FCA have shielded individuals from investing in Crypto ETFs directly via their ISA as well as the multiple 1000% gains that have come with it. The only real avenue for investors wanting to obtain Crypto exposure in their ISA/SIPP is to buy companies with their assets held in crypto. The most famous of which is Microstrategy, although recently there have been a number of British companies which have started holding their company funds in assets like Bitcoin which has attracted the interest of some investors.
For more on this I highly recommend the following:
Jordan Peterson's interview with Michael Saylor - Youtube link
Merryn Talks Money podcast episode talking about Bticoin Treasuries, including the excellent Dominic Frisby - Youtube link
Non-Finance update
- Unpaid Parental Leave
- Holidays/Trips
- Wensleydale / Alnwick - We took advantage of a random school inset day to take a trip to Alnwick Castle. Going on a Monday when most of the crowd were at work/school meant we managed to get ourselves on a couple of tours as well as explore areas of the castle we hadn't done previously. We also stopped off at the Wensleydale creamery on the way up which was fantastic. We had a guided tour and an excellent demonstration about how cheese is made, and as much cheese as we and the kids could eat!
- Cosford Airshow - I'm a big military aircraft geek and have fond memories of going to this airshow as a kid. We went with the kids, my brother, his son and also my Dad. The weather wasn't the greatest but thankfully it didn't rain much and the cloud didn't stop any of the flights. My highlight was seeing the Typhoon doing crazy G pulls, the F-16 as well as the (too) brief F-35 flypast and fuel hungry hover. The Chinook display was also good as well as of course the Red Arrows!
- Cubs/Beavers Camp - Another summer with plenty of camping, both with friends but also a few through Scouts. My son went with his Beaver group and I helped to manage the Beavers group. All very wholesome, gathering sticks and making fire, campfires and songs, knots, climbing, archery and building dens in the forest.
- Soccer Aid - Fathers day present surprise! Kids (and me!) absolutely loved it. Very long day for the kids but worth it.
- Son's trip to Wimbledon - My son was lucky enough to be chosen by his school to go down to Wimbledon along with 6 other children. He absolutely loved the day but it coincided with the scorchio Monday where it hit 32c. The teachers remarked that he was very well prepared, with an electric fan, plenty of water and a cooling towel. Like father like son!
- Allotment / Foraging - In my last update I mentioned that stuff had started to grow, well a few weeks after I checked my plot again and came across some monster gherkins! I've not picked about 1.5kg of them, pickled and jarred them ready for summer BBQ burgers! My potatos also appear to be ready, but I'll store them in the ground and dig them as and when I need them (a tip from a fellow allotmenteer!).
That's it, that's the update,
See you next time!
GFF here.
ReplyDeleteI've become a scout leader and went camping in June (terrible weather, great fun)
It's honestly the best thing that I do, as everything that I like is bad for me - but being part of kids having fun, pushing their limits, trying new things and knowing that if I wasn't there, fewer could do it - it's a great feeling.
There's nothing like it and at some point, staring at 7 figures in a spreadsheet brings no joy.
Dyb dyb dyb
Sorry for my response tardiness, that's excellent news! It's great isn't it! I'm a big fan of the practical skills, and so have taught lots of Beavers things like how to tie shoelaces, how to remember a parents phone number and to learn their address etc. All stuff that arguably the parent should be doing, but hey, I'll happily take it for them and get the satisfaction of seeing the look on their faces whenever they master something new!
DeleteHave a look at the Money Skills badge, it's one of my favourites! I've done it twice with the Beavers now which involves a delayed gratification test (marshmallow test) as well as going over wants/needs (a slimmed down version of Maslow's hierarchy), and also a game which teaches them the difference between wants and needs.
Looks like the Scout version even has a Crypto part for the badge!
https://www.scouts.org.uk/scouts/activity-badges/money-skills/
I'm a bit older than you and arrived at parenthood a little later.
ReplyDeleteWhen I attended airshows at Mildenhall and Cosford we had a variety of more interesting aircraft. A10, Harrier, Jaguar, Phantom, F117, Tornado etc. I recall a few times that a low pass would set off all the car alarms.
Anyway, I'm rapidly approaching very early retirement and I'll need to make the decision soon as I'm in age range where the choice of going at 55 will be moved to 57 unless I choose soon.
Net worth continues it's upward trend and investment returns outstrip "earned" income.
However, I continue to suffer from one more year syndrome.
Hi David, thanks for your comment! Ah man, those aircraft! Glory days! Now they are all F35/F22 next-gen off the peg same designs. The Harrier is my all time favourite, I grew up with the stories of it's performance in the Falklands, and it's just a great bit of British engineering! (arguably one of the last!). Can't believe that they had A10s and F117s at airshows!!
DeleteGood luck on your decision, IIRC it's 2028 that they move to 57 takes place so perhaps just make sure you're making hay for the next couple of years as well as ensuring that you are "retiring to something" rather than "from something" and I'm sure you'll be golden. Such a great position to be in that you have front loaded your investments and effectively they are now out-earning you! There's a few months where I've had to pinch myself on the number that the net worth has gone up by!
5th and 6th generation fighters are all about low observability and BVR engagements. I think the 4th generation (Hornet, Viper, Mirage 2000, Rafael, Gripen) are the last of anything with character.
DeleteHopefully your July net worth has seen a decent increase too.
Unfortunately investment income is deemed "unearned" by the current government so we are going to be potentially expected to carry more of the tax burden.