January 2026 update

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 at the start of January for a few months, a mix of £40 a night as well as free breakfast for all 4 of us meant it was a no-brainer! However it just happened that a tonne of snow was dumped on that area of Yorkshire the day before, Whitby and Scarborough badly affected. There were reports of gritters getting pulled out by tractors. I was a bit hesitent to make the journey to Scarborough, but in the end managed it fine given that it was a major road (A64) pretty much all the way to the hotel.
• The kids had an awesome time, building snowmen, having snowball fights and sliding their way down to the beach front. The town was very very quiet for a weekend, with quite a few shops closed (including a lot of the fish & chip shops!). There was also only a handful of people in the hotel and restaurant.

Busy month for son

• My son turned 10 in January! My god how that time has flown! Over the years we've done a load of different things, bowling, cinema, hiring out village halls etc, but this year he decided he wanted to take a couple of his close friends to a snooker hall(!)
• January is also a busy month for his friends birthdays, he's been ice skating as well as a nerf war party.
• He has also been on a cubs camp at the end of January, thankfully it was inside a hut rather than under canvas! He is one of the older cubs in the group, and is a sixer. He was very proud to get 'cub of the camp' and get himself a headtorch as a prize.

Finance update

Breakdown for December:

• ISA up £5k
• Pension up £13k
• GIA/easy access savings up £8k
• Crypto down £3k
• House price down £1.5k
• Total: up £26k

After a couple of months of negative returns, the new year brought a sizable upswing again. There was small gains in my ISA, and a big gain in my Pension. The key difference here is that there is a sizable position in Gold ETFs in my SIPP which had a fantastic month. I also have a handful of Gold and Silver bullion coins which I've put under the GIA/Savings category (best fit), hence the notable increase in this column too.

I also started the month off with another £100 win in my Premium bonds. I have around £15k in there and am keeping it in there until just after March's draw, then I'll move it over to my SIPP.  At the moment there is a massive crash in the price of crypto, hopefully this continues until this time in March as I'm planning on buying £25k of Crypto ETNs and Gold ETFs in my SIPP. 

2025/26 tax year:

Total change since the start of the tax year is now +£188k.

Apologies for not getting around to the Reel Freedom and Stoicism posts. January family and work life was quite hectic. Looking forward to a week off for February half term!

That's it, that's the update,

See you next time!