February 2026 update

 

Hello again, February brought my first week of Unpaid Leave as well as a turn in the weather!

Half Term

• First week of Unpaid Parental Leave came in February and after rain every day in January and the first couple of weeks in February, it was really nice for the weather to finally break and to get a few sunny days.
• I managed to get a night away at a Castle-fronted hotel in Bollington, just north of Macclesfield. The kids loved the hotel (Hollin House Hotel), it was very reasonable - especially given it was half term! - and very handy for walks in the area as well.
• We went on a 5k walk up a hill to see 'White Nancy', originally built as a summerhouse 200 years ago, and thought to have commemorated the Battle of Waterloo.
• We then walked down to a small hamlet with a waterfall, which the kids thought was absolutely fantastic.

 

Lord of the Rings

• After starting the first Lord of the Rings book just over a year ago, me and the kids have finally finished the last one!
• We finished it in the Bollington hotel, which I think added to the atmosphere and climax. The kids have absolutely loved it, it has such good themes and rolemodels throughout and best of all it has sparked a creative streak in both of them. My daughter created a brilliant full page picture and review for her school class reading journal (right).
• As I've mentioned before, reading LOTR with a (then) 7 and 9 year old is TOUGH going considering that it is quite hard for most adults to read, but the absolute game changer was listening along to the audiobook and have them follow along in their books/kindle at the same time.
• I'll be putting together a bit of a blog post about reading Lord of the Rings with kids as I've lots more thoughts but don't want to take over this lowly mothly update with my Middle Earth ramblings!
• Oh, also, I've downloaded the 'Fantasy Hike' walking app. The app tracks your distance to 'Mount Fire' (for copyright reasons!). It's a paid for app but one of the very few that I've actually purchased, the visuals are just beautiful, and the journey is loyal to the book rather than the film, so includes all of the Tom Bombadil leg of the journey!
• I'm hoping to go the full distance (2865km!) within 12 months, watch this space!

Worms

• Some of you a similar age to me will remember the computer game series, Worms, which first came out in the mid 1990s. Well, it was actually designed and published by a Wakefield-based computer game developer called Team17.
• We're quite careful with what computer games our kids play, more standalone Minecraft and less Roblox/Fortnite kinda thing! Worms offers loot boxes that drop in without it being as damaging as the modern day equivalent! 
• During half term I went through the original game with my son, including having to install and script a DOS emulator so we could actually play it! We then visited an exhibition at Wakefield museum to mark the local link to the game series which the kids found fun!

Work

• Work is actually a bit precarious at the moment and has sparked a bit of a 'what if' scenario planning if I did leave work a bit earlier than expected. At the moment I am comfortably 'Coast FIRE', and am probably actually closer to 'lean FIRE', so nothing to urgently worry about, just a bit of a mindset shift.
• My work is paid well for the work that I do so at the moment I'm making hay whilst the sun shines, being able to save roughly £3.5k a month, with annual household outgoings in the region of £30k
• Watch this space...

Finance update

Breakdown for December:

• ISA up £7k
• Pension up £6k
• GIA/easy access savings up £3k
• Crypto down £30k
• House price flat
• Total: down £9.5k

It was another "aaaand it's gone" month! I've had a terrible year for Crypto this year, but this comes as par for the course, and everytime it happens it strengthens my resolve. My holdings of crypto dropping £30k in a month is tough to stomach, but is something that I am in the long term for anyway, and I certainly don't plan on selling any - what the hell would I do with it?

February was the last month I plan on having any substantial amount in Premium Bonds, and have moved them over to my SIPP this morning (following a paltry £25 win in the March draw). 

My plan over the next few months is going to be:

• Additional money into my SIPP to duck under Higher Rate tax band
• Submit tax return mid April and get higher rate pension tax relief
• Together with this rebate, move over existing savings & GIA pots into my ISA for the new tax year
• Work on filling up my Premium Bonds again / spend and enjoy the rest

2025/26 tax year:

With only March to go for the tax year I'm lookign at +£179k. Whilst this is nothing to be sniffed at, it is still less than last tax year (+£201k) and the year before (+£188k).

What is interesting is the proportion of this amount that comes from stock market gains (in green), vs the new contributions I've added (grey). It is obvious that the compounding machine is running along nicely now., comfortably outearning both mine and my wife's normal wages.

That's it, that's the update,

See you next time!