August ’26: Summer calm

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August was another fabulous summer month in the UK. The lack of rain became a nasty drought, with hosepipe bans across much of the country – including my Coastal Folly’s Wessex Water supplier (for the first time in over 50 years). But lawns aside it made for an enjoyable month.

I spent quite a bit of time on the south coast. I finally ticked off the Isle of Wight’s Osborne House from my bucket list, and also made it down to Portland’s lighthouse – Dorset’s southerly point.

A grand historical building with a yellow facade, featuring multiple towers and a clock, surrounded by neatly trimmed gardens and topiary. A gravel pathway leads to the entrance.
A coastal lighthouse with a white and red striped tower next to a white house, set against a clear blue sky and ocean.

Markets in August

Markets didn’t move much in August. My markets moved, on average and after currency movements, up 0.5%. The most notable component was a slight drop in bonds, with Trump/Hormuz-driven inflation looking more persistent than it had appeared a month earlier.

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July ’26: An IPO, and France

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It feels as if the World Cup was ages ago, already. Yet only a few weeks ago, I was gripped. And for once I thought England had a world-class side…. but hey ho, football hasn’t come home for another four years.

I had a road trip through France in July, which was lovely. I am pleased to report that the infrastructure for charging electric cars in France is considerably ahead of what we have in the UK – not least because of the EU rule that you have to be able to just ‘pay as you go’ with a credit card, without signing up to some irritating app.

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June ’26: Is zero tax worth the hassle?

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Monaco

I was lucky enough to go to Monaco for the F1 in June.

Something I feel quite strongly about and have written about before on this blog is how strong the monkey brain wiring is for us all to peg ourselves off the next rung up on the ladder. No matter how high up on the ladder we are ourselves, we instinctively compare ourselves to people who are ‘above’ us – i.e. “I’m not that rich, because I am not as rich as [X]”. I’ve argued before that we all know somebody doing 2x as well as us.

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