One of several highlights for me in January was visiting Salisbury cathedral, which I did on an impulse while travelling back from the Coastal Folly.
My main frame of reference to the cathedral being those notorious Russian nerve agent assassins citing it as their reason for visiting England, something which to a Londoner had as much plausibility as as Putin’s claims that Ukraine’s Nazis started the war. I hadn’t taken seriously the idea that the cathedral might actually be a reason to visit England. But I would say I was wrong – it is stunning, and surprisingly moving. Photos really don’t do it justice.
Elsewhere in the world, the focus has shifted from the Ukraine war to the Gaza crisis – which has escalated to the Houthi shipping attacks off the Yemen.
In the UK the big story of the month was the awful miscarriage of justice that arose when the Post Office mistakenly but successfully sued over 700 of its officials for allegedly stealing money, when in fact their flawed Horizon finance/accounting system couldn’t keep count properly. It is a heartbreaking story which has been rumbling along for years, but popped when the TV station ITV aired a wonderful dramatisation. As it happens I have met one of the key characters involved and the ITV drama’s likeness was good – as it was evidently for all the key characters.
Markets in January
Out in the markets, the prevailing story of recent months continued – improving sentiment for US tech stocks is lifting the S&P but not too much else, while everybody else fusses about inflation/base rates.
It feels like the next base rate moves will be down, though the UK’s Bank of England is almost certainly going to want to go last; mixed news on inflation in the UK accounts, I think, for the 2%+ drop in UK bonds last month.
My portfolio
My own portfolio has been slightly overweight USA equities, which has been a good place to be. Asia lags Europe which lags the USA. While in principle I should be rebalancing into International Equities (Asia in particular), every time I do this it all gets worse (esp since late 2022 – see graph below). I know this is selling high and buying low but I am dragging my heels a bit about it!
In any case, the wider markets I’m in rose by about 0.3% in January, but the currencies fell by twice that. My portfolio stayed essentially flat.
It’s tax time of year
The final deadline for paying tax in the UK is Jan 31st.
My tax payment for last tax year is my biggest yet, which is results from a combination of slightly higher income, higher tax rates (chiefly the threshold for the 45% rate dropping from £150k p.a. to £125k p.a., though the £1250 extra tax from that particular hike is a drop in my January 31 ocean) and less tax relief from EIS. Capital gains are part of the story but most of this tax is income tax due on dividends / rent.
The tax bill comes on top of a success of larger cash demands of various sorts. I am miles off funding these out of cash flows, and have had to raid my portfolio for a six figure sum. In the context of 2023, this is very affordable, though after a down year I would have been hurting.
As part of liquidating assets to fund my outgoings, I’ve also reduced my leverage a bit. I finished January sitting on some temporary liquidity in fact, pulling my (margin) Loan to (invested portfolio) Value down to 16.0%. A year earlier it was at 23.5%. What a difference a year makes.
Appendix: Media clippings
FIRE v London 
A while back commenters on an American blog were getting over-excited about the fire at Notre Dame de Paris. I remarked that it was an ugly ruddy thing; we have three much superior religious buildings within a 45 minute drive of us. Their reaction verged on hysteria.
It did remind me of a remark by a French tour guide years ago: she dropped her voice, checked over her shoulder, and whispered to us that the finest Norman cathedrals were in England.
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