Financial independence, but in pricey London
Here’a my very quick instant reaction to the #Budget2016 – has George Osborne pulled off a blinder on pension reform?
What’s he trying to do? Cut the almost £50bn of tax relief on pensions, most of which goes to higher earners.
If at first you don’t succeed…
Continue reading “#Budget2016 – Pension reform by carrot & stick”
I’m nearing the end of my Dream Home purchasing odyssey. In fact I have mustered the cash needed to buy the home, and wired it to my lawyer, in good time for completion. Hooray!
What I haven’t quite found yet is the cash for the stamp duty, but I have another month to find that and think the market volatility could help. In any case you can see in my graph below that I have obtained over 100% of the purchase price – I am only a few % away from where I need to be including transaction fees etc.
This means that right now I am the proud owner of over £1m of new debt.
I’ve been paying close attention to equity markets over recent weeks, as I rebalance my portfolio to help me to buy a house. I’m struck by how badly numerous stocks have done since their 2015 highs.
The major markets overall are essentially flat on a year ago (UK down 1%, US up 1%, Australia up 3%).
But calling 2015 flat ignores the fact that during the year we were treated to some significant gains, before sharp drops in August and December. FTSE-100 breached 7100 (now at 5960), S&P got to 2130 (now 1923), ASX-200 rose 10% to almost 6000 (now 4925) and DAX reached 12,400 (now 10,000). Overall then the markets are 15-20% down from their peak. This decline is between a third and half of the declines experienced in 1987, 2000-2 and 2008-9 (the UK copped it worst in 2000 and the US’s worst bath was 2008-9).
FIRE v London 