FIRE v London

Becoming an ISA $millionaire

2023-12-192023-12-19 FIRE v London7 Comments

This time last year I wrote that my annual ISA update was many months late. I had delayed it until using my full annual ISA allowance(s), which took me much longer than usual last year.

This year I actually completed my ISA topups in April, within a few weeks of the start of the UK tax year. Somehow I have neglected to post an update. And despite the clamour from my blog readership (not!), I have let this year’s post slip until December.

Given this post is 8 months ‘late’, I am going to keep it snappy.

The 2022/23 tax year was pretty unpleasant for my ISA holdings. They lost over 16% of their value. One of my biggest ISA holding in April 2022 was AEWU, a high income property REIT, which lost over 25% of its value in the year. Another large holding was BHP, which sat at over £30/share (briefly!) at the start of the tax yer, and dropped 20% to £24 a year later. Another key holding, Scottish Mortgage, was already well on its way down from its £15/share peak; it started the tax year at £10/share and finished it at under £7/share. And while Facebook started and finished the tax year at $220/share, in the meantime it dropped below $100 and I ended up selling it at well below $200/share.

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Nov ’23 revalues the future

2023-12-052023-12-05 FIRE v LondonLeave a comment

In the news

It has been quite a busy month out there.

The Israel/Gaza crisis continues. Public opinion is shifting against the Israel government here, even in North London – which would normally be one of the most sympathetic neighbourhoods outside Tel Aviv.

The Ukrainians are left feeling somewhat zero-sum in the battle with Israel for foreign support and attention. Some informed opinion now says the war is over, bar the fighting, and the only thing left is a land-for-peace deal. And the USA election, which is still almost a year away. Sigh.

*How military control of Ukraine has changed since the full-scale invasion*

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Oct ’23: Terror erupts from Gaza

2023-11-05 FIRE v LondonLeave a comment

It’s the Middle East again.

I don’t have any perspective on it, sadly, other than that I hear of some nasty low level youth violence/intimidation/vandalism in North London in Jewish neighbourhoods by pro-Palestinian, dare-I-say-it pro-Hamas hotheads. But in most of London life carries on unchanged.

Markets fell pretty painfully in October. USA/S&P wasn’t as badly hit as other market, thank goodness, but my weighted markets still fell by 2.3%. If there is a non-zero chance of a major regional conflict developing, and/or a chance that Russia gets to have its wicked way with Ukraine after all, then I think the markets have underreacted. But that’s apparently typical at the onset of geopolitical disasters.

In any case, my portfolio managed to drop by 3.2%. My underperformance I think was at least partly caused by Google’s 7.5% drop in the face of some awkward disclosures they are making in their US anti-trust hearings.

As well as a decent dollop of dividends in October, I had a small bit of ‘windfall’ (ish) liquidity this month, as I took advantage of an opportunity to sell some of an angel shareholding via a ‘secondary’ transaction – i.e. selling some shares to another investor. This investment was made under EIS, so is tax free. It’s the equivalent of a few months’ worth of my interest charges, so it’s welcome, but not needle-moving. There are precious few exits / liquidity opportunities in the private/angel world at the moment, which was a factor in deciding to take up the offer to partially offload. For more insight into my psychology check out my recent blog post on Feeling Broke.

I finish the month underweight cash (/overweight margin loan), a bit overweight US equities and underweight international equities. This is a pretty familiar posture.