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’ve been busy in the last few months. I’ve bought a house, and to support this I’ve dramatically restructured by investment portfolio. And I’ve never been more grateful for Limit Orders.
As most of my readers will already know, a Limit Order is an order to buy or sell a particular asset (usually a company’s shares, or an ETF) only when the price reaches a particular point before a deadline.
The alternative to a Limit Order is a Market order, which means to buy/sell that asset right now, at the current market price.
A Limit Order means to buy/sell only provided a price condition is met. By definition this condition might take some time to occur, or may never occur, and hence you need to set a deadline. This deadline might be ‘next trading day’ or it could be several weeks away. In my experience brokers don’t like deadlines longer than about 3 months away.
In recent weeks, I have found myself using Limit Orders in five scenarios: Continue reading “In praise of Limit Orders”
So, it’s over. Both the month of February, and the process of buying the Dream Home. My portfolio is in a very different place from where it was on 1 December. It isn’t yet where I want it to be but it’s made a major transition already and hasn’t far to go to reach my new intended asset allocation.
You can see in the graph below the transition I’m trying to make. Essentially I am rebalancing away from the UK, and towards fixed income. My upweight on the USA is almost done, with the blue US exposure having increased from about 20% to about 35% of my exposure. My downweight on the UK and International has further to go. But I am struggling to switch from equities (74%, versus 66% ideally) to fixed income (~25%, versus ~33% hopefully). Thankfully in February this hasn’t affected me much, as we shall see.
FIRE v London 