Why 2015/16 is the year of special dividends and how to find them

FIRE v London3 Comments

For the active UK investors amongst us, here is a short term strategy that could boost your returns in this tax year: position your portfolio for a bumper year of special dividends.

The UK government announced in July a significant tax hike on personal dividend taxes, taking effect in the next UK tax year (starting 5 April, for what are politely described as legacy reasons). This will increase wealthy investors’ dividend taxes by 7.5p in the pound. As this is a UK-only phenomenon, for the rest of this post I’m talking solely about UK companies.

Continue reading “Why 2015/16 is the year of special dividends and how to find them” →

What a mess this blog has got us into – my Aug ’15 investment returns

FIRE v London3 Comments

I started this blog barely three months ago, and no sooner have I started it than my portfolio has just seen two of the worst months since I started tracking it systematically over three years ago.  June saw my invested portfolio drop almost 4%; I had a partial rebound in July, but now August has seen me drop by 4.4%.  My annualised percentage over 2.5 years has dropped from 12% to 9.8%, my maximum drawdown (peak to trough) is now -6%, and my Sharpe ratio (a measure of return for a constant level of risk/volatility) has dropped from almost 2 to close to 1.  Maybe my new blog has jinxed the global markets….

… and if it has, maybe I should start another blog.

In fact I am pretty thrilled with August.  My invested portfolio is down 4.4%, yes, but in fact this is great news for two reasons.

Continue reading “What a mess this blog has got us into – my Aug ’15 investment returns” →

What have the Chinese ever done for us?

FIRE v London3 Comments

Reminders of that old Chinese curse – ‘may you live in interesting times’ – are filling the financial pages/blogs/chatosphere at the moment.  The consensus is that a fall by the Chinese stock market of over 30% is a massive sneeze, and when China (with 15% of the world economy) sneezes, the rest of us are due for a cold.  And yet, and yet, I don’t buy it.

Seeing FTSE-100 below 6000 and my portfolio page full of red ink (did you know that in China red means price increases?) is quite a jolt after months of very little turbulence in the UK/US stock markets.

Many better bloggers than me are adequately covering the key points – have a plan, stick to it, and if anything this correction is a buying opportunity.  So while I may be cursing that August is my lowest month for dividends, and my tradeable cash reserves are empty, there is nothing to see here so why not move on?

Continue reading “What have the Chinese ever done for us?” →