finance – Page 3 – FIRE v London

June 2025: Show times

2025-07-11 FIRE v LondonLeave a comment

I really want to stop mentioning Trump.

Even when he sends troops into LA, one of my favourite cities.

But when he launches 30kt bombs on Iran, it is very hard to avoid talking about him.

In the context of what Trump’s been up to, the welfare reform screw-ups by the Labour government seem almost laughably trivial. Even though they make my blood boil and, I think, will have more impact on our economy than Trump’s militarism will have on the USA’s.

We’ve had some lovely weather in June, with the lovely long evenings to enjoy too. I’ve had some memorable London experiences, including a visit to Parliament, some high altitude fun and two (very different) shows – one of which even saw me on stage in the Barbican Theatre! I’ve also had some fun on the coast – including a very memorable evening in Poole harbour.

Continue reading →

Swapping a rental property for a share portfolio

2025-06-222025-06-27 FIRE v London11 Comments

Having sold my London rental flat, what was I to do next?

I’ve paid the £20k+ transaction fees. I have paid off the mortgage. I set aside the amount to pay my Capital Gains Tax, a liability which needs to be settled within 60 days. I moved some of the remaining equity into other investments and portfolios.

However, one thing is missing. The property rental income. I used to use my property rental income to help pay for household costs; rent was received into my joint household account and was swallowed up there by miscellaneous household bills, cleaning costs, gardening expenses etc. Until I sold the flat, the flat’s service charge and occasional running costs would have come out of that account too. These days, only my Dream Home in London is paid for out of this account – I have opened a different account for the Coastal Folly which I run separately (and is funded separately).

So, I decided to ringfence £500k of the equity that I released for a ‘property proxy’ portfolio. This portfolio will be a worked example of the argument that a stocks/bonds portfolio can be a valid, and better, alternative to a property investment. I will report on progress occasionally on this blog. The portfolio will essentially be an income portfolio, designed for somebody is used to having regular property rental income coming in, and wanting inflation protection.

Continue reading →

April 2025 – balmy weather, barmy markets

2025-05-242025-05-24 FIRE v London4 Comments

Better late than never, I’m doing a quick update on April. More for the record than because anything particularly notable happened in the portfolio, ignoring the mid month gyrations.

It was a lovely month, April. I did a bit of travelling, but the UK had generally lovely spring weather – as the photos illustrate. I find a consequence of having both the Dream Home in London, and the Coastal Folly is that when the weather is lovely I can really begrudge being in London – a relatively new feeling for me I must admit.

*How did a non-London city picture get into this blog?*

As I write this, it’s almost the end of May, so rambling around April market performance doesn’t feel like it’s going to be of much interest to anybody. In fact with a week of May to go, the S&P has recovered from the Trump TariFFS episode. The key point is that Trump announced a u turn / 90 day pause in his tariff plan, which the markets took as a reason to return to normal. Go figure. Since when has Very Bad News in 90 days’ time been discounted away to practically zero?

Continue reading →