Tag: portfolio returns

July ’26: An IPO, and France

FIRE v London5 Comments

It feels as if the World Cup was ages ago, already. Yet only a few weeks ago, I was gripped. And for once I thought England had a world-class side…. but hey ho, football hasn’t come home for another four years.

I had a road trip through France in July, which was lovely. I am pleased to report that the infrastructure for charging electric cars in France is considerably ahead of what we have in the UK – not least because of the EU rule that you have to be able to just ‘pay as you go’ with a credit card, without signing up to some irritating app.

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June ’26: Is zero tax worth the hassle?

FIRE v London2 Comments

Monaco

I was lucky enough to go to Monaco for the F1 in June.

Something I feel quite strongly about and have written about before on this blog is how strong the monkey brain wiring is for us all to peg ourselves off the next rung up on the ladder. No matter how high up on the ladder we are ourselves, we instinctively compare ourselves to people who are ‘above’ us – i.e. “I’m not that rich, because I am not as rich as [X]”. I’ve argued before that we all know somebody doing 2x as well as us.

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Mar ’26: Iran clobbers markets

FIRE v London1 Comment

In March the rain stopped. We started March with North London already having seen 2x its usual rainfall for this point in the year. And thankfully in the middle of March, it stopped. As I write this I have actually needed to start watering the garden, something that felt a very remote prospect a month ago.

I’ve had quite a bit of travel in March. Some travel to the south coast. And some travel to the Alps.

Meanwhile out in the wider world, the US and Israel have been hard at Iran. I’m not going to comment on this madness except for what it’s done to the markets.

Markets in March

The market most impacted by the Iran war is the energy market. Diesel prices are up sharply; jet fuel is in short supply, and regular unleader is up significantly too. Americans, with lightly taxed fuel, are seeing a sharper increase (there is some justice in the world). Here in the UK unleaded has gone from c.£1.37/ltr to £1.57/ltr; this is a spike but not the end of days.

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