Thoughts on the Investment Portfolio ...

In the last couple of years, it's fair to say we've experienced both good and bad periods of investment performance.

Today, the FTSE100 is hovering around 6,000 which is a year-to-date fall of 20%, but my combined portfolio return is 'only' down by 7.5%, so I suppose it's not doing too badly in the grand scheme of things.

Psychologically, it's best to think of losses in percentage terms because even 7.5% represents a shitload of the actual folding stuff !  

So what have we learnt ?


1)  Well, some holdings don't seem to contribute much to the portfolio under any circumstances :-

RCP.L was bought a few years ago as a 'defensive' holding, but despite its track record over longer time periods it hasn't done very much at all for my portfolio.  It doesn't throw off anything significant in terms of a dividend, it doesn't produce much of a capital gain during rising markets (fair enough) but it didn't provide downside protection during the recent sharp slump either, falling by almost the same amount as the markets. 

Although to be fair, it hasn't actually lost me money yet in nominal terms at least, it certainly hasn't displayed the more defensive qualities I'd expected in terms of holding onto at least some of its gains from the good times, which is my own fault for not sufficiently researching its composition.  I might as well have just kept the cash in the accounts for several years.

However, I'm keeping an eye on it now - when / if the markets return to some sort of normality, I'd expect RCP's price to have risen too, due to its equity components and maybe the re-establishment of a premium to its NAV (although that could take a long time for many of the stricken ITs).  I'll then probably sell out and either hold the proceeds as cash or re-invest in something like CGT.L.

The end of the world as we know it ?

Well, the stock markets around the world have certainly suffered a rout this week.

Last Friday, 21 February, the FTSE100 closed at 7,404.  It closed today at 6,581 representing a one-week fall of 11.1% and now dipping into 'correction' territory. 

run away, run away !!

Today's the last working day of the month, so as usual I've updated my combined portfolio spreadsheets and the summary doesn't make very pleasant reading.   And until Monday of this week, February had seemed quite a decent month !

My portfolio return for February was -4.1%, and is -5.0% since the beginning of the year.  It's holding up better than the FTSE100 but is still well down in absolute cash terms (this -4.1% is the biggest monthly fall I've encountered in the seven years since I started tracking everything properly - the previous worst month had been -4.0% in August 2015).

But isn't this slump in the equity markets exactly what we've all been waiting for, at least those of us still in the accumulation phase ? 

So, how best to capitalise on what could either be a time-limited buying opportunity or a razor-sharp falling knife ? 

Hard Landscaping in the Front Bed - Six on Saturday

Back in 2017, our neighbours gave us the outer ring sector stones from a brand new 2.7 metre (9') diameter paving circle - they'd only laid the two inner rings themselves in their back garden.  

I spotted the pieces being loaded into the boot of their car and asked what they intended to do with them, and they were actually going to take them to the tip !   These are cut from stone, not mould-formed in concrete, so I bet the full circle kit was very expensive and, of course, it being the outer ring they were discarding, they were throwing away around three-quarters of the weight of all the stone they'd paid for ...

Anyway, we managed to rescue them, and for the last couple of years these 24 sectors have formed a winding path across the length of the side bed (see also the satellite image on our garden layout post).

As with almost all our paving, the stones were simply laid loose onto levelled and compacted soil - no hardcore foundations or mortar bed fixings - because it's not the first time we've decided to relocate sections of paving.

the long and winding road, to the left...

And last week, we decided to move all these paving stones to the front bed and reconfigure them to their intended purpose, i.e. as a ring.  

From a different perspective - Six on Saturday

We're currently away on holiday in much warmer climes, but I regularly check out the old homestead via our IP video cameras.   These automatically capture still images every 30 seconds and also record video when motion is detected in certain areas.

One of these cameras is a pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) unit mounted on a tall pole above the apex of the first-floor extension gable, which can be controlled remotely over the internet and affords a panoramic view of the garden, so I took a few stills this morning and thought I'd join in again with the Six-on-Saturday crowd hosted by The Propagator.

Investment Review - December 2019

Welcome to this end of 2019 round-up of the investment portfolio.   I seem to be making a habit of reporting these quarterly reviews whilst on holiday - this year, we decided to take the first of our longer winter breaks around a week earlier than usual, so we're celebrating the New Year in the warmth and sunshine.

Anyway, here's the latest spreadsheet based on data from the early market closing time on 31 December 2019 :-

click on the table for a larger image ...

Annual Spending Review - 2019

Well, it's that time of year again.  Here's my regular review showing broadly where all the money was spent in 2019.   I'm posting this a few days earlier than usual, because we're off on our travels again very soon ...

car purchase costs included ....

click on the graphic for a larger image ...

In the Bleak Midwinter ... Six on Saturday

Well, the winter solstice is with us tomorrow and so things will shortly be on the up again.  Roll on the lighter evenings ...

I've been outside this week tidying up the gardens a little, sweeping up leaves and pulling up all the old annuals etc to start filling one of our new composter bays.

Despite the time of year, the garden's not looking too bad at all - we've plenty of evergreens that provide year-round interest - so I took a few photos and thought I'd join in again with the Six-on-Saturday brigade hosted by The Propagator.


1.  The parallel hedges to the west

In winter, when the deciduous hedge has lost its leaves, you can better see the extent of the growth on the parallel evergreen Cotoneaster Lacteus hedge planted in June 2017.  

This is intended to be an eight-foot high privacy screen and windbreak.  It's never been trimmed but probably now needs a slight haircut in the very early spring.

The hornbeams in the mixed native hedge behind tend to hold onto their browned leaves well into the winter, and maybe even until we get strong winds in the early spring.

click on any of the photos for a larger image ...

In the foreground is the evergreen New Zealand Holly (Olearia macrodonta) which has now established itself very well.