Newsletter – April 2024

• Share Prices Rising
• My Portfolio Returned 15% Net in 10 Months
• Rebalancing the Portfolio in May
• New Portfolios Very Soon
• Interest & Tax on Investment Account
• Should You Worry About “Corporate Action” Notices?
• WTF (What’s the Fact?) – The Rabbit in the Room
• Performance & Costs

Share Prices Rising
The demand for and, therefore, prices of company shares have been rising in recent months as inflation comes down and investors anticipate lower interest rates which reduces their mortgage and other bills.

The UK still faces major challenges with a ruptured political environment, as well as higher import and export costs. Nonetheless, things are beginning to look better than they have for a few years.

My Portfolios Returned 15% Net in 10 Months
This global optimism has boosted the value of my example portfolio. After just 10 months, it has grown by 15% (AFTER all costs and fees). This fast growth cannot be sustained indefinitely; there will be ups and downs in value over the short-term. I’m ready for that and won’t panic when it happens. I’ll just keep adding to my investments and, once a year, make sure the allocations are still closely copying my model portfolio.

Rebalancing the Portfolio in May
That’s another way of saying “rebalancing”, which is what I’ll be doing in May. I’ll share that process with you, so watch this space.

New Portfolios Very Soon
I’m also going to be setting up some more example portfolios with my own money so that you can see how a broader range of cleverly set up portfolios are actually performing. These will cover different levels of risk, different amounts to invest, and on different platforms or investment websites that pass my tests.

Interest & Tax On Investment Account
My demonstration portfolio (the one with 15% net return so far) is earning interest on the cash that’s not invested. I don’t include that extra money in my calculations because it confuses the issue.

That interest payment also get taxed. So if you have uninvested cash in your investment account and are receiving interest payments on that cash, don’t be surprised to see a tax charge even if the investment account you have is a SIPP or an ISA.

Should You Worry About “Corporate Action” Notices?
I’ve received a few “Corporate Action Notices” from the investment websites through which I invest. These are usually boring admin notifications such as changes of fund names.

If it’s something important, such as a fund being closed, then I’d just look down my list of funds that passed my test to find the next-cheapest one available on that investment website and move my money into that.

WTF (What’s the Fact?) – The Rabbit In The Room
Jonathan Gullis, Conservative Party Deputy Chairman, was on Sky News trying to steer the conversation in his favour. He did this by drawing attention to the “one big rabbit” in the room.

He meant “elephant”.

Or did he?

Performance & Costs
My portfolio to date: +16.38% gross/+14.96% net (after costs). 
UK Industry average (3,999 firms across 2023) +2.82% gross.