2025 Review

 2025 Review

January 2026


2025

TLDR

What I got right

  • Beat #CGT benchmark again 
  • Reduced holdings count by 4 to 46
  • 4 positive quarters (a first)

What I got wrong

  • Not appreciating the huge momentum in commodities after adding last year and this
  • Underestimating the extent renewables' discounts would grow

Review

This has been a busy year in which we've been on holiday for around 16 weeks including a Machu Picchu trek the long way round via Choquequirao. This has been the first year of growth in all quarters, more a reflection of the strength of UK markets than anything I've pro-actively done. 


I was more than miffed to lose both #GACB and #BBGI having allocated large amounts for their dull and predictable income streams in our SIPPs. 

Asset Allocation

I chose to re-classify our growing holding in #POLN from debt (ex-#HONY) to equities given its more PE-like structure. Reducing holdings and taking a loss on the likes of #HGEN has helped cleanse the portfolios of minor holdings. My woeful track record on individual miners just needs a line drawing under it by timing the disposal of #CAML where I am at breakeven but expecting an uplift following Dr Copper. I much prefer the macro gains I've made with #BRWM and have trimmed this back a little to lock in some profits. I'm acutely aware that my last good year (+22% in 2021) was followed by (-10%) and I'm looking to retain more of this year's gains if possible.

My big takeaway from 2025 has really been my hunch that the Alternative Investment Trust sector is seriously holed below the waterline. Seeing NAV destruction on the scale I have from both big trusts in the case of #DGI9) and small in the case of #HGEN makes me very cynical on the whole governance environment around ITs. The blatant attempt to merge #HICL and #TRIG, both of which we have, was not in shareholders' interests either. I'm certainly not going to be using the sector going forward to gain access to illiquid asset classes with self-marked NAVs. I'll be looking at simpler-to-understand trusts and ETFs.


We still have significant cash and cash-like holdings of around 18%. As we approach a 10-week antipodes trip to visit family and friends, I'm ok with this both from a low but safe return and optionality perspective. It's cost me avoiding the perennially-high US CAPE ratio this past decade and I'm not going to chase it now, given the unpredictability of the current administration.



Holdings

Our SIPPs have surprisingly grown by the enhanced amount we've taken out to gift to kids out of "regular income" so their potential IHT headache hasn't really diminished, despite a 10-year term insurance plan. We're just gonna have to spend more I guess! We're now more than half-way from early retirement (age 54) to state pension age (61 this year) and are feeling more relaxed about spending money. So far this has only manifested for me in my photography hobby with a few upgrades but longer term we hope to use the kids' ISAs to allow them to help us buy a forever home with shared ownership. These ISAs are where we'll place the equity risk as we run our SIPPs down over the next decade. 




I moved a big chunk of the forced disposals of #BBGI and #GACB into Royal London Sterling Extra Yield bond fund. I struggle to find IT equivalents and feel fairly maxed on the likes of #MGCI, #SMIF, #RECI and #BIPS. Despite paying HL's fund charges, it's worth it for the sleep-at-night comfort of a large, well-run (by Eric Holt) fund and so an easy place to park a fair chunk of cash. I reduced #TFIF due to CDO concerns.
I felt disinclined to add to #JGGI and sold our small 5k holding but have kept some #GGRG although its competitor #TDGB looks interesting so this may well be where some cash goes on any pull backs.



Income

I'm overweight income, which I treat as automatic top-slicing (when it's not a yield trap!)
Our reported income at HL is skewed by the 16k payouts from #GACB which were really capital gains. Add back the interest and growth in money market funds and "yield" is around the predicted 76k.

Summary
Still some way to get the holdings count down to 40 but I feel that the current 46 are  manageable. Pleased that we've now got 9 holdings above 50k. I'm more than happy with the 2025 returns especially given how much YOLOing we've done this year. Other than money market, I've actively bought 23 times for the whole of the year, probably a record for me. 

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