Investing

Post about boosting your funds through investment. Includes both traditional and non-traditional investment opportunities.

August 3, 2021

My Coronavirus Crisis Experience – August 2021 Update

Nick Investing, Everything Else events 6 Comments

Another month has passed, so it’s time for another Coronavirus Crisis Update. Regular readers will know I’ve been posting these since the first lockdown started in March 2020 (you can read my July 2021 update here if you like).

As ever, I will begin by discussing financial matters and then life more generally over the last few weeks.

Financial

I’ll begin as usual with my Nutmeg stocks and shares ISA, as I know many of you like to hear what is happening with this.

As the screenshot below shows, the value of my main portfolio remained pretty steady in July. It is currently valued at £21,015. Last month it stood at £21,045, so that is a slight drop of £30.

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second pot using Nutmeg’s new Smart Alpha option. This pot is now worth £2,625, compared with £2,635 last month, so a small decrease again. Here is a screen capture showing performance in July 2021.

Although it’s a little disappointing both portfolios are down slightly, over the last six months (and longer) both are still well up overall, so I’m certainly not going to lose any sleep over this. This is a long-term investment and some ups and downs are to be expected. In 2021 the overall trend has been mainly upwards, so I hope and expect this to be resumed soon.

You can read my full Nutmeg review here (including a special offer at the end for PAS readers). If you are still looking for a home for your 2021/22 ISA allowance, based on my experience they are certainly worth considering.

If you haven’t yet seen it, check out also my recent blog post in which I looked at the performance of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 (my main port is level 9). I was actually amazed by the difference the risk level you choose makes.

.As regular readers will know, this year I am using Assetz Exchange for my IFISA. This is a P2P property investment platform that focuses on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing on long leases). I put £100 into this in mid-February and another £400 in April. Touch wood, everything has been going well, so in June I added another £500, bringing my total investment on the platform up to £1,000.

Since I opened my account, my portfolio has generated £11.57 in revenue from rental and £52.29 in capital growth, for a total return of £63.86. Here is my current statement:

As I said last time, to a degree Assetz Exchange has been a victim of its own success. They have had a big influx of new members, meaning all available investments were quickly snapped up. At the same time, some of the new projects that were due to launch were delayed. As a result I still haven’t invested all the money in my holding account. One new project did come on stream last week, so I put £100 into that.

My colleagues at Assetz Exchange assure me that more new projects are coming very soon. They are also limiting how much members can invest in the first few weeks of any new launch, so that everyone has a fair chance to purchase shares. And as time goes on more members may opt to offer their shares for sale on the exchange, opening up additional buying opportunities.

I am investing relatively modest amounts in new projects as they come onto the platform, so I don’t therefore put more than around £100 into any one project. As you can see, I already have a well-diversified portfolio comprising 20 different projects. This is a particular attraction of Assetz Exchange in my view. You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.

As mentioned above, my investment on Assetz Exchange is in the form of an IFISA so there won’t be any tax to pay on profits, dividends or capital gains. I’ve been impressed by my experiences with Assetz Exchange and the returns generated so far, and intend to continue investing with them. You can read my full review of Assetz Exchange here if you like. You can also sign up for an account on Assetz Exchange directly via this link [affiliate].

I haven’t mentioned my trial investment on European loan crowdfunding platform Nibble for a while, so thought I should remedy that this month. This has been proceeding without any issues and my initial test investment of 20 euros has accrued income of 0.65 euros, corresponding to an annual interest rate of 9.7 percent (see screen capture below).

I get weekly updates from Nibble confirming how much interest has been added to my portfolio. Based on my experiences to date I am considering investing a more substantial sum with them soon. My full review of Nibble can be found here.

Finally, in July 2021 two more PAS readers signed up with the low-key sideline-earning opportunity mentioned in previous updates. They will have received their initial £100 reward payments about now. I still have a few more invitations available if anyone else would like to take advantage.

This opportunity is based on matched betting, a sideline I have been pursuing for several years myself. I was asked not to divulge too many details about it publicly, for good reasons I will explain privately to anyone who may be interested (and no, it’s not illegal!). It doesn’t require any financial outlay and is risk-free and entirely hands-off (once you have set up your account). No knowledge of betting is required and you don’t have to place any bets yourself (this is all done by the company’s clever software). You just have to set up a separate bank account for bets to go through, but running the account is entirely financed by the company.

The company has changed its terms somewhat for new members. You now get a larger £!00 initial reward payment once your account is up and running, and then £25 every month you remain a member. I think this is a good move personally, as setting up the account does involve a little work on your part (though it’s certainly not rocket science). So the £100 in effect compensates you for your time, and once it’s done you continue to get £25 a month for no effort at all. The company is constantly developing its offering, partly in response to feedback from PAS readers. They recently launched a new mobile-friendly website to make it even easier for new members to sign up (once you’re up and running you shouldn’t need to use the website at all). They also recently incorporated an Open Banking app so that members don’t have to provide their online banking info to the company, as some people were concerned about this.

Please note that this opportunity is only open to honest, trustworthy people who haven’t done matched betting before and have no more than two accounts already with online bookmakers. For more information (and to receive a no-obligation invitation) drop me a line including your email address via my Contact Me page. And yes, I will receive a reward for introducing you, but this will not affect the service or the rewards you receive.

Finally, in the interests of full transparency, I should say that if you do matched betting yourself, you may be able to make more money than what is being offered by the company. However, you will have to research the techniques in detail, place all bets yourself, and probably subscribe to a matched betting advisory service such as Profit Accumulator [affiliate link]. This opportunity is really for those who want an easy way to make some extra money without the hassle (or expense) of learning/applying matched-betting methods themselves.

Personal

The big news in July – in England at any rate – was that so-called Freedom Day took place as promised on 19th July 2021. Most of the legal restrictions on our lives, including mandatory masks and social distancing, were lifted from that date.

Since then – to the surprise of many experts and pundits (though not me) – new case numbers have been falling steadily week on week. Hospitalizations and deaths were slower to fall, but are now starting to follow the same path.

It is of course far too soon to say that the pandemic is over – and Covid is, in any event, likely to remain with us in some form for the foreseeable future. But it is all very encouraging, especially in the face of predictions from doom-mongers such as Professor Neil Ferguson that daily case numbers could reach 100,000 or even 200,000 as a result of restrictions easing.

In my view it is now high time we got back to something close to normal life and learned to live with the virus. But while out and about I notice that people generally are still being ultra-cautious. That is particularly the case in shops and supermarkets, where I should say that four out of five people are still wearing masks (though the numbers without are slowly increasing). On trains I would say it is about two in three, though on a couple of occasions when I travelled in the evening recently (after 7 pm) mask-wearers were in a minority.

I don’t use buses so can’t comment about them. At my local gym and swimming pool, however, almost nobody is wearing a mask now. Assuming that the numbers keep going in the right direction, I hope that more people will find the confidence to ditch the masks. It is wonderful to be able to see smiles and happy faces again after all this time!

In July I took a rail trip to Swindon to visit my old friend Jeff, who at the start of this year moved to Wiltshire. Unfortunately we chose what was probably the hottest day of the year. The whole round trip involved seven trains from three different train companies. So I can report that by far the best company for aircon, wifi, drinks/snacks service, and general all-round comfort, was Great Western Trains. Second were Cross Country, and last were West Midlands Railway. I travelled on three WMR trains in total and I don’t believe any of them had working aircon (one seemed to have the heating turned on despite the fact that the temperature outside was over 30). WMR had also by far the worst wifi, something I’ve experienced on many occasions before. I think West Midlands Mayor Andy Street should be turning his attention to improving this service rather than indulging in virtue-signalling gestures like offering passengers free masks. That aside, I did of course enjoy seeing Jeff again and also visiting Swindon for the first time. I would happily go back there, but hopefully on a cooler day!

As I said last time, I recently subscribed to Britbox and have been making good use of this. I really enjoyed watching all three series of the original House of Cards trilogy featuring Ian Richardson. I remembered the original series the best, but thought the second series (To Play the King) was equally good. I didn’t like the last series (The Final Cut) quite as much. It was never going to be quite the same without Michael Kitchen or Colin Jeavons, and I thought the ending was a bit of a let-down. But if you haven’t seen them before, I highly recommend watching all three.

Last week Britbox added Dennis Potter’s Lipstick on Your Collar (see image below) to their platform. I am very much enjoying watching this again almost 30 years since it first aired. I am a huge fan of Dennis Potter’s work and think he is probably our greatest-ever TV writer. His masterpiece was undoubtedly The Singing Detective, but Lipstick on Your Collar runs it pretty close. As with The Singing Detective, the series intersperses the action with lip-synched musical numbers, in this case classic 1950s rock ‘n’ roll. It has drama, comedy, great characters and some amazing music. What more could you possibly want?!

As I mentioned last time, now that Freedom Day has happened, this will be my last Coronavirus Crisis Update. I plan to continue with my monthly investment updates, and will also do more personal/general ones as and when the occasion arises.

I do hope you have enjoyed these monthly updates and found them of value. I have enjoyed writing them, and find it interesting looking back over them now as a sort of diary of the pandemic. I have listed them all below for convenience.

If you have any comments or questions about this post, as always, please do leave them below.

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

What's the Difference Between Income and Accumulation Funds?

July 19, 2021

What Is the Difference Between Income and Accumulation Funds?

Nick Investing pensions, retirement 4 Comments

If you invest in funds rather than individual stocks and shares, you’ll almost certainly know that in many cases you can choose between two options, income or accumulation. Today I thought I’d explain what this difference is and share a few thoughts on the subject. I will be referring to my own experiences in this regard.

But to start by answering the question in the title, the difference between income and accumulation Funds is basically as follows:

Income Funds pay any income generated by your investments as, well, income. The money will appear in your account ready for you to withdraw (or reinvest). Or it may simply be paid directly into your bank account if you prefer.

Accumulation Funds, on the other hand, use any income generated by your investments to buy more units in the fund concerned. Your holding in an accumulation fund (and its value) should therefore build over time. But you won’t typically receive any income from the fund.

You might therefore think that if you want to draw an income from your investment, an income fund is the way to go. In practice it’s not as simple as that, though. For one thing, if you want to withdraw money from an accumulation fund, you always have the option to sell some of your holding, and there can be significant advantages to proceeding this way.

I will discuss this in more detail below, focusing on my personal pension as an example. Of course, everyone’s circumstances are different, so the decisions I took (and am still taking) may not be right for you. But I hope it will give you food for thought.

Why My SIPP is Mostly in Accumulation Funds

Regular readers will know that for some years I saved for my pension in the form of a SIPP (Self Invested Personal Pension). I use the Bestinvest platform for this and have always researched and chosen my investments myself. My SIPP currently has 14 funds in it. You can see a screen capture below.

As you can see, most of these are accumulation (Acc) funds with a couple of income (Inc) funds. While I was building my pot it seemed sensible to put most of my money into accumulation funds.

I am not by any stretch claiming that this is a ‘model portfolio’ that anyone else should emulate. I picked these funds based on recommendations I read in the press (and online) at the time, and there may well be better options now. I aimed to diversify as broadly as possible across different market sectors, geographical areas, investment types, and so on.

I put my SIPP into drawdown three years ago and now take £200 a month from it. I did consider switching to income funds at that time, but after careful thought (and research) decided against this.

The small number of income funds in my portfolio don’t typically generate enough to cover my monthly withdrawals. So each month I log in to my online dashboard and sell the necessary amount from whatever fund I pick that month. I must admit there is nothing very scientific about this. I typically just sell from funds I already have large holdings in.

Obviously having to do this every month is a minor hassle. However, in my view it has advantages as well. If you hold mainly income funds, the money they generate will vary from month to month. Sometimes there might not be enough to cover your monthly drawings, meaning you would still have to sell some funds anyway. Conversely, there might be months when more income is generated than you need, so you would end up with ‘spare’ money sitting in your account and not working for you.

Overall, then, I like having my SIPP money in accumulation funds because each month I can sell enough to cover my drawings that month, no more and no less. All the rest of the income that is generated by my accumulation funds is automatically reinvested.

Interestingly, despite the fact that my annual withdrawals amount to almost 6% of the value of my portfolio, the overall value of my SIPP has continued to grow since I put it into drawdown three years ago (see graph below). I am not convinced that would be the case if I had switched to income funds across the board.

The standard advice is that you should withdraw no more than 4% of your portfolio each year to try to preserve its value. I have actually been taking nearly 50% more than that in the middle of a pandemic, and yet the overall value has still gone up by almost £4,000 in the last year alone. Obviously past performance is no guarantee of what may happen in future, but it is certainly food for thought.

Further Thoughts

Of course, pension funds aren’t the only sort of investment where this applies. You could, for example, be investing in a tax-free ISA, and again face the choice between income and accumulation funds. If you are aiming to build a pot, there is (of course) a strong argument for going with accumulation funds. But even if you want an income, the arguments above on behalf of accumulation funds still apply.

One further consideration is tax. If you are investing via a SIPP or ISA (or some other tax-efficient wrapper) this obviously won’t be an issue. But if you’re investing outside one of these, you do need to be aware of the tax implications.

With an income fund it’s fairly straightforward. The money you receive will count as taxable income (or taxable dividends in some cases) and be taxed accordingly.

With an accumulation fund, it’s more complicated. The income that is rolled up and reinvested is known as a ‘notional distribution’ and you will still be liable to pay tax on it at the appropriate time. This is explained in more detail in this excellent article from Shares Magazine.

As I say, investing outside a tax-efficient wrapper can be complicated, especially with accumulation funds. I would therefore recommend taking professional advice if you find yourself in this position. Ideally, though, ensure all your money is invested within a tax-free wrapper (SIPP, ISA, etc.). You won’t then have to worry about tax at all!

I hope you have found this post of interest. Whether you agree or disagree with my approach, I’d love to hear from you. Please leave any comments or questions below as usual.

Disclaimer: I am not a qualified financial adviser and nothing in this article should be construed as personal financial advice. All investment carries a risk of loss. You should always do your own ‘due diligence’ before investing, and seek professional advice if in any doubt before proceeding.

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July 7, 2021

My Coronavirus Crisis Experience – July 2021 Update

Nick Investing, Everything Else events 4 Comments

As ever, I will begin by discussing financial matters and then life more generally over the last few weeks.

Financial

I’ll begin as usual with my Nutmeg stocks and shares ISA, as I know many of you like to hear what is happening with this.

As the screenshot below shows, my main portfolio performed pretty well in June. It is currently valued at £21,045. Last month it stood at £20,435, so overall it has gone up by £610. I am happy with that, obviously.

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second pot using Nutmeg’s new Smart Alpha option. I added another £500 to this in June, bringing the total invested to £2,500. This pot is now worth £2,635, compared with £2,060 last month. Disregarding the extra £500 investment, this pot is therefore now £135 in profit compared with £60 a month ago, an increase of £75. So again I am quite happy with that. Here is a screen capture showing performance in June 2021. As you will see, my £500 investment was credited to the account on 20 June 2021.

You can read my full Nutmeg review here (including a special offer at the end for PAS readers). If you are looking for a home for your 2021/22 ISA allowance, based on my experience they are certainly worth considering.

If you haven’t yet seen it, check out also my recent blog post in which I looked at the performance of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 (my main port is level 9). I was actually amazed by the difference the risk level you choose makes.

Regular readers will know that this year I am using Assetz Exchange for my IFISA. This is a P2P property investment platform that focuses on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing on long leases). I put £100 into this in mid-February and another £400 in April. Touch wood, everything has been going well, so in June I added another £500, bringing my total investment on the platform up to £1,000.

Since I opened my account, my portfolio has generated £8.38 in revenue from rental and £58.61 in capital growth, for a total return of £66.99. Here’s my current statement in case you’re interested:

The eagle-eyed among you may notice that although I have now put £1,000 into Assetz Exchange, only just over £800 of investments are listed above. The balance is still in my account waiting to be invested. The truth is that Assetz Exchange has been, to a degree, a victim of its own success. Over the last few weeks (my contacts at AE tell me) they have had a big influx of new members and all available investments are being quickly snapped up. New projects are coming on stream all the time, however, and AE are limiting how much members can invest in the first few weeks so that everyone has a fair chance to purchase a share. And as time goes on more members may opt to offer their shares for sale on the exchange, opening up additional opportunities for would-be buyers.

I am investing relatively modest amounts in new projects as they come onto the platform and expect to be fully invested by the end of this month. Indeed, I could be already if I chose, but I am following my strategy of diversifying as widely as possible, so don’t invest more than around £100 in any one project. As you can see, I already have a well-diversified portfolio with 19 different projects. This is a particular attraction of Assetz Exchange in my view. You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.

Lastly in this section, I wanted to say that the low-key sideline-earning opportunity I have mentioned in previous updates has reopened for new members, with slightly different terms (see below). About a dozen PAS readers (including my sister Annie) have already signed up to this and are enjoying a hassle-free monthly sideline income.

The opportunity is based on matched betting, a sideline I have been pursuing for several years myself. I was asked not to divulge too many details about it publicly, for good reasons I will explain privately to anyone who may be interested (and no, it’s not illegal!). It doesn’t require any financial outlay and is risk-free and entirely hands-off (once you have set up your account). No knowledge of betting is required and you don’t have to place any bets yourself (this is all done by the company’s clever software). You just have to set up a separate bank account for bets to go through, but running the account is entirely financed by the company.

As I said above, the company has changed its terms somewhat for new members. You now get a larger £!00 initial payment once your account is up and running, and then £25 every month you remain a member. I think this is a good move personally, as setting up the account does involve a little work on your part (though it’s certainly not rocket science). So the £100 in effect compensates you for that, and once it’s done you continue to get £25 a month for no effort at all. As a matter of interest, the company is constantly developing its offering and just about to launch a new mobile-friendly site to make it even easier for new members to sign up (once you’re up and running you shouldn’t need to use the website at all),

Finally, in the interests of full transparency, I should say that if you do matched betting yourself, you may be able to make more money than what is being offered by the company. However, you will have to research this in detail, place all bets yourself, and probably subscribe to a matched betting advisory service such as Profit Accumulator [affiliate link]. This opportunity is really for those who want an easy way to make some extra money without the hassle (or expense) of learning/applying matched-betting methods themselves.

Personal

Of course, the big news this week is that so-called Freedom Day is set to happen on 19th July 2021. Most of the legal restrictions on our lives, including mandatory masks and social distancing, are set to be lifted then.

Regular readers of this blog (and my social media) may not be surprised to hear that I’m in favour of this. Indeed, I think it should already have happened. In particular, I am glad that the mask mandate is being scrapped and the decision to wear one (or not) will be left to individuals. Unsurprisingly this decision has caused some controversy, but personally I have always felt that the harms of masks to people’s physical and mental health greatly outweigh any potential benefits. And despite much hot air being expended on the subject, the evidence they do anything to reduce transmission of the virus in real world settings is – as England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer has admitted – weak at best.

I also regularly see misuse of masks and other face coverings, which in my view makes them a hazard to both the wearer and those around them. That includes masks being endlessly re-used and kept in pockets and handbags when not required. I have lost count of the number of people I see in shops fiddling with their masks and then touching products on the shelves, potentially passing the virus on. It doesn’t surprise me at all that those US states which stopped mandating masks months ago have all seen dramatic drops in case numbers. There is every chance the same thing will happen here.

And then of course there is the small matter of the billions of tons of plastic pollution from masks (including particles of potentially carcinogenic microplastics) clogging up our oceans and littering our pavements, roads and countryside.

So, as you may imagine, I do not intend to continue wearing a mask or any other form of face covering after the 19th. Even if they worked, which I highly doubt, the benefits are extremely marginal (one study estimated that if infection levels are relatively low, 200,000 people would need to wear a mask to prevent ONE case of the virus being transmitted – and that figure optimistically assumes that masks reduce the risk of transmission by 40%). I have no objection at all to other people continuing to wear masks if it gives them reassurance (or a sense of moral superiority). But even though I am 65 and suffer from a long-term lung condition, I absolutely don’t want or expect anybody to wear one for my supposed benefit.

Moving on, I have just returned from a short break in Llanbedrog in North Wales. I won’t say too much about this now, as I plan to write a separate blog post about it soon. But it was a relaxing and restorative break and I felt much better for it. I stayed in this Airbnb apartment (you can read my post about booking a holday with Airbnb here if you like). I had never been to Llanbedrog before but would definitely like to return before too long. There is a picture of the beach and headland (which I climbed) in the cover image.

Also in June I met up with various friends I hadn’t seen for some time for pub lunches and other social events. I am doing more driving now, and noticing increasing amounts of traffic on the roads. Also, sad to say, I am seeing some very poor driving, including one collision (which thankfully didn’t involve me). I suspect many people have got out of practice at driving during lockdown, so please do be extra careful out there 😮

On the entertainment front, I finally got around to subscribing to Britbox in June. They had a special offer of one month free followed by three months at half price and I decided that was too good to ignore (I think that offer is closed now – sorry).

I haven’t really used it much yet, but have enjoyed watching (or re-watching) some old episodes of The Avengers with Diana Rigg and Patrick Macnee (pictured above). Last night I watched The House That Jack Built, one of the all-time classic episodes (even though it’s in black and white).

I am also planning to watch some of the original Doctor Who stories, and the three series of the political drama House of Cards featuring the inimitable Ian Richardson (“You might very well think that; I couldn’t possibly comment”). I understand that Britbox also have Dennis Potter’s Lipstick on My Collar coming up shortly and am looking forward to watching that too.

Whether I will stick with Britbox once my trial offer is over I am not sure. The big attraction for me is the classic series. While they do have some new material on offer as well, there isn’t much that has really piqued my interest. Still, I have four months before I need to decide about that 🙂

I plan to do one further Coronavirus Crisis Update next month. Assuming Freedom Day does go ahead on 19th July as planned, I think that will be a suitable point to stop. I will probably continue with monthly investment updates, and may also do more personal/general ones as and when the occasion arises.

As always, I hope you are staying safe and sane during these challenging times. If you have any comments or questions, please do post them below.

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

June 2, 2021

My Coronavirus Crisis Experience: June 2021 Update

Nick Investing, Everything Else events 4 Comments

Another month has gone by, so it’s time for another of my Coronavirus Crisis Updates. Regular readers will know I’ve been posting these since the first lockdown started in March 2020 (you can read my May 2021 update here if you like).

As ever, I will begin by discussing financial matters and then life more generally over the last few weeks.

Financial

I’ll begin as usual with my Nutmeg stocks and shares ISA, as I know many of you like to hear what is happening with this.

As the screenshot below shows, my main portfolio has been on a roller-coaster ride in May. It is currently valued at £20,435. Last month it stood at £20,430, so overall it has gone up by the princely sum of five pounds! Since 20th May it has been on an upward trajectory, so clearly I hope that trend continues 🙂

Apart from my main portfolio, six months ago I put £1,000 into a second pot to try out Nutmeg’s new Smart Alpha option. This did pretty well, so in April I added another £1,000 from some money returned to me from another investment. This pot is now worth £2,060 (£7 down on last month’s figure). Here is a screen capture showing performance in May 2021.

I updated my full Nutmeg review recently and you can read the latest version here (including a special offer at the end for PAS readers). If you are looking for a home for your new 2021/22 ISA allowance, based on my experience they are certainly worth considering.

If you haven’t yet seen it, check out also my recent blog post in which I looked at the performance of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 (my main port is level 9). I was truly amazed by the difference the risk level you choose makes.

This year I am using Assetz Exchange for my IFISA. This is a P2P property investment platform that focuses on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing on long leases). I put £100 into this in mid-February and another £400 in April. Since then my portfolio has generated £5.59 in revenue received from rental and £2.54 in capital growth for a total return of £8.13. Here’s my current statement in case you’re interested:

As you can see, even though I have only invested £500, I already have a well-diversified portfolio with 17 different projects. This is a particular attraction of Assetz Exchange in my view. You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously!

In May several of the loans I invested in with the P2P property investment platform Kuflink were repaid (with interest) and I duly reinvested the money in other loans.

I have a well-diversified portfolio of loans with Kuflink paying annual interest rates of 6 to 7.5 percent. These days I invest no more than £200 per loan (and often £100 or less). That is not because of any issues with Kuflink but more to do with losses of larger amounts on other P2P property platforms (such as this one). My days of putting four-figure sums into any single property investment are definitely behind me now!

You can read my full Kuflink review here. They recently passed the milestone of £100 million loaned, and say that since their launch no investor has lost money with them. They offer a variety of investment options, including a tax-free IFISA paying up to 7% interest per year, with built-in automatic diversification. And I’d particularly draw your attention to their revised and more generous cashback offer for new investors. They are now paying cashback on new investments from as little as £500 (it used to be £1,000). And if you are looking to invest larger amounts, you can earn up to a maximum of £4,000 in cashback. That is one of the best cashback offers I have seen anywhere (though admittedly you will need to invest £100,000 or more to receive that!).

Moving on, if you haven’t seen it yet, you might like to check out this eye-opening post about ‘how much is enough to retire on’ published on the PensionBee blog – I am quoted representing people in their 60s in this article!

You may also like to read my article on the Mouthy Money site in which I reveal why I am not a fan of premium bonds. I was recently hired as a regular contributor for Mouthy Money, so watch out for more articles from me there in the coming months. I also highly recommend reading the articles on the site by other contributors.

And finally, you can read my Q&A on the Lifeline24 blog, in which I talk about Pounds and Sense and share a few financial tips. Lifeline24 is a personal alarm service for older people and people with disabilities. If you’re interested, there is a code to get £10 off their already reasonably priced service at the end of the article. And no, I’m not getting any commission from them!

Personal

In May, as I’m sure you know, more of the government’s lockdown restrictions were eased. In particular, pubs and restaurants were allowed to open inside as well as out. Considering the monsoon-conditions that ensued after the outdoor reopening in April, that was a relief all round!

Last week I enjoyed my first pub lunch since the autumn at the Spread Eagle in Gailey, near Cannock. I met up with my old friend Liz, a former colleague from my days working at Wolverhampton University (the last ‘proper’ job I ever had). It was wonderful to see Liz again and in retrospect I hope I didn’t come across as too demob-happy! The food and service were both excellent. The pub was pretty quiet when we arrived at 12.30 but got busier later. There was still plenty of room inside and out, though.

Also in May I had my second Covid jab. For some reason I wasn’t able to book a slot at Whitemoor Lakes where I had my first jab, so this time I made my way to Great Wyrley Community Centre, another voyage of discovery for me. Everything went well, though bizarrely when I arrived a man at the door offered to ‘fast-track’ me if I took a lateral flow test (I declined). I had no side effects at all from this jab (the Oxford again), not even a sore arm. It is strange how people react so differently. I have friends who have had quite nasty reactions, though generally these lasted no more than a day or two. As for me, I have had (much) worse reactions from my annual flu jab.

With the better weather over the last week or two, I have resumed my habit of going for a breakfast walk. This is by far my favourite time of the day for walks, and I now have a good variety of routes to choose from around the local lanes. The photo in my cover image shows the beautiful Wisteria on Hope Cottage. This is about half a mile from where I live and features on many of my routes 🙂

Also in the last month I got back into the habit of reading again. I know many people say they read more during lockdown. However, I found that my concentration and attention-span were badly affected by the pandemic, so I more or less stopped reading for pleasure.

But in the last few weeks I’ve been feeling a bit more relaxed and that has helped me get back to reading, starting with some short books. Initially I picked up The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. Having enjoyed that I moved on to the follow-up novel, Tears of the Giraffe. which is also very good. I remember that these light-hearted books were made into a TV series a few years ago, so I am thinking of buying the DVD set now.

After that, I moved on to another short novel, The Mountains of Majipoor by US science-fiction/fantasy writer Robert Silverberg.

Silverberg wrote a series of novels set on the giant world of Majipoor. I read most of them around 30 years ago, but for some reason this is the one novel in the series I never got around to.

I did enjoy it, but if you have never read any of the Majipoor novels, I wouldn’t start with this one. The place to begin is undoubtedly Lord Valentine’s Castle, a tour de force of the imagination with a compelling storyline. As a matter of interest, Lord Valentine’s Castle inspired me with the desire to learn to juggle (if you read the book you’ll understand why). But sadly despite many hours of trying I proved to have zero aptitude for it! Here’s an image link (affiliate) to the Amazon UK sales page.

The novel I’m reading at the moment is The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. This is a longer science-fiction novel, which was recommended to me by Amazon as something I might enjoy.

Amazon recommendations can be hit or miss, of course, but I was very glad I acted on this one. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is a novel of great wit and charm, and I have been engrossed by it. It is mainly set on a small, commercial spaceship called The Wayfarer, whose job is to ‘tunnel’ wormholes in space. Becky does a brilliant job of bringing the ship and its (mostly) lovable multi-species crew to life.

The story is episodic – you could almost say picaresque – and told from the viewpoints of different crew members – from the reptilian pilot Sissix to the amiable alien chef/doctor called (quite reasonably) Dr Chef. There are some humans too, including the captain, Ashby, and the ship’s clerk and newest crew member, Rosemary Harper, who has a secret that is tearing her apart. There is plenty of humour and emotion alongside the science, so you definitely don’t need to be an SF aficionado to enjoy it. Anyway, I won’t rave on about it any more. If you want to find out more, here’s an image link (affiliate) to the Amazon sales page.

Finally on the subject of books, my nephew Steve (a semi-professional guitarist) has just published his first on Amazon. It’s called Crucial Guitar Basics and was written as a lockdown project. I had a very small input into it and my sister Annie rather more (she edited/proofread it). I’m no guitarist myself but thought it was a well-written and accessible introductory guide. Here’s an image link (affiliate) in case this might interest you. It’s available in both print and Kindle ebook form.

As I write this, the whole UK has just enjoyed its first day since March 2020 without a single Covid death. There is still some concern over the rise in cases of ‘The Indian Variant’, but so far these don’t appear to be causing a significant increase in hospitalizations or deaths. There is some speculation about whether the final stage of the PM’s ‘Roadmap to Recovery’ will take place on June 21st as promised. Personally I think it should, but in my view it’s more likely we will see a partial lifting of restrictions, with others retained for longer. I would particularly like to see an end to mandatory masks, as the evidence in favour of their use is weak (and many US states have done away with them for months now with no calamity ensuing). But we will see, I guess!

I hope that at some point soon I will be able to stop producing ‘Coronavirus Crisis Updates’ as normal life resumes. At that point, I may switch to creating monthly updates about my investments and maybe separate, more personal updates if anyone would be interested to read them. But I will definitely do at least one more full Coronavirus Crisis update next month.

As always, I hope you are staying safe and sane during these challenging times. If you have any comments or questions, please do post them below.

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May 26, 2021

What Is An IFISA And Why Might You Want One?

Nick Saving Money, Investing reviews, property 5 Comments

If you’re reading this post you will almost certainly know what an ISA is.

The term stands for Individual Savings Account. ISAs effectively serve as tax-free wrappers for various types of savings account. The two best-known types are the Cash ISA and the Stocks and Shares ISA.

You get an annual allowance for your ISA investments which currently stands at a generous £20,000 a year. Money saved in an ISA is permanently exempt from taxes such as income tax, dividends tax, capital gains tax, and so on.

So What Is An IFISA?

IFISAs are a lesser-known type of ISA that can be used for peer-to-peer (P2P) lending. They were launched in April 2016. After a slow start, the range available has grown steadily.

You can put any amount into an IFISA up to your annual ISA allowance. In the current 2021/22 tax year, as mentioned, this is £20,000. This can be divided however you choose between a cash ISA, a stocks and shares ISA, a Lifetime ISA (if eligible – you have to be under 40) and an IFISA. So, for example, you could invest £6,000 in a cash ISA, £10,000 in a stocks and shares ISA and £4,000 in an IFISA.

Note that under current rules you are only allowed to invest new money in one of each type of ISA in a tax year. It is though generally possible to transfer money from one type of ISA to another without it affecting your annual entitlement (although there may be platform fees to pay).

IFISAs vary considerably in the returns they offer. Annual rates range from from around 4% to 15%. Obviously, the higher rates reflect the higher levels of risk involved.

Although all IFISAs involve P2P lending, a number of different types are available. They may include lending for all the following purposes:

property development
business loans
personal loans
green energy projects
bonds and debentures
entertainment industry loans
infrastructure projects

What Are The Risks?

All UK IFISA providers have to be authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and HMRC. This doesn’t in itself protect lenders (or investors if you prefer) against the failure of a platform, however. While savers with UK banks and building societies are covered by the government’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which guarantees to reimburse up to £85,000 of losses, this does not generally apply to IFISA platforms.

All IFISA providers do offer various safeguards, though. These vary, but include provision funds to cover potential losses, insurance policies, and so forth. In many cases loans are made against the security of property or other assets, which in the worst case could be sold to pay off any debts.

Even so, IFISA investors don’t enjoy the same level of protection in the UK as bank savers. This is, of course, a major reason why the returns on offer are significantly higher. It’s therefore important to be aware of the risks and ensure you are comfortable with them before investing this way. It’s also important to lend across a range of platforms and loans, and not make the mistake of putting all your savings eggs into one P2P lending basket.

What Are The Attractions?

So why might you want an IFISA? There are several reasons.

One is that they offer the potential of much higher rates of return that ordinary (bank) savings accounts. Even the best of these are currently paying interest rates of under 1 percent. IFISAs typically pay several times more than that (though obviously at somewhat greater risk).

Another big attraction of an IFISA is that it provides a way of gaining extra diversification for your portfolio. As mentioned earlier, the law currently only allows you to invest in one type of stocks and shares ISA per year. This rather perverse rule actually makes it harder to diversify your investments. But you can have an IFISA as well as a stocks and shares ISA, so long as you don’t exceed your total £20,000 allowance. So having an IFISA gives you a way of diversifying your investments while keeping them all protected within a tax-free ISA wrapper.

And finally, IFISA investments are typically not tied to the performance of stock markets in the way a stocks and shares ISA would be. This is a different type of investment, with different risks and rewards. While an IFISA won’t provide a way of hedging your equity investments directly, it is likely to be less directly affected by short-term fluctuations in the markets.

Two IFISA Examples

Two IFISAs of which I have direct experience are offered by Kuflink and Assetz Exchange. Both of these platforms offer tax-free IFISA options. They are both based around property investing.

Kuflink – which I reviewed in this post – offers an automatically diversified IFISA comprising loans on property. They quote interest rates from 5% to 7%, depending how long you invest for. Your money is automatically diversified across a range of secured loans. The screen capture below from the Kuflink website sets out the main features of their IFISA.

One point to be aware of is that there is no ‘self-select’ option with the Kuflink IFISA. So you have no choice about which projects your money is invested in. But, of course, it does make investing in a Kuflink IFISA very quick and simple.

Kuflink are currently offering up to £4,000 in cashback for new investors via my link. Please see my full review for more information.

Assetz Exchange – which I reviewed in this post – has some similarities with Kuflink. But they concentrate on low-risk investments, typically with corporate clients (e.g. charities) on long leases. Here’s an example of the sort of investment I mean…

Assetz Exchange aims to offer net yields to investors of between 5.2 and 7.2% per year. One thing I especially like about them is that you can choose your own IFISA investments (indeed, they don’t currently offer an auto-select option). In addition, you can invest as little as 80 pence per project, making it easy to build a well-diversified portfolio even if you are only investing small amounts.

I am using Assetz Exchange for my 2021/22 IFISA, so here is a screen capture of my current portfolio for your interest. Note that while I have only invested £500 so far, I already have a well-diversified portfolio with 17 different investments!

Summing Up

If you are looking for a home for some of your savings that can offer better interest rates than banks and building societies and won’t incur any tax charges, an IFISA is certainly worth considering.

As well as the higher interest rates, they can add diversity to your investments, helping you ride out peaks and troughs in the financial markets.

Just be aware of the risks involved in P2P lending, diversify as widely as possible, and ensure you invest only as part of a well-balanced portfolio.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this blog post, please do leave them below.

Disclaimer: I am not a registered financial adviser and nothing in this post should be construed as personal financial advice. You should always do your own ‘due diligence’ before investing, and speak to a professional financial adviser/planner if in any doubt before proceeding. All investments carry a risk of loss.

This post (and others on Pounds and Sense) includes my referral links. If you click through and make a qualifying transaction, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect the products or services you receive or any fees you may be charged.

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May 14, 2021

How Much Difference Does Risk Level Make With Nutmeg Investments?

Nick Investing 10 Comments

Regular readers will know I’m a big fan of the Nutmeg robo-advisor investment platform.

You can read my full review of Nutmeg here. You can also see how my own Nutmeg stocks and shares portfolio has been performing over the last year or so in my monthly Coronavirus Crisis updates (here’s my latest May 2021 update).

Nutmeg Risk Levels

One of the many things I like about Nutmeg is that you can choose the risk level for your portfolio and any pot within it. In the case of a fully managed Stocks and Shares ISA such as mine, you can choose between risk levels of 1 (ultra low risk) and 10 (highest risk).

With other investment products and styles on Nutmeg, the scale may be different. For example, with a Smart Alpha portfolio, the risk range you can choose is between 1 and 5.

In the case of my main portfolio, I set the risk level near the top of the scale at 9/10 and have kept it there since I opened my account in April 2016. I felt I could afford to be bullish, as I don’t have any living descendants (my partner Jayne passed away a few years ago and we didn’t have children). And I didn’t have any particular purpose in mind for this portfolio, so was willing to take a few more chances with it.

As regular PAS readers will know, my Nutmeg ISA has performed very well for me. At the time of writing it is showing an overall profit of 57.71 percent, even after a tumultuous year due to Covid.

Recently, however, a reader named Kevin asked if I knew whether the high risk level I chose had any impact on my return, or whether I would have had a similar return with a lower risk level. It was a good question and one I hadn’t really looked into before, so I decided to check. I have to admit the results surprised me.

Researching Performance

For a fully managed Nutmeg stocks and shares portfolio like mine, the good news is you can can research performance yourself on this page of the Nutmeg website: Use the slider to set the risk level from 1 to 10 and you will be able to see the net returns for the risk level in question over a range of periods. Here are the figures for a 9/10 portfolio such as mine.

As you can see, for the five-year period to 30 April 2021, overall performance is quoted as +63.1%. That is slightly above the +57.71% currently showing for my portfolio over a similar (but not identical) period. There are various reasons why the figures may differ, notably that I added to my investment at various times over the last five years rather than investing one lump sum at the start. But the numbers are close enough to appear reasonable to me.

As you will see, even though this is a level 9 portfolio, in every year bar one (2018) it has produced a positive return. Anyone investing in a level 9 portfolio from Nutmeg’s launch in September 2012 will have seen the value of their portfolio more than double.

So What About Lower Risk Portfolios?

Obviously I am not going to reproduce the table above for every other risk level. Here though is a table showing the five-year performance of every fully managed Nutmeg stocks and shares portfolio from risk level 1 to 10.

Risk Level	5-Year Performance %
1	+1.7
2	+11.1
3	+17.2
4	+23.5
5	+31.2
6	+37.0
7	+47.4
8	+55.9
9	+63.1
10	+67.0

I hope you will agree this makes interesting reading. Over a five-year period, as you can see, risk level has made a huge difference to performance achieved. Anyone choosing risk level 1 will have seen a return of just 1.7% over that period. That looks poor to me – you would almost certainly have done better putting your money in an ordinary bank savings account. And there were actually two years – 2017 and 2018 – when the value of a level 1 portfolio went down. Okay, it was only by small amounts, but even so it is hard to see any good argument for opting for the lowest risk level .

By contrast, the higher up the risk scale you go, the bigger the returns have been. Yes, there has been more volatility, but even so over most time periods – and certainly when investing for at least five years – higher risk portfolios have significantly out-performed lower-risk ones.

Of course – as I always have to say – past performance is no guarantee of what happens in future. Even so, looking at these figures makes me glad I opted for a high risk level initially, and having done this analysis I intend to continue doing so. I may even raise my risk level to the maximum 10!

One other thing I should mention is that if you are thinking of withdrawing money from your Nutmeg account soon (in the next few months, say) there is then a strong case for reducing risk level. This should help protect your capital in the event of a downturn.

Nutmeg’s Flexible Options

As I said to Kevin – who has a level 6 portfolio – if you are happy with the returns you are getting from Nutmeg and increasing the risk might cause you sleepless nights, there is of course a case for not rocking the boat.

But if you want to test the water without risking too much, Nutmeg does offer a few options. For example, you could create a new ‘pot’ with a higher risk level to see how it compares going forward. You could use new money for this and/or transfer some of your existing pot over. You don’t have to switch your entire portfolio to a higher risk level if this would worry you.

You can also have pots with different investment styles. In my case, as well as my fully managed main portfolio, I have a small Smart Alpha portfolio (mentioned earlier). As discussed in this blog post, Smart Alpha portfolios are managed by J.P. Morgan’s Asset Management team. As well as allowing Nutmeg investors to tap into the expertise of this leading investment house, these portfolios are ESG integrated, meaning that environmental, social and corporate governance considerations are factored into every investment decision. These portfolios are therefore suitable for investors for whom ethical considerations are especially important.

You can have multiple pots with different risk levels and/or investment styles. You can also change risk levels or investment styles any time you like. Nutmeg does just caution about chopping and changing too often, as this can incur additional charges. But there is no reason you shouldn’t take advantage of the flexibility Nutmeg offers if your needs or circumstances change or you just want to try something different.

It’s also worth mentioning that you are only allowed to invest in one tax-free ISA of each type per year (stocks and shares ISA, IFISA, cash ISA, etc.). However, if you have a Nutmeg account, you can invest in as many different pots within that ISA as you wish (as long as you don’t exceed your total annual ISA allowance of £20,000). This can provide valuable diversification compared with putting all your money into one single investment product.

Conclusion

As I said above, I was genuinely surprised to see how big a difference risk level made to overall performance with a Nutmeg Fully Managed Stocks and Shares ISA. And obviously I’m glad I opted for a high risk level initially, as doing so has clearly paid off for me.

Of course, nobody knows what will happen in the months and years ahead. It is still possible that opting for a lower-risk portfolio could prove a good decision as we move into a post-pandemic world with all its uncertainties. But personally I hope to see a strong economic recovery and am willing to accept a reasonable degree of risk in order to capitalize on this. You might see this differently, of course. But I hope that at least comparing the historical performance of portfolios at different risk levels will help you decide how best to proceed, whether you’re new to Nutmeg or an existing investor.

Closing Thoughts

I am obviously a fan of Nutmeg and have a significant amount (by my standards!) invested with them. You can read my full review of Nutmeg here if you like..

Of course, I am not a qualified financial adviser and everyone should do their own ‘due diligence’ (and/or take professional advice) before deciding to invest. In addition, you shouldn’t consider investing with Nutmeg (or anyone else) unless you have paid off any interest-charging debts and have at least three months of easily-accessible savings in case of emergencies.

Based on my personal experiences with Nutmeg, though, I am happy to recommend them. They provide a simple, easy-to-understand investment platform, the customer service is excellent, and certainly in my case the results to date have exceeded my expectations.

If you have any comments or questions about this post or Nutmeg in general, please do leave them below.

Disclosure: This post includes referral links. if you click through and open an account with Nutmeg, I will receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect in any way the product or service you receive. Indeed, as mentioned above, it will entitle you to six months’ portfolio management entirely free of charge. All investments carry a risk of loss.

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May 4, 2021

My Coronavirus Crisis Experience: May 2021 Update

Nick Investing, Everything Else events, reviews, property, crowdfunding 5 Comments

Another month has passed, so it’s time for another of my Coronavirus Crisis Updates. Regular readers will know I’ve been posting these updates since the first lockdown started in March 2020 (you can read my April 2021 update here if you like).

As ever, I will begin by discussing financial matters and then life more generally over the last few weeks.

Financial

I’ll begin as usual with my Nutmeg stocks and shares ISA, as I know many of you like to hear what is happening with this.

As the screenshot below shows, the value of my main portfolio rose fairly steadily in the first half of April, after which it remained around the same level (apart from a brief dip around the 20th). It is currently valued at £20,430. Last month it stood at £20,078, so overall it has gone up by £352. I am happy enough with that.

Apart from my main portfolio, five months ago I put £1,000 into a second pot to try out Nutmeg’s new Smart Alpha option. This has done pretty well, so in April I added another £1,000 from some money returned to me by RateSetter (as discussed in last month’s update). This pot is now worth £2,067. Here is a screen capture showing performance in April.

I updated my full Nutmeg review in April and you can read the new version here (including a special offer at the end for PAS readers). If you are looking for a home for your new 2021/22 ISA allowance, based on my experience they are certainly worth a look.

I also added £400 (from RateSetter again) to my initial test investment of £100 with Assetz Exchange. As you may recall, Assetz Exchange is a P2P property investment platform that focuses on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing on long leases). I put £100 into this in mid-February and (as mentioned) another £400 in April. Since then my portfolio has generated £3.05 in revenue received from rental (equivalent to an annual interest rate of about 10% on my original £100 investment). Here’s my current statement in case you’re interested:

As you can see, even though I have only invested £500, I already have a well-diversified portfolio. This is a particular attraction of Assetz Exchange in my view. You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously!

You may also notice that some of the properties in my portfolio have gone up in value and some have gone down. This makes it a bit harder to judge overall performance compared with an equity-based investment like Nutmeg. The property values quoted by Assetz Exchange represent the best price you can sell at currently on the exchange, which is where all investments on AE are bought and sold. But they are only really relevant if you want to buy or sell that day. By contrast, Property Partner (a somewhat similar P2P property investment platform) quote a value for each property based on an independent surveyor’s valuation every 6-12 months. That means the values displayed on Property Partner are more stable, but of course they are only theoretical as there is no guarantee that this valuation would be achieved if the property was put on the market.

As I noted before, my investment on Assetz Exchange is in the form of an IFISA (Innovative Finance ISA), so there won’t be any tax to pay on profits, dividends or capital gains. I’ve been impressed by my experiences with Assetz Exchange and the returns generated so far, and therefore intend to continue investing with them. You can read my full review of Assetz Exchange here if you like. You can also sign up for an account on Assetz Exchange directly via this link [affiliate].

In case you’re not aware, everyone has a generous £20,000 tax-free ISA allowance in the current tax year (2021/22). However, for some reason the government only allows you to invest in one of each type of ISA in any particular.tax year. So you can only put new money into one stocks and shares ISA per year, but you can invest in a cash ISA and/or IFISA as well if you wish – just as long as you don’t exceed the £20,000 total limit. In the 2021/22 tax year I am therefore investing in a Nutmeg stocks and shares ISA and an Assetz Exchange IFISA. This gives me additional diversification compared with investing in just one type of ISA.

Moving on, I heard last month that I will not be eligible for any more SEISS income support payments for the self-employed. Along with many other self-employed people, my income took a hit when the pandemic struck and this money from the government came in very useful (though I do thankfully have a personal pension and other investments as well). However, I have become a victim of the rule that says to receive SEISS your average self-employed income must represent at least half of your total income.

For the first three rounds of SEISS that was indeed the case. However, the latest round of payments incorporates another set of tax returns (2019/20) when calculating average income. Because my income was lower in these accounts (partly due to the pandemic) my four-year average is now less than what I draw from my personal pension. So at a stroke I am no longer eligible for any more support. It’s not the end of the world, but I do find it bizarre that a scheme intended to support self-employed people whose livelihoods have been affected by the pandemic can cut off completely when your average income drops. Commiserations to any PAS readers who may have found themselves in a similar situation 🙁

Personal

In April, as I’m sure you know, some of the government’s lockdown restrictions finally began to be lifted.

I was glad to be able to go for a swim for the first time since Christmas, and have been doing so twice a week since it became possible again. I am a member of the David Lloyd Club in Lichfield which has two pools, one inside and one out. Although I’ve heard that you have to book slots at some swimming pools, that has never been the case at DL Lichfield, and in fact in many ways it feels reassuringly normal. Of course, you have to wear a mask as you enter the building, but thankfully not in the changing rooms or the pool 😀

I have just been told that if the pools get very busy, DL staff ask people to wait in the changing rooms until others have left. I haven’t witnessed this myself and don’t think it happens very often, but am happy to place this info on record.

What I do find bizarre is the rules about buying and consuming refreshments. The club room (aka coffee shop) at DL Lichfield is open for the purchase of drinks and light meals, but you can’t consume them within the building. You are, however, allowed to sit at a table in the club room (no need for a mask) to read and relax or just stare at the four walls. But heaven help you if you try to eat or drink anything.

I was told by a staff member that it was okay to take a drink to the outdoor pool as long as I was going for a swim, but not if I simply wanted to lie on a sunbed. Even though I am fast becoming a connoisseur of strange lockdown rules, this one seems barmy to me and I’d love to know how DL Lichfield plan to enforce it (“Unless you get in that pool in the next five minutes, I’m taking your coffee away.”). I’d like to support the DL club room/coffee shop, but the incomprehensible rules have defeated me. So I’m now taking a flask of tea and a biscuit with me and having that on the poolside or in the changing room after my swim. So far no Covid police have come for me.

I have also been pleased (and relieved) to have my hair cut again, six months after this was last done. Thankfully I didn’t have to queue up, as my hairdresser comes to me and cuts my hair in my conservatory. We have both had Covid jabs and agreed to dispense with masks and just kept the door and window open (thankfully it was quite a warm day). Again, it all felt reassuringly normal.

I haven’t so far taken advantage of the reopening of pub gardens, largely because it has been so cold (and wet) most days. It’s good to see at least some of my local pubs open again, but a shame they still aren’t allowed to open inside as well as out. Last year we had Eat Out to Help Out at a time when there were more Covid cases and deaths then there are now (just one death yesterday, I read). I am looking forward to May 17th when pubs and restaurants can reopen inside as well, but believe this has been delayed too long personally.

I am probably one of the few people who didn’t watch the Line of Duty finale. Indeed, I haven’t watched any of the series, as it didn’t really appeal to me. For one thing it sounded downbeat and depressing, and life has been grim enough recently. But also, it appeared a bit too complicated for my liking. Especially as i grow older, I find following series with large casts and labyrinthine plots increasingly challenging. I can remember laughing (affectionately) at my dad when he expressed confusion at the plot of some TV detective show, but I am obviously going down the same route myself now 😮

I have watched a couple of shows I enjoyed this month, though, so thought I’d share details in case anyone fancies giving them a try.

The first is an Amazon Prime Video series called Upload. This is a dystopian science fiction tale, set in a not-too-distant future when a method has been found for transferring people’s minds at the point of death (or before) to a virtual afterlife. This service is provided by a number of large corporations. They employ minimum-wage ‘angels’ in large warehouse-like offices to monitor these worlds and support the clients who live in them (at least, until their money runs out). It is quite a dark concept, but full of laugh-out-loud moments and some great characters. There is also a mystery in it, and a romance between a female ‘angel’ and one of her (deceased) male clients. It’s well worth a watch if you like something a bit different (and have Amazon Prime Video, of course).

I am also enjoying a US fantasy series called The Librarians (see below). I originally caught a couple of episodes on an obscure Freeview channel and decided I’d like to watch the whole (four) series from the beginning. Doing that proved a bit more challenging than I anticipated, but eventually I managed to track down a DVD box set on eBay.

The Librarians is a tongue-in-cheek fantasy series with a certain retro feel to it. It reminds me a bit of the old Avengers TV show in its heyday (with Diana Rigg as Emma Peel).

The Librarians are a group of misfits who are recruited to work at the mysterious Library, a place where magical artefacts of all kinds are stored. Early in the first series magic is released into the world again, having been suppressed for many centuries. In each episode the Librarians investigate some mysterious incident and try to stop evil individuals deploying magic for nefarious ends, generally using their intelligence rather than violence.

Again, it’s hard to explain in a few words, but you soon get the hang of things. And the characters, while perhaps excessively goofy at times, are all endearing in different ways. The Librarians is really old-fashioned family entertainment (with little if any swearing) and none the worse for that. If you can get hold of it – I’m not sure whether it’s on any streaming services – it offers an enjoyable (and at times hilarious) drop of escapism, something I guess many of us need at the moment.

As always, I hope you are staying safe and sane during these challenging times. If you have any comments or questions, please do post them below.

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Brickowner Property Investment Platform Review

April 17, 2021

Spotlight: Brickowner Property Investment Platform

Nick Investing reviews, property, crowdfunding 8 Comments

I have written about property crowdfunding on various occasions on Pounds and Sense. It’s a way for ordinary individuals to invest in bricks and mortar without requiring huge amounts of capital.

Why Property Crowdfunding?

Property investors get a double benefit – rent from tenants for as long as they own the property, and – in most cases – a profit if and when they sell.

Of course, property doesn’t come cheap. And even if you can stretch to buying a modest house or flat for investment purposes, you are taking the risk of putting all your eggs in one basket. As a result, many people of more modest means have concluded that property investment is not for them.

Property crowdfunding has changed all that, however. A number of platforms now exist that allow ordinary individuals the chance to buy a share (or fraction) in an investment property. Investors then receive a proportion of the rental income generated and also get a share of any profit when the property is sold (or refinanced).

A further attraction of property crowdfunding is that the platform (and its agents) take care of managing the property and tenants on your behalf. Unlike direct property ownership, property crowdfunding (or crowdlending if you prefer) is a genuine hands-free investment.

Brickowner Review

Brickowner is one of a number of property crowdfunding platforms that also includes Property Partner, Assetz Exchange and CrowdProperty. They allow investors to buy a share of individual property investments.

Brickowner focuses on institutional investments. They buy shares in large, high-return property investment deals that were traditionally only offered to institutions or high-net-worth individuals. They then offer smaller shares in these (a minimum of £500) to members wanting to invest in them.

How It Works

Before you can access the Brickowner platform, you will need to register on the site and confirm that you are allowed by law to invest in this type of product. This is a requirement imposed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which regulates this type of investment. In practical terms it means you will have to confirm that you meet one of the following descriptions:

High Net Worth Individual – This includes individuals who have an annual income of £100,000 or more or net assets of £250,000 or more and have made a declaration acknowledging the consequences of making investments based on financial promotions that have not been approved by an FCA-authorised firm.

Self-certified Sophisticated Investor – This includes individuals who have prior relevant investment experience and have made a declaration acknowledging the consequences of making investments based on financial promotions that have not been approved by an FCA-authorised firm.

Representative of a High Net Worth Body – This includes companies and partnerships with at least £5 million net assets and trusts with assets of £10 million.

Investment Professional – Including corporate investors and SIPP or SSAS professional service providers.

You will also be required to answer some questions to confirm that you understand the nature of the investments that can be made on the platform.

Once you are registered (and not before) you will be able to browse from the range of currently available property investments, such as the example below:

If you see a current project you like, you can invest in it, from £500 up to the maximum available. You can (and probably should) build a diversified portfolio by investing in a number of different properties. You can add funds and increase the size of your portfolio any time you want.

Investments have a fixed term: anything from one to five years. During that time you may receive dividends from any rental income received. These are added to your account and available to withdraw or reinvest. You also receive a share of any profits along with return of your capital at the end of the investment period.

In common with other property crowdfunding platforms, the pandemic has caused delays – in some cases a year or longer – to some projects on Brickowner, As far as I am aware no projects have failed completely, though.

Secondary Market

Brickowner recently introduced a secondary market where investors who need to release funds before the end of an investment term can put their share up for sale to other members. Here is a screen capture showing part of the secondary market currently.

Brickowner Secondary Market

As you may notice, some of the projects on the secondary market have less than £500 available. I asked if this meant you could therefore invest less than £500 in these cases, but was told no. Here is the exact reply I received:

£500 is the minimum investment in both the primary and secondary market. The reason there are smaller amounts on the secondary market is that there is a taxi-rank system, whereby available shares are listed and allocated in order of listing to a queue of buyers. So if I wanted to invest, say, £520 in Tamlaght, and there were no other prospective Tamlaght share buyers ahead of me BUT there were only £120 worth of shares available, I would have to wait until £520 worth of shares were available before my transaction went through. Prospective Tamlaght buyers in the queue would have to wait until my order had been filled before they moved forward in the queue.

In effect, then, you would have to place a bid for at least £500 of the project in question, and would have to wait till additional sellers materialized before getting anything. That is probably not ideal, but I can understand that Brickowner want to avoid the situation where some investors end up with tiny holdings in certain projects.

Charges

Brickowner fees are outlined within the property term sheet for each specific investment. There is no charge for depositing money with Brickowner, and no charge at the end of the investment period when your money and (hopefully) profits are returned to you.

My Thoughts

Brickowner offers an interesting option for people who want to add property to their investment portfolio. As mentioned above, there is a good case for doing this both in terms of dividends and capital growth, and to diversify your overall portfolio.

The Brickowner website is attractive and professional looking. One thing I have noticed is that most of their investment opportunities fill up very quickly. That is good insofar as it indicates that Brickowner is succeeding in attracting investors who believe in the proposition being offered. On the other hand, it does mean that at any particular time there may not be many (or any) projects to invest in. You will therefore need to build your portfolio gradually.

As mentioned above, Brickowner has a minimum investment of £500. This is not as low as some platforms (e.g. Assetz Exchange will let you invest as little as 80p) so it may be less suited to investors on a limited budget. But on the positive side, they are transparent about the fees they charge, and it is good that no fees are imposed for depositing or withdrawing money. It’s also good that a secondary market now exists for investors who wish (or need) to exit early.

As you can see from the screen capture above, the projected returns on investments with Brickowner are at the higher end for property crowdfunding platforms. Of course, this generally means the risks are higher as well. In any event it is important to read the financial information on each project carefully, to ensure that the investment aligns with your own needs and goals. Bear in mind also that some projects offer income as well as the potential for capital appreciation, while others aim for capital growth only.

During the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown, property transactions slowed considerably and many commercial property values in particular fell. However, there is clear evidence that a recovery is now under way. My own view is that there are good opportunities at present for property investors, but obviously in this uncertain time there are never any guarantees. Every investor needs to assess the situation carefully in light of their personal circumstances and tolerance for risk and proceed accordingly.

Investor Protection

The returns on offer from Brickowner are significantly better than you would get from a bank savings account at present, but clearly they don’t carry the same level of protection. For example, you are not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which will refund up to £85,000 if a bank with which you have an account goes bust.

On the other hand, your money is invested in bricks and mortar, so it’s unlikely you would lose it all. A further level of protection is that – in common with other property crowdfunding platforms – your money is invested via an SPV (Special Purposes Vehicle). This is effectively an independent company with responsibility for the project in question. If Brickowner were to go bust, funds in the SPV would be protected and returned to investors once the property was sold.

Even if Brickowner were to go under before your money was invested, your funds are paid into a separate, ring-fenced client account. If the platform went belly-up the day after you sent the money, your funds would simply be returned to you.

Overall, then, whilst investing in Brickowner is clearly not as safe as leaving your money in the bank, the measures set out above do provide a reasonable level of protection (and reassurance). As with any investment, however, the higher potential returns on offer come with a greater risk of loss. In my view (and I’m not a qualified financial adviser, just an individual who has put thousands of pounds of his own money into property crowdfunding) Brickowner offers a reasonable balance between risk and reward. But clearly, you should invest only as part of a balanced portfolio combined with other, more liquid types of investment. .

If you would like more information about Brickowner and to set up an account, just click through any of the links in this post.

Disclosure: The links in this post are affiliate links. If you click through and set up an account at Brickowner and make an investment with them, I may receive a fee for introducing you. This will not affect the terms or returns you are offered. Please note also that I am not a registered financial adviser and nothing in this post should be construed as personal financial advice. Before making any investment it is important to do your own due diligence, and seek advice from a qualified financial adviser if you are in any doubt how best to proceed. All investment carries a risk of loss.

If you have any comments or questions about Brickowner or property crowdfunding in general, as always, please do post them below.

Note: This is a fully revised and updated repost of my original article about Brickowner.

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April 12, 2021

The Hidden Risks of Safe Assets

Nick Investing guest post 6 Comments

Today I am pleased to bring you a guest post from Haydn Martin, a UK blogger whose website is called Perpetual Prudence.

Haydn explores ideas relating to retail investing and other personal finance topics on his way to finding the solution to Lifetime Investing…

In his guest post today he discusses the risks of investing in ‘safe’ assets.

Over to Haydn, then…

Risk might be the most important consideration when making investment decisions (like what to invest your ISA allowance in). Get it wrong and you could be retiring on a pittance, running out of money during retirement, or even worse – asking friends/family for handouts. Risk must be taken seriously and properly dealt with, especially when you’re living off your investment portfolio.

It seems strange, then, that risk is so poorly understood by so many.

One aspect of risk that is particularly neglected is the chance of a truly disastrous event crushing the value of the asset in question. The chance of these catastrophic events is ‘unthinkable’ and so not really taken into account by people when making investment decisions.

This is the wrong approach. In this piece, I will be talking about some of the hidden risks of the ‘safest’ asset classes and their implications for the investor.

Cash

What could go wrong with pilling up cold, hard cash under your mattress? This, surely, I hear you claim, entails no risks at all?

As you might have guessed, not quite. First, there are the practical considerations. If you actually store large amounts of cash somewhere in your house, that cash will promptly disappear if you get burgled, if your house burns down, or if your partner changes their mind about this whole marriage thing and does a runner (with the money). If at some other secure location, it can always be pinched. Cash held at a bank is dependent on the fortunes of said bank. As 2008 showed, this might not be the safest place in the world. The government will cover you up to £85,000, sure, but for those of you lucky enough to have more than this, you’re relying on the prudence of bankers.

Aside from the physical, one must also consider the monetary. Inflation, that cruel mistress, is the biggest threat to holders of pound sterling. It may be practically non-existent these days, but casting your mind back to the 70s will remind you of the real damage inflation can inflict on your purchasing power. If inflation is higher than the rate of interest you earn on your cash (that pile under the mattress is earning 0%) then you’re losing money in real terms. You’re actually getting poorer without realising it.

Government Bonds

Taking this cash and dumping it into government bonds may seem like a sensible thing to do, then. The government is probably less likely to fail than banks. These bonds earn some kind of interest to help combat inflation, too. Happy days.

Unfortunately, most of these rates of interest are dependent on the whims of the Governor of the Bank of England, not directly linked to interest rates. If the govna’ wants to maintain low interest rates to stimulate the economy after, say, a global pandemic has put a halt to business activity, they may maintain low interest rates, even with substantial inflation. This means that your bonds will be earning a negative real return. What’s also nasty about these bonds is the fact that their value fluctuates with inflation and interest rates. This means that you don’t actually receive the yield to maturity unless you hold the bond…to maturity. Otherwise, your yield may be substantially lower.

The government acknowledges this problem with bonds and issues index-linked versions to counteract this inflation risk. These bonds return some percentage above inflation, supposedly ensuring that you maintain your purchasing power (and then some). This, however, relies on the fact that the government calculates the rate of inflation correctly. How confident are you in the competence of the government? There is also the chance that the government defaults on their outstanding debt. This is unlikely under a fiat system (because they can always just print more money), but it remains a risk nonetheless. Reckless monetary policy can lead to veeeery high inflation, which is difficult to stop (just look at Argentina for a contemporary example). In this instance, your bonds would be worth precisely 0.

It would seem then, that relying entirely on the government may not be the best idea. What about companies?

The apparently safest form of investing in shares is investing in whole markets (or parts of markets) using index funds or ETFs. The highest level of diversification one can get is by investing in every market, using a global ETF/index fund. One of the main risks here is fake diversification. A lot of these global trackers should actually be called ‘US & Friends’. For example, if we look at the Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund, we see that the US makes up nearly 60% of the fund. If the US performs badly, these trackers will too. There is also the chance that the company doing the tracking goes bust, meaning you will lose some of your investment. This is a pretty unlikely scenario, but it’s a possibility nonetheless.

An alternative approach is to keep your hard-earned money inside the UK, by investing in a basket of British companies. This leaves you rather exposed to the fortunes of the UK. If we prosper in the next 20-50 years, it will probably be a good move. If not, UK companies might not do so well. You are already likely to be heavily exposed to the UK via your job or some other way (like owning a house here), so it may be a good idea to diversify internationally a bit.

Many assets have this problem, come to think of it. If you plan on moving to the French Riviera in ten years’ time, you are going to want some exposure to French assets before you move. Let’s say France does really well in this time period but the UK does not. France is now more expensive, which is fine for French people because they have been getting richer, too. It’s not so fine for you, for whom France is getting more and more expensive. There is also the exchange rate risk to consider. You don’t want to convert your fortune into Euro only to find that it’s not worth all that much.

Just a closing remark on shares. It’s not clear that they will rise over and above inflation, even over long periods of time. The market is a complex system. The 7% return that everyone seems to be claiming the market naturally drifts towards is not guaranteed in practice.

Asset Management

What about just letting someone do your investing for you? Professionals with years of experience and good track records? That’s safe, right?

Empirically speaking, not really. Active managers don’t seem to be able to consistently outperform benchmarks. Those who do outperform appear to have poor subsequent performance (regression to the mean). All-star managers might have gotten lucky. Or maybe they had a winning formula but don’t anymore. Continuing to outperform is far from guaranteed.

When you use these managers, you are putting your fortune into their hands. It’s really hard to judge if these are competent hands or not. These funds can dazzle you with past performance and a good sales pitch, but that is not a good indicator of strong future performance. Take the recent Archegos Capital Management blow-up as a warning (it was the largest trading loss in history). You just never really know what these managers are doing and what risks they’re taking.

Other Assets

Seeing these risks, some prefer to shun the financial world in its entirety and invest in real stuff. Stuff they can see and touch that has a good track record of maintaining value. Things that have historically been valued highly – watches, cars, wine, oil, gold, silver, etc. – could be a good bet. The problem here is that the value of these items is very much dependent on tastes at the time you come to sell. The green initiative could accelerate, crushing the value of cars and oil, for example. Or the demand for watches may just simply die off for no particular reason. I see this as unlikely – things that have historically been highly valued don’t tend to lose their allure overnight without some kind of devaluing mechanism – but it’s possible all the same. The point is, these things are valued pretty much out of thin air.

Some assets are not valued out of thin air. Those that generate cash-flow can have their values reasonably estimated. A small business, for example. Or a property that you rent out. The risks here are specific to each individual case.

Summing Up

Everyone is an investor. You can’t escape it. Everything that can be valued fluctuates in real value. Every day you are making investment decisions, so you might as well know what you’re getting yourself into (or make sure your financial adviser does!).

A big part of this awareness is knowing about the risks of investments, especially the disastrous, not-often-mentioned risks discussed in this post. Nothing is risk-free. Everything can go to 0 and you can lose all your money as a result, making for a pretty grim retirement. It’s just something you have to live with. You have to be a bit paranoid when composing your portfolio or you could get burnt, and burnt badly.

Of course, risk should not be the only factor when making investment decisions. Your specific circumstances (your goals, your age, your income, etc.) must also be taken into account. But risk should be, in my view, the primary consideration. To thrive, first you must survive.

Thank you to Haydn for an interesting and thought-provoking article. Please do check out his excellent blog at Perpetual Prudence as well.

I do very much agree with Haydn that every investment (or savings option) carries some risk. It is therefore essential to be aware of the downside/worst-case-scenario with any investment, while setting this against the potential rewards. Taking excessive risks is clearly to be avoided, but being too risk-averse – and therefore missing out on profitable investment opportunities – can be counter-productive as well. That applies especially to younger people, who may have 30 or 40 years before they retire.

It is also, in my view, crucial to avoid the mistake of putting all your eggs in one investment basket. As regular readers will know, I am a big fan of diversifying your portfolio as widely as possible – across different investment types, asset classes, platforms and risk levels. That way, if one or two investments do go south, hopefully they will be more than compensated by others that succeed.

It is also important to remember that investing is a long-term game. You should generally have at least a five-year time-horizon, to allow for the inevitable ups and downs in markets to even out.

As ever, if you have any comments or questions on this post – for me or for Haydn – please do post them below.

Disclaimer: Everybody’s needs and circumstances are different, and nothing in this post should therefore be construed as personal financial advice. Everyone should perform their own ‘due diligence’ before investing and seek advice from a qualified financial adviser if in any doubt how best to proceed. All investment carries a risk of loss.

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April 7, 2021

My Coronavirus Crisis Experience: April 2021 Update

Nick Investing, Everything Else 4 Comments

It’s the start of April, so time for another of my monthly Coronavirus Crisis Updates. Regular readers will know I’ve been posting these updates since the first lockdown started in March 2020 (you can read my March 2021 update here if you like).

As ever, I will begin by discussing financial matters and then life more generally over the last few weeks.

Financial

I’ll begin as usual with my Nutmeg stocks and shares ISA, as I know many of you like to hear what is happening with this.

As the screenshot below shows, following a dip in early March my main portfolio has generally been on an upward trajectory. It is currently valued at £20,078. Last month it stood at £19,155, so overall it has gone up by £923. I am very happy with that, obviously.

Apart from my main portfolio, four months ago I put £1,000 into a second Nutmeg pot to try out Nutmeg’s new Smart Alpha option. This pot has seen some ups and downs, but right now it is up to £1,052. That’s an increase of 5.22% in four months, equivalent to nearly 16% annually. Here is a screen capture showing performance to date. Obviously, though, it is still too soon to draw any firm conclusions from this.

You can see my in-depth Nutmeg review here (including a special offer at the end for PAS readers). If you are looking for a home for your new 2021/22 ISA allowance, based on my experience they are certainly worth a look.

That aside, last month was a mixture of good and bad news on the investment front. Probably the worst news was discovering that Buy2LetCars had gone into administration. Regular readers will know that I invested in two cars with this car loan platform. For three years everything went like clockwork, but then the FCA stepped in and froze their bank accounts due to concerns over how the company recorded the value of car leases in their accounts. This happened just before monthly payments were due to go out to investors in February. Initially Buy2LetCars said they would engage with the regulator to address their concerns, but then everything went quiet till it was announced that an administrator had been appointed to take over the company.

I don’t know any details of what has been going on with Buy2LetCars. I am still not entirely convinced that the FCA acted in investors’ best interests by freezing the company’s bank accounts just as they were about to make payments to investors. But it does certainly appear that the directors of Buy2Let Cars have questions to answer as well.

Personally I am most sorry for people who invested large sums with Buy2LetCars in recent months, including in some cases (I understand) their entire pensions. To be clear, though in the past I did recommend Buy2LetCars based on my experiences as an investor with them, I have never advocated putting all your money into this (or any other) investment platform. As things stand now, when you deduct the monthly repayments received from the capital I originally invested, I am about £10,000 down. That is clearly a major blow but not a total disaster for me.

As I said above, the company is now in the hands of the administrators and I have sent my claim form to them. It’s important to note that Buy2LetCars does still have assets including the cars themselves and the value of the leases, which their key worker clients are still paying. So in due course I am hopeful that some payments will be made to investors, though obviously it will only be a fraction of what we were promised. The letter from the administrators says they will be writing to the company’s creditors ‘within 8 weeks’ with their proposals, so hopefully I will hear something by mid-May. But any payouts are likely to take a lot longer than that to arrive, of course.

On a brighter note, I had all my money returned as promised by P2P lending platform RateSetter after the company was sold to Metro Bank. I didn’t invest a lot with them, but it was nice to get my capital back plus interest and the £100 bonus on offer when I first invested. I shall be reinvesting this money soon 🙂

You may also recall that last month I made test investments with two other platforms. One of these, Assetz Exchange, is a P2P platform that focuses on lower-risk property investments (e.g. sheltered housing on long leases). I put £100 into this in mid-February. Since then my portfolio has generated 77p in capital growth and 99p in revenue received, so £1.76 in total. Obviously that doesn’t sound like much, but it works out as an annual interest rate of around 10.50%. Here’s my current statement in case you’re interested:

My investment is in the form of an IFISA, so there won’t be any tax to pay on profits, dividends or capital gains. I have been impressed by my initial experiences with Assetz Exchange and intend to invest more with them soon. You can read my full review of Assetz Exchange here if you like. You can also sign up for an account on Assetz Exchange directly via this link [affiliate].

I also put a small amount into the European loan crowdfunding platform Nibble (the first time I’ve tried investing with a non-UK platform). It’s all going well so far and I get weekly updates from them confirming how much interest has been added to my portfolio. Again, it’s too early to offer any firm opinions about Nibble, but so far everything appears to be on track. My full review of Nibble can be found here.

Finally, a couple of the loans I invested in with the P2P property investment platform Kuflink were repaid (with interest) last month, and I duly reinvested the money in other loans.

I have a diversified portfolio of loans with Kuflink paying annual interest rates of 6 to 7.5 percent. These days I generally invest a few hundred pounds per loan at most (and often £100 or less). My days of putting four-figure sums into any single property investment are definitely behind me now!

You might also enjoy reading this post titled Home Finance Tips for the Rest of 2021 on the Cibes Lifts website, to which I contributed some suggestions.

Personal

March was another dreary month of lockdown, though it was at least nice to see the schools back (albeit with mandatory masks in classrooms).

The vaccine roll-out continues to go well and the numbers of Covid cases, hospital admissions and deaths are all falling rapidly, giving hope for the weeks and months ahead. And, of course, we are into the spring now, with longer, brighter days and – at some point – the prospect of some warmer ones!

I have gone ahead and booked a short break in North Wales at the start of July. It’s at an Airbnb apartment near Abersoch in North Wales. Here’s a photo from the Airbnb website…

The apartment has a wonderful, near-beachside location with good facilities and great sea views, so I’m really looking forward to going. It will be my first ever visit to Abersoch (and the furthest I have ever ventured along the Lleyn Peninsula). I did try to get there last year but sadly had to cancel due to Covid.

Even a few weeks ago when I booked, only limited dates were available. So if you’re planning a UK holiday this year – and I guess many of us will be – my top tip is to book as soon as possible. In case it helps, here’s a link to my blog post about booking a holiday with Airbnb, and here’s one to my recent post about UK holiday destinations I have visited myself over the last few years.

In March I had my annual review with my financial adviser, Mike (if you want to know why a money blogger needs a personal financial adviser, here’s a link to my blog post where I discuss this). Of course we did this as a video call this year. We used Microsoft Teams, a software tool I hadn’t tried before, but it all worked smoothly enough. I am certainly learning a few new IT skills as a result of lockdown!

I talked about my discussion with Mike and some issues it threw up in this recent blog post, so I won’t go over all that again here. Suffice to say, it made me think hard about how my financial situation will change (for the better) when I qualify for the state pension later this year. I didn’t entirely agree with all of Mike’s advice, although I do understand that it was prudent and sensible. But as I should be in quite a healthy financial situation when my pension kicks in, I intend to start spending a bit more rather than simply letting it accumulate year on year till finally it passes on to my sisters (much as I love them). If you haven’t read my post about this, do take a look, and let me know which of us you agree with!

I had hoped by now to have had my first swim since Christmas. But my local David Lloyd Leisure opened their outdoor pool on Monday last week only to close again on the Tuesday (when I went!) due to a problem with the water chemicals (I suspect this could be a euphemism…).

This week it’s too cold for outdoor swims – for me at any rate – so I am counting off the days till Monday 12th April, when they will be able to open their indoor pool as well. The changing rooms will be open too, and I assume I will be able to get a warming mug of hot chocolate in the club room, even if I have to stand up to drink it 🙂

Obviously it is good news that the country is (very) slowly coming out of lockdown. I am also looking forward to meeting friends and family in pubs and restaurants again, though until mid-May this will only be permitted outside in England, so a lot will depend on the weather. But even if I end up waiting till hospitality venues are open inside as well as out, I will look forward to seeing the garden of my local pub full of visitors again!

It does worry me that the government keeps moving the goalposts with regard to easing lockdown measures. In particular, while we were originally told that all restrictions would end by June 21st, it seems increasingly likely this may not be the case. It’s particularly disappointing to hear some of the government’s scientific advisors saying we may be stuck with mandatory face-masks and social distancing well into next year or even longer. I really hope this isn’t the case. The vast majority of vulnerable people have been vaccinated now and this is reflected in the big falls in deaths and hospital admissions. We need to accept that risk can never be entirely eliminated and get back to normal life again now.

As always, I hope you are staying safe and sane during these challenging times. If you have any comments or questions, please do post them below.

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