LM portfolio as at 05/04/2024:
| Code | Sector | Date Bought | Cost | Value | Gain/Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LM055 LM055-2 LM055-3 |
General Financial | 11/01/2023 02/05/2023 20/12/2023 |
£3850 | £5920 | 53.87% |
| LM058 LM058-2 |
Support Services | 17/01/2023 20/07/2023 |
£2540 | £3050 | 20.18% |
| LM061 LM061-2 LM061-3 |
Aerospace & Defense | 20/02/2023 13/10/2023 08/02/2024 |
£3820 | £4770 | 24.87% |
| LM071 LM071-2 LM071-3 |
Construction & Materials | 24/07/2023 22/09/2023 29/01/2024 |
£3840 | £4410 | 14.72% |
| LM075 | Equity Investment Instruments | 02/01/2024 | £1270 | £1140 | (10.04%) |
| LM076 | No Specific Industry | 03/01/2024 | £1270 | £1200 | (5.19%) |
| LM077 | Electronic & Electrical Equipment | 03/01/2024 | £1270 | £1090 | (14.53%) |
| LM078 | Banks | 03/01/2024 | £1270 | £1400 | 10.22% |
| LM079 | No specific Industry | 22/02/2024 | £1270 | £1230 | (2.86%) |
| LM080 | Media | 27/02/2024 | £1290 | £1260 | (2.52%) |
| LM081 | Mining | 26/03/2024 | £1530 | £1660 | 8.56% |
| LM082 | Life Insurance | 26/03/2024 | £1520 | £1480 | (2.71%) |
Here begins the "end of tax year" update. The more observant of you may have seen that there was no 22/23 update and there are several reasons for this:
(1) I wasn't able to add any money to my LISA in 22/23 which really did annoy me. I felt like I'd let myself down and also it meant that I had permanently lost the chance to get an immediate 25% tax-free bonus on my money.
(2) I was on holiday whilst the tax year changed over so I was too busy enjoying myself in the US to dwell on a stagnant LISA balance.
(3) 2022 was a poor year and the first few months of 2023 weren't outstanding so there wasn't anything to get excited about.
It isn't as painful now so I will take a moment to look back.
Done! And I can reveal that the return in the 2022/2023 tax year was...
Up 2.08%
OK, it could've been worse. A small gain isn't too bad.
Let's turn our attention to this tax year just gone.
Portfolio change in the 2023/2024 tax year is: 11.76% UP
A great result considering that over the same time frame the FTSE 100 was up only 2% and the 250 only managed 5%.
I'm beating the market.
For the coming tax year I just hope for more of the same - a good double-digit return.
Unfortunately for the second year running it has not been possible to put any money at all into the LISA account during the 2023/2024 tax year.
However, I do have some excuses:
- I have a big event coming up soon which is going to cost a great deal of money
- Work has been an issue - I had two months out of work at the beginning of the tax year and now my most recent contract was finished early due to severe budget issues
- I had to have some very expensive dental work done... although I am very happy with the results. It was worth all the pain and, frankly, worrying experiences in the dentist's chair
- I'm trying to build up my gambling bank again after using some of it for living expenses. Therefore I would rather not remove any money from my bookie accounts, especially my Betfair account which is showing a multiple-hundred % return at present in less than a year
Excuses or not, this leaves me and this experiment well behind the (admittedly very optimistic) projections.
I'll do my best to add some money to the LISA this year in order to grab that 25% bonus. Time is ticking... I have just 5 years left of qualifying for the LISA bonuses before they are gone forever. It's also 15 years until I can access the money without penalties. 15 years sounds like a long time but it will likely pass very quickly.
The LM Portfolio
Easter week saw two additions to the portfolio - LM081 and LM082. Both new 52 week highs and both entered with the new unit value of £1500.
When this experiment began the unit value (the initial amount used to make a single share purchase) was £1000. This moved to £1250 once the portfolio reached a value of £25k and has now increased again due to the portfolio reaching over £30k in value.
My plan is to stagger this unit value upwards as the portfolio value increases. Fingers crossed it continues.
I do wonder whether a lot of eyes are currently too busy watching the crypto markets and meanwhile some insiders are quietly piling into shares.
Let's face it, the crypto markets will collapse at some point - likely when the buyers run out and the selling begins. The selling will gather momentum as more people rush for the door. The sentiment will change, people will suddenly realise what was staring them in the face the whole time, that it's a house of cards built on nothing except promises of further riches.
With everyone wanting to sell at the same time there will be large falls through the gaps. This is an unregulated market... there are no market makers to mop up the "assets" offered for sale... there are no measures in place to slow down panics.
It will be a bloodbath.
But with stocks appearing to be out-of-fashion, it could be that the people "in the know" are buying up the shares with the expectation that once Bitcoin et al collapse, and their investors limp away, those same investors will eventually turn to the reliable, 10% per year on average (allegedly) growth of the stockmarket.
And that's probably when the stockmarket will start to bubble. Maybe the steady gains now are signalling the beginning of a new boom in shares.
That's my hope anyway.