The Good

The UK didn’t crash and burn as much as I thought it would do, despite Kier/Rachel doing their level best. We had some sticky moment early on in 2025 where my Portfolio took a beating, however it clawed its way back over the rest of the year. I had a bit of a wobble in the run up to the Autumn Budget and went about 20% cash for a while. Despite the Budget being very anti-business, whatever they claim and despite it being leakier than a colander on the Titanic the Markets took it mostly in their stride and I moved back up to about 95% Shareholdings again. I’m glad I did as there has been quite a decent Rally in Q4 2025.

Gambling Organisations got hammered. I’m glad that I got out of Evoke (was 888, EVOK) when I did. Thumping loss at the time, but it has since plunged by another 2/3.

Check out my Buys and Sells summaries for the year elsewhere.

Overall there have been 25 specific Sells (i.e. a Stock, that had one or more tranches bought, but all tranches sold together). Not bad, but still some churn there. Similar number to last year (23). Reasons for sale are

• Gift Horse sales – jump in price from a (rumoured) bid. Not always at a profit. International Personal finance (IPF) (confirmed) and Evoke (EVOK was 888) rumoured saw me exit.
• Bad choice in the first place. I upped the number of shareholdings in 2024 but a lot of those are in areas I don’t know much about, so Headlam (HEAD), VP (VP.), Brickability (BRCK) and HSS Hire (HSS) were dropped at appropriate times when Mr Market was feeling particularly bullish.
• Price had got ahead of itself. I’m rushing less to sell after a climb, but it still happens. Some of these were subsequently bought back after dropping back as I am confident in the longer term prospects. easyJet (EZY), Serica Energy (SQZ), Telecom Plus (TEP) and Card Factory (CARD) are examples. Some are on the sidelines waiting for an entry price, such as WPP and BP. Some sales were just wrong, such as British American Tobacco (BATS), Imperial Brands (IMB) and St James’ Place (SJP). Missed the rest of the rising tide with those.

So, yes, still trading but overall I’m holding my own, although the FTSE did beat me this year. The first time that has happened since I started tracking in more detail (2020). The diversification into a broader range of stocks hasn’t really worked, so I’m narrowing down my portfolio, once again. I have doubled the size of my Purchase Unit which was scary at the time but am now more relaxed. I had to, as purchases were becoming small in view of the whole Portfolio. Even now, a Unit is only about 2.5% of total value so I need to consider doubling it again.

I’m still happy with the overall purchase of Value shares and waiting for the “Value to Out” approach. I’m also still happy with buying additional tranches should the price dip, as long as the reason for the dip is understandable and I’m still confident. Shares I doubled up this year include easyJet, Telecom Plus and Taylor Wimpey, for instance. B&M, too but less confident with that and will consider a disposal once the top-up is profitable.

I’ve gone Big Long on Self-Storage. In the past I have done very well out of Lok and Store, however that has been taken over. The concept is ridiculously simple and we are way behind the States. I’ve waded in heavily into Big Yellow (BYG) and Safestore (SAFE). Both have done well and BYG was also the recipient of a putative bit of interest from Blackstone. Interestingly I didn’t make a Gift Horse sale and when Blackstone pulled out there wasn’t much of a drop so I’m hoping the market agreed with me.

Will do better next year.

Boost to savings. The balance of my family inheritance has come through so there may be further funds available. For now, it is just gathering a bit of interest over the Christmas break.

The Bad

Nothing too bad to report if you ignore the few shares that didn’t do so well – only to be expected in a wide ranging Portfolio.

Politically, Labour is doing its damndest to Tax and Spend the Country into oblivion. Ed Miliband’s Net Zero Evangelism is scary. We are importing fuel from abroad when we have plenty in the North Sea, if only we were allowed to extract it. Instead we pay other Countries for their Oil, creating a Balance of Payments Deficit, transport it to the UK, hardly Green and lose out on Taxable revenue from mining and employment. Crackers. If Torsten Bell replaces Rachel Reeves as Chancellor I shall be pulling a lot of investment out and going into cash short term as I think he will be pretty damaging to the Economy with his ideaology.

The Ugly

erm, Evoke (EVOK), Severfield (SFR), Iomart (IOM), Robert Walters (RWA) are the standout duffers. I’ve sold two of those and the rest are hanging in there as it seems pointless selling at this stage. You live and learn. Well, you live.

And finally Cyril

It’s been a good year overall. Returns have been good, even if I haven’t beaten the FTSE this year. The ‘day jobs’ have both gone really well with record figures and my first full-time employee taken on (I run two, very different Businesses) and have recently invested in a third, a niche directory service. I’ve been able to work less, and delegate more for the Training Business and have started to wind down my operations for the Support Business I run with a view to getting out completely by mid-year, possibly with one final ‘big bang’ project.

I’m slowly, but surely moving away from the exchanging time for money model (working for a living) to having enough money coming in anyway to allocate my time more selfishly.

Happy New Year and let’s hope 2026 is also good, despite MAGA and Trump’s deluded faith in his ability to solve anything he turns his hands to. Whilst he can be a good negotiator, a lot of it comes from bullying because he knows he is the Pres., rather than any innate ability. Starmer & his coterie’s attempts to take Britain back to the 1970s Tax and Spend days may be a force to be reckoned with in 2026, too.