LM portfolio as at 30/03/2025:
| 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 | £7800 | 102.80% |
| LM079 LM079-2 LM079-3 |
No specific Industry | 22/02/2024 16/10/2024 03/12/2024 |
£4310 | £4960 | 15.06% |
| LM084 | Food Producers | 21/10/2024 | £1520 | £1450 | (4.45%) |
| LM086 LM086-2 |
Banks | 02/12/2024 10/02/2025 |
£3040 | £3120 | 2.59% |
| LM087 | Fixed Line Telecommunications | 02/12/2024 | £1520 | £1550 | 1.70% |
| LM089 | Investment Services | 06/01/2025 | £1530 | £1440 | (5.59%) |
| LM090 | Aerospace & Defense | 17/02/2025 | £1520 | £1840 | 20.83% |
I'm writing this whilst the market is still open and things aren't looking good.
Well, that's probably a bit of an understatement - it's looking completely naff if the truth be told. The FTSE 100 is down nearly 5% today and whilst I don't keep a very close eye on it, I can't remember a one-day fall this large since back in March 2020 - which was peak 'Covid' time.
The table above shows the LISA status from after the close last Friday 30th March and there's no shadow of a doubt that the portfolio will be in a much, much worse position when I take a screenshot of my account over this coming weekend.
LM055 remains in great shape but has been dropping quite severely since the February 16th update. At one point it was up 123% and smashing the all-time record for gains on a position in this experiment. Looking at the chart it has certainly begun to "roll over". It may be I get the signal to sell this soon.
Naturally, and this goes for every share I buy, I always hope that I never get the sell signal. Perhaps this one is just taking a short break, refuelling, having a rest. Must be exhausting to climb for so long. From this lower position it can regroup for a while - I don't mind if it takes its time - but the hope is that we see it continue to move upwards. I have the full 3 units invested in this one which means that share price increases are magnified but then falls are also much more severe compared to if I only had a single unit of it.
I had to clear LM088 out of the LM fund in mid-March after it turned around and starting dropping. That resulted in a £315.70 loss on the share, which in this case was WISE.
Not the first time I've lost money on WISE either... I lost £192.87 on it in less than a month back in 2023. Maybe this share isn't for me.
All is not bad though. I managed to add £600 to the pot and that means I will get a £150 bonus for the 2024/2025 tax year. My hope is that this will be £4000/£1000 for 2025/2026.
The £600 came from a really simple idea "inspired" by the Money Saving Expert website.
You start on January 1st and put 1p in a pot or a jar or any kind of vessel that can hold coins.
Next, on January 2nd, you put 2p in the container. On the 3rd you put 3p in and so on, all the way through the year until on 31st December you are putting £3.65 (£3.66 if it's a leap year) in.
If you can stick to that you end up with around £671 in your pot at the end of the year. And in 2024 I did it. I paid the money in each day - going so far as to track it on a spreadsheet like a total nerd - and then laid it all out on 1st January 2025, took a picture and felt very pleased with myself.
£600 of it went into the LISA and the rest sits in my safe as a kind of emergency fund.
The habit of paying money in each day becomes second nature and so I carried on. On the first day of this year I paid £3.67 into my watch box, £3.68 on the 2nd and so on. If I can keep that up I will be over half way to £4000 by the end of the year.
Here's my photo of 2024's 1p challenge money, a grand total of £671.61 in good, old-fashioned cash:
I'll leave it there for now. I'm going to wait until either tomorrow or Sunday to have a look at my poorly portfolio after today's carnage but will return next week with an end-of-tax-year update.