LM portfolio as at 28/11/2025:
| Code | Sector | Date Bought | Cost | Value | Gain/Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LM079 LM079-2 LM079-3 |
No Specific Industry | 22/02/2024 16/10/2024 03/12/2024 |
£4310 | £6100 | 41.59% |
| LM086 LM086-2 LM086-3 |
Banks | 02/12/2024 10/02/2025 10/09/2025 |
£4570 | £6290 | 37.87% |
| LM090 LM090-2 LM090-3 |
Aerospace & Defense | 06/01/2025 23/04/2025 10/09/2025 |
£4560 | £6200 | 35.9% |
| LM091 LM091-2 |
Basic Materials | 12/09/2025 17/11/2025 |
£3040 | £3560 | 16.92% |
| LM093 | Services | 29/09/2025 | £1520 | £1430 | (5.94%) |
Whilst it has only been a month since the last update there have been 3 casualties.
First we lost LM087 which was a 2 unit position in BT Group plc (BT.A), closed in full on 11th November for a small loss of £21.30.
Next I sold off LM089, a single unit purchase of IG Group Holdings plc (IGG), two weeks later for a small profit - £19.84.
A few days after that I had to swallow a pretty decent loss on SQZ (LM094, Serica Energy PLC) of £324.83.
That's the second time I've lost money on SQZ and the trade was only a few weeks old when I had to take the hit. But the price had slipped too far and hit my mental stop loss of 20% so as per my rules I had to get out immediately. Watch it skyrocket now... much like IGG which went up 11% in one day just two days after I sold it.
In amongst all the selling I added another unit to LM091 as it is going great guns at the moment. In fact, I added a 3rd unit on this Monday just gone due to the further rise in price.
This position is related to commodity prices and therefore I will need to keep a close eye on both the share price and the general commodities market prices with my trigger finger ready to get out quickly should it start to slip.
Dealing with Debt
As you are aware from these updates we recently had our house up for sale. Part of the plan selling the house was to clear up all of our debt using some of the equity that has built up. It's not ideal but clearing off all the debt means a clean slate with only a slight increase in the mortgage payment.
Whilst I don't have a great deal of debt, it's enough to nag at me. Here's what I owe:
| Loan | £1,085.88 |
| CC1 | £3,809.99 |
| CC2 | £7,819.99 |
(It's not your eyes, the table is purposely wonky - I'm testing some CSS)
The amount owing for the loan equates to just 3 more payments, the last of which will be taken on 1st March 2026.
Wow, that will be great to get rid of as I have been paying £361.96 every month since April 2021. I borrowed £20k over 5 years back when the interest rates were rock bottom and snagged an interest rate of just 3.3%. For comparison, the lowest I could find today is 5.8%.
That £20k was used well - we had a load of building work done; two walls removed, one wall added, new kitchen and new bathroom. To be fair I never really minded about having this debt as the money wasn't wasted and I knew I would get the money back upon selling the house. It will be fabulous when I no longer have that payment leaving my bank.
Credit card 1 is at 0% until 11/05/2026 and consists solely of debt incurred from a holiday to Florida in 2023. Again, this money was spent on something worthwhile and wasn't frittered away so I can't say it upsets me too much to have to service the debt each month.
Credit card 2 is at zero percent until 14/10/2026 and is a mixture of my personal debt as well as some 'joint account' debt. Just over half was spent on a 2025 Florida holiday, last year's home insurance is also on there, plus the spare room bed. Then there's a little bit towards a holiday next year with the remaining £2700 or so being a collection of different things that I've put on a credit card so I can spread the repayments, interest free, over several months.
So my total debt as of today is £12,715.86.
The original plan was to clear all of these debts from equity released when we sold our house. However, we've taken the house off the market due to lack of interest and now intend to re-decorate, make some further improvements and then put it back up for sale in spring 2026. It's not just us, there are lots of houses in our area which aren't selling so no point flogging a dead horse when the market is poor, we'll wait for now.
My repayment plan spreadsheet that I concocted a while ago shows that without somehow getting a sudden windfall I'll finish paying all this off with a final transfer of £379.98 on 1st July 2027.
Until that point the plan assumes debt payments of £670 every month.
But, I have other ideas.
I want to clear it sooner than that. I want to be in the position where I can use all of my spare cash (after mortgage and bills) for whatever I choose and not to satisfy the demands of Mr M&S and Mr Barclaycard.
What really annoys me about this debt situation is that for a long time I was DEBT-FREE. I can look through my records and see that back in 2006 I finally cleared both my credit card debt and the overdraft that I'd had since the turn of the century. I've got an email I sent to a friend on 31st May 2006:
"...I'm quite chuffed with myself as I have now paid off the last of my credit card debt..."
My records extend to a spreadsheet of all my bank transactions from around that time too. Opening it I can clearly see that I came out of my overdraft for the final time on the 19th June 2006 and I've never been overdrawn since. Once bitten, twice shy and all that.
I paid £2,400 into my account on that day - which was likely a cheque for money I earned as an affiliate selling other people's products online. I was very keen on this business from around 2005 to 2010 and made a substantial second income from it. Enough, it seems, to finally clear all my university-related debt.
For years I was debt-free aside from my mortgage and a loan I got to buy a car.
But life happens and I managed to slip back into debt. It didn't help that I got divorced, or that I had two lengthy stints of unemployment. These life events may explain why I have 5 figures worth of debt but don't excuse it. I have overspent and it's time to clear it.
I need a plan. A robust plan.
I am due to get a bonus at work with this month's pay packet. My intention is to clear the loan using my bonus payment and then use all available cash to pay down the rest of my credit card balances using the "snowball" method.
After the loan is gone my credit card debt will be somewhere in the region of £11,000 and I should be able to use around £650 a month to pay this down - just less than 17 months if it all remains at 0% interest.
The portfolio value has recently popped above £30,000 for the first time since May 2024 and is very close to that level still. With any luck a Santa Rally will take it up and over that resistance line and then we can look to build towards £40,000.
Just a matter of time now until we see 10,000 FTSE 100. So close...