Take a peek at my hand?

Ray_Singh-Blue

Update #43 Q3 2025

In July were able to pump in our full his 'n' hers ISA contributions for the year.

Bought some VWRP and some VGOV, in proportions enough to maintain the roughly 60:40 balance of stocks and not-stocks.

>> VWRP: £281K, Cash: £151K, VGOV: £60K, Other stuff: £52K. Total: £544K on October 3rd.

Past the half-million mark! Who would have thought it. The portfolio has roughly doubled in the last 2 years. About a third of the gain is due to the introduction of new funds. A third is due to the strong performance of world stock markets. And a third of it is due to risky, extra-curricular bets on this and that.

Cheers,

Ray

Ray_Singh-Blue

Update #44 Q4 2025

Another year over. Sold some of the "other stuff" because it rose a lot in value quite a lot in a short space of time. Reinvested the proceeds in VWRP.

Current state of play:

- VWRP £324K

- Cash £151K
- VGOV £62K
- other stuff (2 stocks) £42K

Total: £579K. 63% equities, 37% cash and bonds.

No big plans for 2026, just going to chug on. I have a very simple portfolio currently with just 4 holdings and some cash.

Happy New Year all.

hazmatt97

A very interesting read! You hold a lot of cash, I'm interested to understand why you don't put more of that into GILTS? Is the likelihood of UK gov going bankrupt surely less than your high street bank you're storing cash with going bankrupt? 

Is all of your equities in ISA wrapper?

Ray_Singh-Blue

@hazmatt97 : Thankyou. 

The post above is a bit of an over-simplification. In reality, Mrs Ray and I have £50K each of premium bonds. Everything else in the ISAs. Within the ISAs, I use CSH2 which is an overnight return money market ETF.

Rather than spell that out, I just call it all "cash". The important thing is that everything is tax sheltered & invested, and is separate from our current or savings accounts.

Why cash not bonds? Good question. If you read back a bit, you'll see that I got quite convinced by ideas behind *The Permanent Portfolio*, which calls for cash and bonds in equal proportions.

The idea is that cash and bonds both provide ballast against the volatility of the stock market, but they do so in different ways. Cash provides capital stability and dry powder to deploy in times of uncertainty. Bonds can save the day in times of recession, when falling interest rates can lead to increased capital value.

PS. In the spirit of full disclosure, the "other stuff" is currently shares in Alphabet, a Vanguard high yield ETF, and a lithium ETF called LITB.

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Edit: 8th Jan 2026

It’s time to place a bet for 2026. Sat on this for a few weeks, and have decided to go with Vanguard’s energy ETF, VDE. 

It's a bit risky. In the future, will we still need oil and gas? Renewables, electrification, and decarbonisation could push investors to discount oil and gas equities.

But my thesis is that we ain't there yet. And history suggests there’s always another energy squeeze lurking somewhere. Stuff in the news makes me wonder if another supply shock could be around the corner. If that happens, the companies in VDE should see profits, and valuations, rise.

Ethically, I want to invest in clean energy. But my working thesis is that the incumbent energy giants won’t just sink in a sea of solar panels. They’ll evolve into major players in the green transition too.

And anyway, part of my portfolio is already in lithium. If it all goes wrong, I'll just take the lithium.

So I’m tossing a coin and committing 5% to VDE. Which as of today, is £29,235, believe it or not. The bet is simple: that VDE outperforms VWRP enough, at some point over the next 5 years, to crystalise a portfolio advantage. 

Will let you know how it plays out.

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Edit ... nope, apparently can't hold VDE in an ISA. Instead I have bought ishares' offering SPOG, which tastes remarkably similar. Bit like chicken, bit like armadillo. 

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One more edit, 11th Jan. Yesterday I sold a big chunk of VWRP, and parked it back in cash. 2025 was a good year and I don't want to be greedy. Will see how things go over the next couple of months.

Porfolio is now: 

• equities £244K (42%)
• bonds and cash £343K (58%)
• total £587K