After a couple of years on the sidelines I'm back in the market trying to make the most of a depleted SIPP in preparation for retirement day (planned to be Easter 2026).
When I last posted on this blog, the SIPP was valued at £271,068 - down from a peak of £307,654 on 8th November 2021.
That decline in value didn't stop on 30th July 2022.
By 31st October 2022, the SIPP value was down to £246,678.
There was a small recovery over the winter to £257,899 by 31st January 2023.
However, the SIPP value went sideways then, dropping to £251,878 by 30th April 2023.
That's when it took another hit (mainly due to the collapse in value of KWS - Keywords Studios), and the value on 31st July 2023 was just £230,970.
As the year progressed things didn't get any better, and by 31st October 2023, the SIPP value was down to £221,197; by which time I was thinking "why didn't I sell the whole portfolio and convert into cash last July?" Oh, for the benefit of hindsight! I had actually sold-off 40% of the portfolio into cash in June 2022, so it could have been worse (or, could it?).
That was the bottom, and by 31st January 2024 the SIPP value was £234,476 - still nearly 10% down on the previous January value, and nearly 24% down on the all-time-high.
That was the signal for me to reinvest back into the market, and I've been 100% all-in since 1st February 2024.
Currently, the SIPP portfolio is as per the screenshot below.
The plan is to position the portfolio into more of an income generator than a pure growth vehicle.
As can be seen from the above when comparing the portfolio to previous screenshots from 2022, I caught a massive cold from KWS and Segro (SGRO).
There's a few reasons for posting this blog.
1) it's fairly obvious now than some of my success at finding decent shares in the past has been pure luck.
2) buying the right shares is only part of the problem - it's knowing when to sell! I hung-on to shares in companies whose fortunes had transformed for the worse, when I should have been more mercenary and cut & run. That misguided loyalty and blind faith cost me many tens of thousands of pounds.
3) In not writing the blog, mainly due to my despondency over the falling value of the SIPP, I took my eye off the ball. There is no good reason for this, I should have spent a weekend analysing the situation and (if nothing else) just lumped the portfolio into a Global Growth Investment Trust like JGGI. As per the chart below, if I had sold my entire portfolio in July 2022 (when valued at around £270k) and put the whole lot into JGGI at the (then) SP of 425p, then my SIPP would have a value today at around £350k. Again, oh for the benefit of hindsight - but that probably would have been a sensible strategy for an investment novice like me.
I will be back in the coming weeks, with - hopefully - better news.
Glad to see you back writing your blog. I was contemplating doing my own SIPP as my pension providers are not exactly setting the world on fire. Good luck
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