The Birthday blog - 61yo on 8th November 2020

This is the annual anniversary "Pension Builder" blog post - which reminds me that it's about time I changed the profile photo which was taken just before my 50th birthday!

The SIPP portfolio as at close of business on Friday 6th November 2020 is as per the table below.  What I'm proud of is since 1st August 2012 - over 8 years ago - I've averaged growth of 12.85%pa. Sure, if I'd put my entire SIPP into the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (SMT) then I'd be looking at a SIPP value well over £600,000 now, maybe more - but that would take a lot of trust!  I'm a big supporter of Investment Trusts, and if I had chosen a basket of IT's like SMT, such as Allianze Technology Trust (ATT), Edinburgh Worldwide IT (EWI), or even Monks IT (MNKS), then I'd have well-beaten my own investment performance.

It has been one helluva year for all of us, never mind the SIPP which has seen its own highs and lows in the past 12 months.  Just take a look at this graph of the Portfolio Value over the past 12 months!

There's  a lot of information to post on this blog, and it's likely to take me a bit of time, as I'm also going to take stock of my current financial position and look to reflect, and possibly rebalance the portfolio to take the best advantage not just of the next 12 months but for the next 5 years.

SIPP Value on 16th October 2020

 It's been a long time since the last post, and an awful lot has happened in the meantime.

The SIPP has been through some ups and downs, or should I say downs and ups?

From a "high" of £215,000 in early February, the SIPP value plunged due to Covid, then briefly recovered, then plunged again dropping to £130,000 - a correction of 40%. Thankfully, I pretty much held my nerve and the 2nd recovery started in mid-March.  With the recovery underway, I reviewed and rebalanced my portfolio - not much, but I put more into IT companies which is where I anticipated the best gains would be, and it was a good guess!

Now, my portfolio is up to £226,000 and pretty much back on target.

From the blog posted on 13th May 2018.

Initial capital 1st August 2012 = £51,684
Projection used = 13% pa growth = 1.02% per month
For the first 36 months of the SIPP, monthly contributions were £300/mth.
Since August 2015, monthly contributions has been £750/mth.

Monthly contributions ceased on 7th June 2019.

A Lump Sum contribution of £14,000 was made on 24th January 2020 (unfortunately). 

August 1st to November 1st = 3 months
51,684 plus £300 x 3 = 52,584 @ 1.02% growth / month = £54,193

Year 1 (pe 01Nov13): b/f £54,193 plus £300 x 12; plus 1.02% growth / month = £65,029
Year 2 (pe 01Nov14): b/f £65,029 plus £300 x 12; plus 1.02% growth / month = £77,270
Year 3 (pe 01Nov15): b/f £77,270 plus £300 x 9 

and £750 x 3; plus 1.02% growth / month = £92,462

Year 4 (pe 01Nov16): b/f £92,462 plus £750 x 12; plus 1.02% growth / month = £113,978
Year 5 (pe 01Nov17): b/f £113,978 plus £750 x 12; plus 1.02% growth / month = £138,280
Year 6 (pe 01Nov18): b/f £138,280 plus £750 x 12; plus 1.02% growth / month = £165,735
Year 7 (pe 01Nov19): b/f £165,735 plus £750 x 8; plus 1.02% growth / month = £193,706
Year 8 (pe 01Nov20): b/f £193,706 plus £14,000 on 24Jan20; 

plus 1.17% growth / month = £234,166

My Target retirement fund value is £500,000

SIPP Value as at COP 4th February 2020

The intent is to post a screenshot of the SIPP portfolio at the start of each month.  I missed Monday morning, and finally got around to doing the job today (Wed 5th Feb - 0745 GMT).

The main point is that I was able to pay-in £14,000 from a company that I closed.  This will be my final contribution to the SIPP as I am no longer self-employed.  So performance will be a lot easier to monitor and measure from now on.
After making the deposit, my initial action was to buy 1300 shares at 417 in Avast (AVST) which I consider to be well over-sold following a security data issue which was (in my opinion) exaggerated. As of today (10th February) the SP of Avast is 462, so I'm happy the SP is moving in the right direction.
Since posting this screenshot, I've trimmed my holdings in both Segro (SGRO) and HG Capital Trust (HGT) to approximately £20,000 in value. The reasons being:
Segro looks a bit "ripe" and there may not be the opportunity to make similar gains in the SP in 2020 as was achieved in 2019; and
the NAV of HG Capital Trust revolves around it's shareholding in VISMA. HGT holds 50% of Visma, and that is over 20% of the NAV value of HGT. That seems a bit high a holding to me for an investment trust.