July 2024 update

A bit late with the update this month, apologies! This one is short & sweet

Finance update

I mentioned in my last monthly update that I've rather taken to the 'waterfall chart' as a way of showing contributions and gain/loss for both the monthly swing across assets but also to show the total for the year. These can be done simply in Excel.

Breakdown for July:

• ISA is full so no new contributions, markets down led to a downturn of £2k
• Similar story with my Pension
• I contributed £2k to my GIA/easy access savings and bizarrely this ended up in positive territory at the end of the month
• £400 into Crypto and a whopping gain of £4k for the month
• House price rose £1.3k in June
• All in all, up just over £5k

2024/25 tax year:

At the start of August there was a notable market downturn, sparked by Japan increasing interest rates by 0.25%, and having a disastrous effect on the "carry trade" (where you loan money out in a low interest environment and buy assets in another). It looks like markets have somewhat recovered now however I foresee my August summary may be down a good chunk.

Non-Finance update

During July we managed an excellent camping trip at Sherwood Pines. The site itself was a perfect location for the bike trails, but the site itself was very funny about no campfires and BBQs and seemed very uptight about a few things. Thankfully that didn't take away from how good it was and just how much the kids enjoyed it, especially the bike trails, and no doubt we'll be back at some point.

We also managed to take the kids out on their bikes for a stretch of the Monsal trail in the Peak district, and we hiked around Langsett Reservoir.

That's it, that's the update.

Until next time!