August 2024 update

 Again a bit late on this one, took a few days off work before the kids started back at school.

Finance update

Breakdown for August:

• Pretty shocking month for performance in August, everything was down. In total down £15k for the month
• ISA down £2.5k
• Similar story with my Pension
• I contributed £3k to my GIA/easy access savings, this was also down.
• £600 into Crypto and it dropped like a stone, down £12k for the month

2024/25 tax year:

Overall in the tax year I'm looking at +£22k, which considering I've contributed over £30k to ISA/SIPP/GIA/Crypto is not great! Hopefully I've just been buying them whilst they've all been on sale, and it's a good job I don't need to liquidate any of them now :) 

With the budget at the end of October I'm keeping one eye on what is being floated. I'd be very surprised if they didn't whack up CGT as well as chopping down Pension Tax Relief from marginal rate to a flat rate. The former doesn't really affect me as I've no BTL, or investments outside of a tax wrapper apart from a relatively small GIA. If they remove the CGT allowance completely, then I will change plan with the GIA and instead move the money into Premium Bonds. When I hit the £50k limit (unless they tinker with that too!) then I'll see what my options are then.

If they end up tinkering with the Pension Tax Relief then it removes a massive incentive for me put into my pension. I suppose I'm lucky in the fact that I've been smashing this over the past few years that reducing the amount going into my pension was on the cards anyway (at the grand old age of 38!?), and it would actually firm up the option of utilising a good amount of Unpaid Parental Leave next year (8 weeks). 

For me it boils down to these 3 options, balancing money into my pension with time off with the kids.

Now, if they end up changing the marginal rate to a flat rate then the above figures change.

If I carried on working full time and pension tax relief comes down to a flat rate of 20% then I'd be £9.9k worse off, in which case it makes taking up Unpaid Parental Leave even more appealing!

Non-Finance update

With the kids being off for the entirety of August it was a fun packed month! Both me and my wife took some time off during the holidays, a few days off together and a few days off separately in order to look after the kids as well as on some days where we had some kids of friends we looked after. Mrs Dad on FIRE also took them down to Stratford upon Avon, had a great explore round and a brilliant, cheap escape room type thing called Magic Alley that was perfect for them.

I've moved our kids up onto the next bike sizes now, with my 6 year old getting used to gears, and my 8 year old boy on a 24" bike. We explored some more of the Monsal trail as well as some nature reserves on our doorstep (blessed in Wakefield with an absolute tonne!)

We also went camping on the Scottish borders, at Coldstream and met up with a school friend who lives in Edinburgh. A really lovely small campsite and best of all no midges (probably cos it was a bit windy). The sunset and the stars were out of this world! On the way up we stopped off at Alnwick Castle for a quick explore and a crash course in how to control a broom ala Harry Potter.

  

 

Other than that we did plenty of local walks, blackberries are out in force so we took the kids on a blackberry hunt and made crumble afterwards together with the apples near our house. Produce from the allotment hasn't been great this year owing to the atrocious weather however I've managed to get a good haul of beetroot!

 

 

What I've been reading:

• Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
• Notes from Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky
• The Art of War - Sun Tzu
• Essays in Love - Alain de Botton 

Going forwards, I plan on keeping these monthly updates quite short and sharp unless something notable happens (I'm looking at you Autumn budget!!), and I'll be aiming to do some separate thought piece posts in addition. 

That's it, that's the update.

Until next time!