This week: My portfolio pivot. The AI IPO wave. Pension Lock. Record Diesel Price. My Investing Manifesto & Why timing is a losers game.
THE BIGGEST LESSON:
This week, I had some activity in my portfolio.
I sold £5k of my Vanguard Target Retirement Fund 2055, added £2k of fresh cash, and put the full £7k into $VALL, the fund I’m backing heavily moving forward. Naturally, within a few hours of hitting buy, the market took a hit and the fund dropped nearly 1%.
Old me would have spiralled: “Why didn't you just wait for the dip? You're an idiot.”
But beating yourself up over short-term timing is pointless. It assumes you can predict the future, and nobody can.
What I am 99% sure of is that in 20 or 30 years, this tiny 1% dip won't matter. The prices I bought at this week will look incredibly cheap, the daily volatility will be long forgotten, and I'll probably wish I had invested even more.
If you're a long-term investor, tune out the daily noise and stick to the script.
My plan is simple: Max out my income, funnel as much as possible into $VALL, and let compounding do the heavy lifting over the next few decades.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Anthropic & OpenAI set to IPO
Two of the biggest names in tech are preparing to go public, following SpaceX's successful IPO earlier this year. Anthropic is targeting a record $2 Trillion valuation, while OpenAI is hovering around the $1.4 Trillion mark.
While tech fans are excited, many investors worry these massive listings could signal the peak of the AI bubble and trigger a market correction.
My take: I won't be buying on day one. IPOs notoriously spike and then dump shortly after going public. Volatility is guaranteed.
Triple lock becomes the double lock
The UK State Pension triple lock is getting a major overhaul starting April 2030. Andy Burnham announced that the automatic link to average wage growth is being scrapped.
Under the new "adjusted" framework, pensions will only rise by the higher of CPI inflation or 2.5%. The wage link will only return over longer macro cycles to keep the pension from falling below 30% of average full-time earnings.
The move eliminates the compounding cash ratchet from back-to-back high inflation and wage years, saving the Treasury roughly £15 billion annually to fund adult social care.
Diesel hits an all-time high
UK diesel prices have broken records, with the national average hitting 199.3p a litre and many forecourts crossing the £2 milestone.
Escalating Middle East conflicts are disrupting oil routes through the Strait of Hormuz, which—combined with a global refining bottleneck—has pushed wholesale crude past $106 a barrel.
The RAC warns we are in "uncharted territory," eclipsing the previous peak from the 2022 Ukraine energy crisis. It now costs nearly £110 just to fill a standard family car.
SOMETHING YOU CAN COPY:
To keep my emotions out of my portfolio, I wrote down an Investing Manifesto. It's a simple list of ground rules I read whenever the market gets shaky.
Feel free to copy this template and tweak it to fit your own strategy.
My Investing Manifesto:
- My Core Philosophy: I cannot control, predict, or time the market. Corrections are normal. Daily volatility has zero impact on my life.
- My Time Horizon: I am investing for the next 2+ decades. Short-term noise does not change long-term outcomes.
- My Automation Rule: Within 24 hours of payday, I automatically invest £500 into a low-cost, well-diversified fund—no matter what the news headlines say.
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If the market drops 10% or more, I will:
- Do absolutely nothing and let my automations run.
- Stop checking my brokerage account app for 2 weeks.
- Look at my available cash to see if I can buy more assets at a discount.
QUOTE OF NOTE:
“Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections than in corrections themselves.” - Peter Lynch
THE TAKEAWAY:
Market timing is a loser's game. Whether it's a 1% dip on a random Tuesday, a massive tech IPO hype cycle, or surging fuel prices, the macro noise will always try to scare you out of your positions.
Write your rules down, lock in your payroll automations, and let time do the work.
