Full English Accompaniment – Embracing change

I am increasingly frustrated by state and institutional approaches to long-term planning. Working in the NHS means I’ve long known the government takes a quick fix strategy, rather than actually calculating the most effective long-term solution. I naively assumed that this would not be the case for industry, or industrial planning. Proper industrial & financial planning has worked for so many countries, surely we would look at five-ten year plans in the UK. I was wrong, and it makes me sad.

What brought this to the forefront of my thinking? Government announcements this week about strategies to help with housing. Since the 1950s there has been low levels of housebuilding in the UK, and much of the UKs property market is underutilised. What is the Governments strategy? Fanfare-laden ‘Generation Buy’, a tagline for a plan to remove the financial risk restrictions imposed after the 2008 housing bust-up (1). 95% mortgages here we come. BoJo told the Telegraph he wanted to “create a “Generation Buy” of young people enabled to engage in the world of capitalism by investing in their own home” (1). I mean the only reason they can’t invest in their own home at the moment is the disequilibrium of house price/ earnings, but much easier to create further debt and financial risk than either a) increase earnings or b) decrease house prices. Plus the tory bedrock are satisfied as their house prices continue to increase after the COVID lockdown uptick (2).

All the while the world burns. Literally in some places. You’d be forgiven for missing the massive toxic waste spill that’s occurred in Kamchatka this month (3). Huge swathes of seabed sterilised. Only coming to light after surfers come ashore blind due to chemical burns. That doesn’t matter though. Much more important things going on that deserve column space, like mineral firms potentially becoming pawns in geopolitical battles (4).

Thankfully a few people pay attention to natures warning signs. Crusty suits and stuffy politicians may be avoidant of new ideas, but the market isn’t. Plenty of investors and companies, including among the FI community, are putting funds into change. DIY Investor UK is a great example, investing in a fossil free portfolio that follows his convictions (5). Gentleman’s Family Finances documents his experiences with Abundance, a platform that enables you to invest in bond/loan-type products for sustainable projects (6, 7). Both Abundance and rival Clim8invest are currently raising money through Seedrs/CrowdCube (7, 8). Where the is interest, there is a market.

I am left with a speck of hope. People will vote with their feet, and if enough people invest or spend sustainably then progress will follow the money, not Governmental plans. Change will happen.

Have a great week,

The Shrink

N.B. This is likely to be the last Full English for some time, for NHS/ personal reasons. The UK FIRE Blog RSS tracker will remain here for your weekly fix of posts: UK FIRE Blog Feed

News:

• Dramatic increase in Savings Rates for Q2 as everyone is locked in their homes (9)
• The rest of the market follows NS&Is rate cut (10)
• Further talk at the BoE about potential negative savings rates (11)
• Cineworld the first cinema chain to announce it won’t reopen for a year, many more to come? (12)
• The FCA has banned the sale of crypto-derivatives to retail customers (13)

Opinion/ Comment/ Blogs:

• The Telegraph’s Money Makeover last week was fairly FIRE-themed (14)
• Interview on the BBC with the founder of PensionBee (15)
• Another BBC piece, this time about how much you should pay into your pension when you are young (16)
• And Yahoo Finance has an article explaining what Financial Independence is (17)
• September has been and gone, so here’s the flurry of month end blogs, the first from Early Retirement in the UK (18)
• Sparklebee’s September update (19)
• Weenie at Quietly Saving (20)
• Fire Lifestyle (21)
• Playing with Fire UK (22)
• A Way to Less (23)
• One Million Journey (24)
• FirevLondon (25)
• PathoLife2 (26)
• Sassenach Saving (27)
• Money Mage (28)
• The Frugal Cottage (29)
• The Saving Ninja (30)
• Autumn Report from Ad Otium (31)
• Moneygrower’s third quarter (32)
• The Obvious Investor’s September update (33)
• South Wales FI looks at fees and their effects on FIRE (34)
• Average Money Man considers cost vs value (35)
• The IT Investor checks over Fundsmith Equity on it’s 10th birthday (36)
• The Banker on Fire considers how to win at office politics (37)
• Indeedably on millionaire goals and his path to happiness (38)
• Money Bulldog considers do you really need pet insurance (39)
• Little Miss Fire is back with a review of a walking app which earns you giftcards (40)
• Life After the Daily Grind on lifestyle inflation (41)
• Sassenach Saving looks at the true cost of having children (42)
• The eagle is building a conservatory (43)
• The UKVI lays out his best and worst returns since COVID kicked off (44)
• Ermine on the FIRE community, current wisdom, his experience, and general Government fuckuppery (45)
• Fu Mon Chu at FI UK Money has his 21-ear old sons FIRE plans (46)
• Disease called debt covers the financial implications of moving for love (47)
• GFF continues his prolific posting, with first his month end accounts for September (48)
• Costs of home improvement (49)
• And muses on the effects of COVID on spending habits (50)
• The DIY Investor UK adds Ocado to his portfolio (51)
• Reviews a year of results from Ceres Power (52)
• And discusses the Green Home Grant Scheme (53)
• A Simple Life with Sam is making plans to help their future self (54)
• And finally, TA at Monevator has the Slow and Steady Passive Portfolio Update for Q3 (55)
• There’s an updated post on low cost trackers (56)
• And TI’s weekend reading weighs in on the challenge of switching from lifelong saving to spending in early retirement (57)

References:

1. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-generation-buy-mortgage-deposits-b754599.html
2. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/oct/07/uk-mortgage-approvals-at-12-year-high-as-house-prices-keep-rising
3. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/07/asia/russia-kamchatka-toxic-marine-life-death-intl/index.html
4. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/10/04/us-invests-british-miner-fight-chinese-control-rare-metals/
5. http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.com/2020/10/fossil-free-portfolio-update.html
6. https://gentlemansfamilyfinances.wordpress.com/2020/10/05/literally-investing-in-abundance/
7. https://www.abundanceinvestment.com/
8. ww.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/10/04/us-invests-british-miner-fight-chinese-control-rare-metals/
9. https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/timeseries/dgd8/ukea
10. https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-8786339/Rate-cuts-come-fast-brutal-NS-blow.html%E2%80%A8
11. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/sep/27/bank-of-england-rate-setter-backs-negative-interest-rates
12. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/cineworld-close-cinemas-after-no-time-die-delayed-b772792.html
13. https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-bans-sale-crypto-derivatives-retail-consumers
14. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/money-makeover/money-makeover-33-nine-buy-to-lets-can-retire-40/
15. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54370026
16. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-54432739
17. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/achieve-financial-independence-170047857.html
18. https://earlyretirementinuk.blogspot.com/2020/10/end-of-month-report-september-2020.html
19. https://sparklebeeblog.wordpress.com/2020/10/01/monthly-update-sep-2020/
20. http://quietlysaving.co.uk/2020/10/03/september-2020-plus-other-updates-2/
21. https://firelifestyle.co.uk/2020/10/03/financial-update-19-summer-is-over-october/
22. https://playingwithfire.uk/september-2020-big-spending-alert/
23. https://awaytoless.com/monthly-spending-september-2020/
24. https://www.onemillionjourney.com/savings-september-2020/
25. https://firevlondon.com/2020/10/04/sep-2020-update-on-a-zero-month-and-on-q3/
26. https://pathtolife2.com/2020/10/05/financial-independence-update-september-2020/
27. https://sassenachsaving.home.blog/2020/10/05/september-net-worth-and-goals-update/
28. https://www.moneymage.net/2020-september-savings-report/
29. https://www.thefrugalcottage.com/dividend-income-september-2020/
30. https://thesavingninja.com/savings-report-27/
31. https://adotium.co.uk/2020/10/03/autumn-2020-report/
32. https://moneygrower.co.uk/third-quarter-dividend-income-2020/
33. https://obviousinvestor.com/p2p-lending-portfolio-update-september-1st-2020/
34. https://southwalesfi.co.uk/2020/10/09/fees-and-fire/
35. https://averagemoneymanagement.wordpress.com/2020/10/09/cost-vs-value/
36. https://www.itinvestor.co.uk/2020/10/10-years-of-fundsmith-equity/
37. https://bankeronfire.com/office-puppet-show
38. https://indeedably.com/millionaire/
39. https://moneybulldog.co.uk/do-you-really-need-pet-insurance/
40. https://littlemissfire.com/how-to-get-paid-to-walk/
41. https://lifeafterthedailygrind.com/lifestyle-inflation-how-luxuries-become-necessities/
42. https://sassenachsaving.home.blog/2020/10/11/the-true-cost-of-having-children/
43. http://eaglesfeartoperch.blogspot.com/2020/09/conservatory-design-build-part-3.html
44. https://www.ukvalueinvestor.com/2020/10/best-and-worst-performing-stocks-through-the-pandemic.html/
45. https://simplelivingsomerset.wordpress.com/2020/10/09/padawan-recency/
46. http://fiukmoney.co.uk/21-year-old-net-worth-and-fire-plan-update-2/
47. https://diseasecalleddebt.com/what-are-the-financial-concerns-of-relocating-for-love/
48. https://gentlemansfamilyfinances.wordpress.com/2020/10/02/month-end-september-2020/
49. https://gentlemansfamilyfinances.wordpress.com/2020/10/07/home-improvement/
50. https://gentlemansfamilyfinances.wordpress.com/2020/10/09/will-covid-affect-your-future-spending-patterns/
51. http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.com/2020/10/ocado-portfolio-addition.html
52. http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.com/2020/09/ceres-power-full-year-results.html
53. http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.com/2020/09/green-homes-grant.html
54. https://asimplelifewithsam.com/2020/10/01/your-future-self/
55. https://monevator.com/the-slow-and-steady-passive-portfolio-update-q3-2020/
56. https://monevator.com/low-cost-index-trackers/
57. https://monevator.com/are-you-ready-to-spend-all-your-money/