What I'm doing with my own money

Most finance sites tell you what to do while keeping their own money private. I'd rather show you mine (the funds, the reasons, the costs) and let you make up your own mind.

Read this bit first This page shows my personal decisions for my personal situation, my age, my goals, my appetite for risk. It is not a recommendation. Copying someone else's portfolio without understanding it is how people get hurt. Use this page for ideas to research, not instructions to follow.

My approach in three sentences

Time in the market beats timing the market, so I invest monthly and don't try to be clever. Passive index funds make up the core, because cheap and boring wins over decades. Costs are the one thing I can control, so I keep every fee as low as I can, the calculator shows why that obsession pays.

Alongside this, I trade options and futures on TastyTrade as a part-time job. It's a separate account, a different game with different risks, so it isn't part of the long-term money on this page.

My pension (SIPP): four holdings, the whole world

This is my SIPP with Interactive Investor. I chose it because it's a flat monthly fee, which works out cheaper as a pot grows. I also have an older pension with Standard Life, left in Standard Life's own funds. It's separate and not shown here.

Four holdings is all I use. Between them they touch almost every sector and every investable country on earth, so whatever's rising somewhere, I own a piece of it, and no single company, sector or country can sink the ship. Simple to understand, simple to check, simple to leave alone.

My pension holdings, updated July 2026
Holding	Ticker	What it is	Yearly cost (OCF)	Share of pot
Vanguard FTSE Developed World (Acc)	VHVG	Large & mid-cap companies across the developed world, US, Europe, Japan, Australia. The engine room.	0.12%	50%
iShares Core MSCI EM IMI	EIMI	The broadest emerging-markets fund there is, China, India, Brazil, Taiwan and 20+ more. Covers what VHVG doesn't.	0.18%	15%
BlackRock World Mining Trust	BRWM	Global miners, copper, iron ore, gold, lithium. My deliberate tilt towards real-world resources. The priciest and spiciest slice, kept small on purpose.	0.95%	15%
Cash / short-dated gilts	-	The shock absorber, dry powder that doesn't fall when markets do, and gives me money to buy with after they've fallen.	~0%	20%

4holdings, that's the whole pension

~0.23%blended yearly cost across the pot

45+countries covered between them

Why it's built this way 80% of the pot rides the world's stock markets (developed + emerging), split so nothing is bet on one region. The mining trust adds real-asset exposure, but it's still shares, so I treat it as spice, not safety. The real safety is the 20% in cash and short gilts: it holds its value in a crash and lets me buy when everything's on sale.

My Stocks & Shares ISA / Pension (SIPP)

My ISA is with IG (no platform fee). I'm still building it from the funds below, so the ISA figures show "-" for now. The SIPP figures are the pension above.

What I hold or pick from, and the share of each pot, updated October 2026
Fund	Ticker	What it is	Yearly cost (OCF)	Share of pot
US Equities
Invesco EQQQ NASDAQ-100 (GBP Hdg)	EQGB	Top 100 non-financial US companies, ~60% tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia	0.30%	ISA: - SIPP: -
iShares S&P 500 GBP Hedged	IGUS	500 largest US companies across all sectors, the benchmark for the American economy	0.20%	ISA: - SIPP: -
UK Equities
iShares Core FTSE 100 (Dist)	ISF	100 largest UK-listed companies, heavy in financials, energy, and consumer staples	0.07%	ISA: - SIPP: -
Vanguard FTSE 250	VMID	Next 250 UK mid-cap companies, more domestically focused than the FTSE 100	0.10%	ISA: - SIPP: -
Europe & Japan
iShares Nikkei 225	CNKY	225 largest Japanese companies, Toyota, Sony, SoftBank; JPY currency risk	0.48%	ISA: - SIPP: -
Emerging Markets
iShares MSCI India	IIND	Large and mid-cap Indian stocks, one of the world's fastest-growing major economies	0.65%	ISA: - SIPP: -
iShares Core MSCI EM IMI	EIMI	Broadest emerging market exposure, China, India, Brazil, Taiwan, and 20+ more countries	0.18%	ISA: - SIPP: 15%
Global
Vanguard FTSE Developed World (Acc)	VHVG	Large and mid-cap companies across developed markets, US, Europe, Japan, Australia; no emerging markets	0.12%	ISA: - SIPP: 50%
Sector / Thematic
VanEck Semiconductor	VVSM	~25 global chip companies, Nvidia, TSMC, ASML; a concentrated bet on semiconductors	0.35%	ISA: - SIPP: -
VanEck Crypto & Blockchain Innovators	DAPP	Companies active in crypto and blockchain, equities not direct crypto; high risk, high volatility	0.65%	ISA: - SIPP: -
BlackRock World Mining Trust	BRWM	Actively managed global mining and resources, copper, iron ore, gold, lithium producers	0.95%	ISA: - SIPP: 15%
Commodities
iShares Physical Gold ETC	SGLN	Backed by real allocated gold bullion, classic safe-haven and inflation hedge	0.12%	ISA: - SIPP: -
WisdomTree Copper	COPA	Copper futures, tracks the industrial metal most sensitive to global manufacturing activity	0.49%	ISA: - SIPP: -
Bonds / Fixed Income
iShares UK Gilts 0-5yr	IGLS	Short-term UK government bonds, low risk, low return; a stability anchor in a portfolio	0.07%	ISA: - SIPP: -
iShares $ Treasury Bond 7-10yr (Acc)	IBTM	Medium-term US government bonds in USD, safer than equities, used to balance portfolio risk	0.07%	ISA: - SIPP: -
Defensive
Cash / Short Gilts	-	Low-risk defensive allocation, short-duration gilts and cash equivalents	~0%	ISA: - SIPP: 20%

Why is there a crypto fund in here? I don't buy bitcoin, ether or single "hot" names like SpaceX. One coin or one company can sink, and that's the same risk as betting on any individual stock. DAPP is different: it holds a basket of companies working in crypto and blockchain, so the risk and the ups and downs are spread across many of them. If I hold it, it'll only ever be a small slice.

The shortlist I pick from

Before choosing anything I keep a researched shortlist, every fund pre-checked for what it tracks and what it costs. A few highlights from it (full costs as at July 2026):

0.20%iShares S&P 500 GBP Hedged (IGUS), 500 biggest US companies

0.12%Vanguard FTSE Developed World (VHVG), global developed markets

0.18%iShares Core EM IMI (EIMI), broad emerging markets

Core (global & US): FTSE Developed World (VHVG, 0.12%), S&P 500 (IGUS, 0.20%), the cheap, boring engine room.
UK: FTSE 100 (ISF, 0.07%), FTSE 250 (VMID, 0.10%) for domestic exposure.
Growth tilts: NASDAQ-100 (EQGB, 0.30%), broad emerging markets (EIMI, 0.18%), India (IIND, 0.65%).
Stabilisers: short UK gilts (IGLS, 0.07%), US Treasuries 7-10yr (IBTM, 0.07%), physical gold (SGLN, 0.12%).
Small, spicy, optional: semiconductors (VVSM, 0.35%) and crypto & blockchain companies (DAPP, 0.65%). I'd only ever hold these as a small slice, because they swing a lot.

Notice the pattern in the costs The core of the portfolio costs 0.07% to 0.20% a year. The exotic stuff costs up to 0.95%, which is fine in small doses, but it's why the boring funds do the heavy lifting.

What I've changed recently

October 2026: page updated. Pension (SIPP) set at 50% VHVG, 15% EIMI, 15% BRWM, 20% cash and short gilts. ISA with IG being built next.

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