January 2, 2026

My Investments Update – January 2026

Nick Investing events, reviews 0 Comments

Happy New Year! Here is my latest monthly update about my investments. You can read my December 2025 Investments Update here if you like.

I’ll begin as usual with my JP Morgan Personal Investing (previously Nutmeg) Stocks and Shares ISA. This is the largest investment I hold other than my Bestinvest SIPP (personal pension).

As regular readers will know, in June this year I transferred most of the money in my former Nutmeg Fully Managed portfolio (just under £25,000) to a new Nutmeg Income Portfolio. I discussed this in detail in this post, but basically money in this port is invested to generate an income from share dividends and other sources. This is then paid monthly. Capital appreciation is targeted as well, but these portfolios are aimed primarily at older people (and others) who want/need their investment to generate a regular cash income.

In December my JPM Investing income portfolio generated £75.04 of income, which was duly paid in to my bank account on 24 December 2025. That means I have now received a total (tax-free) income of £471.46 to date. That’s about what I would have hoped for based on JPM’s projected annual return of just under 5% for income ports at my chosen risk level (five).

My income portfolio grew in value again in December. It’s now worth £27,052 compared with £27,015 at the start of last month, a rise of £37. As the screen capture shows, the port has actually increased by £2,099.98 (8.42%) since I opened it in June this year. That’s clearly good going, though I don’t suppose it will carry on like this indefinitely. I should maybe also mention that performance may have been helped a bit by the no-fees introductory offer on Nutmeg/JPM income portfolios until the end of 2025. That has ended now, of course.

I still have a smaller, growth-oriented pot using JPM Investing’s Smart Alpha option. This is now worth £4,714 compared with £4,685 a month ago, an increase of £29. Here is a screen capture showing performance over the last year.

Finally, I still have a small amount left in my original Nutmeg/JPM Fully Managed portfolio. I have kept this largely for comparison purposes. This has also increased slightly in value from £637 at the start of December to £642 (rounded up) now, a rise of £5.

Overall in December I was up by £74 or 0.31%. In addition I did, of course, receive £75.04 in income from my income portfolio. Overall, then, I am in profit for the month by £149.04.

Excluding income generated, the overall value of my JPM investments is up by £2,914 or 9.58% since the start of 2025, so the April 2025 fall (caused largely by Trump’s tariffs) has now fully reversed. If you add to this figure the £471.46 of income generated so far, that gives a total profit for the last 12 months of £3,385.46 – not a bad return in these uncertain times.

As I always have to say, some volatility is to be expected with stock market investments, but over the longer term they tend to even themselves out (and generally perform better than bank savings accounts, although that is never guaranteed). In general the worst thing you can do is panic and sell up when downturns occur (as happened in April last year). You are then crystallizing your losses rather than giving the markets time to recover. This is something I had cause to discuss in this blog post.

You can read my full original Nutmeg/JPM review here. If you are looking for a home for your annual ISA allowance, based on my overall experience over the last nine years, they are certainly worth considering. They offer self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs), Lifetime ISAs and Junior ISAs as well.

• As mentioned above, Nutmeg have rebranded as J.P. Morgan Personal Investing and their website is now at www.personalinvesting.jpmorgan.com.

Moving on, I also have investments with P2P property investment platform Assetz Exchange. As discussed in this post, the company has rebranded as Housemartin.

My investments with Housemartin continue to generate steady returns. Housemartin focuses on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing). I put an initial £100 into this in mid-February 2021 and another £400 in April. In June 2021 I added another £500, bringing my total investment up to £1,000.

Since I opened my account, my HM portfolio has generated a respectable £291.50 in revenue from rental income. I have made a small net loss of £21.68 on property disposals. Capital growth generally has slowed, in line with UK property values generally.

At the time of writing, 13 of ‘my’ properties are showing gains, 5 are breaking even, and the remaining 24 are showing losses. My portfolio of 42 properties is currently showing a net decrease in value of £72.54. That means that overall (rental income minus capital value decrease and loss on disposal) I am up by £197.28. That’s still a respectable return on my £1,000 and does illustrate the value of P2P property investments for diversifying your portfolio. And it doesn’t hurt that with Housemartin most projects are socially beneficial as well.

The net fall in capital value of my Housemartin investments is obviously a little disappointing. But it’s important to remember that until/unless I choose to sell the investments in question, it is largely theoretical, based on the latest price at which shares in the property concerned have changed hands. The rental income, on the other hand, is real money (which in my case I’ve reinvested in other HM projects to further diversify my portfolio).

To control risk with all my property crowdfunding investments nowadays, I invest relatively modest amounts in individual projects. This is a particular attraction of Housemartin as far as i am concerned. You can actually invest from as little as £1 per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.

• As I noted in this blog post, Housemartin is particularly good if you want to compound your returns by reinvesting rental income. This effectively boosts the interest rate you are receiving. Personally, once I have accrued a minimum of £10 in rental payments, I usually reinvest this money in either a new HM project or one I have already invested in (thus increasing my holding). Over time, even if I don’t invest any more capital, this will ensure my investment with Housemartin grows at an accelerating rate and becomes more diversified as well.

My investment on Housemartin is in the form of an IFISA so there won’t be any tax to pay on profits, dividends or capital gains. I’ve been impressed by my experiences with Housemartin and the returns generated so far, and intend to continue investing with them. You can read my original review of Assetz Exchange/Housemartin here and my article about the rebranding to Housemartin here. You can also sign up for an account directly via this link [affiliate].

In 2022 I set up an account with investment and trading platform eToro, using their popular ‘copy trader’ facility. I chose to invest $500 (then about £412) copying an experienced eToro trader called Aukie2008 (real name Mike Moest).

In January 2023 I added to this with another $500 investment in one of their thematic portfolios, Oil Worldwide. I also invested a small amount I had left over in Tesla shares.

As you can see from the screen captures below, my original investment (total value £888.36 in pounds sterling) is today worth £1,152.75 an overall increase of £264.39 or 29.76%.

• Note: eToro now displays the value of investments in your native currency, although you can change this if you wish.

 

You can read my full review of eToro here. You may also like to check out my more in-depth look at eToro copy trading. I also discussed thematic investing with eToro using Smart Portfolios in this recent post. The latter also reveals why I took the somewhat contrarian step of choosing the oil industry for my first thematic investment with them.

As you can see, my Oil WorldWide investment is in profit, though at 10.37% it is nothing to get excited about. My copy trading investment with Aukie2008 has been doing better, with an impressive overall profit of 63.35%. To be fair, I have held this investment a bit longer.

My Tesla shares, which I bought as an afterthought with some spare cash I had in my account, are up again this month. They are showing an overall profit of 304.65% since I bought them. If only I had put a bit more money into this!

You might also notice that I have small holdings in Prosus NV, a Dutch internet group, and South Bow, a Canadian energy infrastructure company. To be honest I don’t understand how I acquired these, but I assume they are some sort of bonus I was awarded. In any event, I am happy to have them in my portfolio.

• If you would like more information about setting up an eToro account, please click on this no-obligation website link [affiliate]. Don’t forget that you also get a free $100,000 virtual portfolio, which you can use to experiment with trading and investing strategies. I have certainly earned a lot from mine.

As an experiment, at the start of April this year I put £50 into an investment ISA with Trading 212. As mentioned in my recent blog post about dividend investing, I put it into the (Almost) Daily Dividends Portfolio, a ready-made portfolio or ‘pie’ on Trading 212. As you can see from the screen capture below, my portfolio is now worth £57.34, an increase of £7.34 or 14.60% over the nine-month period. It has even accrued a grand total of 77p in dividends!

I am quite impressed with how this investment has been faring, despite the small amount I put in (which means I may be missing out on some smaller dividends). If I increased my investment I would almost certainly become eligible for more dividends, and even more the longer I remain invested. If I had any spare money at the moment, I would consider doing this. Of course, I do now have an income-focused portfolio with JPM Investing as well (see above).

 

 

Moving on, I published various posts on Pounds and Sense in December. I have listed below those that are still relevant.

My Top 20 Posts of 2025 is pretty self-explanatory. In this post I listed the top twenty posts on Pounds and Sense in 2025, based on comments, page-views and social media shares, excluding any that were no longer relevant. I hope you might enjoy revisiting these posts, or seeing them for the first time if you are new to PAS.

In Why You Should Beware of Going ‘All-In’ on Electricity I focused on a topic that has become of increasing concern to me in recent months. Over the past decade, UK households have been encouraged to electrify almost everything. Cars are going electric. Gas boilers are being phased out in favour of electric heat pumps. Even cooking is increasingly moving from gas to electricity. Of course, on paper this all fits with the Government’s drive towards Net Zero. But in this post I addressed a growing issue that doesn’t get discussed nearly enough: What happens if the electricity supply isn’t always there when you need it?

Also in December I published New Trading 212 Offer – Get a Guaranteed £25 Cash. This is a rare opportunity to get a guaranteed £25 cash by opening a new Trading 212 Invest account (it’s different from their usual free share promotion, which is currently closed). My post explains what you have to do to claim this money. The offer ends on 20 January 2026.

I also published another syndicated guest post by Primrose Freestone, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Microbiology at Leicester University. This one is on the subject Can You Wear the Same Socks More Than Once? I published another article by Dr Freestone recently on how often you should wash your bedding, which generated a lot of interest. If you enjoyed that article, hopefully you will like this one as well. Again it contains a lot of eye-opening information, including some tips on when and how you should launder socks.

Finally, in What Are the Best Video Calling Tools for Older People? I discussed the benefits for older folk of using video-calling tools and apps to keep in touch with friends and family. I described a range of options, explaining how they work and whom they might be most suitable for. This article was published with Christmas in mind, but obviously it is relevant at other times of the year as well.

I’ll close with a reminder that you can also follow Pounds and Sense on Facebook or Twitter (or X as we have to call it now). Twitter/X is my number one social media platform and I post regularly there. I share the latest news and information on financial matters, and other things that interest, amuse or concern me. So if you aren’t following my PAS account on Twitter/X, you are definitely missing out!

• I am also on the BlueSky social media network under the username poundsandsense.bsky.social. Twitter/X remains my primary social media platform, but I also post details of my latest blog posts, third-party articles and other financial news and resources on BlueSky for those who prefer to follow me there.

As always, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them below. I am always delighted to hear from PAS readers 

Disclaimer: I am not a qualified financial adviser and nothing in this blog post should be construed as personal financial advice. Everyone should do their own ‘due diligence’ before investing and seek professional advice if in any doubt how best to proceed. All investing carries a risk of loss. 

Note also that posts on PAS may include affiliate links. If you click through and perform a qualifying transaction, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect the product or service you receive or the terms you are offered, but it does help support me in publishing PAS and paying my bills. Thank you!