An interim post now before the festive shenanigans are in full swing and I don’t find the time to post.

The full December update will include my progress over 2025, how I did versus my goals, probably some updates on my derisking/decumulation plans and then I’ll be setting some new goals for 2026.

But in brief:

Health Stuff

I’ve generally been in good health but I’ve finally decided I no longer want to put up with or suffer from peri-menopause symptoms.  Therefore, after some scans and blood checks, I am now on HRT.

It’s been a few weeks and already, I don’t feel as exhausted as I was feeling before, so I am getting some better, undisturbed sleep.

Tiredness and exhaustion has meant that I’ve not felt inclined to go to the gym as often as I used to, I’ve just been doing the bare minimum of one session a week.

I also appear to have some shoulder pain, probably from poor posture, too long staring at screen, slumped on the sofa after work, which has resulted in me booking in some physio next week. Hopefully that will sort out the shoulder and I will be fighting fit again.

Work Stuff

Work’s Christmas party was another good one – there was a live band but they were too loud and it wasn’t just me who couldn’t hear people speak, even the young folk were complaining!

My feet were killing me by the end of the night (I did a Cinderella and left at midnight!) – heels are back in the cupboard after their once-a-year outing! It seems mad that pre-Covid, when we were all in the office, I was wearing heels every day as part of my ‘office attire’. It doesn’t even bear thinking of now, my feet just can’t cope with them any more!

Another busy year at work and there’s so much on my to-do list, which will flow over into the new year. The good news is that I remain engaged with the work and the company and still mostly enjoy my job, but having set my FIRE year of 2027, I can’t help but make mental notes of tasks which I will not miss once I stop working!

Mortgage Stuff

My mortgage transfer to a new lender has finally completed. It took 2 months, with delays caused by my old lender not accepting digitally signed documents and the 3rd party conveyancing company my new lender uses for mortgage applications not advising me of this until after I had chased them asking why the redemption statement wasn’t being released. This resulted in me making a mortgage payment at 8.06% interest rate as my fixed deal had ended so I wasn’t happy about that. They kindly sent me a satisfaction survey to complete so I duly obliged!

Anyway, my new mortgage is with my main bank, so it was a little unsettling at first to open my banking app and see a massive negative balance on one of my accounts!

My mortgage is fixed at 4.09% for 5 years, I reduced the borrowing period by 3 years thus increasing my monthly payments a little compared to what I was paying before but not so much that I can’t continue to make overpayments if I wish, which are unlimited.

Options Stuff

I missed mentioning this update last month so here it is now.

I have now been trading options for 3 years.

My goal had been to double my initial capital (£1k) and I did that. Today my balance stands at £2,375.16 so I guess my next goal is to triple my capital to £3k.

Since I have been so successful (haha!) at trading, there is always the temptation to trade more often, to make bigger trades, but I’ve been quite restrained and strong willed in this respect. While I have slightly increased my trades (by 0.1), I have continued to just make small, irregular trades, doing the same thing over and over again, which is trading monthly put options in the US 500 index.

The graph showing my total return since I started trading looks like any decent investment graph.

However, the daily total returns graph starkly shows the 3 big trade losses I’ve made (biggest was £151.13), countered by lots of small winning trades.

It looks like I’ve been improving as time has gone by so long may that continue!

The main thing is that my return rate is 1.58 so I am making money, I have a win rate of 71% which I believe is decent and my average profits are > than my average losses.

My gains this year were 23.7%, I’m averaging around £36 a month profit for very little effort.

With the US 500 at such highs, I currently have no trades ongoing. I’ll probably resume in the new year.