House Move

First of all, well done to Andy Murray winning his first Wimbledon title last Sunday - what a result! What’s more I read he donated his winnings of £1.6m to a cancer charity - top bloke.

Just when you think it can’t get much better on the sporting front, we have an amazing start to the first Ashes test match at Nottingham.

Short Term Finance

Its going to be an uncomfortable couple of months for this ‘buy and hold’ investor as I need to realise short term bridging finance in connection with a pending property purchase.

Markets have risen strongly in recent months so it is tempting to take profits on some of the shares and/or investment trusts. The ideal scenario would be that by the time the funds are available from the sale of my existing property, prices will have fallen and I can re-purchase these investments at a lower price. However, you just sort of know that’s probably not going to happen!

The other dilema is that most of these investments are generating income and my income needs will probably be even greater in the new property so selling investments and thereby reducing income can only be a very temporary solution.

The obvious candidates to target will be the shares and investment trusts with the lowest yields. The decision does not have to be taken immediately but the front runners appear to be Dialight, Diageo, and possibly Reckitt from the shares and Dunedin Smaller, Bankers and recent addition Finsbury Growth & Income from the investment trusts. All are on a current yield under 3.0%.

These decisions can wait for a quieter day. In the meantime, the 4th days play is underway at Trent Bridge - Blowers is on commentary, Bell has just made a century. C’mon England - another 50 runs should be enough!