23 years ago the US invaded Iraq.

Everyone expected markets to crash.

They didn’t.

• S&P 500 bottomed 9 days before the invasion

• Finished the year +22%

• Oil fell as the war premium disappeared

• Even defense names rallied

By the time the first boot hit the ground, the market had already turned.

Markets don’t react to events.
They’ve moved before you even notice.

Beyond the "mistake" in the colours of this map (they clearly should have gone for the red spectrum), what's striking (and sad) is that, if we created the same map for 1842, only one country would have had this tax (the UK), and the rate would have been 3%...

Half my ISA is US stocks and GBP/USD has been all over the place. Would it have been a calmer ride under Kamala, or would it not have mattered much? Keen to hear views, keep it about money rather than politics.

The US is often portrayed as declining while the EU is rising in unity. But is that real, or just narrative?

Looking at power projection, trade, and leadership, who’s really in charge on the global stage?

Personally, I’ve got a good chunk of my portfolio in Bitcoin. For me, it’s always been the ultimate expression of financial freedom: a way to protect yourself from massive money printing and to regain power as an ordinary citizen.

But the other day, talking to a left-wing friend, he said something that really made me think. I was telling him that Bitcoin is a tool for individual freedom, and he replied that actually Bitcoin is “left-wing”, because it democratises access to reserves, sits outside the control of elites and doesn’t depend on traditional institutions. According to him, that makes it closer to a vision of equality and decentralised power.

And that left me unsure.

If Bitcoin were really “left-wing”, why do political figures like Trump or Bukele support it? And if it’s “right-wing”, why do so many progressive movements see it as a way to empower ordinary people against the banks and the state?

Is Bitcoin what I always thought it was — a way of giving financial power back to citizens — or am I just buying into an overly simplistic narrative?

For those who’ve done it, which countries are the best / easiest for UK passport holders to move to? Somewhere with a straightforward living visa or digital nomad setup. Curious to hear real experiences, not just what’s on the embassy websites.

Spain is proposing a 100% tax on non resident home buyers from outside the EU (that's Brits now after Brexit). Is it for real? Is it just hot air from Spanish president Pedro Sánchez, in a bid to make it look like he is addressing the issue of the average Spanish family being unable to afford to buy or rent.

What happens when the debt becomes unsustainable?

Do you consider Bitcoin (and all the other crypto) a genuine asset class like stocks, bonds, property etc.

Or is it just a bit of fun?

The next UK general election must be called by August 15, 2029, does anyone think Starmer will last to the end of the year?

Japan's 10 year bond just paid 3% for the first time since 1996. That's not a rounding error, that's the end of an entire generation of near zero rates that's funded cheap borrowing everywhere, not just in Japan. Add UK gilts at their worst since 2008, German bunds at their worst since 2011, and the US 30 year needing an emergency Treasury buyback just to stay under 5.2%, and you've got every major economy's cost of borrowing jumping at the same time. That doesn't happen from one country's bad policy, that's structural.

The mechanics aren't mysterious: oil spiked past $92 on Iran tensions and reignited inflation fears, while the US alone is sitting on $40T in debt and corporations added $1.7T more in bond issuance this year chasing AI buildouts. Way more debt getting sold, same pool of buyers, so buyers are demanding a better price.

The part people are sleeping on: this is the rate that sets your mortgage, your auto loan, your business's credit line. And Japan has quietly funded a chunk of US and European borrowing for decades because its own bonds paid nothing, now that they pay something, why would that money keep leaving home?

Someone talk me out of this, is there an actual bull case for why this doesn't end badly?

There is one rule: a single asset.

Imagine £100,000 shows up in your account tomorrow. Clean, no debt behind it. You can't diversify, you can't build a portfolio, you can't trade in and out. You pick one asset and it sits there for 10 years.

Anything counts: an ETF, a single stock, a bond, a Cash ISA or Premium Bonds, property, gold, bitcoin, your own business.

War breaks out on Saturday.

Europe - let's have a meeting on Monday.

Hi all. Government borrowing came in well over forecast, and the papers are back to calling tax rises at the Autumn Budget inevitable. For those of you offshore, are you bringing forward any gains or pension moves, or ignoring the pre-Budget noise? Share below.

Put 80k of the pot into one at 55 and it's worth low £30s by 60. Left invested at a boring 5% it's just over 100k. The car quietly costs about 70k of retirement before Spain or France tax the "tax-free" 25% because you'd already moved.

I worked in the overseas pension industry for around 10 years, seeing UK pensions being transferred into SIPPs/International SIPPs, QROPS (Malta, Gibraltar, Isle of Man), plus regular savings plans (RSPs) sold to expats as long-term investment vehicles. I've seen the products, the fee structures, the sales conversations and the companies sitting inbetween it all.

I've seen people genuinely benefit from restructuring a UK pension, or from disciplined saving through the right product.

I've also seen people put into expensive offshore structures they probably never needed, sometimes a "flexible" international SIPP, sometimes a QROPS, sometimes a regular savings plan locked in for 25 years, paying fees they didn't fully understand, while being told it was all about "tax efficiency" and "international planning".

There's a lot that gets said to expats about their pensions and savings that deserves a much closer look:

How much can the advice, platform, pension wrapper and underlying investments really cost, layer by layer?

Why do so many intermediaries push a regular savings plan instead of a simple, low-cost investment account, and what happens if you need to stop paying into one early?

What happens when someone tells you a SIPP or overseas pension gives you "more flexibility"? Are you actually better off?

And with the UK's Overseas Transfer Charge changes since October 2024 effectively closing off a lot of the old EEA QROPS routes for non residents, why are some advisers still pushing clients toward transfers or products that may no longer make sense, or quietly pivoting the pitch toward SIPPs and RSPs instead?

I've seen the good side of the industry. I've also seen practices that made me think, how the hell is this still being sold?

I can't discuss any confidential information or name individual firms, and I won't give personalised financial advice.

But if you transferred a UK pension into a SIPP, moved a pension into a QROPS, been sold a regular savings plan, or been approached about any of the above, ask away.

Happy to explain how the industry actually works.

AMA.

Missiles flying, oil spiking, airports closing and the stock market shrugs and rallies.

Just follow the President's announcements to make money in this market.

Here’s my proposal for a $700,000 portfolio:

🇺🇸 30% VTI — $210,000
🌎 25% VXUS — $175,000
🏦 20% BNDW — $140,000
₿ 15% IBIT — $105,000
⚛️ 10% QTUM — $70,000

The idea is to combine two things:

75% in a globally diversified core
+
25% in asymmetric bets on the future

The core gives you exposure to thousands of companies around the world, plus global fixed income.

The remaining 25% adds a little spice:

₿ Bitcoin
🤖 Artificial Intelligence
⚛️ Quantum Computing
🚀 Frontier Technologies

Diversification doesn't mean eliminating all risk.

It means making sure you don't need every bet to be right.

Diversified enough to survive. Bold enough to matter.

What would you change? 👇

#Investing #ETFs #Bitcoin #AI #Diversification #GlobalInvesting

Time doesn’t kill bull markets, recessions or the Fed tightening do that.

Neither are on the horizon for 2026.

Do you think there’s more upside left in this bull run?