Well 2025 is almost behind us and gosh, what a year. Talk about a rollercoaster ride with markets whipsawing around at times, especially in response to the new US administration’s tariff policies.
A year that involved significant changes to my portfolio to increase international diversification as well as to reduce the impact of the anticipated (and now confirmed) further weakening of the US dollar. Which incidentally ended down about 7.7% against the GBP and about 13.6% against the EUR. More to come I suspect.
With the extreme tariff volatility earlier in the year I found myself in uncharted territory so a large proportion of my capital was held as cash for a period. That brought down my overall returns for the year but given the circumstances I still think my approach prudent. Whatever the case, how did I do?
2025 Benchmark: VUAG (GBP) – 8.41%
2025 Benchmark: VOO (USD) – 16.68%
2025 Benchmark: HSBC FTSE All World Index Acc C (GBP) – 13.7%
My 2025 Self Invested Personal Pension Performance (SIPP): 14.3%
My ≈$10k to $1 million challenge (started 5/5/23) Total Return To Date: 1,233%
My <$10k to $1 million challenge (started 7/7/25) Total Return To Date: 21.1%
My Historical SIPP Performance:
2024: 77%
2023: 66.9%
On reflection I am reasonably happy with the returns for 2025, which are far better than the ‘VOO and chill’ equivalent strategy for a British investor (i.e. VUAG) whose native currency is GBP. While not as strong a performance for my SIPP as 2024 or 2023 I hope to see a return to very strong growth in 2026 thanks to my current Double Bubbler picks in particular.
Happy Hogmanay and Happy New Year fellow Bubblers. All the best for 2026!
May fortune favour the brave!
Mark aka Double Bubbler
Double Bubbler’s Investing Report 2025: A solid transition year and positioned for significant growth, hopefully!
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