Damien’s December 2025 portfolio review – What a year it’s been!

The background to my portfolio

Back in March 2015 I decided to invest £50,000 of my own money using 80-20 Investor. The purpose was twofold, firstly to show how you can use 80-20 Investor to invest and outperform the market with only a few minutes effort every now and then. Secondly, no other investment commentator, journalist or research provider invests their own money for fear of failing. This is a sorry state of affairs and is precisely why I committed to openly running my own portfolio for 80-20 Investor members to see.

Since then I have periodically changed my portfolio using the fund data provided by the 80-20 Investor algorithm and associated research. I always disclose the changes at the time they are made.

Performance update

As is usual in my portfolio reviews, the chart below shows how my portfolio has outperformed since I started the challenge in March 2015. The green line is the performance of my portfolio while the red line is the benchmark showing the average return achieved by professional fund managers given the same asset mix. To accurately calculate this I have used the average return for each sector in which my portfolio invested. The blue line shows what the average multi-asset fund with comparable equity content achieved. In other words, the red line would show the extra performance added by just the asset mix of my portfolio (where I was invested i.e. European equities etc) over picking a typical multi-asset fund (the blue line). While the green line (which is my actual performance) shows the impact of being in the right funds at the right time, as identified by the 80-20 Investor algorithm.

My portfolio is broadly where it was this time last month, when I carried out my last portfolio review. During November a stock market sell-off, fuelled by concerns over the AI investment theme, saw my portfolio dip, along with its benchmarks, before it recovered.

This is my last portfolio update of 2025 and my portfolio's year-to-date performance stands at 15.99%. This would rank the portfolio 16th out of 273 funds in the IA Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector, and above funds that collectively manage almost £160 billion in assets. I'm incredibly pleased and proud of my portfolio's return in 2025, as well as the risk management throughout, The portfolio's performance this year has also helped power the long-term performance to new all-time highs. At present, my portfolio's current value sits at £103,100. This means the total return since inception (back in March 2015) is now 106.20%. This compares to 75.61% for the 50k Challenge Benchmark and just 64.51% for the average managed multi-asset fund.

If my portfolio's long-term performance was ranked within the IA Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector, it would rank 25th. Those funds that rank higher, and many that are also ranked lower, have higher equity allocations than my portfolio and are therefore taking more investment risk. Taking investment risk is one thing, but turning that into additional performance is another.

The Sharpe Ratio is a measure of the excess return a manager is achieving with the risk they are taking. The higher the Sharpe Ratio the better. If my portfolio had been a fund residing in the Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector, since its inception more than 10 years ago, it would now be ranked 10th for Sharpe ratio. Or in other words I have achieved my outperformance over the long-term without taking excessive investment risk. That is just as important.

Of course I am humble enough to know that momentum can change, and will at some point, however, it is good to acknowledge your achievements.

Looking at the individual funds in my portfolio (see table below), iShares Physical Gold ETC was once again among my top performing holdings over the last month. Man Japan Core Alpha and Artemis SmartGARP European Equity were among my other top performing funds, alongside Artemis Global Income. At the other end of the scale, Jupiter China endured another poor month, after also propping up the performance chart in my last portfolio review.

Name	% return over the last month (since November review)
Man Japan Core Alpha	3.01
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	2.46
iShares Physical Gold ETC	1.47
Artemis Global Income	1.12
Schroder Strategic Credit	0.47
abrdn High Yield Bond	0.17
Fidelity Global Dividend	0.09
Ninety One UK Special Situations	-0.56
T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity	-0.74
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	-0.85
Invesco Asian (UK)	-1.17
L&G Multi-Asset Target Return	-1.86
Jupiter China	-6.39

As usual, the table below shows which funds within my portfolio are in the current BOTB or BFBS tables and which are not. Those funds in blue are still in the BOTB while those in grey are not in the BOTB but remain in the BFBS list. Meanwhile, any funds in red have dropped out of both shortlists.

Fund	Allocation	Risk	Sector	ISIN Code
abrdn High Yield Bond	13	Lower	Sterling High Yield	GB00B79RR984
Artemis Global Income	14	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB00B5N99561
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	6.5	Medium	Europe Excluding UK	GB00B2PLJD73
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	8.5	Medium	Flexible Investment	GB00B4YPY060
Fidelity Global Dividend	5.5	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB00B7778087
Invesco Asian (UK)	6.5	Higher	Asia Pacific Excluding Japan	GB00B1W7HW60
iShares Physical Gold ETC	7.5	Medium	Commodity & Energy ETF	IE00B4ND3602
Jupiter China	3.5	Higher	China/Greater China	GB00B1DTDX49
Man Group Man Japan Core Alpha	5	Higher	Japan	GB00B0119B50
L&G Multi-Asset Target Return	5	Lower	Targeted Absolute Return	GB00BD97XY71
Ninety One UK Special Situations	10.5	Higher	UK All Companies	GB00B1XFJS91
Schroder Strategic Credit	7.5	Lower	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00BJZ2ZC09
T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity	7	Higher	North America	GB00BD5FHW12

That means that three funds are on the red list this month, having fallen out of the BOTB and BFBS tables, namely:

• Fidelity Global Dividend
• Barclays Global Markets Adventurous
• L&G Multi-Asset Target Return

Overall, my portfolio is performing very well in the current market conditions so there is no need to make large-scale changes. Regular 80-20 Investor members will know that I tend to only make changes to those funds that fall into the red list, however, this month I will break from that tradition. But first, let's look at the funds on the red list this month. Fidelity Global Dividend was also on the red list last month and so was already on my watchlist for possible replacement. However, this month I will give it another stay of execution as it was one of only four equity funds within my portfolio to achieve a positive performance over the last month. As such it is currently only just sitting outside of the BFBS tables. Nonetheless, it remains on my watchlist although its diversification benefits mean that I am happy to hold onto the fund, and I feel there are other areas of my portfolio that need more attention.

Barclays Global Markets Adventurous has also fallen into the red list, although it was in the BFBS as recently as a few weeks ago. Again, I will give this fund a stay of execution, as there are more pressing areas of the portfolio that I want to focus on. That therefore brings me onto L&G Multi-Asset Target Return. The fund forms part of the lower risk portion of my portfolio, so it is disappointing to see that in a month where equity markets slumped, it also fell in value. Meanwhile, the other lower risk funds within my portfolio (namely Schroder Strategic Credit and abrdn High Yield Bond) made money over the last month. As such, I now plan to switch out of L&G Multi-Asset Target Return, despite it only entering the red list this month. To date the fund hasn't provided any of the diversification benefits that I had hoped for since its inclusion in my portfolio.

In recent months the number of Targeted Absolute Return funds that have appeared in the BOTB has tumbled, instead being replaced with multi-asset funds and bond funds. At present, the only Targeted Absolute Return fund within the BOTB is BNY Mellon Multi-Asset Diversified Return, yet that fund also fell in value over the last month, in similar fashion to L&G Multi-Asset Target Return. Therefore rather than replace the L&G fund with an alternative from the Targeted Absolute Return I have decided to replace it with a bond fund from this month's BOTB, namely abrdn Strategic Bond. The abrdn Strategic Bond fund has one of the lowest max weekly fall statistics of all the funds in December's BOTB and produced a positive return when equity markets slumped. When investing in funds that are run by the same fund house as an existing fund in my portfolio (in this case abrdn) I always check that the funds behave differently. As such, I am happy that abrdn High Yield Bond invests differently to its stablemate abrdn Strategic Bond.

Finally, this month I also plan to sell my holding in Jupiter China. The chart below shows the performance of the fund (the green line) since I've held it versus my other Asian/Japanese equity holdings. Jupiter China has been a very profitable investment, although momentum has slumped in recent months.

While this is true of Chinese equities more widely, Jupiter China has endured more pain than many of its peers. Perhaps, unsurprisingly the BOTB no longer has direct exposure to Chinese equities. I therefore plan to move my asset mix to be more in line with that of the BOTB by removing direct exposure to Chinese equities and splitting the proceeds from the sale of Jupiter China equally between my other two top performing Asian equity funds, namely Invesco Asian (UK) and Man Group Man Japan Core Alpha.

I had originally planned to invest the sale proceeds into Vanguard Global Emerging Markets to increase my emerging market exposure, to be more inline with that of the BOTB, however, as the chart below shows, the Vanguard fund is essentially a quasi version of the Invesco Asian fund. The performance of both funds is essentially the same over 1 year, which is a result of them having a similar geographical mix as well as similar underlying share holdings. So rather than introduce the Vanguard fund into my portfolio, I will simply increase my exposure to Invesco Asian.

 

In making the above switches I reduce the number of holdings within my portfolio once again, and back existing winners.

Fund switch

This month I will make the following fund switches:

• 100% out of Jupiter China and then split the proceeds 50% into Invesco Asian (UK) and 50% into Man Group Man Japan Core Alpha
• 100% out of L&G Multi-Asset Target Return and 100% into abrdn Strategic Bond

My portfolio

My portfolio now looks like this:

Fund	Allocation	Risk	Sector	ISIN Code
abrdn High Yield Bond	13	Lower	Sterling High Yield	GB00B79RR984
abrdn Strategic Bond	5	Lower	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00BWK27X12
Artemis Global Income	14	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB00B5N99561
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	6.5	Medium	Europe Excluding UK	GB00B2PLJD73
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	8.5	Medium	Flexible Investment	GB00B4YPY060
Fidelity Global Dividend	5.5	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB00B7778087
Invesco Asian (UK)	8.5	Higher	Asia Pacific Excluding Japan	GB00B1W7HW60
iShares Physical Gold ETC	7.5	Medium	Commodity & Energy ETF	IE00B4ND3602
Man Group Man Japan Core Alpha	6.5	Higher	Japan	GB00B0119B50
Ninety One UK Special Situations	10.5	Higher	UK All Companies	GB00B1XFJS91
Schroder Strategic Credit	7.5	Lower	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00BJZ2ZC09
T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity	7	Higher	North America	GB00BD5FHW12

 

My Portfolio asset mix

My portfolio asset mix still has approximately 64% exposure to equities. Last month's figures are shown in brackets.

• UK Equities 14% (14%)
• North American Equities 12% (12%)
• Asian Equities 8% (5%)
• Chinese Equities 0% (4%)
• Emerging Market Equities 4% (4%)
• Japanese Equities 8% (7%)
• European Equities 12% (12%)
• Other International equity 6% (6%)
• Commodities and energy 7% (6%)
• UK Fixed Interest 2% (2%)
• Global Fixed Interest 19% (19%)
• Cash 0% (0%)
• Alternative Investment Strategies 8% (9%)

Damien's higher risk and lower risk portfolios

Using the logic described in my post: Update to Damien’s alternative risk portfolios I created hypothetical higher and lower risk versions of my portfolio below:

Lower risk

Fund	Allocation %
abrdn High Yield Bond	19
abrdn Strategic Bond	8
Artemis Global Income	20
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	10
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	13
Fidelity Global Dividend	8
iShares Physical Gold ETC	11
Schroder Strategic Credit	11

 

Higher risk

Fund	Allocation %
Artemis Global Income	19
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	9
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	11
Fidelity Global Dividend	7
Invesco Asian (UK)	11
iShares Physical Gold ETC	10
Man Group Man Japan CoreAlpha	10
Ninety One UK Special Situations	14
T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity	9