October 2026 Portfolio Update
Wednesday 11th November 2026
Fighting a war on two fronts
It was meant to be easy. Our tenant moved out in August and my plan was to sell our first investment property and look to start to liquidate some of our property portfolio, as I move towards early retirement next March.
However six weeks on the market, we have had plenty of views, but only one offer for less than what we would be willing to sell the property for.
So what happened? I made the wrong assumption that selling a property would be easy. I felt I had done everything right. The house was in turn key condition, a perfect property for a first time buyer.
But the market has moved against us. Things are changing. Supply has increased and buyers are more interested in properties in Limerick suburbs rather than in the outskirts of the city.
In fact, there is currently an oversupply of properties in the village that our property is in.
It has reached a point where we really have two options:
1. Stick it out, knowing that it could be months until the property is sold.
2. Take the property off the market and rent it out again.
The big issue is that we simply aren’t prepared for the long selling process. An empty house sitting over the cold winter doesn’t sound like a great prospect. And honestly, we just hadn’t fully realised the full impact of having a property vacant for such a long period - it isn’t much fun paying a mortgage on a property that isn’t bringing in any income.
Short of a strong offer coming in over the next few days, it is likely we will pull the property off the market and look to rent it out again.
Where this leaves us with my plan to retire in March is interesting. I still want to leave my full time job regardless, but might find I need to transition with a bit more freelance work that I had planned. This is the flexibility I have talked about in the past being flexed from day one!
This was because my plan had been to use the sale proceeds to create a bit of a cash cushion and draw down on that over the next few years. I will need to find another path - I look forward to working this out and seeing how I solve this cashflow shortage.
What is that Mike Tyson quote - “Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth”.
As for our newly purchased investment property, I am pleased to report that the renovations are almost complete and we have a tenant lined up to move in during November. This is going to help our cash flow situation a lot and we look forward to some normality from property for a few months, as we look to finish up with renovation projects, get full occupancy restored and improve our cash position within our portfolio.
My short term goal then - get both properties rented, have full occupancy and let the dust settle for a while!
October 2026 Portfolio Update
Stocks were largely flat in October, though I am led to believe my headlines that they have fallen a bit in early November, so this will be interesting to see how this reflects in November.
Amazingly, even with two empty properties, and paying mortgages on six rental properties, with income only coming in from four, our property income was still in the black. I am looking forward to seeing how this performs once we are at full vacancy again.
As mentioned last month, our cash continues to be in a negative balance, as I have taken a personal loan to cover the renovations on our latest buy to let property. This negative balance will peak in our next update, but will start to decline after that as things settle in again.
Let’s break down the numbers:
| Portfolio Summary (as at 31st October 2026) | |
|---|---|
| Opening Balance | €938,970.90 |
| New Contributions | €0.00 |
| Portfolio Growth | €1,655.07 |
| Closing Balance | €940,625.97 |
Monthly Portfolio Growth Report
| Monthly Portfolio Growth Report | |
|---|---|
| Capital Gain + Dividend Income from Equities | €-71.83 |
| Real Estate Income | €1,726.90 |
| Total Growth | €1,655.07 |
| % Return | 0.18% |
Portfolio Breakdown
The table below shows the breakdown of my portfolio into the various asset classes:
| Portfolio Asset Breakdown (as at 31st October 2026) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Equities (Stocks) | €242,444.12 | 25.77% |
| Real Estate (Equity between 6 properties) | €718,992.81 | 76.44% |
| Cash | €-20,810.96 | -2.21% |
| Total | €940,625.97 | 100.00% |
2026 Year to Date Returns
Here is a summary of my year to date returns for 2026.
| 2026 Year to Date Growth Report | |
|---|---|
| Opening Balance | €846,030.49 |
| New Contributions | €640.00 |
| Equities Capital Gains + Dividends | €31,542.98 |
| Real Estate Capital Gains + Rental Income | €62,270.31 |
| Interest on Cash Savings | €142.19 |
| Closing Balance | €940,625.97 |
| Portfolio Return | €93,955.48 |
| % Return | 11.1% |