To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.
Goethe
This is my ninety-third monthly portfolio update. I complete this regular update to check progress against my goal.
Portfolio goal
My objective is to maintain a portfolio of at least $2,870,000. This should be capable of producing an annual income from total portfolio returns of about $99,000 (in 2024 dollars).
This portfolio objective is based on an assumed safe withdrawal rate of 3.45 per cent.
A secondary focus will be achieving the minimum equity target of $2,300,000.
Portfolio summary
| Vanguard Lifestrategy High Growth Fund | $861,536 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth Fund | $44,380 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced Fund | $78,502 |
| Vanguard Diversified Bonds Fund | $91,760 |
| Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS) | $544,300 |
| Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS) | $722,096 |
| Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200) | $315,649 |
| Telstra shares (TLS) | $2,094 |
| Insurance Australia Group shares (IAG) | $9,565 |
| NIB Holdings shares (NHF) | $7,512 |
| Gold ETF (GOLD.ASX) | $165,774 |
| Secured physical gold | $26,132 |
| Bitcoin | $973,512 |
| Raiz app (Aggressive portfolio) | $24,201 |
| Spaceship Voyager app (Index portfolio) | $3,980 |
| BrickX (P2P rental real estate) | $4,704 |
| Plenti Capital Notes Market Loan | $43,000 |
| Total portfolio value | $3,918,689 (-$157,604) |
Asset allocation
| Australian shares | 31.6% |
| Global shares | 28.7% |
| Emerging market shares | 1.2% |
| International small companies | 1.5% |
| Total international shares | 31.5% |
| Total shares | 63.1.% (-16.9%) |
| Total property securities | 0.1% (+0.1%) |
| Australian bonds | 2.9% |
| International bonds | 4.1% |
| Total bonds | 7.0% (+2.0%) |
| Gold | 4.9% |
| Bitcoin | 24.8% |
| Gold and alternatives | 29.7% (+14.7%) |
Presented visually, the pie chart below is a high-level view of the current asset allocation of the portfolio.
Comments
This month the portfolio underwent significant losses at the headline level, with a loss of around 3.0 per cent, or $158,000.
This was largely a function of a fall in the value of Bitcoin holdings.
This has left the overall portfolio of traditional financial assets virtually unchanged on a monthly basis, and still comfortably above the portfolio goal.
Equities performance across the month were mixed, with a capital growth of 2.2 per cent for Australian holdings, and a small loss of around 0.4 per cent for international equities.
Gold appreciated around 1.4 per cent over the same period while Bitcoin holdings, as mentioned, declined around 14 per cent.
The bond holdings of the portfolio continued to recover as global rates eased, reaching their highest absolute value in more than two years.
This month no new investments were made, with the regular income produced by the Plenti Capital Notes being added to a contingent cash reserve.
Continue reading “Monthly Portfolio Report – August 2024”