Monthly Portfolio Report – October 2024

But in the life of one man,

Never the same time returns.

T. S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral

This is my ninety-fifth 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$885,724
Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth Fund$45,255
Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced Fund$79,386
Vanguard Diversified Bonds Fund$90,816
Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS)$548,092
Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS)$758,126
Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200)$317,209
Telstra shares (TLS)$2,036
Insurance Australia Group shares (IAG)$9,502
NIB Holdings shares (NHF)$6,932
Gold ETF (GOLD.ASX)$189,928
Secured physical gold$29,768
Bitcoin$1,222,561
Raiz app (Aggressive portfolio)$24,984
Spaceship Voyager app (Index portfolio)$4,136
BrickX (P2P rental real estate)$4,709
Plenti Capital Notes Market Loan$89,000
Total portfolio value$4,308,194
(+$226,878)

Asset allocation

Australian shares29.1%
Global shares27.2%
Emerging market shares1.1%
International small companies1.4%
Total international shares29.8%
Total shares58.9% (-21.1%)
Total property securities0.1% (+0.1%)
Australian bonds3.7%
International bonds3.8%
Total bonds7.5% (+2.5%)
Gold5.1%
Bitcoin28.4%
Gold and alternatives33.5% (+18.5%)

Presented visually, the pie chart below is a high-level view of the current asset allocation of the portfolio.

Comments

This month the portfolio grew substantially, to achieve its fourth highest monthly expansion. This took the portfolio to a new high of $4.3 million, with an increase of over $226,000.

This has resulted in the largest expansion ever measured in the portfolio over the previous 12 months, with the portfolio growing around $1.3 million during this period.

Australian equities encountered small capital losses this month, of around 2.3 per cent. This was offset by growth of around 4.7 per cent in global equities, leaving the equity component of the portfolio at a new high. Bonds also fell slightly as longer term US bond rates increased, resulting in a fall of around 1.9 per cent.

Bitcoin performed strongly during the month, with price growth of around 18 per cent. This is in part may have been driven by potential positive indications of treatment of tax gains in the US, depending on the election outcome.

This month third quarter distributions were finalised and paid out.

These came in about $2,000 lower than expected, at around $15,600. Around 40 per cent of this has been set aside to meet future portfolio tax liabilities, with the remainder forming contributions to a contingent cash reserve, outside of the listed portfolio.

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