…here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
This is my ninety-ninth 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 $3,000,000. This should be capable of producing an annual income from total portfolio returns of about $103,500 (in 2025 dollars).
This portfolio objective is based on an assumed safe withdrawal rate of 3.45 per cent.
A secondary focus will be maintaining the minimum equity target of $2,400,000.
Portfolio summary
| Vanguard Lifestrategy High Growth Fund | $885,506 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth Fund | $44,356 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced Fund | $79,704 |
| Vanguard Diversified Bonds Fund | $91,944 |
| Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS) | $564,260 |
| Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS) | $775,332 |
| Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200) | $307,684 |
| Telstra shares (TLS) | $2,259 |
| Insurance Australia Group shares (IAG) | $9,774 |
| NIB Holdings shares (NHF) | $8,226 |
| Gold ETF (GOLD.ASX) | $221,810 |
| Bitcoin | $1,448,642 |
| Raiz app (Aggressive portfolio) | $25,265 |
| Spaceship Voyager app (Index portfolio) | $4,321 |
| BrickX (P2P rental real estate) | $4,440 |
| Plenti Capital Note and Flex Market | $84,000 |
| Total portfolio value | $4,558,523 (-$74,101) |
Asset allocation
| Australian shares | 27.7% |
| Global shares | 26.1% |
| Emerging market shares | 1.1% |
| International small companies | 1.3% |
| Total international shares | 28.5% |
| Total shares | 56.2% (-23.8%) |
| Total property securities | 0.1% (+0.1%) |
| Australian bonds | 3.4% |
| International bonds | 3.6% |
| Total bonds | 7.0% (+2.0%) |
| Gold | 4.9% |
| Bitcoin | 31.8% |
| Gold and alternatives | 36.6% (+21.6%) |
Presented visually, the pie chart below is a high-level view of the current asset allocation of the portfolio.
Comments
The portfolio encountered further significant falls this month, with overall losses of just above $74,000 or 1.6 per cent of the portfolios value.
The relative movement of portfolio components within this negative result is quite notable, however. International shares fell around 4.9 per cent, and the value of Australian shares held also fell by around 3.0 per cent.
With increased economic and geopolitical uncertainty, and fears of US tariffs on gold imports, gold continued to extend recent gains, increasing in value by around 8 per cent over the last month alone.
Bitcoin remained at around the same level, appreciating by a modest 0.8 per cent over the period. By contrast, bond holdings contracted by about 0.3 per cent.
The small appreciation in Bitcoin and larger gains in gold partially offset falls in equity holdings, playing the traditional role of diversification in this month at least. This is also reflected in the fact that the headline portfolio result is more positive than if only the traditional financial assets (ex Bitcoin) are considered.
This month the portfolio saw its first substantive new investments in over a year.
The falling equity markets brought the portfolio close to the target minimum holding for Australian equities of $1.2 million. As a result, I purchased additional Australian equities (using the ETF VAS), to increase the ‘buffer’ to this minimum value, and incrementally shift the overall equity portfolio closer to the desired 50/50 domestic and international allocation.
Continue reading “Monthly Portfolio Update – March 2025”