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 shares | 29.1% |
| Global shares | 27.2% |
| Emerging market shares | 1.1% |
| International small companies | 1.4% |
| Total international shares | 29.8% |
| Total shares | 58.9% (-21.1%) |
| Total property securities | 0.1% (+0.1%) |
| Australian bonds | 3.7% |
| International bonds | 3.8% |
| Total bonds | 7.5% (+2.5%) |
| Gold | 5.1% |
| Bitcoin | 28.4% |
| Gold and alternatives | 33.5% (+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.
Continue reading “Monthly Portfolio Report – October 2024”
