Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake.
Sir Francis Bacon
This is my sixty-seventh 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 $2,620,000 through 2022. This should be capable of producing an annual income from total portfolio returns of about $91,600 (in 2022 dollars).
This portfolio objective is based on an assumed safe withdrawal rate of 3.5 per cent.
A secondary focus through 2022 will be achieving the minimum equity target of $2,100,000.
Portfolio summary
| Vanguard Lifestrategy High Growth Fund | $722,974 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth Fund | $38,832 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced Fund | $70,238 |
| Vanguard Diversified Bonds Fund | $88,101 |
| Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS) | $345,217 |
| Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS) | $318,198 |
| Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200) | $262,967 |
| Telstra shares (TLS) | $2,052 |
| Insurance Australia Group shares (IAG) | $5,524 |
| NIB Holdings shares (NHF) | $8,856 |
| Gold ETF (GOLD.ASX) | $119,070 |
| Secured physical gold | $18,961 |
| Plenti (P2P lending) | $12 |
| Bitcoin | $313,070 |
| Raiz app (Aggressive portfolio) | $18,915 |
| Spaceship Voyager app (Index portfolio) | $3,110 |
| BrickX (P2P rental real estate) | $4,719 |
| Total portfolio value | $2,340,816 (-$281,221) |
Asset allocation
| Australian shares | 39.6% |
| Global shares | 28.1% |
| Emerging market shares | 1.7% |
| International small companies | 2.1% |
| Total international shares | 32.0% |
| Total shares | 71.6% (-8.4%) |
| Total property securities | 0.2% (+0.2%) |
| Australian bonds | 2.7% |
| International bonds | 6.2% |
| Total bonds | 8.9% (+3.9%) |
| Gold | 5.9% |
| Bitcoin | 13.4% |
| Gold and alternatives | 19.3% (+4.3%) |
Presented visually, the chart below is a high-level view of the current asset allocation of the portfolio.
Comments
This month has seen the third largest decline in the portfolio since this record began in 2017 – with a loss in total value of over $281,000.
These falls follow two previous consecutive monthly losses, marking an unprecedented period of continuous losses extending since April.
Overall, the portfolio lost 10.7 per cent of its starting value in the past month. This has drawn it back to levels last seen in early 2021.
The portfolio has consequently fallen below the revised portfolio goal of $2.62 million at the end of the month, meaning the notional option to cease paid work has evaporated quickly, and perhaps for some time.
Just over one-third of the losses this month occurred in the traditional assets of equities, with some additional losses in fixed interest. A little less than two-thirds of the monthly fall in value is a function of some major price falls in the Bitcoin portfolio (of around 36 per cent).
Australian equities were one of the areas of most substantial losses, with falls of around 8.5 per cent. By comparison, international equities (and particularly US equities on an unhedged basis) fell around 5.0 per cent.
Bonds continued to perform poorly, losing around 2.7 per cent, while gold holdings slightly increased in value (around 2 per cent).
Continue reading “Monthly Portfolio Update – June 2022”
