The Athenians preserved the boat—a thirty-oared ship—on which Theseus sailed with his companions and came back safely until the time of Demetrius of Phalerus, changing out the older wood and replacing it with strong, new parts until the ship became a famous example to philosophers of the problem of growth. Some say that it remained the same ship, others claim it did not.

Plutarch, Life of Theseus, XXIII.i

This is my fifty-second monthly portfolio update. I complete this regular update to check progress against my goal.

Portfolio goal

My objective is to reach a portfolio of $2,585,000 by 31 July 2022. This would produce a real annual income of about $90,500 (in 2021 dollars).

This portfolio objective is based on an assumed safe withdrawal rate of 3.5 per cent.

Portfolio summary

Vanguard Lifestrategy High Growth Fund	$798,662
Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth Fund	$43,783
Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced Fund	$80,032
Vanguard Diversified Bonds Fund	$104,634
Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS)	$301,213
Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS)	$131,409
Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200)	$270,303
Telstra shares (TLS)	$1,812
Insurance Australia Group shares (IAG)	$5,929
NIB Holdings shares (NHF)	$6,276
Gold ETF (GOLD.ASX)	$100,378
Secured physical gold	$16,153
Plenti (P2P lending)	$4,565
Bitcoin	$848,070
Raiz app (Aggressive portfolio)	$19,793
Spaceship Voyager app (Index portfolio)	$3,180
BrickX (P2P rental real estate)	$4,533
Total portfolio value	$2,740,725 (+$251,033)

Asset allocation

Australian shares	33.6%
Global shares	18.5%
Emerging market shares	1.6%
International small companies	2.0%
Total international shares	22.1%
Total shares	55.7% (-19.3%)
Total property securities	0.2% (+0.2%)
Australian bonds	2.8%
International bonds	6.1%
Total bonds	8.9% (-6.1%)
Gold	4.3%
Bitcoin	30.9%
Gold and alternatives	35.2% (+25.2%)

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

Comments

This month has seen a continued appreciation of Bitcoin dominating virtually all other portfolio developments, a trend that has been firmly in place since October of last year.

The value of Bitcoin holdings rising by $197,000 has pushed the portfolio above the financial independence target goal set three just months ago. In short, this has delivered an outcome in March that was intended to be only reached at the end July of next year. So the portfolio goal has been passed. Yet the gain underpinning this achievement is contingent and highly provisional.

Bitcoin’s value in the portfolio rose by another 30 per cent across the month, being the major contributor to the overall portfolio growing by $251,000. This is both the largest ever monthly change, and growth, of the entire journey.

The performance of other assets was modest in scale by comparison. Equities moved ahead this month, with global shares (5.8 per cent) performing slightly better than Australian equities (3.2 per cent). Both gold and bonds slightly decreased in value.

Continue reading “Monthly Portfolio Update – March 2021”

Just so the Seabeast cleft the sea,

Running for the home stretch, and just so

She glided, borne by her own impetus.

Virgil, The Aeneid Book V.280-282

This is my fifty-first monthly portfolio update. I complete this regular update to check progress against my goal.

Portfolio goal

My objective is to reach a portfolio of $2,585,000 by 31 July 2022. This would produce a real annual income of about $90,500 (in 2021 dollars).

This portfolio objective is based on an assumed safe withdrawal rate of 3.5 per cent.

Portfolio summary

Vanguard Lifestrategy High Growth Fund	$780,296
Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth Fund	$43,020
Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced Fund	$79,084
Vanguard Diversified Bonds Fund	$104,841
Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS)	$279,959
Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS)	$124,196
Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200)	$261,896
Telstra shares (TLS)	$1,641
Insurance Australia Group shares (IAG)	$6,322
NIB Holdings shares (NHF)	$6,648
Gold ETF (GOLD.ASX)	$102,453
Secured physical gold	$16,462
Plenti (P2P lending)	$4,954
Bitcoin	$650,610
Raiz app (Aggressive portfolio)	$19,779
Spaceship Voyager app (Index portfolio)	$3,077
BrickX (P2P rental real estate)	$4,454
Total portfolio value	$2,489,692 (+$171,325)

Asset allocation

Australian shares	35.5%
Global shares	19.8%
Emerging market shares	1.7%
International small companies	2.2%
Total international shares	23.7%
Total shares	59.2% (-15.8%)
Total property securities	0.2% (+0.2%)
Australian bonds	3.1%
International bonds	6.6%
Total bonds	9.7% (-5.3%)
Gold	4.8%
Bitcoin	26.1%
Gold and alternatives	30.9% (+20.9%)

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

Comments

There are no real precedents for the events affecting the portfolio over the last several months.

This month, a sharp appreciation of the price of Bitcoin – by over 30 per cent – has delivered the third single largest monthly gain of the record. As a result the portfolio has grown by over 7 per cent in a single month, increasing by around $171,000.

This significant growth has come following a series of positive months since October, leading to the overall portfolio increasing by nearly 40 per cent over the past five months.

As occurred in January, changes in the value of Bitcoin dominated any other changes over the course of the month. In fact, Bitcoin appreciation represents over 90 per cent of the gains. By contrast, Australian equities were up around 2 per cent, and international equities, bonds, gold holdings all lost value.

The end of the month brings into view a deeply peculiar and unlooked for landmark. Having reset to a higher portfolio goal just two months ago, with a target timeline of July 2022, this goal is already rather close to being achieved.

Continue reading “Monthly Portfolio Update – February 2021”