Portfolio Income Update – Half Year to December 31, 2019

Posted on January 8, 2020January 6, 2021 by The FI Explorer

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Whoever wishes to read the future has to leaf through the past.

André Malraux

Twice a year I prepare a summary of total income from my portfolio. This is my seventh passive income update since starting this record. As part of the transparency and accountability of this journey, I regularly report this income.

As discussed in my recent post Between Wind and Water, my goal is to build up a portfolio capable of providing a passive income of around $87 000 by July 2021 (Portfolio Objective).

Passive income summary

Vanguard Lifestrategy High Growth – $9 024
Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth – $517
Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced – $490
Vanguard Diversified Bonds – $86
Vanguard ETF Australian Shares ETF (VAS) – $2 904
Vanguard ETF International Shares ETF (VGS) – $299
Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200) – $5 845
Telstra shares – $43
Insurance Australia Group shares – $349
NIB shares – $156
Ratesetter (P2P lending) – $862
Raiz app (Aggressive portfolio) – $130
Spaceship Voyager app (Index portfolio) – $0
BrickX (P2P rental real estate) – $45

Total passive income in half year to December 31, 2019: $20 750

The chart below sets out the passive income received on a half-yearly basis from the portfolio over the past three and a half years. PIU HY Bar progress Dec 19

The following chart is a breakdown of the percentage contribution of each investment type to the total half-year income.

PIU HY Dist Pie - Dec19

Comments

The total half year passive income from the portfolio was $20 750, or the equivalent of around $3 460 per month. This was around the bottom of the range of my expectations, and it continues the pattern of lower December half distributions.

This result, however, is still around a third higher than the previous comparable December half, and almost double that of three years ago.

Continue reading “Portfolio Income Update – Half Year to December 31, 2019”

Between Wind and Water – Setting a New Portfolio Goal and Timeline

Posted on January 4, 2020February 14, 2021 by The FI Explorer

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We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

T S Eliot, Little Gidding

This exploration began three years ago, with an initial objective of building a passive income of $58 000 per annum by July 2021. Since that time, goals have evolved, enabling the bringing forward an achievement of this initial goal.

Each year at this time I have spent time reviewing investment goals and how I plan to reach them.

This post explains findings from my annual review, details my updated portfolio goals and assumptions, and discusses how I will approach my financial independence voyage through 2020 and beyond.

The aim is to have a clear written record of the objectives, approaches and reasoning underlying the plan, to serve as a reference point through the year. The process also enables the updating of plans and assumptions for changes in circumstances, thinking, as well as data and evidence.

Initial landfall and the beckoning final voyage

Last year saw the reaching and passing of the updated Objective #1 more than a year earlier than targeted. This leaves the previous Objective #2 (set at $1 980 000 in 2018 dollars) as the only one left to reach, barring a significant equity market fall.

So to recognise this I intend to reconfigure my goal, simplifying it to a single Portfolio Objective.

This new single objective is to reach a portfolio of $2 180 000 by 1 July 2021. This would produce a real annual income of about $87 000 (in 2020 dollars).

Continue reading “Between Wind and Water – Setting a New Portfolio Goal and Timeline”

There Lies the Port – Year in Review and Monthly Portfolio Update – December 2019

Posted on January 1, 2020February 15, 2021 by The FI Explorer

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:

There gloom the dark, broad seas.

Tennyson, Ulysses

Year in Review

This year began with a review of my portfolio goals, designed to update the financial independence targets to reflect the median and mean average of annual full-time earnings.

The review also introduced a number of personal financial independence benchmarks, such as meeting credit card expenses or an estimate of actual expenditure through assumed average portfolio earnings. In addition, this year introduced reporting progress on an ‘All Assets’ basis (taking into account superannuation holdings), as well as an immediately accessible portfolio basis.

Destinations closing – The long day wanes

These changes left no less than eight metrics to track and report on. At the beginning of 2019, I had met only two of these eight financial independence measures (Objective #1 and ‘Credit card purchases’ on an all assets basis).

As 2019 closes, six of the eight measures have been met or exceeded, and by contrast only two remaining outstanding.

These two measures remaining to be met are reaching Objective #2 and a portfolio total that would allow the funding of current expenses from the FI portfolio alone. For both, I close out the year within fairly clear sight of these unmet goals. Progress through the year is summarised below.

Continue reading “There Lies the Port – Year in Review and Monthly Portfolio Update – December 2019”

Monthly Portfolio Update – November 2019

Posted on December 1, 2019January 16, 2022 by The FI Explorer

My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,
Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate
Upon the fortune of this present year
Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad

Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (1596)

This is my thirty-sixth portfolio update. I complete this update monthly to check my progress against my goals.

Portfolio goals

My objectives are to reach a portfolio of:

$1 598 000 by 31 December 2020. This should produce a passive income of about $67 000 (Objective #1) – Achieved
$1 980 000 by 31 July 2023, to produce a passive income equivalent to $83 000 (Objective #2)

Both of these are based on an expected average real return of 4.19 per cent, or a nominal return of 7.19 per cent, and are expressed in 2018 dollars.

Portfolio summary

Vanguard Lifestrategy High Growth Fund – $797 618
Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth Fund – $45 218
Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced Fund – $81 294
Vanguard Diversified Bonds Fund – $109 367
Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS) – $158 769
Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS) – $28 471
Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200) – $268 114
Telstra shares (TLS) – $2 057
Insurance Australia Group shares (IAG) – $9 996
NIB Holdings shares (NHF) – $8 100
Gold ETF (GOLD.ASX) – $98 376
Secured physical gold – $15 868
Ratesetter (P2P lending) – $16 915
Bitcoin – $128 630
Raiz app (Aggressive portfolio) – $17 535
Spaceship Voyager app (Index portfolio) – $2 377
BrickX (P2P rental real estate) – $4 418

Total portfolio value: $1 793 753 (+$33 713)

Asset allocation

Australian shares – 43.2% (1.8% under)
Global shares – 22.9%
Emerging markets shares – 2.4%
International small companies – 3.2%
Total international shares – 28.4% (1.6% under)
Total shares – 71.6% (3.4% under)
Total property securities – 0.2% (0.2% over)
Australian bonds – 4.8%
International bonds – 9.8%
Total bonds – 14.6% (0.4% under)
Gold – 6.4%
Bitcoin – 7.2%
Gold and alternatives – 13.5% (3.5% over)

Presented visually, below is a high-level view of the current asset allocation of the portfolio. Pie November 19

Comments

This month the value of the portfolio increased again by around $33 000 in total, building on the previous two months of growth.

Monthly prog Nov 19

The equity part of the portfolio has grown by around $50 000 to now reach over $1.25 million for the first time. This increase includes new contributions and the last part of the previous June distributions being ‘averaged into’ equity markets. The equity component of the portfolio has increased by around 40 per cent this calendar year.

Continue reading “Monthly Portfolio Update – November 2019”