Sometimes, I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there’s no room for the present at all.
Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
This is my forty-seventh monthly portfolio update. I complete this regular update to check progress against my goal.
Portfolio goal
My objective is to reach a portfolio of $2 180 000 by 1 July 2021. This would produce a real annual income of about $87 000 (in 2020 dollars).
This portfolio objective is based on an expected average real return of 3.99 per cent, or a nominal return of 6.49 per cent.
Portfolio summary
| Vanguard Lifestrategy High Growth Fund | $728,112 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth Fund | $41,606 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced Fund | $78,564 |
| Vanguard Diversified Bonds Fund | $109,495 |
| Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS) | $231,548 |
| Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS) | $75,298 |
| Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200) | $231,199 |
| Telstra shares (TLS) | $1,428 |
| Insurance Australia Group shares (IAG) | $6,043 |
| NIB Holdings shares (NHF) | $4,992 |
| Gold ETF (GOLD.ASX) | $121,009 |
| Secured physical gold | $19,482 |
| Ratesetter (P2P lending) | $7,363 |
| Bitcoin | $218,040 |
| Raiz app (Aggressive portfolio) | $17,488 |
| Spaceship Voyager app (Index portfolio) | $2,841 |
| BrickX (P2P rental real estate) | $4,447 |
| Total portfolio value | $1,898,955 (+$73,218) |
Asset allocation
| Australian shares | 40.8% |
| Global shares | 22.4% |
| Emerging market shares | 2.1% |
| International small companies | 2.7% |
| Total international shares | 27.3% |
| Total shares | 68.1% (-6.9%) |
| Total property securities | 0.2% (+0.2%) |
| Australian bonds | 4.1% |
| International bonds | 8.6% |
| Total bonds | 12.8% (-2.2%) |
| Gold | 7.4% |
| Bitcoin | 11.5% |
| Gold and alternatives | 18.9% (+8.9%) |
Presented visually, the chart below is a high-level view of the current asset allocation of the portfolio.
Comments
This month the portfolio expanded by around $73,000, continuing the strong overall pattern of recovery since March. This has resulted in portfolio growth of 4 per cent, which has taken the value of the portfolio to a new monthly high.
The portfolio was affected by small price falls across global shares, a modest increase in Australian share values, with limited movement in gold and bond holdings.
This means that the majority of gains in the portfolio have been from an appreciation in the price of Bitcoin, which in fact made up more than 90 per cent of the total monthly gains. This appears to be based on some early steps by Paypal to increase use of Bitcoin, and some recent corporate decisions by a US technology firm to seek to employ it as a corporate treasury store of value.
Continue reading “Monthly Portfolio Update – October 2020”