The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.
Amelia Earhart
This is my fiftieth 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 | $775,158 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth Fund | $43,025 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced Fund | $79,641 |
| Vanguard Diversified Bonds Fund | $107,429 |
| Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS) | $269,445 |
| Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS) | $117,712 |
| Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200) | $257,703 |
| Telstra shares (TLS) | $1,662 |
| Insurance Australia Group shares (IAG) | $6,144 |
| NIB Holdings shares (NHF) | $6,624 |
| Gold ETF (GOLD.ASX) | $109,475 |
| Secured physical gold | $17,648 |
| Plenti (P2P lending) | $5,480 |
| Bitcoin | $494,160 |
| Raiz app (Aggressive portfolio) | $19,508 |
| Spaceship Voyager app (Index portfolio) | $3,106 |
| BrickX (P2P rental real estate) | $4,447 |
| Total portfolio value | $2,318,367 (+$52,337) |
Asset allocation
| Australian shares | 37.4% |
| Global shares | 20.9% |
| Emerging market shares | 1.8% |
| International small companies | 2.3% |
| Total international shares | 25.0% |
| Total shares | 62.4% (-12.6%) |
| Total property securities | 0.2% (+0.2%) |
| Australian bonds | 3.4% |
| International bonds | 7.2% |
| Total bonds | 10.5% (-4.5%) |
| Gold | 5.5% |
| Bitcoin | 21.3% |
| Gold and alternatives | 26.8% (+16.8%) |
Presented visually, the chart below is a high-level view of the current asset allocation of the portfolio.
Comments
This month the portfolio has increased by over $52,000, extending the strongest period of growth since this record started.
This has contributed to an expansion in the overall portfolio of over 25 per cent since the beginning of October last year. In this month alone the portfolio grew around 2.3 per cent.
Increases in the price of Bitcoin have provided the key motive force for the portfolio both this month and since October. Equities have made a smaller contribution since October, but the value of equity holdings actually fell slightly this month.
Part of this is related to the reduction in value arising from the payout of substantial distributions earlier this month, which will be averaged back into the portfolio over the next six months. The value of gold and fixed interest holdings have also marginally declined.
Stepping back, the result of this is the strongest consecutive four month performance of the portfolio on record, based quite narrowly on the fortunes of just two of its components, equities and Bitcoin.
Continue reading “Monthly Portfolio Update – January 2021”