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”