But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We’d jump the life to come.
Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I, Scene VII
This is my seventy-seventh monthly portfolio update. I complete this regular update to check progress against my goal.
Portfolio goal
My objective is to achieve and maintain a portfolio of at least $2,750,000 by 31 December 2024 or earlier. This should be capable of producing an annual income from total portfolio returns of about $94,800 (in 2023 dollars).
This portfolio objective is based on an assumed safe withdrawal rate of 3.45 per cent.
A secondary focus will be achieving the minimum equity target of $2,200,000.
Portfolio summary
| Vanguard Lifestrategy High Growth Fund | $754,730 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth Fund | $39,986 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced Fund | $72,039 |
| Vanguard Diversified Bonds Fund | $88,419 |
| Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS) | $374,607 |
| Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS) | $549,229 |
| Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200) | $283,322 |
| Telstra shares (TLS) | $2,329 |
| Insurance Australia Group shares (IAG) | $6,309 |
| NIB Holdings shares (NHF) | $9,264 |
| Gold ETF (GOLD.ASX) | $135,108 |
| Secured physical gold | $21,456 |
| Bitcoin | $490,427 |
| Raiz app (Aggressive portfolio) | $20,965 |
| Spaceship Voyager app (Index portfolio) | $3,433 |
| BrickX (P2P rental real estate) | $4,482 |
| Total portfolio value | $2,856,015 (+$92,724) |
Asset allocation
| Australian shares | 34.8% |
| Global shares | 31.7% |
| Emerging market shares | 1.4% |
| International small companies | 1.8% |
| Total international shares | 34.9% |
| Total shares | 69.7% (-10.3%) |
| Total property securities | 0.2% (+0.2%) |
| Australian bonds | 2.3% |
| International bonds | 5.2% |
| Total bonds | 7.5% (+2.5%) |
| Gold | 5.5% |
| Bitcoin | 17.2% |
| Gold and alternatives | 22.7% (+7.7%) |
Presented visually, the chart below is a high-level view of the current asset allocation of the portfolio.
Comments
This month the financial independence portfolio grew by 3.4 per cent, or around $93,000.
This moves the portfolio to over $100,000 ahead of the final goal, which has been reached previously, but only recently regained.
As can be seen below, in a brief period across late 2021, through to March 2022, the portfolio did reach higher levels than currently, buoyed by a higher price for Bitcoin at that time.
The progress this month has arisen from two main sources – an expansion in overall equity values flowing from a greater focus on recorded inflation declining from recent peaks, and a recovering price of Bitcoin.
The equity component of the portfolio grew by around 2.2 per cent over the month, with international shares increasing just over 3 per cent, compared to slightly lower growth of around 2 per cent for Australian equities.
Bitcoin advanced around 5 per cent over the same period.
Continue reading “Monthly Portfolio Report – April 2023”