There are years that ask questions, and years that answer.
Zora Neale Hurston
This is my eighty-sixth monthly portfolio update. I complete this regular update to check progress against my goal.
Portfolio goal
My objective is to maintain a portfolio of at least $2,870,000. This should be capable of producing an annual income from total portfolio returns of about $99,000 (in 2024 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 $2,300,000.
Portfolio summary
| Vanguard Lifestrategy High Growth Fund | $811,421 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth Fund | $42,151 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced Fund | $75,377 |
| Vanguard Diversified Bonds Fund | $89,232 |
| Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS) | $503,637 |
| Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS) | $672,613 |
| Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200) | $296,854 |
| Telstra shares (TLS) | $2,153 |
| Insurance Australia Group shares (IAG) | $7,652 |
| NIB Holdings shares (NHF) | $9,768 |
| Gold ETF (GOLD.ASX) | $138,996 |
| Secured physical gold | $21,987 |
| Bitcoin | $727,092 |
| Raiz app (Aggressive portfolio) | $21,940 |
| Spaceship Voyager app (Index portfolio) | $3,766 |
| BrickX (P2P rental real estate) | $4,541 |
| Plenti Capital Notes Market Loan | $5,000 |
| Total portfolio value | $3,434,180 (+$114,667) |
Asset allocation
| Australian shares | 33.8% |
| Global shares | 30.7% |
| Emerging market shares | 1.3% |
| International small companies | 1.6% |
| Total international shares | 33.6% |
| Total shares | 67.4% (-12.6%) |
| Total property securities | 0.1% (+0.1%) |
| Australian bonds | 2.1% |
| International bonds | 4.5% |
| Total bonds | 6.6% (+1.6%) |
| Gold | 4.7% |
| Bitcoin | 21.2% |
| Gold and alternatives | 25.9% (+10.9%) |
Presented visually, the pie chart below is a high-level view of the current asset allocation of the portfolio.
Comments
This month the financial independence portfolio continued to grow, increasing by around $114,000.
As a result, the portfolio continues to track at the highest level it has ever reached. In the last days of the month, growth in equity values also meant the secondary objective of a minimum equity portfolio of $2.3 million was also met.
The portfolio grew by 3.5 per cent across the month, with the four past months alone having increased the total size of assets under management by over $500,000.
The drivers of the positive monthly performance were two-fold. Global equities increased in value by 5.3 per cent, while Bitcoin rose in value by 5.8 per cent.
By contrast, Australian equities returned a modestly positive performance (of 1.4 per cent), when payments of dividends are included.
Portfolio bond holdings produced small losses, of around 1.1 per cent. This was more than offset by an appreciation in the value of gold ETF holdings.
This month saw US equities continue to perform strongly, due to receding fears of a domestic recession, and the continued appreciation of the seven largest technology focused stocks. These ‘magnificant seven’ have significantly outperformed broader benchmarks of medium and smaller listed US firms. In turn, US equity market outperformance of international markets is at the highest level seen in decades
Continue reading “Monthly Portfolio Report – January 2024”