The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
William Butler Yates
This is my one hundred and second 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 $3,000,000. This should be capable of producing an annual income from total portfolio returns of about $103,500 (in 2025 dollars).
This portfolio objective is based on an assumed safe withdrawal rate of 3.45 per cent.
A secondary focus will be maintaining the minimum equity target of $2,400,000.
Portfolio summary
| Vanguard Lifestrategy High Growth Fund | $912,087 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth Fund | $46,447 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced Fund | $81,224 |
| Vanguard Diversified Bonds Fund | $92,595 |
| Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS) | $622,019 |
| Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS) | $804,953 |
| Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200) | $329,460 |
| Telstra shares (TLS) | $2,547 |
| Insurance Australia Group shares (IAG) | $10,946 |
| NIB Holdings shares (NHF) | $8,076 |
| Gold ETF (GOLD.ASX) | $229,100 |
| Bitcoin | $1,793,889 |
| Raiz app (Aggressive portfolio) | $26,724 |
| Spaceship Voyager app (Index portfolio) | $4,414 |
| BrickX (P2P rental real estate) | $4,445 |
| Plenti Capital Notes | $84,000 |
| Total portfolio value | $5,052,926 (+$284,160) |
Asset allocation
| Australian shares | 26.8% |
| Global shares | 24.4% |
| Emerging market shares | 1.0% |
| International small companies | 1.2% |
| Total international shares | 26.6% |
| Total shares | 53.4% (-26.6%) |
| Total property securities | 0.1% (+0.1%) |
| Australian bonds | 3.1% |
| International bonds | 3.3% |
| Total bonds | 6.4% (+1.4%) |
| Gold | 4.5% |
| Bitcoin | 35.5% |
| Gold and alternatives | 40.0% (+25.0%) |
Presented visually, the pie chart below is a high-level view of the current asset allocation of the portfolio.
Comments
This month represents a significant marker, as the last formally engaged in full-time work, and so in many ways the currents of ongoing portfolio movements assumed secondary importance.
Regardless of this, what actually occurred this month was unusual. The portfolio recorded strong growth, of around $284,000 – or 6.0 per cent.
Such growth has seen the portfolio climb back towards its previous highs of early this year.
This month, in portfolio terms, was a story of two parts – of newer and older portfolio elements.
Continued growth in the price of Bitcoin pushed the value of those holdings towards previous highs contributing to the fourth largest monthly rise in the portfolio value in this record.
Yet, underpinning this was also an exceptionally strong performance from the traditional financial elements of the portfolio. In fact, the traditional financial portfolio expanded by the largest dollar value on the entire journey – over $138,000, or 4.4 per cent.
This was in turn driven by a sharp recovery in equities – with global shares registering gains of 6.3 per cent and Australian equities growing by over 4 per cent.
By contrast, there were minor contractions in the value of gold and bond holdings.
Continue reading “Monthly Portfolio Update – May 2025”