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.

This month saw a further investment into Australian shares, with additions to the ETF VAS. As noted in the last update this partially re-invested the final March quarter distributions, and was effectively a reinvestment of a fixed proportion of accumulated paid out distributions and additional excess cash built up from previous distributions.

Expected second quarter and half-year distributions

At the end of this month the portfolio will produce what are traditionally the largest set of quarterly distributions.

These will be reinvested through time in accordance with the approach described in the update last month, effectively gradually feeding back into the financial independence portfolio given cash holding targets outside of the portfolio have been met.

Currently, second quarter distributions are projected to be around $38,000. As can be seen by the chart below this sits well within the range of these distributions over the past eight years.

This projection is based on estimates of the average historical payouts of the range of retail funds and ETFs forming the core portfolio.

As the graphs above indicate, there has been significant variance in second quarter distributions through time, associated with Vanguard changing the structure and features of the original underlying retail funds in recent years, and differing levels of capital gains payouts through time.

Based on past patterns, and the growth of the portfolio through time, June distributions could easily fall anywhere between $30,000 to $50,000.

Trends in average distributions and expenses

The chart below measures distributions against an estimate of total expenses.

The total expenses figure is based on actual credit card spending, with the addition of a notional monthly allowance for other fixed expenses.

This month average total expenses (red line) has continued to rise this month. These expenses are currently running at just over $8,600 per month.

The latest estimates of the three year moving average of distributions (the blue line) using updated data has levelled off at about $7,600 per month

This leaves a continuing deficit between expenses and average distributions of around $1,000, which remains close to the largest gap experienced to date.

Progress

Measure	Progress
Portfolio objective – $3,000,000	168%
Financial portfolio income as % of total average expenses (3 yr average) – $102,800	108%
Target equity holding in portfolio – $2,400,000	113%
Financial portfolio income as % of target income – $103,500 pa	109%

Summary

This month is an important one in the journey.

It was the last month of full-time work in my ordinary occupation. From here, I move to a part-time specialist role, taking forward those elements of my past work that I am especially intellectually engaged and passionate about.

So in one sense, it may turn out that I have stepped irrevocably through a portal, to a slightly altered world. It is one I have thought about for some time. Indeed, I began recording my financial position in the current spreadsheets I use exactly 27 years ago. At the time, my interest was around recording the growth of my net worth as my first professional role began.

Over time, however – probably within 2 to 3 years – this moved to an explicit consideration of the idea of financial independence. Books such as Ric Edelman’s Ordinary People, Extraordinary Wealth, and Your Money or Your Life by Dominguez and Robin also played a part in this process.

From around 2008 or so basic excel models started proliferating, mapping out expected portfolio values and portfolio income for the next 15 years. Testing, perhaps, what was achievable through compounding returns with various savings rate assumptions. Variously, these saw the portfolio reach their targets between 2020 and 2022, where by my most recent measures it was in fact 2024 before I felt that I had reached the set of targets that I wanted achieve, prior to ending the accumulation stage of FI.

What has been evident since my signalling of a stepping into a different role and mode has been the need to consciously learn and practice thinking about time differently.

The way I view time is inevitably shaped by how I experienced the pressures of time, deadlines, expected work outputs over 27 years – and in fact, for years of university and schooling before this. Over the past months, I have subtly felt the passage of time shift, but at an intellectual level, this adjustment is still occurring.

In short, a change is required in how I live and think about my daily life, from a frame of time scarcity, to relative time abundance.

This is a work in progress, and can show up in the the most mundane choices.

Previously, my days have had a certain required minimum velocity or tempo – shifting through cycles of work, for example, but always relatively high. Now, however, I need to consciously tell myself more frequently that it is truly okay, for a slightly longer walk to be taken, a lunch lingered over, or a book chapter finished, because time exists to do more than I have in the past.

This month some of this conscious slowing down has expressed itself through a slow read through of the In Gold We Trust 2025 yearbook (pdf), detailing global capital market developments, with a focus on their meaning for wealth preservation and investment.

I have also been reading through 1931: Debt, Crisis and the Rise of Hitler, a detailed work on the mechanics of the financial crisis experienced by the Weimar Republic and its linkages to global financial developments and post-World War 1 reparations treaty arrangements. This draws in part on Felix Somary’s memoirs, The Raven of Zurich, which richly fills out the period and which I have resumed. I have also just started dipping into the Las Vegas Bitcoin conference streamed sessions, including an interesting opening plenary speech from US Vice President on US administration priorities on digital currencies.

As the new month begins, in one sense a turning point in a journey of 27 years has been quietly reached. From here, a new focus will be on sharpening my senses, and creating that extra space in most days for some of the world’s passing magic to reveal itself.

Note for readers

Over the last few months, there has been a noticeable degradation in the useability of my standard blogging interface. As an alternative, and because I am not interested in becoming a coder, plug-in or website management expert, I have created a rough and ready backup Substack and imported past posts. The formatting of past posts may not be as tidy as here, but should the blog ever seem to ‘disappear’ or cease, it will likely just be a signal that I have switched entirely to Substack and started posting there.

Disclaimer

The specific portfolio allocation and approach described has been determined solely based on my personal circumstances, objectives, assessments and risk tolerances. It is not personal financial advice, or recommendation to invest in any particular investment product, security or asset, and investors considering these issues should undertake their own detailed research or seek professional advice.