You are not those who saw the harbour

Receding, or those who will disembark.

Here between the hither and the father shore

While time is withdrawn, consider the future

And the past with an equal mind.

T. S. Eliot, The Dry Salvages

Twice a year I prepare a summary of total income from my financial independence portfolio. This is my eighteenth portfolio income update since starting this record. As part of the transparency and accountability of this journey, I regularly report this income.

My primary goal is to maintain a portfolio of at least $3,000,000 which is capable of providing a passive income of around $103,500 (in 2025 dollars), based on an assumed safe withdrawal rate of 3.45 per cent. A secondary focus is maintaining a minimum equity target of $2,400,000.

Portfolio income summary

Investment	Amount
Vanguard Lifestrategy High Growth (retail fund)	$27,072
Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth (retail fund)	$1,136
Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced (retail fund)	$1,690
Vanguard Diversified Bonds (retail fund)	$240
Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS)	$8,047
Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS)	$15,986
Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200)	$4,563
Telstra shares (TLS.ASX)	$51
Insurance Australia Group shares (IAG.ASX)	$152
NIB Holding shares (NHF.ASX)	$156
Plenti/Ratesetter (P2P lending)	$3,800
Raiz app (Aggressive portfolio)	$411
Spaceship Voyager app (Index portfolio)	$0
BrickX (P2P rental real estate)	$13
Total Portfolio Income – Half-Year to June 30, 2025	$63,316

The chart below sets out the distributions received on a half-yearly basis from the financial independence portfolio over the past nine years.

Continue reading “Portfolio Income Update – Half Year to June 30, 2025”

The sinews of war are infinite money.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Phillipics V

This is my one hundred and third 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	$932,316
Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth Fund	$47,358
Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced Fund	$82,604
Vanguard Diversified Bonds Fund	$93,539
Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS)	$632,587
Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS)	$835,016
Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200)	$334,933
Telstra shares (TLS)	$2,585
Insurance Australia Group shares (IAG)	$11,466
NIB Holdings shares (NHF)	$8,508
Gold ETF (GOLD.ASX)	$224,240
Bitcoin	$1,839,080
Raiz app (Aggressive portfolio)	$27,326
Spaceship Voyager app (Index portfolio)	$4,501
BrickX (P2P rental real estate)	$4,447
Plenti Capital Notes	$84,000
Financial portfolio value (excluding Bitcoin)
Total portfolio value	$5,164,506 (+$111,580)

Asset allocation

Australian shares	26.7%
Global shares	24.6%
Emerging market shares	1.0%
International small companies	1.2%
Total international shares	26.9%
Total shares	53.6% (-26.4%)
Total property securities	0.1% (+0.1%)
Australian bonds	3.1%
International bonds	3.3%
Total bonds	6.4% (+1.4%)
Gold	4.3%
Bitcoin	35.6%
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

The portfolio performed strongly this month, reaching the highest level so far on the journey, with a growth over the month of 2.2 per cent or $111,000.

This was driven for the most part by continued recovery in equity markets, with some additional contribution from an increase in the price of Bitcoin.

Together, these placed the overall portfolio above its previous highs in January.

Gains across this month were broad, with Australian equities increasing in value by 1.7 per cent, and global shares performing strongly as well – with a 2.4 per cent growth in value.

The value of gold holdings fell as some immediate uncertainty in global capital markets eased, with a fall in value of around 2.1 per cent.

Bond holdings increased by around 0.9 per cent, while Bitcoin also increased around 2.5 per cent.

Growth in the financial portfolio represented just over half of the total increase that the full portfolio experienced. This comparative performance of these two different conceptions of the portfolio are the subject of more analysis below.

Continue reading “Monthly Portfolio Update – June 2025”