I now suggest that in addition we each give him a large tripod and a cauldron. Later we will recoup ourselves by a collection from the people, since it would be hard on us singly to show such generosity with no return.
Homer, The Odyssey, Bk.13
This is my one hundred and fourteenth 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 $3,250,000. This should be capable of producing an annual income from total portfolio returns of about $112,000 (in 2026 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 $2,600,000.
Portfolio summary
| Vanguard Lifestrategy High Growth Fund | $997,919 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth Fund | $49,823 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced Fund | $85,002 |
| Vanguard Diversified Bonds Fund | $91,999 |
| Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS) | $665,779 |
| Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS) | $1,085,623 |
| Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200) | $340,266 |
| Gold ETF (GOLD.ASX) | $280,130 |
| Bitcoin | $1,142,705 |
| Plenti Capital Notes | $84,000 |
| Financial portfolio value (excluding Bitcoin) | $3,680,541 (+$105,837) |
| Total portfolio value | $4,823,246 (+$67,667) |
Asset allocation
| Australian shares | 29.0% |
| Global shares | 31.9% |
| Emerging market shares | 1.2% |
| International small companies | 1.3% |
| Total international shares | 34.3% |
| Total shares | 63.4% (-16.6%) |
| Australian bonds | 2.7% |
| International bonds | 3.6% |
| Total bonds | 6.3% (+1.3%) |
| Gold | 5.8% |
| Bitcoin | 23.7% |
| Gold and alternatives | 29.5% (+14.5%) |
Presented visually, the pie chart below is a high-level view of the current asset allocation of the full portfolio.
Comments
This month the portfolio continued to recover, growing by approximately $68,000 in headline terms, or around 1.4 per cent.
This growth is attributable to appreciation in financial assets, with the narrower financial portfolio alone increasing by $106,000 or 3.0 per cent. This places the financial portfolio technically at the highest level ever reached, just above the level attained at the end of February.
The chart below sets out the performance of both the full and ‘financial assets only’ portfolios since the commencement of the journey.
The contributors to this strong performance were positive movements in global equity markets, combined with some currency benefit. This in turn has helped the global equity portfolio to reach its highest ever level, in absolute dollar terms, rising by 5.6 per cent. The global equity portfolio is also around 54 per cent of the total equity portfolio, a level not seen since the second half of 2017.
Australian equities were slightly positive across the month, rising by 1.0 per cent, while bond slightly rose in value by 0.8 per cent.
Across alternative asset classes, Bitcoin also drifted lower by around 3.2 per cent across the month and gold continued its recent negative performance, falling by around 1.0 per cent.
The month, as previously, small additional new investments were made in global equities (through the Vanguard exchange traded fund VGS), in accordance with the decision to regularly reinvest excess distributions and cash holdings.
Harbour dues: proposed changes to capital gains taxation
This month also saw the delivery of the Federal budget, and announcement of a set of potential reforms to the taxation of a range of assets and some trusts.
The impact of these will differ according to every personal circumstance, but I have been considering what they mean – if anything – for my longer-term financial independence portfolio and status.
Continue reading “Monthly Portfolio Update – May 2026”