The very place puts toys of desperation,
Without more motive, into every brain
That looks so many fathoms to the sea
And hears it roar beneath.Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 4
This is my one hundred and nineteenth 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 | $1,004,357 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth Fund | $49,593 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced Fund | $83,563 |
| Vanguard Diversified Bonds Fund | $88,234 |
| Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS) | $674,483 |
| Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS) | $1,166,059 |
| Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200) | $346,462 |
| Gold ETF (GOLD.ASX) | $252,185 |
| Bitcoin | $1,219,097 |
| Plenti Capital Notes | $84,000 |
| Financial portfolio value (excluding Bitcoin) | $3,748,936 (-$24,538) |
| Total portfolio value | $4,968,033 (-$133,507) |
Asset allocation
| Australian shares | 28.5% |
| Global shares | 32.6% |
| Emerging market shares | 1.1% |
| International small companies | 1.3% |
| Total international shares | 35.0% |
| Total shares | 63.5% (-16.5%) |
| Australian bonds | 2.6% |
| International bonds | 3.5% |
| Total bonds | 6.0% (+1.0%) |
| Gold | 5.1% |
| Bitcoin | 24.5% |
| Gold and alternatives | 29.6% (+14.6%) |
Presented visually, the pie chart below is a high-level view of the current asset allocation of the full portfolio.
Comments
The total portfolio value fell by $134,000 or 2.6 per cent this month, effectively returning the portfolio to its headline value at the end of January.
This fall was primarily driven by a lower price for Bitcoin holdings, which fell by around 8.2 per cent this month. Losses extended into the narrower financial portfolio as well, however, with this contracting by around $25,000.
The chart below sets out the performance of both the full and ‘financial assets only’ portfolios since the commencement of the journey.
Within the portfolio, Australian shares were steady across the month, however, gold fell by around 5.2 per cent. International equities also fell by around 1.7 per cent, as yields from US and other developed country bonds continued to advance. Bonds marked out a small gain across the full month, despite this, advancing around 0.8 per cent.
This month, once again, a small new investment was made in global equities (through the Vanguard exchange traded fund VGS), in accordance with the decision to regularly reinvest excess distributions and cash holdings.
Finalisation of third quarter portfolio distributions
Third quarter distributions were received across this month, totalling around $21,000 in direct payments.
These were around 6 per cent higher than projections, due in particular to higher than average payments from Australian equity ETFs. These third quarter distributions are up around 17 per cent on the equivalent payments last year.
Continue reading “Monthly Portfolio Update – October 2026”