In economics, things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then happen faster than you think they could.
Rudi Dornbusch
This is my one hundred and fourth 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 | $942,496 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Growth Fund | $47,801 |
| Vanguard Lifestrategy Balanced Fund | $83,002 |
| Vanguard Diversified Bonds Fund | $93,366 |
| Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (VAS) | $663,879 |
| Vanguard International Shares ETF (VGS) | $887,401 |
| Betashares Australia 200 ETF (A200) | $339,521 |
| Telstra shares (TLS) | $2,643 |
| Insurance Australia Group shares (IAG) | $11,086 |
| NIB Holdings shares (NHF) | $8,916 |
| Gold ETF (GOLD.ASX) | $227,691 |
| Bitcoin | $2,034,070 |
| Plenti Capital Notes | $84,000 |
| Financial portfolio value (excluding Bitcoin) | |
| Total portfolio value | $5,425,872 (+$261,366) |
Asset allocation
| Australian shares | 25.9% |
| Global shares | 24.3% |
| Emerging market shares | 0.9% |
| International small companies | 1.2% |
| Total international shares | 26.4% |
| Total shares | 52.3% (-27.7%) |
| Australian bonds | 2.9% |
| International bonds | 3.1% |
| Total bonds | 6.0% (+1.0%) |
| Gold | 4.2% |
| Bitcoin | 37.5% |
| Gold and alternatives | 41.7% (+26.7%) |
Presented visually, the pie chart below is a high-level view of the current asset allocation of the full portfolio.
Comments
The portfolio experienced further strong growth this month, expanding by 5.1 per cent, or around $261,000.
A large part of this was attributable to a further rise in the value of Bitcoin holdings, occurring alongside some continued equity market advances.
This has placed both the full portfolio, and the ‘financial assets only’ portfolio at their highest ever level.
The chart below, in a new format discussed earlier this month, sets out the performance of both portfolios since the commencement of the journey.
This month featured a continued period of growth in equities, with Australian equities advancing around 1.5 per cent, and global equities by around 3 per cent.
Gold resumed it previous path, gaining around 1.6 per cent in value. This means that since substantial purchases began around 15 years ago, the gold index holdings in the portfolio have achieved an average return of around 9 per cent per annum, compared to an average annual total return (i.e. capital gains and dividends) of around 7.5 per cent for Australian shares since 2010.
Bond holdings were flat, while Bitcoin increased around 11 per cent.
This month saw the passing of a small milestone in the composition of the portfolio.
Exchange traded funds now hold over two-thirds of the total equity holdings in the portfolio, or mathematically, approximately double to value held in the older Vanguard retail funds.
Continue reading “Monthly Portfolio Update – July 2025”
