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Portfolio Update – February 2019

Hello fellow wealth seekers.

The short month of February has come to an end, at it is now time for my second portfolio update of my All Seasons Portfolio. The fact that I am already on my second post, is a huge sign for myself that I am actually doing this project and that I am committing to keep sharing my investment experiences. Should be easier for each month as we will be setting the structure more and more.

Anyway, the cold month of February is behind as, thankfully, as my hometown Stockholm is a very cold place this time of year. Perhaps I should use my investments to retire to a warm country one day once I am financially free? Not that it will happen the next few years anyway, as I am just getting started here.

What have I done in February?

As you may already be familiar, the first step towards managing an All Seasons Portfolio is to buy the different asset types that the portfolio is built on. Last month, I started off by buying Long-term Government Bonds – the largest piece of the cake. This means my portfolio currently consists to 100% of the gray field in the pie chart below – not so diversified, am I right?

pie-graph-of-all-weather-portfolio-allocation

Eager to continue building the portfolio, I have, this month, added about twice as much funds in my investment account than I have set as my aimed cash addition (about €740 rather than €300). Do you have to do the same thing in your portfolio? Of course not – add as much as you feel comfortable with, but try to make sure to add something on a monthly basis.

The funds I added, have been used towards buying two different ETFs, so you could say I have squeezed two months’ worth of cash additions into one month. I have chosen to buy some €369 worth of Emerging Markets Long-Term Government Bonds (more in gray area above), as in the end, Long-Term Government Bonds will anyway make up for the largest share of the portfolio. EM bonds should, however, also be considered as an investment that adds a little bit of ‘spice’ to the portfolio, as these are more “high risk, high reward” investments.

Secondly, I have placed another €363 of my euros into European Corporate Bonds. These will count towards my exposure to the equity market and companies, as corporate bonds tend to have similar volatility and risk as stocks. Considering the equity market has been doing quite well so far this year, the corporate bonds should be a nice addition to the portfolio. Next month, however, I intend to diversify more towards other asset classes to really get my portfolio allocation going in the right direction. Maybe it would have been wiser to begin diversifying for real already this month? It is what it is, I suppose.

And what has happened since last month with my government bonds? Well, the ETF I own is up (very) slightly (about 0.5%). This gives me a current portfolio looking like this:

ETFTypeLast monthThis month
Vanguard EUR Corporate Bond UCITS ETFCorporate
Bonds
–   € 364.31 €
iShares J.P. Morgan EM Local Govt Bond UCITS ETF USD (Dist) (EUR)Govt Bond
Long
    –   €365.85 €
iShares $ Treasury Bond 7-10yr UCITS ETF USD (Dist) (EUR)Govt Bond Long335.53 €337.50 €

In the future, I will be adding more graphs of the development and composition of my portfolio to provide a more visual view of my progress. Now, so early on in my journey, it feels rather pointless to show a pie chart with more or less only one component… Not too exciting. More to come on this front in other words. Hold your breath!

This sums it up for this month. I am pleased to have you on board, following my progress with my practical use of the All Seasons Portfolio. Feel free to leave any comments you may have – do you enjoy what I’m doing? Am I buying the wrong assets in your opinion? Let me know in the comments!

February is behind us; hope you will have a great March!

Want to find inspiration for your All Seasons Portfolio? Head over to the ETF Portfolio Suggestions page to find suggested ETF’s to begin with.

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Nikolai

    I know its an old post, but you added “iShares J.P. Morgan EM Local Govt Bond UCITS ETF USD (Dist) (EUR)” back then, thought on it now, in 2023? Also, this is the denominated debt in USD version, what about the one denominated in local EM currency? (Like IEML, available on etoro too)
    For that EM currency exposure as well?

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