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New revealing graphs to show! Read more below.

Preparations have now started in my household, for the autumn and winter ahead. Shorts and light shirts are packed in my storage unit, and out have long johns, turtle necks and thick warm jackets come. Dreadful moment when you realize that colder weather is coming. Here in Stockholm, Sweden, it is already touching 0 degrees Celsius during night time. I have vowed to myself that I will, one day, retire in a southern country, with a warmer climate. Tuscany or Sardinia are high up on my wish list. If you are from a Mediterranean country, hook me up with tips!

Before I can retire, I fear I have a few years left in the work force (being still 26). If I want to head down that road sooner, I would need to build some more to my wealth, which, coincidentally, is part of the purpose with my All Seasons Portfolio, that is besides educating about finance. Regardless, it is important to have goals, short term goals and measurable progress when investing. Tuscany is my end goal.

In case you missed it: Portfolio Update – August 2019.

I have a great passion for writing, and part of my practicing is writing on blogs. But to actually have useful content, and to avoid that I just ramble on about anything that I find interesting: give me some feedback on what you would like to hear more about. Until I hear from you with topics, I will keep chatting about my experiences and insights – but maybe there is nothing wrong with that?

Anyway, I do have a monthly report to present. September 2019.

All Seasons Portfolio Update – September 2019

As was the case in August, I have not been able to add any new funds into my account. It pains me a bit, because I enjoy seeing the numbers grow and I am a strong believer in saving and investing. But, I still have a chunky EUR 4,000 to contribute to the tax authorities in November, so prioritizing that for the moment.

So my portfolio has had to work without my input, but what a month it has been! Did you also get the jitters over the Iranian (alleged) drone strike in Saudi Arabia? I got proper nervous about that, already started planning to bunker up on food in case a war would break out. I mean, already with this strike 5% of the world’s oil was momentarily out of play. A war would completely shut the Strait of Hormuz, through which 35% of all global oil is shipped. Imagine what effects that would have for transportation, if there was much less oil on the market to fuel our food shipments. Scary.

These events, caused hiccups in many portfolios as stocks dipped while oil and gold soared. But, things quickly stabilized and I think that within a week, things and asset values were back to ‘normal’. And anyway, I can truthfully say that my All Seasons Portfolio made it through best without bumps (can’t say that my all equity portfolio did).

Regarding asset splits, which are an important part of the All Seasons Portfolio Strategy (inspired by Bridgewater Associates’ All Weather Portfolio), there are only slight changes to my portfolio, as last month.

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In terms of hard money, euros in my case, you can see the splits and development here below: Equities (which in my case are Small Cap Value ETFs) are up about 5% over just one month. Gold has decreased, on the other hand, meaning that my portfolio growth is rather stable.

I did promise some new graphs this month. I am actually really excited about this, as I did spend some time learning in Excel to achieve these numbers. I also think that this is a great way to represent why the All Seasons Portfolio Strategy is so effective. It honestly opened my eyes even further.

What this following graph represents is, the value by end of each month, for each asset, compared to the average acquisition price for the ETFs owned by the end of that same month.

Did you get that? Let me illustrate with an example. Look at the dark blue line, which represents the growth for Gold in my portfolio. My average purchase price for my 3 ETF units is 425.29€. By end of August, those same units were worth 493.63€. That is 68.34€ more than when I bought them, or 15.9% (representing the spike).

You also see the corresponding development for each other asset type, for every month since I started in December 2018.

But do you see the most beautiful line of the lot? It is the brown line with a golden shadow. This line represents the average growth compared to average purchase price for the whole portfolio. Why is this so impactful? You see, this line, on its own, shows the true power of the All Seasons Portfolio Strategy. That even if Gold drops 5% in a month, or equities bump 5%, and all other assets do what they want, on average, the portfolio grows in value.

And look, it is the same story over time. Even if, in the beginning, it is difficult to show a great result, as I only owned a few of the asset classes, meaning that you can’t draw too conclusions from the early development. Regardless, this average growth, is the key selling point of the All Seasons Portfolio. That was the thought that got me started with this experiment, and it is a fantastic feeling to see that it actually works in practice. Beautiful!

The next graph, is also interesting to share, is dividend per month. Even if the numbers are really small still, this will be more and more interesting in the future, when I will look into living off dividends. When I receive a monthly dividend that I can live on, I will consider myself financially free, and able to retire early. Tuscany, here I come!

Let’s now also look into the ETFs that my portfolio are built with. Same ETFs as last month, and here you can see their development over the course of one month.

Asset	Category	ISIN	August 30, 2019	September 30, 2019	Change
iShares $ TIPS UCITS ETF USD (Acc) (EUR)	TIPS	IE00B1FZSC47	403.80€	400.18€	-0.90%
Vanguard EUR Corporate Bond UCITS ETF	Corporate Bonds	IE00BZ163G84	368.48€	379.61€	+3.02%
iShares € Govt Bond 3-5yr UCITS ETF EUR (Dist)	Govt Bond Mid	IE00B1FZS681	175.78€	175.32€	-0.26%
iShares J.P. Morgan EM Local Govt Bond UCITS ETF USD (Dist) (EUR)	Govt Bond Long	IE00B5M4WH52	374.64€	380.59€	+1.59%
iShares $ Treasury Bond 7-10yr UCITS ETF USD (Dist) (EUR)	Govt Bond Long	IE00B1FZS798	381.98€	380.78€	-0.31%
Invesco Bloomberg Commodity UCITS ETF (EUR)	Commodities	IE00BD6FTQ80	321.07€	320.46€	-0.19%
Xtrackers Physical Gold ETC	Gold	GB00B5840F36	493.63€	467.77€	-5.24%
SPDR® MSCI Europe Small Cap Value Weighted UCITS ETF EUR Acc	Equity	IE00BSPLC298	164.10€	170.85€	+4.11%
SPDR® MSCI USA Small Cap Value Weighted UCITS ETF USD Acc	Equity	IE00BSPLC413	431.76€	456.40€	+5.71%
Total			3,115.24€	3,131.96€	+0.54%

As always, everything that I reflect in this blog are only my own opinions, and may not be interpreted as financial advice. But if I can inspire you to start investing and begin working towards more financial security in your life, that would make my day. Join me on that journey!

And give me any feedback you feel that you want to share. I am an eager listener.

Let’s catch up again in November! I hope you are looking forward to it, because, at least I am.

/Nicholas