Australian Shares Portfolio — September 2019
A look at the Australian shares portfolio after modest growth driven by RBA rate cuts, plus two new additions to the holdings.
📈 The portfolio had grown by almost 4% since March. The modest growth was mostly due to the overall ASX market moving upward after the RBA announced two interest rate cuts. Most holdings on the ASX were probably overpriced at that stage — not a great time to buy unless there was a compelling dividend on offer.
✨ New Additions
Two new companies were added to the portfolio:
- 📊 PACT Group — an undervalued packaging company that looked like a reasonable entry point at the time.
- 📊 AFIC (Australian Foundation Investment Company) — a well-known Australian listed investment company. Not the most exciting purchase, but a sensible one given that many companies on my watchlist were overpriced.
To date, I still had not managed to reduce the portfolio’s Australian market exposure by much — an ongoing project.
🎯 Asset Allocation
| Asset Class | Allocation |
|---|---|
| Australia | 16% |
| International | 12% |
| REIT | 9% |
| Fixed Interest + Gold | 6% |
| Cash + Property | 57% |
💡 The heavy cash and property weighting reflected the early stages of the investing journey, with a large portion of net worth still tied up in non-market assets. Over time, the goal was to shift more into equities and diversified growth assets as the portfolio matured.