As at Friday (28th January) my portfolio was down only 1.23% for the year so far, and about 0.22% of that was drawdown spending. A 1.01% fall is like one bad day so nothing to get too excited about for me and my portfolio. Monday (31st January) was then a better day so the month’s return was actually flat. Moneyweek reported “that even as the over-priced US stock market gyrated all over the place in January – and ended the month significantly down – the FTSE 100 ended up more or less flat.” That FTSE 100 result reflected my own portfolio results for January.
January
The FTSE All Share Total Return index, my chosen benchmark, was down by -0.33% in the month. My investment return for the month was a loss of -0.05%. My individual holdings recorded share price movements for the month ranging from a loss of -14.02% to a gain of +5.26% with an unweighted average result of a loss of -1.06%. My worst performers were the growth holdings in UK and Asia Pacific smaller companies that I have recently been adding to. My better performers were my UK equity income holdings that will have high exposure to value stocks. My high yield bond holding was unchanged.
Capital
Starting from an index value of 100.00 at 31 December 2013, my capital is now 139.83, as shown in the graph above. There has been a small reduction of -0.26% since last month’s peak of 140.19. Investment return of a capital loss of -0.28% and dividend income of +0.23%, totalled a loss of -0.05%. Draw down expenditure deducted -0.21% during the month.
Income
Annual dividend income as a percentage of the opening portfolio value on 31 December 2013 has increased from 3.37% to reach 6.74% at this month end, as shown in the graph above. This is slightly below last November’s peak of 6.75%.
Investment changes
Some dividends were received and re-invested during the month in my tax-sheltered accounts. Dividends in my dealing account were paid out to my bank. No other trades were made.
Portfolio
The table below shows the composition of my portfolio at the end of the month. This has been analysed by the sector of each holding.
| Yield % | Capital % | Income % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK | 4.00 | 40.85 | 33.91 |
| Asia Pacific | 4.88 | 23.75 | 24.05 |
| Global | 4.38 | 17.51 | 15.92 |
| Property | 6.97 | 8.60 | 12.43 |
| Bonds | 8.01 | 8.21 | 13.63 |
| Cash | 0.27 | 1.09 | 0.06 |
| 4.82 | 100.00 | 100.00 |
I have also analysed by the income or growth category of each holding.
| Yield % | Capital % | Income % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High Income | 7.48 | 26.09 | 40.45 |
| Income | 4.54 | 47.30 | 44.51 |
| Income & Growth | 3.91 | 13.32 | 10.80 |
| Growth | 1.65 | 12.21 | 4.18 |
| Cash | 0.27 | 1.09 | 0.06 |
| 4.82 | 100.00 | 100.00 |
Cash
My annual drawdown spending is now around 3.23% of my portfolio value, based on the last two years spending and the opening and closing values for that period. My cash holdings are sufficient to cover about four months of spending. In addition, dividends being paid out in cash each year from my dealing account are sufficient to cover about four months of spending. I will need to sell shares from my dealing account to raise cash in the next few weeks.
Expenditure
Draw down spending was 64.08% of my portfolio income in the last twelve months which was an increase from 58.69% for the previous twelve months. Portfolio income rose by only 1.66% but expenditure rose by 11.00%. This increased spending resulted from some discretionary spending choices and some exceptional cost items. There have been no impacts yet from the expected rises in energy costs, grocery bills and council taxes despite RPI and CPI inflation reaching annual rates of 7.55% and 5.40% at the end of December.
Conclusion
I find that I haven’t been personally impacted by the headlines of stock market falls and inflation rises that I read. Not so far at least.