Saturday, December 20, 2014

Projected Net Worth in February 2015

If everything goes to plan this is roughly what our balance sheet would look like, using NetWorthIQ's format, by the end of February (in US Dollars):

Friday, December 19, 2014

Made an Offer on a House

After three years of looking for a house and participation in three auctions, I finally made an offer on a house, not through the auction process (This house was auctioned but didn't sell at auction). I think all our friends and family thought we would never buy... The price agreed on is $A740k ($US605k). It's part of a townhouse complex but is a freestanding house and has a "reserve" on two sides and a neigboring house on only one side. It has great views. It's a bit further from the city center than we would really like and less land area than we would like - only a very small garden area. but houses in this condition and size, with more land, nearer the center, and without intrusive electric power poles, which Snork Maiden doesn't like, are very expensive or maybe one a year comes along at a reasonable price range which we could bid on at an auction.



Now the legal/financial wheels begin to turn.

Monday, December 08, 2014

Murray Report on the Australian Financial System and Superannuation

The findings of the Murray review of the Australian financial system have been released. I am most interested in their recommendations for superannuation (retirement accounts). Of course, there is no way to know yet what recommendations the government (or future governments) will take on board. This just adds to the uncertainty surrounding super. I had been thinking that now I am 50 years old, as soon as we buy a house I would start making after tax ("nonconcessionary") contributions to super. This is because once you retire there is no tax on superannuation earnings and it is only 10 years till I am 60 and could withdraw money. Though pre-tax contributions ("concessionary" - actually they are taxed at 15% instead of your marginal rate) are limited to $35k per year, you can contribute up to $150k per year after tax. But if they actually withdraw the advantageous tax status of super and worse still if they end up forcing people to take an annuity instead of being able to access their money as they like then I wouldn't want to put any extra money in super at all. The review recommends making annuities a default option, which people will have to opt out of, but I can imagine it becoming compulsory. So, for now, even when we have bought a house I wouldn't plan on adding any extra non-concessionary contributions to super. And yes I sold Qantas too soon :(

Tuesday, December 02, 2014

Moomin Valley November 2014 Report

The Australian Dollar fell by more than two US cents this month from 87.89 to 85.23 US cents. The MSCI World Index rose 1.72%, the S&P 500 rose 2.69%, but the ASX200 fell 3.25%. In Australian Dollar terms we lost 0.46% and in US Dollar terms 3.47%. So we strongly outperformed the Australian market and strongly underperformed the global markets. Australian stocks and private equity performed very badly with the exception of Qantas and Medibank. Both Snork Maiden and I bought shares in the Medibank float - we should have about 7000 shares between us. On Monday, after the close of the month, I sold out of Qantas. It's been a rollercoaster ride. A price of above $2 seemed good for taking profits. Foreign stocks and the Winton Global Alpha Fund both did well.

As a result, net worth rose $A5k to $1.286 million (new high) and fell $US30k to $US1.096 million. The monthly accounts (in AUD) follow:


Current non-investment income (salary etc.) was a little above normal at $14.6k and retirement contributions were $3.2k as normal. Spending was $8.1k which is high but a lot less than last month! Still, that means that we managed to save $6.3k from current non-investment income. A big expense was a hotel bill for where I was staying in Europe on a business trip which should get refunded. On the other hand, because I accidentally paid this month's rent early, we didn't have to pay any rent this month and these two items just about cancelled each other out. So, the adjusted "core expenditure" is about the same as unadjusted expenditure. We spent some money on traveling in Europe and on the dentist (root canal) and that about explains the high spending this month it seems.

Monday, December 01, 2014

Half a Century





Today is my fiftieth birthday. It feels like quite a milestone. This morning I was sitting in a presentation with a colleague from a unit I used to work in who when I asked him how things are going said: "This is my final year, I'm retiring"... so after discussing that for a bit I told him it was my 50th birthday today. He said he was working too hard to celebrate back in 2000. It's probably the halfway point in my adult life, though you never know how long you are going to live, of course, we can just rely on life expectancies and how long our parents lived.

Careerwise, I think I need to be a bit less like this guy - "my strategic plan is to say yes to everything" and more like this guy. Two of the bloggers I follow. I find it hard to say no, though I am doing it more and more. Early in your career I do think you want to say yes a lot, but then you need to start to get more selective or you'll never get anything good done. You need to decide what to invest time in. I've been fairly successful. Three years ago I was appointed full professor and I am a reasonably well known researcher in some circles. I'm happy with some of my research, but I still think I could do much better work.

I got my PhD at age 29, but in a lot of other ways I've been a late developer. Since my fortieth birthday I achieved one major typical life goal - getting married (six years ago now) but at 50 I still don't have children, have never owned a house etc. I guess these goals were never that important to me or I actually was opposed to them. If you follow the blog, you'll know we are still pursuing those two goals. We probably have achieved the goal of financial security, though it could still all unwind if things go really wrong. I'm definitely not a risk averse person. I have come quite a way though from the crisis point in 2008. I made the right decision to refocus on my academic career.