tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225175972012-01-28T16:38:27.166+11:00Personal Finance, Investing, and EconomicsmOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.comBlogger13821100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-72315282527685996302012-01-28T16:33:00.003+11:002012-01-28T16:38:27.178+11:00

The last couple of weekends we have been to open houses in neighborhoods we might like to live in. I think the nicest house we've seen is this one. We're not really serious about this at this stage, just trying to get a feel for the market. Definitely it seems that houses recently put on the market are asking for ridiculous prices and dropping them over time. This one was $990k-$1,040k. Given the

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-65289512698318342972012-01-18T11:36:00.004+11:002012-01-18T11:49:38.553+11:00

Unisuper say they are concerned that the Australian government will not index the concessional superannuation limit this year. The issue is that employers in the university sector are contributing 17% of employees stated salaries to the Unisuper superannuation fund. In other words, for someone earning $A100k per year they contribute $A17k to this retirement fund in addition to the salary they pay

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-4832097308989612212012-01-18T11:05:00.005+11:002012-01-18T11:20:25.228+11:00

Back in 2008 I blogged about traditional Australian Listed Investment Companies. These have lower management fees than Australian index funds and in the long-run seem to slightly beat the index by selecting investments and selling options. I finally made an investment in Argo investments. The current book price relative to net asset value is better than Australian Foundation or Djeriwarrh and

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-48450016878184927812012-01-12T12:13:00.002+11:002012-01-12T12:17:48.974+11:00

This is what happened to asset allocation over the year:Cash and bonds went up and large cap Australian stocks went down. This is due to market weakness and a purposeful policy of increasing liquidity in recent months. The large cap Aussie stock weighting fell from 51% last December to about 43% now. In the long-run for diversification reasons I'd want to get that smaller still but it is hard to

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-86137697981155882912012-01-07T16:12:00.003+11:002012-01-07T16:23:57.064+11:00

Not sure how serious this annual review is going to be. I'm just going to post what I feel like. This is what happened to net worth in Australian Dollars over the course of the year:We ended the year with somewhat higher net worth but retirement savings actually declined while non-retirement savings overtook retirement savings for the first time since the onset of the financial crisis. This trend

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-82546927537299303752012-01-06T20:37:00.002+11:002012-01-06T20:45:09.269+11:00

I got an e-mail from HSBC in India today telling em to phone a US number because my debit card may have been used fraudulently. I did a Google search for the number and came up with what looked like an HSBC site with that number on it. So I called up and soon was speaking with someone in India. They asked for a lot of identifying detail but it wasn't what I was used to banks asking for. I started

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-75789181357061689032012-01-05T17:47:00.002+11:002012-01-05T17:52:00.938+11:00

So we were in Dick Smith (electronics store) about to buy something that costs $A250. Snork Maiden asked the cashier if any deals were available. He looked at his computer for a while and said - I can give you a two year extended warranty and reduce the price to $A225 - the price of the item was now only $A170 and the warranty $A55. This makes no economic sense to me at all. How can it make sense

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-662842955590832702012-01-04T18:00:00.005+11:002012-01-04T18:29:19.078+11:00

It was a big year careerwise. I got a permanent job in Australia after working temporarily for the same department between January and August. I was promoted to the top rank. Snork Maiden is still trying to turn her position into a permanent one. She has an interview later this month for that purpose. Still this meant that our income (not counting investments) reached a record high this year and

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-83560797692612733052012-01-03T18:00:00.002+11:002012-01-03T18:09:41.711+11:00

I'll do an annual review soon, so this will be pretty brief. As usual the numbers are in US Dollars. Non-investment income was on the high side as I finally got a reimbursement for my trip to India. These business expenses get included in our regular spending and income figures and exaggerate them a bit. I do try to compute "core expenditure" that excludes this sort of spending. Retirement

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-63242245388343622982012-01-01T15:20:00.004+11:002012-01-01T15:24:40.071+11:00

Happy new year! Hopefully, this year will be better than the last. For US investors things weren't so bad but the Australian stock market has suffered two losing years in a row, which hasn't happened since the early 1980s. As you can see it was a losing month for Moominmama too. The MSCI index was down 0.17% for the month and the S&P 500 up 1.02%. For the year the MSCI lost 5.96% but Moominmama

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-26849350064252041382011-12-23T20:58:00.002+11:002011-12-23T20:58:00.614+11:00

Third post in this series:1996-2002:2007-Present:The most noticeable thing about these pictures I think is the sunshine :) It's not been like that much recently.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-46866090822429044762011-12-22T20:48:00.002+11:002011-12-22T20:59:57.479+11:00

Street scenes from the other side of the ocean:1990-1991:1991-1992:1992-1993:1995-1996:2002-2007:Yes, when I was in grad school I ended up moving every year. Since then, I've been much slower to move.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-91017394242127480962011-12-21T10:35:00.005+11:002011-12-22T20:59:57.480+11:00

I was inspired by these posts to put up some pictures of places I used to live. The difference in my case is that they all look much the same as when I lived there and I'm twice the age of Ken! For three countries I've lived in I could just go to Google Earth and capture pictures. No need to actually travel :) So to kick off here is Britain below. I've tried to capture a feeling of the streets

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-50077370446662632182011-12-07T09:15:00.003+11:002011-12-07T09:24:45.663+11:00

I haven't done this kind of thing for a while :) Looking at the Qantas chart there is a clear resistance line at $1.80. TA theory would say that if we get above that we probably won't go below it again in a hurry. It's interesting a friend said he thinks there will be a new buyout offer at $1.80 - Seems very low though to me... Don't know if it based on anything solid or just rumors he heard (my

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-61368041046774585152011-12-01T22:17:00.003+11:002011-12-01T22:23:11.595+11:00

And back down again this month. The portfolio was heavily affected by the rise in the US Dollar reducing the value of non-USD assets in USD terms. It was Moominmama's 80th birthday today, by the way, and my 47th birthday. Yes, we have the same birthday. We did a Skype video hook up across the time zones. Snork Maiden, my brother (doing the tech stuff at their end), and the live in helper that

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-17657837544671168622011-12-01T21:01:00.006+11:002011-12-01T21:26:45.492+11:00

Things reversed again this month but the losses were actually less than I expected. IN USD terms we lost 6.35%. In AUD terms we lost 3.05% and in currency neutral terms 3.65%. But the MSCI World Index only lost 2.94% for the month. The reason for our underperformance is that the Australian market largely missed out on the global 30th of November rally induced by globally coordinated easing by

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-46631113654339790942011-11-14T20:48:00.002+11:002011-11-14T20:52:59.405+11:00

With potentially large expenditures in the next year or two we need to have more liquidity. So going forward I'm going to focus discretionary saving more on short-term investments and paying down debt. Our automatic investments will continue as before at $5000 plus a month. Just over $A3,000 per month going into superannuation (after the 15% contribution tax) and $A2,000 a month into managed

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-1669398119386192032011-11-14T11:57:00.002+11:002011-11-14T11:59:58.972+11:00

It looks like the chairman and a bunch of other directors of Qantas went out and bought shares on the market. It's nice to see a vote of confidence in the company from the board. But really 100,000 shares at $1.60 each is not going to be much of an investment for Leigh Clifford given that he was previously CEO of Rio Tinto. Anyway, the stock price is up a little this morning on this news (as I

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-33269707429763727572011-11-12T18:06:00.004+11:002011-11-12T18:23:24.106+11:00

I saw an ad in the Australian Financial Review today to invest in the US Masters Residential Property Fund. I already invest in US property through the TIAA Real Estate Fund, which does include apartment complexes but not small multi-family or single family houses like this fund does. The supposed advantages are a high yield relative to investing in single family homes in Australia, the low price

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-51110591329850320992011-11-12T08:57:00.004+11:002011-11-13T23:34:39.672+11:00

A reader asks the Sydney Morning Herald:"Q The money that an employer ''compulsorily contributes'' to my super * comes from where? Is it my money contributed on my behalf by the employer, or is it the employer's money, begrudgingly contributed to my super because the government orders it?"and the answer:"A The contribution is a cost to employers and, although contributed on behalf of the employee

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-80649389189441115422011-11-08T11:45:00.002+11:002011-11-08T11:50:55.496+11:00

If you ever have to do a security clearance - at least in this country - these are some of the things you'll need:1. Everywhere you ever travelled overseas down to the months for the last 10 years and by year for previous years. And for your spouse too.2. Addresses with proof in the form of utility bills for last ten years.3. Everywhere you worked with months and times you weren't working for the

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-70252306175135022572011-11-06T09:38:00.005+11:002011-11-06T09:50:24.927+11:00

The Vice Chancellor (i.e. President) of the University of Queensland is resigning. But what shocked me in the story was that he was paid over $1 million! And his deputy was paid almost $1 million. Recently there was a controversy that the head of the Reserve Bank had an increase in salary to $1 million and that several other public officials saw increases to around $800k. The Prime Minister gets

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-73809980510619920572011-11-04T23:16:00.005+11:002011-11-06T11:21:20.452+11:00

When measured in terms of median wealth per individual in US Dollars at $220,000. Switzerland is richest in terms of mean wealth per individual. Both facts are in the Credit Suisse Wealth Report.(HT: Enoughwealth)

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-6892182159771366712011-11-02T00:51:00.004+11:002012-01-04T18:16:02.396+11:00

Yes our rate of return in USD was 15.01% for October which is a record. But it was largely due to the rebound in the Australian Dollar. In AUD terms we only made 5.61% and in currency neutral terms 8.57%. And after 7 months of losses in AUD terms it doesn't get us back to where we were either. And now Greece seems to have gone crazy and called a referendum on a deal which would have written off a

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-10808455432667311962011-11-01T20:52:00.004+11:002011-11-01T21:12:17.679+11:00

Finally a positive month... The MSCI World Index gained 10.74% for the month while the S&P500 total return index gained 10.93%. But the portfolio only gained 4.85%. Beta is estimated at 0.49 so this is roughly what you'd expect to see. Alternative investments lost money while equities actually outperformed the indices.My preliminary estimate is that we gained more than 15% in USD terms in October.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-64494543998941587142011-10-14T13:56:00.004+11:002011-10-14T14:04:22.751+11:00

Thanks to high house prices and compulsory superannuation the average Australian household is much wealthier than the average American household. We are below average with a net worth of about $A510k vs. $A720k for the average household. The average house was worth $A541k for those who owned their home outright and $A521k for those with mortgages. The average superannuation (retirement) balance

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-73886559720244203362011-10-09T15:22:00.000+11:002011-10-09T15:23:49.945+11:00

Seems like it was hard to get both Yoyo and the Hollywood sign in focus.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-40884015122624863742011-10-09T13:31:00.004+11:002011-10-09T13:45:13.144+11:00

We went to the (relatively) new Costco store at Canberra airport today. You have to buy a membership ($A60 p.a.) before you can look inside the store, though the membership is refundable. Some things are very cheap and others are near prices at other discount stores. For example, wine sells for the same price as 1st Choice Liquor. Levis 501 jeans were on sale for a price lower than in a Levis

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-88958652151143481222011-10-06T21:24:00.004+11:002011-10-07T07:44:12.757+11:00

Another month of negative returns. Seven straight months of losses. Returns in USD terms were heavily affected by the rise in the US Dollar which reduced the value of all our non-USD investments. As a result net worth fell by $US56k:In Australian Dollar terms the loss was "only" $A11k. The USD rate of return was -13.26% compared with the MSCI World Index's loss of 9.4%. In AUD terms we lost 4.38%

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-8929628567132996302011-10-06T12:55:00.004+11:002011-10-06T14:16:18.889+11:00

I just heard that Steve Jobs died at age 56. I felt sad but my immediate thoughts were that he got on with doing the big things he wanted to do and it's good he did because he died relatively young. I've often commented (in contrast to some but not all personal finance bloggers) on not worrying too much about saving for retirement over more immediate life goals and not putting off dreams until

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-82804964016341132502011-10-03T02:14:00.004+11:002011-10-03T02:24:19.545+11:00

The portfolio got slammed this month by a double whammy - stock markets fell with the MSCI World Index falling 9.4% and the US Dollar rose sharply with the Euro falling more than 9% and other currencies by smaller amounts. The loss was 6.55%. The least badly performing areas were hedge funds and commodities. The Man/AHL managed futures fund actually gained just under 1%.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-63354876843191582932011-09-21T09:30:00.002+10:002011-09-21T09:32:35.094+10:00

Google finally opened Google Plus to anyone who wants to join rather than by invitation only. So I joined to see what it was about. I get this one even less than Facebook so far. It invites me to add names to circles, but I get no indication of whether people I know are already on Google Plus. I'm mystified. I guess I'm "doing it wrong". Any enlightenment?

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-63856521619412373862011-09-20T22:07:00.003+10:002011-09-20T22:13:17.997+10:00

I was just invited to come and talk in Rome. But I turned it down. I think I will have done enough traveling for the year and I don't feel particularly expert in the specifics that they are interested in. I don't see it adding a lot professionally in other ways. It's more like a training session for the participants (from developing countries) from what I can understand. It's a pity because I

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-14098962647303698392011-09-19T17:26:00.002+10:002011-09-19T17:31:16.231+10:00

How much should I charge as a consultant? My employer allows us to spend 20% of our time on consulting. So I figure I should take my salary + employer retirement contributions and divide by 4*52 days to work out a daily rate. And add on any expenses too, of course. Snork Maiden thinks that is too low. And it seems to be lower than what one of my colleagues quoted. I'm not really interested in

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-67622560025364920422011-09-15T16:36:00.003+10:002011-09-15T16:55:13.544+10:00

We arrived in Australia four years ago today. From today Snork Maiden can apply for Australian citizenship, though now she doesn't seem to be in so much of a hurry to do that now. She just got a visa to visit the US (Australian citizens don't need visas) so won't bother with the citizenship until getting back from the US. We're still living in the same apartment as we were when we got here. We're

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-29808364333755484142011-09-15T12:21:00.003+10:002011-09-15T12:23:54.933+10:00

Cambria manages the GTAA ETF. Manager Mebane Faber also writes an interesting blog. Now they have http://www.indexuniverse.com/sections/news/9863-cambria-files-to-offer-its-own-etfs.html">filed with the SEC to offer more ETFs.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-51868913899740116652011-09-12T21:22:00.003+10:002011-09-12T22:06:47.439+10:00

A recent paper by Wade Pfau really overturns some standard ideas about retirement planning. The usual story includes picking a "number", planning how much you need to save to get to the number and starting early with saving in order to benefit from compounding interest. This table from the paper:shows what percentage of final retirement assets could be explained by accumulated wealth a given

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-47956740843814097322011-09-08T18:47:00.002+10:002011-09-08T18:52:12.461+10:00

This is a graph of our three Australian superannuation (retirement accounts). The green is Snork Maiden who has now been working for four years and accumulated $A50k. The blue is my current account where I worked one part-time job in 2009-2010 and then a full time job from the beginning of 2011 and accumulated about half as much. The red is the account from when I worked in Australia previously

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-78763959462198667432011-09-08T18:22:00.005+10:002011-09-08T18:31:14.165+10:00

If you ever wondered how much money to give as a gift at a wedding, there is an "app" for that if the wedding happens to be in Israel. Unfortunately the link is in Hebrew (I can read it...). I wonder if there are similar sites for other countries?Snork Maiden said that in China RMB 1000-2000 would be expected, which sounds like a lot of money to me as RMB 2000 could be a month's wages for a

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-9516229561530576642011-09-01T19:49:00.003+10:002011-09-01T20:06:24.202+10:00

Six losing months in a row now... The accounts for the month look like this in USD terms: Non-investment income was very high as was spending. This was a triple pay month - we get paid every two weeks as is the norm in Australia and every few months there is a month with three payments. Also my pay rose as I took on my new position. But in USD terms we lost 7.25% this month against an MSCI

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-55903124719438366592011-09-01T08:45:00.002+10:002011-09-01T08:55:04.667+10:00

An interesting article in the NY Times about whether investors should have had a lost decade - losing money over the last ten years or for the first decade of the 21st Century. The author argues that if you were properly diversified then you wouldn't have lost money. So I decided to check it out based on the data I have collected. I have been keeping accounts and returns on investment in a

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-5177623180716999532011-08-27T09:23:00.003+10:002011-08-27T09:25:23.894+10:00

Most large cap tech stocks now have fairly low price earnings ratios and some are even paying big dividends: Historically, tech stocks paid very low or no dividends and utilities great big fat ones. From http://tickersense.typepad.com/ticker_sense/2011/08/role-reversal.html">Tickersense.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-74972696140572964172011-08-25T15:38:00.006+10:002011-08-25T15:47:54.230+10:00

I've actually been buying shares recently. Adding $A5,000 to the CFS Geared Share Fund (large cap Australian shares with in built borrowing and today I bought 5000 shares of Qantas (QAN.AX). That was a departure from my recent investment plan. The only other stocks of individual companies I hold are Legend International (LGDI.OB) and Bekaert (BEKB.BR) and neither has been doing well lately.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-69879598681950147732011-08-18T15:56:00.004+10:002011-08-18T16:21:43.862+10:00

I finally got my job contract and have signed and returned it, so now I have a permanent job. As I discussed, I decided to make no additional contributions to superannuation (retirement) beyond the 17% my employer is contributing. Additional contributions have to come from after tax income as the employer contribution already almost hits the annual $A25k ($US26k) ceiling on pre-tax contributions.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-68512597836360391062011-08-16T22:51:00.002+10:002011-08-16T22:55:11.948+10:00

The Dow Jones Credit Suisse Core Hedge Fund Index is a hedge fund index that is updated daily. This allows real time tracking of hedge fund performance vs. other asset classes: Hedge funds declined much less than stocks in the recent correction. Particularly noteworthy have been the gains in managed futures.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-86947719442367381252011-08-02T21:46:00.000+10:002011-08-02T20:48:50.583+10:00

Another month has flown by... I'm getting tired of losing money. In Australian Dollar terms the last 5 months have all had negative returns on investment. That's a long-run of negative returns. The accounts for the month look like this in USD terms:Our trip to Asia didn't end up costing us very much at all. My flight and first week hotel was paid as I was on business. I also got an $A1,100

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-11579990753719890052011-08-01T08:54:00.003+10:002011-08-01T09:03:07.892+10:00

HSBC lost a lot of money from it's venture into North America. Now they are withdrawing and have sold their upstate New York branches to First Niagara Bank. I have a checking account with HSBC at an upstate NY branch as well as a credit card account and an online savings account. Apparently, all these accounts, including the online only account, will transfer to First Niagara:"9. I have an Online

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-27945290195711900672011-07-30T22:49:00.004+10:002011-07-30T23:13:29.084+10:00

I can't submit my tax return yet as I don't have details of the tax treatment of a couple of distributions I received. But I did all the other calculations now to get this out of the way. In the following table I make some assumptions about the distributions:Click here for the 2009-10 data. For those of you outside Australia, the Australian tax year runs from 1 July to 30 June. There are no state

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-66668719336932455322011-07-30T21:13:00.001+10:002011-07-30T21:13:00.459+10:00

When http://moominhouse.blogspot.com/2011/07/yoyo-tackles-korean-food.html">I posted a picture of Yoyo looking at Sushi I said that was a high end Japanese restaurant too. This place was on the 39th floor of a building in a Seoul satellite city with a great view. You had to take your shoes off outside the private dining room and then get up into the room. In the middle was a table over a sunken

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-18915730276080520552011-07-29T19:58:00.001+10:002011-07-29T19:58:00.282+10:00

Bibimbap can be served in a sizzling bowl which you are supposed to add soup and hot sauce to complete the preparation. But, then, sometimes it isn't, like this example at the National Museum:

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-17006537994177578002011-07-28T19:48:00.001+10:002011-07-28T19:48:01.076+10:00

A bar with a river of alcohol! The traditional Korean drink makoli to be precise:This was in the Sinchon neighborhood. You can drink as much as you like for W4,000 each (just under $4). You can also order food. The main menu was in Korean and Japanese, but there was also a Chinese menu. No English menu. Again, recommended by our Hong Kong guide. So, the dishes cover holes in the table. You lift

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-42156642506347548652011-07-28T09:52:00.003+10:002011-07-28T10:16:20.129+10:00

With all the talk about the U.S. credit rating possibly being lowered to AA from AAA due to the debt ceiling debate debacle, I was wondering what the credit ratings of other countries were as a point of comparison. Wikipedia, helpfully has a list. According to Standard and Poors, other AA countries include:BelgiumBermudaChinaJapanKuwaitNew ZealandQatarSaudi ArabiaSloveniaSpainTaiwanNot such a bad

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-6886191335567546052011-07-27T19:24:00.004+10:002011-07-27T19:24:00.268+10:00

We found lots of attractions and places to eat in Seoul by following a guidebook that Snork Maiden bought at Hong Kong airport. First she had to translate from Cantonese to Mandarin and then to Korean though some things were actually labelled in Korean. This was very helpful. By the end of the trip I could read all the Korean consonants. One of the places recommended was just round the corner

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-81744797130013898042011-07-27T15:47:00.004+10:002011-07-27T16:13:02.621+10:00

Time for the annual report on Snork Maiden's taxes. For some reason, these are some of my most popular posts. For comparison here is last year's report. I can't actually submit her return until I do my taxes which won't be for a while (I need to gather a lot of tax statements from investments first). This is because they are now requiring full details of a spouse's income in order to avoid paying

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-45517008784023321792011-07-26T23:16:00.004+10:002011-07-26T23:19:33.131+10:00

Soros to return all outside money to investors. I didn't realise that it was down to just $1 billion in outside money. The Alchemy of Finance was one of the books that got me interested in trading. In the end that didn't turn out to be a very productive thing for me to try to do, but it was fascinating.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-67295457793564012712011-07-26T19:20:00.000+10:002011-07-26T19:20:00.269+10:00

At this place, in the Sinchon neighborhood, the staff cook your food in a big pan built into your table. It is supposedly chicken, but was mostly cabbage. Before:and after:

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-72671929288286846282011-07-25T19:04:00.002+10:002011-07-25T19:04:00.172+10:00

Namdaemun (Nan da men in modern Mandarin Chinese - South Great Gate) is a market area in the centre of Seoul. We had lunch one day in a restaurant there after going camera shopping. This is what it looked like:The main dishes are a spicy tofu stew and cold buckwheat noodles. After serving the noodles a woman came and cut them with a big pair of scissors. We didn't think much of the sushi. In

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-1959967572808601352011-07-24T18:26:00.008+10:002011-07-24T18:39:34.152+10:00

We went to a restaurant in the Insadong neighborhood that claimed to serve "temple food". This meant that the food was vegetarian and made of locally available ingredients and featured some things that Buddhist monks might have traditionally eaten. Lunch was a fixed menu for W22k per person (about $20) with a large number of small dishes. As my friends commented, this was pretty lavish for monks.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-45466330750873747662011-07-23T19:01:00.004+10:002011-07-23T19:07:13.520+10:00

Yoyo takes on a Korean melon:Yes, they are really small. Snork Maiden thought that the skin was edible. I wasn't so sure. Yoyo wasn't much happier with this box of sushi:Each piece was individually wrapped in plastic. It wasn't that good. On the other hand I went to a high end Japanese restaurant. I haven't got the pictures from that yet. Yoyo looks happier with this almond liquor and salted

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-17378327688222153362011-07-21T16:46:00.004+10:002011-07-21T16:51:58.159+10:00

Traditional pictures of food coming up soon.No you can't actually take a train to Pyeongyang from this station. 50m down the tracks there are stop signs:Though until 2007 there were trains to the industrial area just across the border.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-53909991277830633922011-07-10T16:36:00.002+10:002011-07-10T16:41:22.261+10:00

The government announced its climate policy package today. It's expected to get through parliament. The carbon price will apply to only the biggest 500 companies by emissions but they'll pass on the costs to a large extent to consumers. There are also tax cuts as part of the package including tripling the tax free threshold to over $18k a year. If we multiply that increase by the 16.5% lower tax

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-68654573470517812182011-07-08T19:43:00.003+10:002011-07-08T19:50:20.486+10:00

The HFRX hedge fund index lost another 1.59% in June and is down for the year by 2.12%. By comparison, the MSCI World stock index was down by 1.54% in June but is up 4.99% for the year. All strategies but equity market neutral lost money in June. The latter is also the best performing strategy YTD.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-45519506045342512922011-07-08T17:47:00.004+10:002011-07-09T12:38:43.200+10:00

It looks like I'll be going there soon too. Two new countries this year then. It's going to be an even crazier year, travelwise. P.S. Next year I'll be going to New Zealand. I've never been there as you can't really go there on the way to somewhere else (well maybe some Pacific islands). It really is the end of the world :)

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-23284538557218309112011-07-02T11:56:00.006+10:002011-07-02T12:18:07.700+10:00

The Australian financial year ends on June 30. Investment results for June are always delayed due to this. But here are the preliminary accounts for June in USD terms:This was a crazy month in terms of income and expenditure. Income was inflated by travel refunds (for the trip to Cloud Cuckoo Land and one to Sydney (Snork Maiden went on business and I went along for fun and we drove there and

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-54412387895705737082011-07-02T09:16:00.009+10:002011-07-02T11:55:21.683+10:00

I blogged that we wanted to buy shares in the Cambria GTAA ETF for my Mom among other investments we were making in the portfolio. But the bank (one of the biggest global banks) which has custody of the portfolio (they don't manage it really, we (my brother and I) do so that's why I put it this way) said that they couldn't buy the shares because a US Partnership was involved in this stock and the

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-38071282749139782952011-07-01T12:29:00.004+10:002011-07-01T12:39:29.833+10:00

Does it make sense to make non-concessional superannuation contributions? These are after tax contributions to a retirement account in Australia. In other words, the money is taxed at your marginal rate and then put into a retirement account and locked up until you are least 60 (if you are born in 1964 or later as I am). The advantage is that the tax rates on earnings are lower than in

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-27003352851628800192011-06-30T20:39:00.004+10:002011-06-30T21:04:21.238+10:00

Back in 1989 I got my first full-time professional job after I completed my master's degree. The salary was initially £10,500 p.a. I was a property market researcher/analyst. At a rough guess that would translate to about £18-19k today. At today's exchange rate that would be around AUD 28k p.a. which is about the minimum wage in Australia. Does this mean that I was really badly paid? Or that

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-52521271260246534722011-06-28T09:58:00.002+10:002011-06-28T10:04:11.339+10:00

In Australia, individuals who earn more than $A75k a year and households who earn more than $A150k per year need to pay an extra 1% of tax on their total income if they don't have private health insurance. Assuming my new job all works out as planned we'll need the insurance to avoid about $A2,200 in extra tax (1% of our joint income). I'm thinking about this already because the new financial

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-88430297037069546562011-06-27T19:14:00.002+10:002011-06-27T19:17:15.111+10:00

I got an offer of a continuing/permanent job. It's only an informal offer at this stage but a formal offer is guaranteed pretty much. We don't have to move either. Let alone to Cloud Cuckoo Land :)

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-66847724344249783622011-06-26T15:56:00.004+10:002011-06-26T16:12:17.791+10:00

The bracelet on my old watch kept breaking - it was made of aluminium - getting it fixed cost $5 a time. So I gave up and bought a new watch made of steel instead. Both are Swiss watches - the new one was AUD 265, which is a bit more than twice what the old one would cost now (it was a metal Swatch). The new one is pictured here. I guess this is my take on frugality. I don't buy a new thing until

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-70780034369821077462011-06-26T11:53:00.007+10:002011-06-26T16:11:40.169+10:00

Been trying to book a trip to visit the DMZ/JSA while I'm in Korea. I was too late for the USO tour. So now I'm trying with this operator. Chris Guillebeau says he can claim to have been in North Korea because he visited the JSA, so I think I will too :) He will try to visit North Korea for real later in his attempt to visit all countries in the world before his 35th birthday. But if he doesn't

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-26710340925447073502011-06-22T17:04:00.005+10:002011-06-22T17:28:51.851+10:00

Following up on the post on changes to my Mom's portfolio. The bank suggested some more investments. Two funds of REITs:UBS Global Real Estate Securities. This fund is very new and as far as I could work out has an expense ratio of 1.92%. As there isn't much of a track record one can't know if the high expense ratio is worthwhile. So I passed on this one.AXA WF Frm Europe Real Estate. This fund

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-30900653690254371952011-06-20T11:02:00.002+10:002011-06-20T11:20:31.144+10:00

Following on from yesterday's post on retirement savings, here is the chart of our non-retirement savings:Again, it's not adjusted for inflation and does not include any investment returns or losses and is in Australian Dollars. These savings differ in several ways from our retirement savings:1. It's much more volatile. Not only does the positive scale cover twice the distance there are also

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-79563637564793846132011-06-19T23:37:00.002+10:002011-06-19T23:52:38.136+10:00

I was curious how our current retirement saving rate compared to past years. Digging into my account spreadsheets I came up with this. This is just contributions. It doesn't include investment gains or losses. The bars are the monthly amounts in Australian Dollars. They're not adjusted for inflation. The dark green line is the 12 month moving average.The first few years I was in a steady job in

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-54916516023440467992011-06-19T21:46:00.004+10:002011-06-19T21:52:20.551+10:00

The broad Credit Suisse/Dow Jones Hedge Fund Index did not perform as badly as the more narrow indices in May:

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-56261693764797282552011-06-13T23:56:00.005+10:002011-06-13T23:59:51.562+10:00

This Wall Street Journal article goes on about how an exchange traded managed fund like the proposed PIMCO Total Return ETF is not big deal. It is, however, a big deal to foreign investors. Only US residents can buy units in unlisted US mutual funds. But anyone can buy US stocks in the secondary market. It would be nice if there were more of these.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-38039846907282796972011-06-08T21:06:00.003+10:002011-06-08T21:14:14.586+10:00

According to the Credit Suisse/Dow Jones Core Index, hedge funds performed almost as badly as stocks in May:The MSCI World Index lost 2.06% by comparison. Managed futures almost exactly reversed the previous month's gain and everything else went down too. The story was very similar at HFRX:The flash update of the HFRI monthly indices shows a little more green still in come fixed income strategies.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-31212906645044505912011-06-08T14:03:00.004+10:002011-06-08T16:39:09.399+10:00

I went to a seminar by our superannuation (retirement fund) provider at my employer today. The presenter referenced a recent Australian survey that tried to define how much income retirees need based on surveying actual retirees. They found that for a "comfortable" retirement a couple need after tax $A54k ($US58k) per year after tax, assuming that they own a house 100%. In Australia there is no

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-1751706152585350542011-06-07T16:20:00.004+10:002011-06-07T16:27:10.193+10:00

Holders of units in the EAIT fund of hedge funds recently received an offer to buy their shares for $0.70 a share:As you can see, the units are currently valued at $1.37 each. The units are not liquid because the underlying hedge funds have lock-up periods. Even if the value of the underlying funds does not increase until we receive our distributions you'd need a pretty high discount rate to

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-2627895773797486092011-06-05T12:03:00.004+10:002011-06-05T12:10:08.048+10:00

On Friday I bought about 5000 shares in Platinum Capital (PMC.AX) at $1.21 which is close to the net asset value. Usually this closed-end fund trades at a premium to NAV, so seemed a good idea. I probably will buy some shares in my US account too in the near future. When I buy shares it isn't direct saving, of course, as I use a margin loan and then gradually pay down the margin loan with savings

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-79072707910110502332011-06-03T22:21:00.011+10:002011-06-03T23:01:20.610+10:00

We have now made a bunch of moves in my Mom-s portfolio. First we sold down two bond funds and increased our investment in the Man-AHL diversified futures fund. And we moved £100k to her home country and invested in a http://moominhouse.blogspot.com/2011/06/moominmama-portfolio-performance-may.html">bunch of stuff there. That reduced the allocation to Sterling investments. But we still have a lot

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-58980482796900617022011-06-01T21:53:00.004+10:002011-06-01T22:09:38.055+10:00

As usual everything is in USD. The AUD fell for a change to 106.6 US cents from 109.4 US cents. This reduced our returns in USD terms and increased them in AUD terms. World stock markets fell a little in USD terms with the MSCI World Index losing 2.06% for the month. Here is the summary account for May:As you can see about a third of the investment loss in USD terms was because of the rise in the

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-15373560384576088122011-06-01T18:40:00.005+10:002011-06-01T18:55:35.467+10:00

Lot of moves this month reflected in these figures. World stock markets fell and the US Dollar rose negatively affecting Moominmama's returns and the portfolio fell by 2% in value. We increased the allocation to bonds again by transferring Sterling currency and converting it into the local currency and buying into four separate local bond funds and a balanced local bond fund. Also a local stock

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-71926308242633689782011-05-20T20:12:00.003+10:002011-05-20T20:22:42.403+10:00

Like HFRI vs. HFRX the broad Credit Suisse index shows stronger gains than the narrower core index this month, with the index rising 1.8% overall:And though Managed Futures did extremely well in both the Core and Broad indices there are some substantial differences in the other strategies such as Global Macro. The core index may be then mainly an indicator of direction of change alone and not a

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-47529254677098759872011-05-20T18:30:00.004+10:002011-05-20T18:54:01.535+10:00

I just booked my trip to Korea. Later in the year I may go to the US. And I already visited Cloud Cuckoo Land (CCL). It will be my busiest flying year since 2002 when I did two round the world trips, a trip to Israel and back, and moved to the US from Australia. A total of 95,000 miles. This year is heading to 50,000 + miles but will still be only the third heaviest traveling year for me unless I

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-78094277782220942092011-05-08T22:57:00.004+10:002011-05-08T23:08:38.417+10:00

There is a trend to earlier and earlier reporting each month of the results of the various hedge fund indices. Credit Suisse, now has a "Core Hedge Fund Index" along the lines of the HFRX. It gained 1.44% in April:Managed futures did particularly well, but they did particularly badly in March. HFRX reported qualitatively similar results:However, they estimate that hedge funds only gained 0.47% in

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-36801443941461835622011-05-02T21:30:00.003+10:002011-05-02T21:42:11.172+10:00

As usual everything is in USD. The AUD rose yet again to 109.4 US cents. This improved our returns in USD terms and reduced them in AUD terms. We again can no longer just say "dollars" without thinking about whether we mean US or Australian Dollars. World stock markets rose in little in USD terms with the MSCI World Index gaining 4.15% for the month. Here is the summary account for March:As you

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-32608375709477234122011-05-01T20:31:00.004+10:002011-05-01T20:43:01.605+10:00

The portfolio had nice gains in April, though largely due to the fall in the US Dollar. The MSCI World Index rose 4.15% and the portfolio 3.46%. As you can see we made a few large changes in the portfolio - selling bonds - in preparation for both buying new investments and another possible major move (actually quite literally) in possible progress. We are also making some progress in sorting out

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-52836362188237813792011-04-29T23:38:00.004+10:002011-04-29T23:55:45.319+10:00

I'm at the airport in Cloud Cuckoo Land on my way home. The internet at the airport is free as is university education in this country. And any student who graduated high school can go to any university in the country and study any subject they like. There are no caps on enrolments. It really is Cloud Cuckoo Land :) Of course, a lot of those students fail the exams in the courses they pick and

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-39158534840934906322011-04-16T10:46:00.006+10:002011-04-16T10:57:45.148+10:00

More interesting statistics from the US IRS. 34,000 estates needed to pay estate tax in 2009 and the average value of these estates was $5.7 million. Assets were allocated as follows:Of course, this is the allocation of assets at death and does not necessarily indicate the allocation of typical wealthy people. But it is interesting how it reflects on certain myths floating around in the personal

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-27166457207541834072011-04-16T09:26:00.005+10:002011-04-16T10:42:59.785+10:00

The US IRS puts out an annual report on the top 400 US taxpayers. In 2007, the average federal tax rate paid on adjusted gross income was only 19% despite the existence of the alternative minimum tax and a top US marginal tax rate of 35%. This is because 2/3 of their income came from capital gains.This table shows the effect of the Clinton tax increases and the Bush tax cuts:From 1993 to 2002

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-74306819322134182372011-04-16T08:36:00.002+10:002011-04-16T08:44:35.835+10:00

The Dow Jones/Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index rose slightly in March in contrast to theHFR indices which fell. There were some similar patterns of relative returns across strategies with managed futures doing poorly and equity market neutral doing well.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-80247084303104908912011-04-10T14:31:00.004+10:002011-04-10T14:44:02.776+10:00

The HFRX index fell 0.88% for March whereas the MSCI World Index rose by 0.72%. Equity market neutral, macro, event driven, and special situations saw gains. Equity market neutral saw the best gains, but equity hedge the second worst losses! HFRX is a daily priced index in contrast to HFRI which only provides monthly results but covers a much wider selection of funds as a result. Dow Jones

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-14059388801665870732011-04-10T12:48:00.005+10:002011-04-10T13:09:53.978+10:00

I don't know if any other personal finance bloggers have more than twenty years of data, but I haven't seen it posted. Now and then I like to update what the really long-term picture has looked like.The graph has networth (blue) and the split into retirement accounts (green) and non-retirement (brown). The record starts when I first arrived in the US in 1990. The early years I was a grad student

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-61310472015186858852011-04-03T22:35:00.004+10:002011-04-03T23:24:23.217+10:00

Distributions from managed funds (Australian mutual funds) fell dramatically in the wake of the financial crisis. Some funds are now beginning to again pay significant distributions. More generally, dividends are rising.For the January-March quarter, I got a $2035 distribution from the Colonial First State Developing Companies Fund, which is more than the sum of distributions received in 2008,

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-57684537375023225352011-04-03T12:36:00.003+10:002011-04-03T13:21:33.219+10:00

As usual everything is in USD. The AUD rose again to 103.6 US cents. This improved our returns in USD terms and reduced them in AUD terms. World stock markets rose a little in USD terms with the MSCI World Index gaining 0.72% for the month. Here is the summary account for March:Non-investment income and retirement contributions were very high as this was a 3 pay month (we are paid every 2 weeks).

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-60870362601860296562011-04-02T11:00:00.000+11:002011-04-02T11:12:46.966+11:00

We now have enough data to compute the rate of return over 8 years on Moominmama's portfolio. This table compares it to the MSCI World Index:All rates are annualised. In general the portfolio has about half the performance of the MSCI World Index. This isn't surprising given the conservative nature of the portfolio. I estimate beta at 0.47 and alpha at -2.31%. The latter is not very good. The

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-75838065306776383622011-04-02T10:44:00.004+11:002011-04-03T07:48:29.863+10:00

I bought the ticket for the interview in Cloud Cuckoo Land - $2947. That's a bit over the budget they gave me of Euros 2000. A direct flight to the capital seemed to come out even worse and then I'd need to get a train for 2 1/2 hours. So I'm flying to Frankfurt and then flying to the city in question. In the meantime in Australia I am making progress on getting a permanent job despite some

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-39104832804494965872011-03-27T10:05:00.005+11:002011-03-27T10:30:20.318+11:00

Buffett speaking in IndiaIn a recent post I referenced the Credit Suisse report that argues quite reasonably that long-term bonds are unlikely to be a good investment going forward. Of course, if you believe in efficient markets the prices of long-term bonds should already reflect that interest rates will rise in the future and, therefore, buying long-term bonds now should still be an OK

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22517597.post-54651464657348682912011-03-27T00:37:00.002+11:002011-03-27T00:38:49.953+11:00

Just heard. About one month's time.

mOOmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.com1