September 2016 Report

This was an uneventful month in the financial markets. Most notable thing was in our local housing market. A strong auction of a house in our development caused me to increase the carrying valuation of our house. Here are our monthly accounts (in AUD):

Spending (not counting mortgage) was moderate at $5.7k. Salaries etc. added up to $11k (after tax). After taking into account the mortgage payment of $3.7k (which includes implicit interest saving due to our offset account - the actual mortgage payment was about $500 less than this) - which shows up as a transfer to the housing account, we saved $1.6k on the current account. We made $3.6k of retirement contributions, and saved a net $1.6k in added housing equity. Net saving was, therefore, $6.8k across the board.

The Australian Dollar rose from USD 0.7520 to USD 0.7665. The ASX 200 fell 0.48%, the MSCI World Index rose 0.66%, and the S&P 500 rose 0.02%. We lost 0.15% in Australian Dollar terms and gained 1.78% in US Dollar terms. So we underperformed the Australian market and outperformed the international markets.

The best performing investments (in total dollars not RoR) were Oceania Capital Partners and Platinum Capital, which both gained $2.1k. The worst performer was the Unisuper superannuation fund, losing $1.6k. The best performing asset class was private equity, which gained 2.79% and the worst commodities, which lost 0.82%.

As a result of all this, net worth rose AUD 23k to $1.617 million or rose USD 41k to $US 1.240 million.