Thursday, November 02, 2017

October 2017 Report

The Australian stock market rose strongly for a change this month and the Australian Dollar fell a little. As a result, our net worth increased strongly and now is quite close to the AUD 2 million mark. Here are our monthly accounts (in AUD):



"Current other income" was $15k. We received almost $2k in childcare subsidy that the government pays us quarterly. Spending (not counting our mortgage or business expenses that should be refunded) was a little higher than last month moderate at $7.0k. After deducting the mortgage payment of $4.0k (which includes implicit interest saving due to our offset account - the actual mortgage payment was about $828 less than this), we saved $1.7k on the current account and added $2.1k in housing equity. But we should get a $2.3k refund of business expenses at some point, which will be credited as saving in a later month. Retirement contributions were $3.1k. Net saving was, therefore, $6.9k across the board.

The Australian Dollar fell slightly from USD 0.7839 to USD 0.7672. The ASX 200 gained 4.01%, the MSCI World Index gained 2.1%, and the S&P 500 2.33%. All these are total returns including dividends. We gained 4.19% in Australian Dollar terms and 1.97% in US Dollar terms. So, we slightly outperformed the Australian market and slightly underperformed international markets. The best performer in dollar terms was the Colonial First State Geared Share Fund, gaining $17.5k. Cadence (CDM.AX) was the worst performer losing $0.5k. Australian small cap stocks were the best performing asset class in percentage terms, gaining 4.68%. Hedge funds gained 4.46% and US stocks 4.42%. Private equity was the worst performing asset class, but still gained 2.21%!

As a result of all this, net worth rose AUD 72k to $1.985 million (new high) or rose USD 23k to USD 1.523 million (also a new high).