Moomin Valley

We spent a lot last month in particular on flight tickets to Europe and a new laptop computer. At least half of those expenditures are busi...

This month's numbers are pretty terrible, especially in US Dollars: But, as you can see once you take out the exchange rate losses of $3...

Just booked a couple more steps in our crazy trip . We will fly from Copenhagen via Billund in Jutland - the Danish Peninsula - to Paris. I...

Credit Suisse/Tremont have published preliminary results for hedge fund performance in May: The index lost 2.73% which is very similar to th...

Enough Wealth suggested on my last post that really I could have gotten a Dell laptop and saved money over buying a Mac. So, at least part ...

Recently we booked a trip to Europe . The tickets came in at $A5,900. And we're not yet done with trip costs. On the other hand, the peo...

The Daily HFRX hedge fund indices show an overall loss of 2.64% for May. In comparison to the MSCI World Index's loss of 9.48% that'...

This was a tough month in the markets. Stocks, and especially European stocks, and non-US currencies were hard hit. Alternative investments ...

Yesterday, I bought a new MacBook Pro. The old one was less than three years old but it was again malfunctioning, has an almost useless bat...

As I have shares in the Aurora Sandringham Dividend Income Trust , I just received a prospectus for the IPO of the manager. Investors in the...

Back in March I wrote that I was nominated by the Australian government for a UN scientific advisory body. I just heard today that the UN g...

Wow, if this is even somewhat accurate this is both outrageous and crazy. Using national emergency powers to campaign for the RSPT? If it i...

I just switched this back again. At least my average price is lower now...

HSBC (USA) is converting my checking account from "Interest Checking" to "Basic Checking" because the former product is ...

Today we booked at paid for our flights to Europe and Israel. We'll also be staying in Thailand for a couple of nights. Hopefully, condi...

I bought some shares in CHN last night. Price 25.13. It closed a little below that. Had been planning on that for a while and this seemed at...

Some good news. Snork Maiden heard that the funding her team got for the next two years is no longer contingent on them raising additional m...

The hedge fund performance figures for April from HFR and Credit Suisse/Tremont are in. Credit Suisse/Tremont reports that funds overall gai...

Interesting article on NetWorthIQ in NYT . The article takes a negative angle on net worth tracking. Personally, I get a feeling of security...

They just announced today who got the positions in my department. So, I find out that I won't get an offer (there was a chance of a seco...

Today, I got the rejection e-mail for the job in Brisbane that I applied for. We didn't want to go to Brisbane anyway and I didn't ...

As everyone knows by now property prices are crazy in many parts of China. When compared to incomes they are far far higher than in countrie...

The motor on the Bosch dishwasher in our apartment died and we had to get a new dishwasher. As the landlord is in another country the local ...

As usual, everything is in USD unless otherwise stated. I've estimated returns for hedge and commodity funds that haven't reported y...

Moominmama beat the MSCI index this month for a change. It only rose 0.22% and she gained 0.88%. Hedge funds, bonds, other investments, and ...

BHP's stock price is down 3.7% so far. Alan Kohler said yesterday that the resource rent tax would reduce their profits by 19%. So, so f...

"[The mean is] $62,400 per year. Around half of workers earn less than three–quarters of AWOTE [$46,800]."

The government will do three main things - raise the compulsory employer superannuation contributions to 12% from 9% of salary over time, re...

I just contributed $A1,000 to my superannuation (Australian retirement account) in order to get the government's co-contribution. Last y...

Based on all the leaks some things seem clear about what the Henry Review to be released Sunday will contain. I do expect that we'll mov...

The tax review will finally be released a week from this Sunday . Releasing a report on a Sunday is very weird. If that is meant to bury it,...

Press release from Australia mortgage industry association.

Yeah, another one. Sometime in May. Depending on ranking this is the top department in Australia. I think I need to do a different presentat...

The Sydney Morning Herald is running a series on the Australian residential property market. It looks like it will take a skeptical tone.

We're beginning to make plans to go to Europe this year. Last year we planned but never went. First step is sorting out visa details fo...

So I met with the Director just now. He offered me a backstop one year regular teaching/research position if all three candidates accept the...

Credit Suisse reports similar results to HFRI for March .

So 4 candidates were interviewed for 3 positions here in what I called my "dream job". And 3 offers have gone out but not to me! B...

I've recently done two small consultancies - one for an agency of the Cyprus government and one for a US government agency. The Cyprus p...

The All Ordinaries Index is above 5000 for the first time since the financial crisis!

It was a good month for hedge funds. The HFRX Daily Index reports a 1.38% gain for March. But the HFRI (which includes more funds) reports a...

I have an interview Tuesday in a northern state (there is only one northern state of course :)). They're putting me on a flight leaving ...

How Millennial are You? . I only scored 19%. Which is exactly the expected score for my age (45). Having two blogs and LinkedIn and Facebook...

Very sensible article on home-ownership . Question is how it translates to the Australian context. House prices are extremely high here rela...

I might put some more numbers and charts up at the end of the month when all investments have reported, but here are numbers with some guess...

Moominmama had a positive month with good gains in stocks and commodities. The MSCI World Index rose 6.48% in March and the average equity r...

I've produced a version of the annual accounts in Australian Dollars, which is what we are actually spending in and for the most part e...

While I'm at it, here is finally the income, expenditure, savings report for 2008: I didn't post it last year, as it was just so hor...

I did an annual report for 2009 but skipped the actual income, spending, and saving accounts for the year. So here they are: They follow th...

I switched $A13,750 from our holdings of Colonial First State Geared Share Fund to the CFS Conservative Fund in my CFS Superannuation accoun...

The chairman just wanted to update me on the state of the job search. It'll be another two weeks till they can make a decision... I did...

These reports are now going to come about a month after the close of the month, because only then do we have reports from all funds. As usua...

I submitted the final report for the project I did over the past year today, though I'll need to edit down the paper a lot to submit it ...

This isn't our car, just the closest picture I could find on the web Some time between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning someone sma...

The interview went OK. One of the committee told me I did well on the formal panel interview section. I didn't crash and burn or anythin...

I was commenting last time that when it rains it pours . Yeah, well the people who asked me to submit my details in order to maybe spend 40...

It looks like this will happen following a meeting and e-mails today. It's nominally about AUD 20k in funding. As I'm fending off o...

Another interview coming up on Monday. I just heard this evening. This one is pretty much my dream job. Hopefully, I don't screw it up l...

Results are now in for both Credit Suisse/Tremont and HFRI. HFRI gained 0.52% (HFRX monthly 0.26%) and Credit Suisse/Tremont 0.68%. Managed ...

The Australian government is nominating me as a candidate for participation in an international research organization in my field. Of course...

Some insights about class . In attitudes and circumstances I think I am on the border between the middle class and owning class. I try to be...

Always the first of the hedge fund indices to report, the HFRX daily index reports a gain of 0.26% for February. January saw a loss of 0.02%...

I gave a presentation at a government department today, which they seemed to like and then the possibility of me being "seconded" ...

I finally got the accounts together for January (accounts in USD): Our spending was again at the low end. February is going to come in aroun...

Moominmama lost 1.82% in February, mainly due to the fall in Sterling against the US Dollar. The value of Sterling Cash fell 4.81%, while bo...

As this period of receiving two salaries comes to a close, I'm reviewing how our saving vs. spending has been during the last year. Curr...

My current contract ends today more or less, paywise. I still haven't actually completed what I agreed to do, but it will be done in the...

Moomin Valley is one of the finalists in the category of "Best Economics Blog" for the http://www.plutusawards.com/congratulations...

Today was the grant application deadline . Realistically, I knew I wasn't going to be able to come up with the matching funding I needed...

I came into the office this morning after working at home yesterday and found that a ceiling fan had been installed. This building is 50 yea...

Credit Suisse Tremont show a 0.17% gain for hedge funds in January. And in further contrast to HFRI's numbers they show Global Macro re...

You've probably heard about Amy Bishop who shot three faculty members at the University of Albama in Huntsville after she was denied ten...

HFRI reports a 0.71% loss for hedge funds globally in January 2010 while HFRX reported a 0.02% loss. By contrast, stock indices were down by...

After I put a lot of work into developing a grant application to try to create a position for myself (as well as applying for regular jobs) ...

Moominmama suffered a loss of 0.96% in January following a similar loss in December. This month, though, the MSCI All Country Gross World In...

Sirius Resources (SIR.AX) is going to automatically sell out all shareholders with less than $A500 worth of shares free of brokerage and sen...

Monthly performance figures for December and annual figures for 2009 are now in for the HFRX monthly indices: The Global Hedge Fund Index r...

Not long after I commented that the TFS Market Neutral Fund was at an all time high the fund has decided to institute a "hard close...

Following a breakdown of the sources of growth in net worth , we look at changes in asset allocation over the year: This first chart tracks ...

The Global Hedge Fund Index rose 0.55% in December and 13.40% for 2009. Performance over the last 3 or 4 years is negative. The MSCI All Cou...

It's weird that "signature debit" dominates the US debit card market - at least according to the New York Times. I don't ...

This chart shows that the rebound from the lows in early 2009 in our net worth is due to a combination of new savings and investment gains....

Net worth rebounded very substantially from the beginning of the year and the low early in the year: Medium term balance is the net of all n...

Moxy Vote is a new website (got started in November) which aims to link individual investors and advocates in order to get more individual ...

The first part of my 2009 annual report focuses on rate of return relative to benchmarks. Here are the annualized rates of return: As the Au...