Moomin Valley

After thinking about making after-tax retirement contributions , I thought today - Heh, I'm not even making the maximum pre-tax contribu...

Here are our monthly accounts (in AUD): The headline news is that we spent a lot of money. Some of the biggest expenditures (everything...

At the moment, Australians can contribute up to $A180k per year to superannuation from after tax money on top of up to $A35k (if over 50) fr...

I only underestimated the amount of extra taxes that I owe by $5. I don't know why I also wasn't charged an extra amount of tax for...

UBS recommending 34% allocation to US fixed income. I guess this might makes sense if they mean treasury bills (90 day maturity). Don'...

Back in July I computed Snork Maiden's taxes for the 2014-15 financial year. I estimated she owed $169 in extra tax. When I actually s...

This month stock markets rebounded. The ASX 200 rose 4.37%, the MSCI World Index rose 7.87%, and the S&P 500 rose 8.44%. The Australian...

Another house in our development recently sold at auction. The price has just gone online. It sold for $A850k. The original sale price when ...

I have now completed my tax return. Looks like I need to pay $590 in extra tax. My salary is flat on l...

A volatile month, but in the end not as bad as last month. The ASX 200 fell 2.96%, the MSCI World Index fell 3.51%, and the S&P 500 fel...

My main reaction when doing the accounts this month was: "Could have been worse!" Markets were down strongly, especially in Austr...

I'm in the process of metamorphosing into Moominpapa and Snork Maiden into Moominmama. If you were wondering what all the large medical ...

A milestone this month as we went over $A 1.5 million net worth for the first time. $1.518 million to be precise ($US1.13 million). Market...

I've done the calculations for Snork Maiden's tax return for this tax year. The tax year runs from 1st July to 30th June in Australi...

We are tracking close to the more optimistic projection I made at the beginning of the year. The adjusted optimistic forecast from here is $...

These are the preliminary accounts for June. The main thing that might change are tax credits, which are estimated at the moment. Markets...

It is always a slow process to get the accounts together at the end of June as it is the end of the financial year in Australia and data on ...

The Australian Dollar declined from 78.66 US cents to 76.59 US cents. Stock markets were flat to positive. The MSCI World Index fell 0.05%,...

The Australian Dollar rose for a change from 76.24 US cents to 78.66 US cents, which means that this month we did better in US Dollar terms...

Now the house purchase is complete * and we are starting a new financial restructuring plan I thought of drawing up a balance sheet as a sn...

Following up finally on comments that bigchrisb made about paying off the mortgage faster and then redrawing the money to investment in sha...

The Australian Dollar resumed its fall from 78.09 US cents to 76.24 US cents. World stock markets fell. The MSCI World Index fell 1.49%, th...

Bigchrisb commented on my recent post that we could save money by renting our new house out rather than going to live in it immediately. Th...

I've updated my "savings components" chart to include housing equity. You can see the payment from current savings (blue) t...

The Australian Dollar was finally stable this month rising half a cent to 78.09 US cents. World stock markets rose strongly. The MSCI World...

My mother suffers from dementia. Up till recently my brother had power of attorney to make financial decisions for her, but financial provid...

A few months ago Cambria Investment Management stopped advising the GTAA ETF and launched their own in house GMOM ETF to implement their the...

Broke out of the trading range of the last year and a half. I had been thinking to rebalance away from large cap Australian stocks at the ...

The Australian Dollar fell by another 4.1 US cents this month to 77.61 US cents. The MSCI World Index fell 1.54% and the S&P 500 3.00%,...

This month profits on non-retirement accounts finally exceed the previous peak in June 2007 (in AUD terms at least). Of course, adjusted for...

Each time we tried to buy a house at auction we moved the necessary deposit money into our checking account from this account. The three ...

Today we signed all the mortgage documentation at the bank to borrow $A592k....

I delivered the 5% deposit check for the house to the lawyer this morning and she expects the deal will be locked in today or Monday. Then w...

Says this article in the Australian. We made 12.5% on our retirement accounts this year in Australian Dollar terms. Overall return on all a...

The accounts for this annual report follow the same format as those in my monthly reports . Here are the accounts in Australian Dollars: ...

Last year I forecast that net worth would optimistically reach $A1.4 million and pessimistically hit $A1 million by the end of 2014. The US...

The Australian Dollar fell by another 3.5 US cents this month 81.71 US cents. The MSCI World Index fell 1.89% and the S&P 500 0.25%, bu...

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...

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 pr...

The findings of the Murray review of the Australian financial system have been released. I am most interested in their recommendations for s...

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 ...

Today is my fiftieth birthday. It feels like quite a milestone. This morning I was sitting in a presentation with a colleague from a u...

The Australian Dollar rose slightly this month from 87.35 to 87.89 US cents. The MSCI World Index rose 0.3%, the S&P 500 rose 2.44%, an...

We participated at another auction today and again ended up not buying. Someone bid $850k to open the bidding but then dropped out after ...

The Australian Dollar fell sharply this month from 93.43 to 87.35  US cents. The MSCI World Index fell 3.20%, the S&P 500 fell 1.40%, a...

I have now completed my own tax return - this goes really fast when you have a good system in place....

So, I just finished doing Snork Maiden's tax return for this tax year: The tax year runs from 1st July to 30th June in Australia. The ...

Apparently you can't even download a pdf of the supplementary tax return instructions. Instead you have to go through all these webpages...

I asked the bank to order a valuation on another house. This one is going to cost more than the previous one that we didn't end up buyi...

You can now get your credit score for free in Australia, something that has long been taken for granted in the US. My score was 998 which ...

The Australian Dollar rose a little this month to 93.43 US cents. The MSCI World Index rose 2.25%, the S&P 500 rose 4.00%, but the ASX2...

So today was the auction day for the house we were interested in buying . At this point we haven't bought it... So we got a valuation ...

So, we are thinking of getting a valuation on the house. The price of this service varies widely. These local guys charge $330. Herron T...

So, this weekend we went to see several houses in different parts of the city. We are following up in more detail on the one in the pictur...

The graph shows our monthly spending each month since moving to Australia. I've taken out some business related expenditures that get ...

Another monthly report... Much of this month was spent travelling and then catching up on work when I got back. I don't post here much ...

A belated monthly report. As June is the end of the financial year for tax purposes in Australia a lot of data only comes in a few weeks af...

The Australian Dollar barely changed this month. The MSCI World Index rose 2.21%, the S&P 500, 2.35%, and the ASX200 0.68%. We gained ...

Back in 2008 I invested in a capital guaranteed managed futures fund called Man 3 Eclipse . This didn't turn out to be a great investme...

A new investment - Cadence Capital Limited - another Australian listed investment company that basically runs a hedge fund in listed struct...