Friday 28 October 2011

October 2011 Net Worth - $188,000 (+6%)

Assets: $558,000
Liabilities: $370,000
Net Worth: $188,000

I'm doing this evaluation early as I will be away when the month ticks over and I do not want to leave it as late as I did last time (for consistency).

October's net worth figure was affected by a number of one off impacts including being paid out my entitlements from an old job which increased my pay significantly for the month. My long awaited tax return did not arrive as my tax accountant seems to have forgotten about my returns. Again, this will provide a decent increase in assets once it arrives.

Assets suffered a net decrease in October for several reasons. Firstly I used cash to pay down significant outstanding credit card loans which were due soon after the last measurement. Further there was a drop in the value of my managed investments (which I only measure quarterly) however this was offset by the increased pay amount as well as an increase in my share trading account.

Liabilities decreased significantly during the month with the significant reduction in the level of credit card debt.

Next month is likely to be impacted by two factors. 1. I am taking a week's leave without pay for holiday purposes (so I can save my annual leave for another time), 2. hopefully my tax return will FINALLY come through and 3. my investment property is likely to require some repairs and the cost of these is likely to fall due next month

Wednesday 19 October 2011

Occupy Wall Street protests....why?!

Given that I spent the last 2 weeks lounging around in the sun, I missed the build up to the OWS protests and so when I turned on the news was confronted with the sheer size of them. I then came into work and found that similar protests have started in my city as well.

A couple of things sprung to mind when I was watching them


  1. I have no idea what these people actually want. They seem to be protesting against 'greed' with the slogan 'we are the 99%'. I couldnt help but think that they seem to want money which is currently possessed by someone else for themselves...seems like the definition of greed and self interest to me

  2. How do they have the time to do it during the day? I can understand in a country like the US which has unemployment issues at the moment - i.e. a person can give up a day of (presumably) job hunting to go and protest that they want the government to look after them and not corporations (again greed / self interest much?). HOWEVER in Australia we have no unemployment issues - in fact there are very real labour shortages here so any of those people can go and get a job

  3. Is it possible that we are seeing the beginings of a Russian-style communist revolution? I dont know enough about early 20th century Russian politics but I do know that communism didnt work too well for them so am hoping that this is not the case.

Anyway to all the protestors out there - get out of my way and let me make my money. You can make some money too...but I guess it's easier to sit down and occupy a public space for a couple of weeks

Monday 17 October 2011

September 2011 Net Worth - $177,000 (+2%)

Assets: $561,000
Liabilities: $384,000
Net Worth: $177,000

The net worth for September was actually calculated as at 17 October 2011 as I have not managed to get around to it before this point.

While there was a decent increase in assets this month (+$19,000), much of this was due to the inclusion of my superannuation balance which is not accessible until I'm 60. I've decided to start including my 'off balance sheet' items as they definetely impact my savings rate (and effectively my ability to retire comfortably)

My liabilities also increased significantly (+$16,000) and again this was due to me including items which were previously not included - in this case my HECS (or univeristy) debts which are government funded and which get paid out of my taxes.

Last month I noted that I would do my taxes and should get a healthy return which would bump my net worth up. I did my taxes, however as I used an accountant this time and did not do them myself the refund seems to be taking longer than usual (and so should be reflected in next months or the month after accounts)