| Value | % Change | |
|---|---|---|
| Assets | $724,000 | +1.6% |
| Liabilities | $358,000 | +0.7% |
| Net worth | $366,000 | +2.4% |
In my March 2013 net worth I forecast that April would be a much better net worth result than March had been due to lower credit card repayments and a greater ability to save and invest money this month. My performance was so much better than I expected mainly due to the continued strong run in the share market.
I was particularly happy with how this month turned out and I have outlined some of the reasons for it below. As you can see this was mainly an asset driven performance outcome.
- The strong share market returns helped my performance
- I bought some broad based index funds over the month. I was actually planning on spreading my purchases from week to week but the first purchase ran so strongly that I thought the market would correct and held off from putting in more which turned out to be an error.
- A big increase was from my managed funds
- I have some externally managed funds outside of my exchange traded funds. I only check the value of these whenever a statement is sent out to me (once every six months). I do not add to these at all because the expense ratios are too high so I do not keep a close track of them.
- The value of these increased significantly since I last had a statement (6 months ago) and this helped my performance this month
- My cash on hand increased to a more 'normalised' level
- In April I ran my cash down to a really low level (I outlined some of the ways I saved cash when things got tight in this post) and I put some of my wage towards increasing this to a more normalised level
- I try to have at least $500 remaining in my transaction account by the time payday comes around which translates to approximately $1,000 at the end of the previous month and I am currently right on this level
- The automatic contributions to my superannuation and employee share plans continued
- Superannuation is one of the best savings tools there is for individual as it is enforced savings
- I view my employee share plan in much the same way - it allows me to save and invest a significant amount before I have the cash to consider blowing on something else
- My credit card debt increased significantly
- Unfortunately my credit card debt increased significantly. Part of this was expected - when I was running low on cash at the start of the month I was funding a lot of my expenditure on my credit card however some of it (such as car repairs) were unexpected and increased it significantly
- I am also going on a weekend trip away and had to pay for my accommodation on my credit card.
In my April 2013 expenditure tracker I will outline in more detail the interplay between my cash and credit card balance. I'm currently trying to find a more dynamic way of keeping track of my expenses. This is becoming more relevant as I have to do my own shopping since moving out of home (as well as socialising a lot more).
The share market is the big swing factor in how I have been performing. Indeed I thought this month was going to be a close to negative performance again because of the share market dip at the start of the month. Assuming the share market remains flat I do not think May 2013 will be that good in terms of my net worth performance. I have a reasonably big credit card payment coming and will be going away on my holiday which will soak up some cash as well. I am targeting a net worth of $370,000 for May 2013.
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