tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313506662013-06-18T11:02:25.648+10:00I lost half a million dollars on the stock market in just twelve months! Learn how you, too can become an ex-millionaire with almost no effort!enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.comBlogger1128125EnoughWealthhttp://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-9095127283351475852013-06-16T11:33:00.000+10:002013-06-16T11:33:35.132+10:00

Our 'investment' rental property is still on the market, almost a year after we first decided to sell it off. We had originally bought this property in 2000 with a view to rent it out initially, and then later on demolish it to build our 'dream home'. Our plans changed when we bought our current home (we couldn't really afford to build the sort of luxury home we had in mind when we first got

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-58568098952657786152013-06-10T09:26:00.000+10:002013-06-10T09:26:44.884+10:00

I've been singularly unsuccessful losing weight over the past couple of years, despite tracking what I eat (apparently just recording the fact that I ate some unplanned junk food or ate confectionary isn't a substitute for actually sticking to a diet!) and doing some moderate exercise (having a brisk 30-minute walk nearly every lunchtime at work). So I decided to join the 'Crunch' gym that 

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-15266939730496614212013-06-09T12:19:00.000+10:002013-06-09T12:19:10.056+10:00

While I think the current NBN plan is a waste of money, with the number of people that will really need 1000 mbps/100 GB/month broadband internet connections in the next 20 years vastly over-estimated, it was nice to learn a couple of months ago that the NBN roll-out plan had finally been expanded to include our region within the next three years (at least, there's a plan to start rolling out

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-47328392893512191572013-06-04T00:04:00.001+10:002013-06-04T00:04:06.121+10:00

After a good run up during the month, the stock market reversal in the final week of May left my net worth at a slightly lower point than it started. Still no serious interest in our investment property, and the tenants have fallen behind in their rent payments. DW remains keen on property as an investment class, but, despite the poor performance of the Australian stock market since the GFC, I'd

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-44402244792481737922013-06-01T12:20:00.001+10:002013-06-01T12:20:05.223+10:00

Not much, in some cases, as this saga of financial planning gone bad show: http://www.smh.com.au/business/profit-above-all-else-how-cba-lost-savings-and-hid-its-tracks-20130531-2nhde.html While financial planning has its place - as some planners are highly ethical, well-trained and look out for their clients interests for a reasonable fee, and some of their clients have large amounts to invest

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-31965171891000962872013-05-24T21:10:00.000+10:002013-05-24T21:10:01.251+10:00

My uni research has started chewing through a few extra GB of data each month, now that I'm remotely monitoring the data reduction routines running on my uni workstation. So I'm in danger of exceeding the data allowance of the 10GB/mo Optus 'data plan' we're currently on for our 3G wireless broadband. Any excess data use is charged at an exorbitant $20/GB ($0.02 per MB), which provided a nasty

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-80444703157027611322013-05-19T01:23:00.000+10:002013-06-03T23:51:57.041+10:00

Aside from accepting in principle all of the savings measures announced in Labor's budget, in Tony Abbott's budget reply he also flagged saving an additional billion or so by deferring the introduction of Labor's SGL increase to 12% by two years. Labor claims this will cost young workers up to $20,000 in final retirement payout, but at the same time claims that there's no need to defer to SGL

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-26948110382755585352013-05-14T22:16:00.004+10:002013-05-14T22:16:45.418+10:00

Many of the fine details often don't become apparent for several days after the budget is released, as I'm not about to wade through the entire budget document set (http://australia.gov.au/topics/government-and-parliament/budget), and the media focuses on the headline items and misses/ignores some of the fine points that may actual have the biggest impact. But so far the budget doesn't look *too*

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-22003188662780329432013-05-10T23:26:00.000+10:002013-05-10T23:26:14.242+10:00

The value of my account balance within our self-managed superannuation fund surpassed $500,000 for the first time yesterday. After the set-backs caused by the GFC and EFC (that are apparent in the chart below), the recent strength of the Australian stockmarket, and slight dip in the strong Aussie dollar (which boosts the value of our international stock investments in AUD terms), has pushed up

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-19033100628681681312013-05-09T22:37:00.002+10:002013-05-09T22:37:34.790+10:00

Latest figures from the Australian Tax Office (for the 2010-11 financial year) provide details of the taxable income reported by different occupation categories. Its interesting that my salary package is almost exactly the same as the average taxable income of the two categories that I most closely match ('Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers' on $95,747 or 'Other Natural and

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-10266036892612306262013-05-07T22:31:00.002+10:002013-05-07T22:31:18.383+10:00

According to Labor MP Andrew Leigh any Australian with an income of $210,100 per year is 'ultra-rich', and an annual income of $688,700 makes you one of the 'uber-rich'. I'd beg to differ, for two reasons. Firstly, although annual income is probably a good guide to who may be feeling 'rich' at any particular time, for a person to be really classified as 'ultra-rich' (or even just 'rich') that

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-5170924381252948672013-05-05T12:57:00.002+10:002013-05-05T12:57:45.056+10:00

I tend to think that government, especially the current federal Labor government, has a natural inclination to raises taxes and spend our (the taxpayers, or shareholders in the case of company tax) money on providing services that would be better off left as 'user pays' - ie. allowing adults to choose how to spend their own money. But I suspect that elected politicians have such a strong natural 

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-53635462539791469722013-05-03T20:24:00.000+10:002013-05-03T20:24:11.165+10:00

Due to a strong stock market boosting both my geared stock portfolio and our self-managed superannuation fund, plus a couple of months' worth of employer superannuation contributions being deposited into our SMSF bank account during April, my net worth increased 3.47% for the month, reaching the highest level since May 2008. It is also higher than at any time prior to Dec 2006. On the other hand,

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-90471413044444683932013-05-02T00:55:00.000+10:002013-05-02T00:55:01.530+10:00

The Labor proposal to fund the NDIS (National Disability 'Insurance' Scheme) via an increase in the medicare levy of 0.5% sounds like a modest impost on taxpayers, especially when Julia Gillard says its 'only' $1 per day for someone earning $70,000 a year. However, that represents a 33% increase in the medicare levy, or an increase of almost 2.5% in total tax paid by someone on $70Kpa, since

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-29715973987207505752013-04-29T22:23:00.000+10:002013-04-29T22:23:55.271+10:00

Looks like the Labor government of Australia has started the annual 'softening up' of the electorate in preparation for the nasties that will have be included in this year's budget in order to prevent the forecast deficit growing to party-annihilating levels prior to the September federal election. Even keeping the budget deficit to low double-digit billions will probably require a lot of smoke

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-22371328319879627482013-04-27T13:16:00.001+10:002013-04-27T13:16:23.199+10:00

There have been several articles recently (such as this one) espousing the view that 'austerity' has fallen out of fashion with governments around the world, as they come to realise that deficits are not always a bad thing. However, it seems more likely that many governments have abandoned trying to balance their budgets 'over the economic cycle' since the GFC, simply because the problem is

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-67953571747383873712013-04-14T09:56:00.001+10:002013-04-14T09:56:10.534+10:00

Having failed to balance the budget since they came to power, Labor is busy finding ways to fund their promised reforms by merely shifting around existing government spending instead. Their latest idea is to take a couple of billion dollars funding out of the tertiary sector in order to meet part of the massive cost of starting to implement the Gonski reforms (it would still leave about $4b

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-83949045717246756012013-04-07T12:29:00.001+10:002013-04-07T12:29:28.108+10:00

Having won world-wide acclaim (from some people) for her parliamentary speech vilifying opposition leader Tony Abbott as a 'misogynist' for his criticisms of her (AND of being sexist, although Gillard later tried to redefine woman-hating (misogyny) as being merely another term for being sexist!), Gillard's latest exercise in 'positive' non-electioneering (since we're not in 'election mode' yet,

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-82321303081363018442013-04-07T11:09:00.001+10:002013-04-07T11:09:42.614+10:00

As pointed out in this SMH article, the government's claim that the proposed 15% tax hike on self-funded retirees earnings above $100,000 pa would only impact the richest 20,000 or so retirees (those having super balances above $2m) is a bit misleading. In reality, many retirees will keep their superannuation invested in 'growth' asset classes (shares and/or property) even after their fund moves

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-39467090091888856592013-04-05T20:34:00.004+11:002013-04-05T20:34:57.698+11:00

Some detail has been released about the planned changes to the Australian superannuation system that are likely to be introduced in the May budget. Nothing is definite until the 'fine print' comes out with the Budget, and there may be some additional tweaking for political reasons over the coming weeks, as I'm sure some 'unforeseen consequences' will emerge as superannuation accountants consider

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-38080313800841141862013-04-03T01:26:00.000+11:002013-04-03T01:26:32.452+11:00

Investment class valuations were all down slightly over the March period, presumably due to reduced investor confidence caused by the Cyprus financial upheavals. My net worth was also impacted slightly by some above-average monthly expenses - payments of the annual land tax due on our rental property, plus the costs associated with travelling to Townsville with DS1 to attend my graduation

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-82115256339457377792013-04-01T01:03:00.002+11:002013-04-03T01:29:46.780+11:00

This website was an interesting variation from the usual "know thyself" quiz. I'm not sure how reliable this sort of self-diagnosis test can be, but my AQ score of 38 explains a lot! Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2013

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-62415631587182941822013-03-31T10:37:00.001+11:002013-03-31T10:37:58.007+11:00

The government election ads (oops - they're just 'informational' ads) about the NBN 'rollout' continue to irritate me. Ignoring the fact that the whole 'gold plated', inefficient and snafu-prone NBNCo process (sound like anything else the Labor government has implemented recently?) is way over-budget and behind schedule, when exactly will NBN come to our area? After all, its the rich (aka net '

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-85200735476219133602013-03-29T14:30:00.000+11:002013-03-29T14:31:31.022+11:00

There is a german word "schadenfreude" (meaning 'pleasure derived from the misfortune of others') which is sometimes used in English, as we have no equivalent term. Although there's no pleasure to be derived from sad tales such as this, we should be able to learn a lesson from such tales of woe (perhaps this is 'schadenwissen' ?): 1. Don't believe your 'friend' the bank-manager when he tells

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31350666.post-44905532757143987612013-03-25T23:10:00.002+11:002013-03-25T23:13:59.634+11:00

I flew up from Sydney (NSW) to Townsville (QLD) last week to attend my Master of Astronomy graduation ceremony, taking DS1 along for the experience (and to try some snorkelling on the great barrier reef). I hadn't bothered attending my last couple of graduations (for Graduate Diplomas), but this time I decided to attend as my niece happened to also be graduating at the same ceremony (with an

enoughwealth@yahoo.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371028394685288035noreply@blogger.com0