Enough Wealth

How much will going back to uni cost me?

2009-11-04T19:53:00.004+11:00

While I'm waiting to find out if I'll even be offered a place in the JCU Master of Astronomy course for next year, I tried to work out how much I should budget for the course costs. The MoA consists of 6 subjects each worth 0.25 "EFTSL" (equivalent full-time study load). You can either do the course in 1.5 years full-time, or 3 years part-time (either way the course is delivered via the Internet

Net Worth Update: October 2009

2009-11-04T19:32:00.001+11:00

October saw little overall change in my net worth, with the strength in the Sydney property market being offset by a sharp correction in the stock market in the last week, which produced negative results for my geared stock portfolio and retirement savings (SMSF). By 31 October my net worth had increased slightly to $790,140 (up $1,452).My retirement account (SMSF) lost -$12,215 (-3.80%) to

Blog Income Review

2009-10-30T18:53:00.002+11:00

I don't expect to get rich from blogging (or even earn a similar amount of income per hour spent blogging compared to my day job) but it does provide a (very) small stream of income and has practically no monetary cost (if one ignores pre-existing overhead costs such as my PC and broadband connection). I no longer do any paid posts - it's not that I'm against sponsored posts (if they are flagged

Return to study next year?

2009-10-29T19:37:00.005+11:00

I haven't been enrolled in any part-time postgraduate courses this year. Last year I'd been enrolled simultaneously in both a BEd degree and MIT degree (by distance education). The combination of full-time work, a young family (2 and 8 year old boys) with attention-demanding health issues (severe eczema), and going on holiday overseas for 6 weeks during the semester led to my dropping out of the

Timber! Fizz!

2009-10-25T14:36:00.002+11:00

I haven't received any notification as yet from the Timbercorp liquidator KordaMentha regarding the sale of the Timber assets to Australian Bluegum Plantations on 30 Sep for approx. $345m. From the KordaMentha press release it appears that about $198m of the sale proceeds (due to settle on 2 Nov) will be available to the woodlot investors. As Timbercorp's forestry assets included 92,000 hectares

Some good customer service from Westpac

2009-10-24T21:10:00.001+11:00

The 0% balance transfer offer on my Westpac Ignite CC ended last month on the 13th, and my repayment of the full $22,000 balance due didn't appear on the CC statement until the 14th. As I'd left making the online BPay payment until the last minute, I wasn't surprised to see an interest charge on my next CC statement. However, the amount of interest was $32.08, which seemed a bit steep for only

Will the AUD be worth more than the USD?

2009-10-18T11:12:00.003+11:00

Not so long ago the AUD had gone from around 50c US to close to parity with the USD on the back of the commodity boom turning into a commodity bubble. The GFC pricked that bubble and last year the AUD had dropped back into it's traditional 70c-80c US range. Now the AUD is back over 90c US and many pundits are predicting the Aussie dollar will soon reach parity with the USD. This time around I

Apparently Praying doesn't Boost Investment Returns

2009-10-16T20:39:00.002+11:00

I'm guessing that while lots of investors might have resorted to prayer as they watched the value of their life savings plummet during the GFC, it wouldn't have had any material effect (apart from any purely psychological benefits). This story provides some evidence to that effect. The Glebe Administration Board (apparently an Anglican Church body) posted a $160 million loss for the year to

We'll all be rich

2009-10-15T19:06:00.001+11:00

Not that I place much reliance on the various market predictions that are constantly being released by all and sundry, but a new report "Housing Outlook for 2010 to 2012" released by QBE Lenders' Mortgage Insurance is predicting a 21% rise in Sydney house prices by 2012. If our two properties saw a price rise of 21% my net worth would get a $170,000 boost over the next couple of years! For many

The Rich get poorer

2009-10-05T12:10:00.003+11:00

As reported in the SMH the total wealth of the wealthiest Americans fell by 300 billion dollars in the past twelve months. The 400 wealthiest Americans saw their total net assets drop from 1.57 trillion US dollars to 1.27 trillion - a decrease of 19%. That's somewhat less than the decrease in my net worth since it's peak in 2007, but I don't feel too bad as the Forbes list would benefit from

Net Worth Update: September 2009

2009-10-04T18:52:00.002+11:00

Another very positive month, with my net worth increasing 4.72% during September, pushed higher by the continued rally in the Australian and global share markets (although the rally seems to have lost momentum towards the end of the month). By 30 September my net worth had increased to $788,688 (up $35,552). Since the bottoming out in early March at $554,783 (the lowest since August 2003) my net

Coin counting machine at CommBank

2009-09-26T16:09:00.002+10:00

When DS1 and I went into a local branch of the Commonwealth Bank last week we noticed a shiny new coin counting machine had been installed. You pour you collection of coins into a tray, press a button and Hey! Presto! the coins are swept into the guts of the machine and a docket is printed out showing how much your coins were worth (you have to assume the machine never makes mistakes!). If you're

Children's Superannuation: Retirement Savings Account (RSA) Comparison - AMP vs CommBank

2009-09-25T19:59:00.003+10:00

I opened two retirement savings accounts for DS1 several years ago, one when he was born, and the the second when he started earning money doing a paper round.The first retirement account was a 'Child Super' account that allowed parents or grandparents to contribute up to $1,000 each year into a superannuation account for their child. These accounts were never very popular as there was no tax

Cub Scouting and Vacation Costs

2009-09-23T14:06:00.002+10:00

DS1 enjoyed his second and third Cub Scout's meetings as a "new chum" and was keen to join up and start working towards some of the achievement badges during the upcoming school vacation. So I decided to go ahead and buy the required cub scout uniform (peaked cap, buttoned shirt and belt) from our local Snowgum store (the Scout product distributor in NSW). The clothing cost $64.85 from Snowgum,

DIB DIB, DOB DOB

2009-09-14T19:53:00.002+10:00

Now that DS1 is old enough I had another look at what Cub Scouts branches are currently active in our neighbourhood. The closest Scout hall is long-abandoned and derelict, and the next closest packs have their weekly meetings starting at 6:30pm on nights that DW and I both return home fairly late from work. A 6:30 start is not really practical as DS1 and DS2 are at day care/after-school care

NAB SPP Scale-back Refund Cheque Received

2009-09-10T22:42:00.001+10:00

Unfortunately National Australia Bank decided to limit the recent retail investors SPP offer to the $750m, so out of my $15,000 application for new shares only $4,343 was allotted to purchase 202 shares at the offer price of $21.50. The remaining $10,657 was refunded via a bank cheque which arrived a couple of days ago. With the NAB share price currently around $28.75 the SPP still produced a

Net Worth Update: August 2009

2009-09-01T18:52:00.001+10:00

My net worth increased 7.21% during August, due mostly to the continued rally in the Australian and global share markets. By 31 August my net worth had increased to $753,137 (up $50,628). At the start of 2009 I had hoped for the economy to stabilise and show signs of recovery by the end of the year, and would have been happy for no further decrease in my net worth over 2009. Things were looking

Retirement Savings Asset Allocation

2009-08-27T19:06:00.002+10:00

The value of my retirement savings (superannuation) account is currently around $304,600. About $8,500 of this is sitting in my old Westpac Business Super account in order to retain my $400,000 life insurance policy (Death and Total & Permanent Disability cover), while the remainder is held within our Self-Managed Superannuation Fund in order to minimise administration and investment management

More Home Improvements

2009-08-16T09:34:00.007+10:00

Years ago, when I was single (and had more spare time and money), I subscribed to various editions of leather bound 'heirloom' books from Easton Press. Altogether I bought approximately 200 books, which cost around A$100 each.Since buying our current home seven years ago I've intended to convert our lounge room into a 'library' by building some book cases into one half of the room, but haven't

Superannuation co-contribution cheque arrived

2009-08-10T21:21:00.002+10:00

A cheque for DWs $1,501.80 superannuation co-contribution arrived in the mail today from our SMSF administrator, eSuperfund. I can only assume the extra $1.80 was due to interest accrued while the $1,500 government co-contribution was sitting in a holding account for some time. There is always a significant delay between when the $1,000 undeducted superannuation contribution is made and when the

Panasonic NV-DS15 mini-DV camcorder 'reboot'

2009-08-06T23:54:00.001+10:00

After the aborted attempt to "upgrade" to a new (but cheap) HD camcorder, I'm concentrating on making better use of the video equipment I already have. The two new batteries I ordered from estore.com.au arrived within a couple of days of my ordering them online. Charging them up only took a couple of hours and they each provide around 90 minutes of intermittent recording time when fully

Net Worth Update: July 2009

2009-08-04T22:02:00.002+10:00

My net worth increased 8.65% during July, due mostly to the massive rally in the Australian and global share markets. By 31 July my NW had increased to $702,509 (up $55,938). But that's still about 41% below the peak NW figure I reached in 2007, despite having saved a considerable amount into superannuation in the past two years.My retirement account (SMSF) gained $18,745 (+6.93%) to $289,256.

Down with the (swine?) flu

2009-07-21T01:06:00.003+10:00

DS2 woke up with a temperature on Sunday morning, and it had hit 39.5C by early evening and wasn't going down with Panadol and cold towels. So we dropped DS1 at my parent's house at 8:30pm and drove to the local hospital's emergency department. The car park was completely full and there were people wandering outside wearing face masks. I left DW and DS2 in the car while I went to check out how

Looking for new tenants

2009-07-21T00:39:00.002+10:00

The tenants of our rental property have bought their own house, and are moving out at the start of next month. They gave us more than one month's notice, and we have engaged the estate agency that sold us the property to find us new tenants. It costs a bit more than one week's rent to use the estate agent rather than advertising and screening potential tenant's ourselves, but I think it's worth

Cancelled my Kogan Full HD 1080p camcorder order

2009-07-19T00:28:00.002+10:00

I was suffering a bit of buyer's remorse even as I wrote my post about ordering a Kogan Full HD 1080p camcorder two days ago! The thought that KMart may be selling an identical product for around half price made me wonder about the value for money of this product, despite the "low" price for a HD system. Later that evening I viewed some YouTube footage that had been recorded using a Kogan HD