Enough Wealth: 2024

Monday 1 July 2024

Net Worth - JUN 2024

Chart updated to end of June in sidebar.

Stocks/cash increased $2,505 (+0.96%) to $262,336.

Retirement savings (SMSF etc) increased by $24,638 (+1.39%) to $1,791,141. My total SGL contributions into my employer's super fund was $14,862 for the FY, leaving $12,638 remaining concessional contributions 'cap space' based on the $27,500 cap for CC last FY. I had made $13,300 personal after-tax contributions into my QSuper fund account (a small regular monthly contribution plus re-contributing the $12,000 TRIS pension payment I withdrew from our SMSF in June), so I have put in the notification to QSuper that I will be claiming a tax deduction for $12,638 of the contributions. This will result in the super account paying 15% contributions tax on $12,638 (ie. $1,895 tax) but I will not have to pay personal income tax (at around 32.5% marginal tax rate) on that amount (ie $4,107), so this will save a net total of about $2,212 in tax overall. Not a huge amount, but also not a bad return on just spending an hour or so doing the necessary 'paperwork' and transactions.

Est. valuation of our home (my half) increased by $5,700 (+0.49%) to $1,172,996. The 'Other real estate' (my 'lake house' and the investment apartment) increased by $10,206 (+0.48%) to $2,148,987. A rise in the estimated valuation of my lakeside rural property offset a decline in the estimated valuation of my investment apartment in Sydney.

The outstanding balance of the investment property mortgage remains at $999,993 during the 'interest only' period of the mortgage. Another ~4 years remain of the 'interest only' period. During that time I will accumulate as much cash as possible in the offset account to reduce the effective loan balance.

Other assets (my online depository bullion account at Perth Mint, and the bullion value of my gold and silver proof coin collection) decreased by $768 (-1.76%) to $42,901.

I received confirmation of my withholding tax rate variation from the ATO last week and forwarded it on to the HR department to pass on to the outsourced payroll service. The payroll service *should* receive a direct notification from the ATO, but last year they had to be chased up and sent a copy of my notification from the ATO before taking action. Hopefully this year they will update the withholding rate straight away.

Overall, NW increased by $42,281 (+0.96%) to $4,426,368 during June.

For the full financial year, NW increased by $562,948 (+14.5%) which was quite impressive. This was around 5X my annual gross salary. It will be interesting to see what the next 12 months brings...

Friday 28 June 2024

Physical transformation update

Decided I might as well do my quarterly post update re weight loss and body transformation progress today, as it is already almost the end of the second quarter of 2024. Since hitting my all-time maximum weight (122.8 kg) on 5 July last year I have managed to reduce my weight by just over 30 kg (67 lbs) so far, to about 92kg. My goal from here is to lose another 10 or 15 kg of body fat without losing any more lean body mass (muscle). To do so I will need to increase my daily caloric intake slightly, and be more consistent about getting to the gym three times a week for weight training sessions, and doing some short sessions of HIIT indoor rowing (at about 85%-90% MHR) on my non-gym days. I have managed to get into a routine of walking 16K-24K steps/day, which seems pretty effective at maintaining a caloric deficit and ensuring most of my weight loss has been due to fat loss. I have found that not having my first meal of the day until noon has been quite easy (I don't feel particularly hungry when I wake up, so 'breakfast' was more of a habit that an urge to eat something), and it isn't too hard to stick with a rule to not eat anything after a reasonably early dinner around 6pm or so. This results in an 18:6 'intermittent fasting' regime that I find is easy to stick with, once you get out of the habit of 'snacking' after dinner. Apparently most of the longevity benefits of caloric restriction found in rodent studies may actually be achieved by simply restricting the food consumption period, rather than total calories per se. So having a daily 'fasting' period of 75% of every 24-hours may provide similar health benefits as 20%-30% caloric restriction, and may not have some of the adverse side effects (eg. sacropenia and increased sensitivity to the cold) that higher levels of caloric restriction might impose.

I had made little progress with my attempt to lose excess body weight up until 12 Feb, when I commenced the '90-day transformation challenge' that I had signed up for towards the end of 2023. While there was nothing revolutionary about my approach to diet and exercise since then, it did make me more aware of the need to consume quite a high level of protein while maintaining a caloric deficit (around 1g per lb of ideal body weight), and I switched from tracking my daily food intake 'on paper' (and then having to use a spreadsheet to calculate macros - which was quite a chore) to using the free version of the myfitnesspal app. Being able to just scan barcodes or search for a food item within the app, and then record the total macros at the end of the day made it much easier to keep an accurate track of my daily macros and keep an eye on my weekly averages. The impact of this change of approach is quite apparent in the chart of my daily morning weigh-ins:

I had been a little concerned that (according to my bathroom scales) my body fat percentage was remaining quite high, despite the constant weight loss. And using the body fat readings to calculate lean mass it seemed as if around 1/4 of my weight loss was due to decrease in lean mass. However, I had a new DEXA scan done last weekend, and it reported my actual body fat percentage as 17.9% (a *lot* better than the 27% being reported by my bathroom scales). The DEXA reading of body fat seems more realistic, as didn't seem to have lost any muscle mass since February, due to more regular weight training sessions and higher levels of protein intake.

My goal for the next six months is to lose the remaining 10-15kg of body weight to get down to a 'healthy' BMI value (and body fat around 10%-13%), while also (hopefully) putting on a bit of muscle mass via regular weight training. If I do manage to retain muscle mass during the next six months of more gradual weight loss I should end up weighing about 78-80kg with 10% or so body fat. I'll get another DEXA scan at the end of the year to see how things have worked out, and then for 2025 will focus on maintenance caloric intake while continuing with weight training, walking, indoor rowing, and sticking with the intermittent fasting routine. I'll also do another DEXA scan at the end of 2025 to check on progress. My long term goal will be to stick with 18:6 IF and maintain a health body mass of around 78-80kg with ~10% body fat.

My DEXA scans and key metrics from 2019 and 2024:

Still quite a way to go, as I have previously managed to get my weight down below 90kg on several occasions over the past 40 years, but then didn't have a plan for the transition to a long-term 'maintenance' program.

Monday 3 June 2024

Net Worth - MAY 2024

Chart updated to end of May in sidebar.

Stocks/cash increased $1,009 (+0.39%) to $259,831. Mostly due to making the quarterly contribution into the Investment Bond account, so not due to the market per se.

Retirement savings (SMSF etc) increased by $34,725 (+2.01%) to $1,76,503 pretty much just bouncing back from last month's market decline.

Est. valuation of our home (my half) increased by $16,583 (+01.44%) to $1,167,296. The 'Other real estate' (my 'lake house' and the investment apartment) decreased by -$52,954 (-2.42%) to $2,138,781. This reversed most of the exceptionally large rise last month, so is just a reversion to more typical price movement over the past two months combined. Goes to show that individual monthly estimates are quite 'noisy' so it is really only worthwhile looking at the general trend over periods of several years.

Other assets (my online depository bullion account at Perth Mint, and the bullion value of my gold and silver proof coin collection) increased by $437 (+1.01%) to $43,669. Part of this rise was due to resuming my monthly 'savings plan' contributions -- adding $100/month to purchase $50 each of gold and silver. As I won't have to fund the monthly overhead expenses for my financial adviser registration/AFSL/ASIC levy etc. I will have some extra cashflow available. I will transfer most into my mortgage offset account every couple of months, but can afford to allocate a small part to my asset allocation into bullion.

I lodged my income tax variation application for FY2024-25 last week, so I should get the official response from the ATO by the end of June and will then have to pass it on the my employer's HR department to ensure payroll takes this into account and adjusts my PAYG tax withholding for next financial year (last time it took several months for them to eventually get the correct tax rate applied and had to have two attempts to make the correct payroll adjustment). I won't get as large a reduction in withholding tax as this FY, as I was fairly conservative regarding likely tax deductions for doordash business expenses, and didn't bother adjusting for the 'work from home' hourly rate deduction. So I'll probably end up with a small tax refund when I do my FY25 tax return.

Overall, NW decreased by -$200 (-0.00%) to $4,384,087 during May.

Thursday 9 May 2024

'Passed' my PhD 'confirmation of candidature' milestone -- with conditions

Since I have been enrolled as a part-time PhD candidate now for just over 12 months (time flies!) the 'confirmation of candidature' milestone was due. The normal timing is within 6 months for full time PhD students, but as a part-time enrolment mine was due at the end of 12 months. I had to prepare of more detailed 'research proposal', with a decent literature review and outline of the methods and data analysis techniques to be employed, the main research question(s) and hypotheses, and also present a short (20 minute) 'seminar' (powerpoint presentation) summarizing my research project.

The 'mock' presentation I did last month went OK, so I did the actual online seminar presentation today, which went quite well. I then had a meeting with the 'confirmation of candidature panel' (HDR admin and school staff, my princiapl and co-supervisors, and another 'independent' university academic) to go over my research proposal, do some Q&A, and get feedback from me (about my supervisor team) and from the supervisor and co-supervisors (about me).

There were some very helpful questions and suggestions on how to improve my research (some extra questions to include in my survey questionnaire), and some difficult questions (about the theoretical basis for my research, and about obtaining a random sample of survey participants rather than just a self-selected or biased sample). All good questions that I don't have all the answer to just yet.

Ultimately I "passed" the confirmation -- but with a couple of conditions. Mostly to do with including a more substantial (or any!) theoretical basis/framework for my research in the research proposal, and to address the issue of possible sample bias with the approach I had proposed for obtaining survey participants. At least I have another 6 months to "dot all the i's and cross all the t's".

As I was sort of planning to do a 'thesis by publication' (where the core of the thesis is three or more published peer-reviewed academic papers based on the research) rather than a 'book' style thesis, the confirmation panel also indicated that I need to work out with my supervisor team the gist of what the papers should be about, draft titles and so forth. Shouldn't be an issue, but it seems a bit odd to be planning the title and content of research papers before having any data or results. But I suppose I already know the specific questions I *expect* my research to answer, so expressing that in the form of a series of paper outlines should not be too hard. I think I had the 'thesis by publication' route as my 'plan A' option (with the thought that if I didn't get the required number of papers accepted for publication I could revert back to the traditional 'thesis as a tome' option (with the results subsequently being published in one or more academic papers).

Decided to switch from being a 'financial planner' to a 'wealth coach'

I finally decided that paying over $20K pa in licence fees to my AFSL, ASIC fees, etc. simply to remain on the FAR (financial advisers register) to be able to provide personal financial advice was not worth the expense. Having a full-time salaried job that was totally unrelated to financial planning, plus doing PhD candidature part-time, made it practically impossible to spend enough time and effort 'prospecting' for clients to even cover the 'running costs' (especially since the AFSL would keep another 20% of any fees charged to clients, plus I would have to pay a few hundred dollars per client to have my SOA documents reviewed by the AFSL (or else pay even more to have the SOAs drawn up by a contract paraplanner service).

Rather than provide personal financial advice (taking into account the client's situation and details to provide a written 'statement of advice' recommending particular financial products), I think I will just offer my services as a 'wealth coach' providing education regarding DIY financial planning techniques, retirement and investment projections, budgeting, information about the tax and superannuation system and common strategies, and all the other things that go into planning ones own financial strategy -- without recommending any particular financial products (or class of products) and making specific recommendations based on the details of the person's situation, or providing personalized taxation advice (otherwise you risk running foul of ASIC requirements to provide 'general' financial advice).

As there will be $0 overheads I should be able to do this 'for fun' and only charge a reasonable hourly rate, rather than the thousands of dollars it costs to provide compliant personal financial advice. I might even do some general topic youtube videos.

Monday 6 May 2024

End of Week 12 of '90 day transformation challenge'

Week 12 results: Weight Change during week: -2.0 kg

Avg Weight: 102.4 kg

Avg Body fat %: 31.0%

Avg BMI: 33.0

Avg daily cals: 1,569

Avg daily steps: 20,693

Avg caloric deficit/day: -1,219

Avg g protein/day: 164

Avg % cals from carbs: 28%

Avg % cals from fat: 28%

Only one week left in the '90 day transformation challenge'. My morning weight was 101.7 kg yesterday, with a body fat reading of 30.5%, so I should end this week close to 100kg and hopefully get under 30% body fat.

I've adjusted my daily meal plan slightly to be in line with the long term CRON-style food intake, with a bit higher protein content and total calories. Overall macros will be 190-210 g/day protein (~50% of calories), 130-135 g/day carbs (~33% of calories), and 30-35 g/day fats (~17% of calories) for a total of around 1,650 - 1,800 cals/day. This would be about 20% CR compared to BMR if I continue to do daily walking and 3 sessions of weight training per week ongoing.

I expect my rate of weight loss will slowly diminish during the rest of the year, as reduced weight will decrease maintenance calorie requirement, and my metabolism will likely slow as body fat % reduces. I'm hoping to 'glide path' down to stabilize around 80kg weight with around 15% body fat by the end of the year, and then during 2025 should very gradually reduce body fat while retaining lean muscle mass, so the body fat % might slowly reduce to around 13%. I'm sure I'll need to tweak my diet and exercise regime somewhat in 2025.

From now on I'll just do a quarterly update on how well I've been sticking to my diet and exercise plan, and how things are progressing.

Wednesday 1 May 2024

Net Worth - APR 2024

Chart updated to end of April in sidebar.

Stocks/cash increased $3,139 (+1.23%) to $258,822. My portfolio was actually down during the past month, but I remembered that I have a small amount invested in an unlisted company and they emailed an updated valuation last month, so I have included that figure in my stock portfolio valuation.

Retirement savings (SMSF etc) decreased by -$51,415 (-2.88%) to $1,731,778 in line with the market trend and our asset allocation.

Est. valuation of our home (my half) increased by $10,624 (+0.93%) to $1,150,713. The 'Other real estate' (my 'lake house' and the investment apartment) increased by $77,656 (+3.67%) to $2,191,735. It appears that one of the '12-month trend' figures for median apartment prices in the suburb where my investment apartment is was recalculated, so this component of my estimate increased suddenly and pushed up the overall price estimate. I've no idea if this is a more or a less accurate estimate of what the market value of my investment apartment is, but the estimate is what it is.

Other assets (my online depository bullion account at Perth Mint, and the bullion value of my gold and silver proof coin collection) increased by $1,672 (+4.02%) to $43,232.

Overall, NW increased by $41,676 (+0.96%) to $4,384,287 during April.

Monday 29 April 2024

End of Week 11 of '90 day transformation challenge'

Only two more weeks left in the '90 day transformation challenge' period. After that I will commence the next 3-month 'phase' where I will increase caloric intake slightly and put more emphasis on weight training to try to only lose fat. That had been my original intention for the '90 day challenge' period, but I think I put a bit too much emphasis on caloric restriction and walking, and didn't do enough resistance training.

I didn't do any weight training sessions at the gym at all last week, so it isn't really a surprise that I am continuing to losing some lean mass and my body fat % isn't dropping as fast as I would like. I'll make sure I go to the gym tonight and also try to ensure my weight training sets are done to failure so I can check that the reps and/or weight is showing progressive increase over time.

Last week's stats were more in line with what I would expect for my current level of caloric restriction, so I don't need to adjust to meal plans or walking for this week, but do need to ensure I get enough sleep and do the three planned gym sessions each week. On the 'gym days' I'll probably aim for 15K steps rather than 20K.

Week 11 results: Weight Change during week: -1.5 kg

Avg Weight: 104.2 kg

Avg Body fat %: 32.2%

Avg BMI: 33.6

Avg daily cals: 1,592

Avg daily steps: 20,748

Avg daily caloric deficit: -1,238

Avg g protein/day: 168

Avg % cals from carbs: 30%

Avg % cals from fat: 24%

Overall I have lost 14.8 kg during the past 10 weeks. This is a rate of 1.39% of initial body weight per week, which is higher than the recommended 0.5%-1.0% per week for fat loss without losing lean mass at the same time. So far my weight loss appears to have been split between 75% fat loss and around 25% muscle loss. Hence the need to both ensure I go to the gym three times a week from now on, and also increase my caloric intake slightly (since just a 60 minute weight training session will require an extra 200-300 calories). Looks like adding an extra 150g portion of grilled chicken breast daily would be a good idea (which would provide an extra 50g of protein).

If my weight loss continued to be around 25% lean mass (muscle) and 75% fat, then by the time I reach my target weight of 78kg I would have lost another 25kg, but only 19 kg would be due to fat loss and 6 kg from loss of muscle mass. I would still end up with a respectable body fat of 18% in that scenario, but I would like to retain more muscle and get my body fat down to around 13%.

If my next 25kg of weight loss was entirely fat loss, I would reach 78 kg with a body fat of only 10%, which is quite a drastically low level (and probably unrealistic, unachievable, and probably not healthy at my age). But to reach 78 kg with 13% body fat my future weight loss (over the next 9 months or so) still needs to be about 90% fat loss, and only 10% muscle loss. So I need to focus more on retaining muscle mass. That is probably achievable if I just ease up slightly on the caloric restriction by eating a bit more protein and do a sufficient amount of resistance training each week.

Monday 22 April 2024

End of Week 10 of '90 day transformation challenge'

Seemed to hit a bit of a 'plateau' this past week. I did two weight training sessions at the gym, and on two other days did a stint on the waterrower, plus I did quite a lot of daily walking - averaging 19,640 ste[s [er day. I also stuck to my planned caloric deficit and macros, averaging 1,554 cals/day with an average of 162 cals/day of protein and 29% of the overall calories from carbohydrates and 27% from fat. Due to the increased amount of walking, the average calculated caloric deficit vs BMR was -1,256 cals/day. Howver, my weight loss for the week was only -0.9 kg and my body fat (according to the bathroom scales) actually increased by 2.2% from a week ago! Comparing the 7-day average weight and BF% for this past week vs the previous week gives a slightly more positive outcome -1.3kg change in average weight and -0.34% in average body fat reading. I suspect the normal week-to-week calculated changes were thrown off by getting woken up unusually early Sunday morning, so I only had 5 hrs sleep. That might have thrown off the morning weigh-in results somewhat. Anyhow, I won't change my diet or exercise routine this week, just keep sticking to 'the plan' and hope to see more typical results next week.

Wednesday 17 April 2024

Exercise snapshot

I've gotten into a routine of doing my daily walking in multiple blocks of 2K to 4K steps in a 15-30 minute sessions. Spread throughout the day this makes it quite easy to achieve my goal of at least 14K steps/day (up to around 20K on some days). I went to the gym for weight training yesterday, as I am now losing 1 - 1.5 kg/wk fairly consistently, but would like to rmitigate the lean mass loss from the current ~25% of the overall weight loss to under 20%. And the only way to achieve that is to do regular weight training sessions to achieve muscle hypertrophy. On the days I don't go to the gym for weight training I will do one (or more) 5 min 'high intensity' sessions on my Waterrower to boost aerobic fitness and VO2max. My performance is (so far) improving with each day of rowing, but I still tend to run out of 'puff' after about 5 mins (around the 1.4 km mark). Hopefully this will slowly improve until I can do the 2km distance in under 7 mins. Apparently the Waterrower is about 15% faster than the Concept2 machine used for competition events (and WR times), so achieving 2km in 7 mins on the Waterrower would still be considerably slower than the WR for the 60-64yo male category of around 6.5 mins.

I remembered to wear my Fitbit watch while rowing today, so did a record of a 5 minute rowing session and the start of a walking session about 30 minutes later:

It was interesting that my 'resting' heart rate while sitting in my home office working was around 72-78 bpm prior to the rowing session, but after the rowing it only dropped back to the 88-94 bpm range. This is why doing HIIT training is good for weight loss, as boosts your metabolism long after the brief exercise period has ended. The indoor rowing HR falls into the 'hard' exercise intensity band (for my age bracket), while the walking is 'light' exercise (which is good for fat loss without losing muscle mass).

While weight training my heart rate tends to sit in the 115-135 bpm range, which would be 'moderate' to 'hard' intensity for that hour or so.

From: https://www.heartonline.org.au/resources/calculators/target-heart-rate-calculator

I plan on sticking to this exercise routine from now on. But I will increase my caloric intake as I approach 80kg to slowly transition into 'maintenance' mode (this has been my biggest issue when previously losing weight -- I would tend to revert to 'ad libitum' eating after finishing (or giving up on) a diet, with snacks and junk food leading to a rapid regain of excess weight.

In the long term I hope to stick around 76-80kg body weight with around 12%-15% body fat, and ideally would do this on a modest 15%-20% 'CRON' (caloric restriction with optimal nutrition) food intake (for the possibly lifespan benefits). Just keeping to a healthy BMI and doing regular exercise will be a major improvement.

Monday 15 April 2024

End of Week 9 of '90 day transformation challenge'

Diet and walking was on track during the past week, resulting in a -1.3 kg change in weight for the week, and a -1.3% reduction in body fat percentage. The diet and walking resulted in an average daily caloric deficit (compared to estimated BMR) of -1,206 kcals/day on average during the past week. The charts of weight loss per week vs. average daily caloric deficit show an almost perfect match with the predicted loss of 1kg/wk for a 1,000 kcals/day (7,000 kcals/wk) deficit for the weeks where my diet was 'ongoing'. There was a higher rate of weight loss during the first weeks, and the week immediately after I had paused my diet and exercise regime due to my BPV episodes. The higher rate of weight loss can be explained by the usual 'water weight' loss that usually occurs when a diet commences (and overall bulk of food consumption decreases).

I still haven't resumed going to the gym for weight training sessions yet -- my new Waterrower arrived on Tuesday, so I did rowing sessions on Wed, Thu, and Sun instead of going to the gym. This week I'll try to doing rowing on the 'rest' days when I don't go to the gym for weight training. While indoor rowing is a good 'full body' workout, it is only 'bodyweight' and is more limited by aerobic capacity than muscle exhaustion. So far I have only managed to do one or two 6 minute sessions on the rower, covering 1.3km in about 260 seconds. Despite 'only' being 1.3 km, this pace is still about 30% slower than the WR pace for the 2km event for the 60-65yo age male open category, so I'll need to first improve my aerobic fitness and endurance to be able to row 2km at a decent stroke rate, and then (hopefully) improve my technique and strength to slowly improve my time for the 2km indoor row. The rowing can be quite strenuous, so I'll start wearing my fitbit watch while rowing so I can keep an eye on my maximum heart rate.

Saturday 13 April 2024

FFMI calculation

Watching a youtube video about weight loss and body building by Dr Michael Israetel I found a reference to FFMI (Fat-free Mass Index) calculator at https://mennohenselmans.com/ffmi-calculator/ that lets you enter current body measurements and get an estimate of your (theoretical) drug-free genetic potential for lean muscle mass. At my age my maximum muscle potential will be considerably less than this, but it is good as a guideline.

My current measurements entered into the app are: (male, metric units, goal is lean muscle mass for fat reduction from 30% to 14%):

*height 176 cm

*weight 106 kg

*wrist circumference 19 cm

*ankle circumference 26 cm (unusually thick - and I measured my smaller leg - the other has some odema)

*torso circumference 115 cm

*upper arm circumference 41 cm

*forearm circumference 34 cm

*neck circumference 42 cm

*thigh circumference 59 cm

*calf circumference 43 cm

Calculated Results:

Lean body mass left to gain 14.6 kg (need to do more weight training!)

Fat mass left to lose 17.3 kg (more if I don't add the above muscle)

If I don't put on any lean mass, this means losing about 32 kg of fat to reduce weight to 74kg, which is about right). Ideally I can add some lean mass, especially on my thighs.

Evaluation of current physique and possible improvements are:

Neck 6% overdeveloped

Torso 3% overdeveloped (probably overestimated due to fat on my chest and back)

upper arms: perfect (I doubt this as I need to shed fat and gain muscle here)

forearms 4% overdeveloped (again, probably inflated due to excess body fat)

thigh 11% underdeveloped (I've noticed my thighs are not as thick as when I used to do weight training -- need to use the leg extension machine more)

calf 2% underdeveloped (more time doing calf raises)

Potential gains:

Torso max 125 cm (more chest and lat work needed)

Upper arm 46 cm (more bicep curls and tricep work)

Forearm 37 cm (some forearms curls)

Neck 45 cm (shoulder shrugs?)

Thigh 75 cm (definitely need more leg work)

Calf 50 cm (more and heavier calf raises)

Max natural bodyweight 103.3 kg. Normalized FFMI 24.2 (24.9 is upper limit drug-free for most people's genetics) Max natural recorded is 28.0

The app provides a cool visual summary of the above results:

Monday 8 April 2024

End of Week 8 of '90 day transformation challenge'

Only did about 10K steps/day for the first two days of the week, but then picked up and by the end of the week the average daily step count was on target. My average daily protein and % calories from fat and carbs was also what I am aiming for. However, I didn't go to the gym to do weight training at all during the past week, which resulted in my weight continuing to drop but my % body fat not decreasing. Overall my weight loss have been about 72% fat and 28% lean mass, so I really need to restart my regular weight training to preserve muscle mass while in caloric deficit.

My progress so far:

Body Recomposition Averages (per day)

Week# Wt (kg) Body Fat % cals g prot % carbs % fat steps/day

1 -3.4 -1.1% 1,348 85 35% 39% 11,118

2 -1.0 -0.4% 1,378 92 39% 31% 12.126

3 -2.3 -0.8% 1,528 121 27% 26% 12,358

4 -0.1 -0.5% 2,223 122 41% 30% 6,459

5 +1.1 +0.4% 2,457 117 51% 29% 1,107

6 -3.1 -1.2% 1,856 114 50% 22% 10,550

7 -0.9 +0.2% 1,782 153 40% 28% 14,293

8 -1.1 -0.0% 1,594 157 29% 26% 15,770

DS1 didn't want the elliptical machine, so we just shifted it into the garage for the time being, so I'll have room in the loungeroom for the Joroto Waterrower when it arrives. The M280 model I bought comes with bluetooth (BLE) connectivity and FTMS (Fitness Machine Service) device support, so I am hoping to be able to data log workout using python on my laptop. After trying to find some existing examples for people who had already developed code for this (to closest I could find was specific to certain models of stationary bike machines), I resorted to asking ChatGPT to "write a python script to connect to a FTMS device using bluetooth" and it came up with a script to connect using pygatt and print the received data. Apparently all I will need to do is specify the MAC address of my FTMS device (the waterrower). We'll see if it works. If it does, I should be able to run the python script within excel to import the data during an exercise session and chart relevant details (eg. heartrate, stroke rate, distance etc.). If I can't get the python working in excel I can always do the required charting in python using matplotlib or similar.

Friday 5 April 2024

Bought a rowing machine

The gym I go to for weight training has stationary bikes, stair walkers and treadmills, but doesn't have any rowing machines. I quite like indoor rowing and would like to replace the elliptical machine I have sitting in my lounge room (that I never use). So I decided to buy a Joroto Water Rowing Machine after seeing it was relatively affordable ($600) and was available with a $100 discount and free shipping on Amazon. It has a nice oak finish, so will fit in quite nicely with the decor of the lounge room. And I'll be able to watch TV while rowing.

I was inspired by reading about Richard Morgan, who started rowing in his 70s and at age 93 was four times master world champion indoor male rower. I don't expect to set any records (although entering the Pan Pacific Masters Games being held at the Gold Coast in November this year would be fun), but it will be interesting to see how my 2,000m times compare with the relevant world records (male, <75kg class):

Age <75kg Open

60-64 6m24s 6m20s

65-69 6m46s 6m33s

70-74 6m55s 6m44s

75-79 7m24s 7m07s

80-84 7m40s 7m26s

85-90 8m13s 7m54s

DW has been asking me to sort out (throw out) a whole lot of old uni notes and miscellaneous electronic knick-knacks that are cluttering up my 'home office' as it encroaches into an area where she has an exercise mat and would like to rearrange the furniture there and make it into more of a 'sitting room' and exercise area. So I think I'll have to make sure I finish doing the clean-up this weekend and also ask DS1 if he wants a free elliptical machine (as long as he takes it away this weekend!) when he visits on Sunday. That way when the new rowing machine arrives in a week or two DW is less likely to complain about me having bought a new 'toy' to clutter up the house ;)

Tuesday 2 April 2024

Net Worth - MAR 2024

Chart updated to end of March in sidebar.

Stocks/cash increased $11,724 (+4.81%) to $255,683.

Retirement savings (SMSF etc) increased by $55,047 (+3.19%) to $1,783,193 in line with the market trend and our asset allocation.

Est. valuation of our home (my half) increased by $1,036 (+0.09%) to $1,140,089. The 'Other real estate' (my 'lake house' and the investment apartment) increased by $6,069 (+0.29%) to $2,114,079.

Other assets (my online depository bullion account at Perth Mint, and the bullion value of my gold and silver proof coin collection) increased by $3,528 (+9.28%) to $41,560.

Overall, NW increased by $77,404 (+1.81%) to $4,342,611 during March.

Monday 1 April 2024

End of Week 7 of '90 day transformation challenge'

Maintained a good daily step count on most days, and tweaked my meals to include a bit more protein and reduced carbs slightly to keep the overall caloric deficit sufficient to continue losing weight.

My progress so far:

Body Recomposition Averages (per day)

Week# Wt (kg) Body Fat % cals g prot % carbs % fat steps/day

1 -3.4 -1.1% 1,348 85 35% 39% 11,118

2 -1.0 -0.4% 1,378 92 39% 31% 12.126

3 -2.3 -0.8% 1,528 121 27% 26% 12,358

4 -0.1 -0.5% 2,223 122 41% 30% 6,459

5 +1.1 +0.4% 2,457 117 51% 29% 1,107

6 -3.1 -1.2% 1,856 114 50% 22% 10,550

7 -0.9 +0.2% 1,782 153 40% 28% 14,293

I did a reasonable amount of walking on all but two days last week (my average step count for the other five days was actually 16,001) but was a bit busy at work (due to the shortened week due to the Easter 'break' -- still had the same amount of work to get completed, but one less day to do it in) so ended up not going to the gym at all. I actually felt like going for some weight training, but ended up having to choose between doing more walking to hit my step count daily target, or else go to the gym for weight training, due to the extra time in the evenings getting work tasks finished off. As my main focus is weight loss (I am doing to weight training to try and preserve as much lean mass as possible) I prioritized walking last week. I should be able to make it to the gym as planned next week, although I might suddenly have to spend some extra time on my PhD confirmation of candidature report and presentation (I did OK on my 'rehearsal' presentation last week, but have a few statistics areas to brush up on, and some additions to make to the report and powerpoint presentation. I don't know when the CoC presentation/meeting will be scheduled -- I could get an email invite from the HDR office at any time).

Although I lost weight last week my body fat% seemed to stay fairly constant. Although I didn't do weight training I think it is more likely just due to my scales not being particularly accurate for measuring body fat -- I've noticed that there can be a 1%-2% variation is you just get off and on again within a few minutes, so I only use the average weight and % fat taken over a 5-day period to estimate changes in lean mass.

I was hoping to be able to not lose any lean mass while reducing body fat, but the figures suggest that my weight loss is around 75% fat and slightly under 25% lean mass. However, changes in water retention can also affect the body fat readings, so I am not too concerned at this halfway point in the transformation challenge. I'll stick with my meal planning and walking, but want to ensure I do at least two full-body weight training sessions each week from now on. By the end of the 13-week challenge I hope to have lost around 20 kg of weight but only 4kg or less of lean mass.

Monday 25 March 2024

End of Week 6 of '90 day transformation challenge'

Managed to get back into the diet routine and get in more daily walking, but I only felt well enough to go to the gym for a moderately light full body weight training session only Sunday.

My progress so far:

Body Recomposition Averages (per day)

Week# Wt (kg) Body Fat % cals g prot % carbs % fat steps/day

1 -3.4 -1.1% 1,348 85 35% 39% 11,118

2 -1.0 -0.4% 1,378 92 39% 31% 12.126

3 -2.3 -0.8% 1,528 121 27% 26% 12,358

4 -0.1 -0.5% 2,223 122 41% 30% 6,459

5 +1.1 +0.4% 2,457 117 51% 29% 1,107

6 -3.1 -1.5% 1,856 114 50% 22% 10,550

At least I am back on track. I still need to tweak my meal plan a bit to include more protein and less carbs -- probably have to switch my 'brunch' from cereal to some lean meat and vegetables (same as I have for dinner). The average daily step count for the past week was dragged down by still not walking much at the start of the week, but in the last two days I managed to get in >14K steps/day, which I want to maintain from now to the end of the '90-day transformation challenge'. After the challenge ends I'll try to keep up this level of walking until the end of the year, by which time I should have reduced my weight close to my 'ideal' BMI. I am managing to not have my first meal until close to noon each day, and have a fairly early dinner (finish eating by about 7pm), so on average I have been 'intermittent fasting' on roughly a 7:17 daily ratio of eating vs 'fasting' hours. I'm not all that hungry when I wake up, so having a late 'brunch' in place of breakfast isn't a problem, and having an early dinner makes it easy to stick to two main meals a day. By the time I start to feel a bit like having another evening meal it is already close to bed time, so it isn't hard to not eat outside my planned hours.

Tuesday 19 March 2024

End of Week 5 of '90 day transformation challenge'

My 'progress' so far:

Body Recomposition Averages (per day)

Week# Wt (kg) Body Fat % cals g prot % carbs % fat steps/day

1 -3.4 -1.1% 1,348 85 35% 39% 11,118

2 -1.0 -0.4% 1,378 92 39% 31% 12.126

3 -2.3 -0.8% 1,528 121 27% 26% 12,358

4 -0.1 -0.5% 2,223 122 41% 30% 6,459

3 +1.1 +2.2% 2,457 117 51% 29% 1,107

Last week didn't go as planned. My BPV (benign positional vertigo) got worse, to the extent that I would get dizzy just walking around the house. So I decided against going to the gym every time I was 'scheduled' to go last week. It did seem quite a bit better yesterday and today, so I *might* go to the gym tonight for some light weight training (before all my progress from the first few weeks is undone). I still probably won't do any treadmill work at the gym, but am trying to ramp up my daily step count again this week, after almost doing noth9g last week.

I had an ultrasound of my liver due to the elevated liver enzymes in my blood test results. Turns out I have one gall bladder stone (not causing any problems) but also have a slightly enlarged liver and 'moderate' fatty liver disease. As I don't drink alcohol it will be due to 40 years of being overweight and too sedentary. No medical drug treatment, but the recommended response is to 'lose weight and exercise more'.

Fatty liver disease decreases life expectancy in males by about 4.4 years, so I really need to get serious about reducing my BMI and getting regular exercise every week, and daily walking.

Enough said. Back to the diet plan and lots of walking right now!

ps. I checked with 'doctor google' and "a reduction in body mass index (BMI) of 5% is associated with a 25% relative reduction in liver fat as measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)" So getting my BMI down from 38 to 34 (about a 10% decrease) during the 'transformation challenge' (if I reach my goal of 105 kg by mid-May) might help cut my liver fat by up to 50%. Of course getting down to my ideal BMI of about 24 by the end of this year will have even greater health benefits (hopefully),

Monday 11 March 2024

End of Week 4 of '90 day transformation challenge'

My progress so far:

Body Recomposition Averages (per day)

Week# Wt (kg) Body Fat % cals g prot % carbs % fat steps/day

1 -3.4 -1.1% 1,348 85 35% 39% 11,118

2 -1.0 -0.4% 1,378 92 39% 31% 12.126

3 -2.3 -0.8% 1,528 121 27% 26% 12,358

4 -0.1 -0.5% 2,223 122 41% 30% 6,459

Last week was a bit of a set back. After doing an intense workout session at the gym on the Sunday night, getting quite fatigued and sweating profusely during the 2.5 hr session, I had trouble sleeping and woke up around 5am. I felt quite unsteady walking to the bathroom and had a 'syncope' episode and collapsed. Fortunately I didn't hit my head on the bathtube or any sharp corners, but did bang my head a bit on the tiled floor. I had a bit of a headache the next day, and a sore neck for a couple of days. DW made an online booking to see a local GP the next day, and he did a quite check-up as I had been experiencing some vertigo at random times for the past couple of years.

He thinks the fainting was unrelated to the ongoing vertigo, and was probably just caused by dehydration and fatigue. He did order a full panel of blood tests, which all came back normal (including cholesterol and blood sugars), but my liver panel results were slightly above the normal range. So I'll have to get an ultrasound scan of my liver next week to check there is no issue with my liver. The vertigo is most likely just due to BPPV due to particles in the inner ear - most likely to RH ear as I had some damage due to an ear infection while on a scuba diving trip in my 30s, and have some hearing loss in that ear. If that is the cause simply doing the Epley maneuver might help address the issue.

Anyhow, as I wasn't feeling 100% last week I had a couple of 'refeed' days, got some extra sleep, and only had one light session at the gym during the week. I plan on getting back to my normal diet and walking routine this week, but will probably take things a bit easier during my gym sessions from now on.

Sunday 10 March 2024

Accumulated Annual and Long Service Leave valuation - should I start 'cashing out' some unused leave?

As I have mentioned once or twice previously in monthly NW estimates, another 'asset' I have that I don't bother to include in my monthly NW estimates is my accumulated unused annual and long service leave entitlements. Any accrued amounts when I eventually resign/retire will be paid out using the current salary rate. I currently have balances of 1,076 hrs Annual Leave and 518 hrs of Long Service Leave. At my current hourly rate this is equivalent to roughly $91,572. One factor I was recently reminded about is that while annual leave and long service leave used during the normal course of employment are subject to the SGL (superannuation guarantee levy) which is currently 11.00% of salary, and will rise to 11.50% of salary from July 1 2024, and then the 'final' rate of 12.0% from 1 July 2025, any accumulated unused leave that is "paid out" upon resignation/retirement is NOT subject to SGL.

So, while I was initially planning to continue to just use public holidays and some portion (usually about two weeks) of my annual leave entitlement each year until retirement, and then retire at the start of a new FY (to minimize income tax on the final lump sum payment) and have all my unused leave "paid out", it might be better to instead take 3 months of long service leave at some point while still working, so I receive the additional 11-12% SGL. I will probably have to wait until I have a change of roles at work, as I currently do tasks that are required every week, and for whom no-one else has been trained to do in my absence. Apparently some of these tasks will be eliminated via automated processes during the next twelve months, at which time I may be assigned more of a project role involving Lean Six Sigma process improvement tasks. Which will probably allow more flexibility to take periods of annual of long service leave between 'projects'?

My company also has a policy to allow up to two weeks of accrued annual leave to be 'cashed out' each year, subject to approval by manager and HR. Due to my taxable income being significantly reduced due to negative gearing with my investment rental property, any 'cashed out leave' from 1 Jul 2024 (under the revamped 'stage 3' tax cuts) will be taxed at 30%, which would likely be the applicable tax rate if I instead accumulated more unused annual leave. While my pay rate is likely to increase roughly in line with CPI from now on, using the extra after tax payment to add to my mortgage offset account will effectively earn significantly more than the inflation rate. I also think that 'cashed out' annual leave will also be treated as normal salary and therefore benefit from receiving SGL contributions, adding another 11.5% or 12.0% in net financial benefit by 'cashing out' rather than being paid out upon retirement.

So it is probably a better financial decision to not accumulate any additional unused annual leave, but instead 'cash out' two weeks of annual leave each year, to maintain the current level of accumulated leave entitlement, and receive the extra SGL contributions into my superannuation savings.

I'll lodge an initial request to 'cash out' two weeks of annual leave, and if it is approved, confirm that there is a commensurate amount of extra SGL contributed into my company superannuation account that month.

** update: the annual leave 'cashout' was processed last week and the payslip confirmed that SGL was paid on the cashed out leave payment. So I'll continue to 'cash out' as much leave as possible each year from now on.

Friday 8 March 2024

Investment Bond Performance Update - FEB 2024

My latest quarterly contribution into my investment bond has been processed per the recently changed asset allocation. The overall allocation is still different from my new settings, as I only instructed the new fund allocations to apply to new contributions and to the annual 'rebalance' (that should happen at the end of May. The performance since I started the investment bond in Jan 2021 had not been looking too impressive, but that was due to the overall market being fairly flat from Jan '22 to mid '23. But the recent market strength has improved the average ROI considerably -- it is now sitting at 7.41%pa, apparently after fees and taxes. The investments within the IB are taxed at a nominal rate of 30%, but due to franking credits and some 'tax effective' accounting magic (apparently IB can deduct capital losses against income, which probably relates to the fact that IB do not get the 50% CG discount that normally applies to 'long term' CG). The reporting from the IB isn't too impressive (just an 'additional investment statement' when a new deposit is processed, and an 'annual statement' at the end of each financial year. You can check the current balance and asset allocation online, but it doesn't show charts or performance data. So I've entered all the individual fund transactions into a free 'sharesight' account, and that lets me see the overall progress, portfolio value chart (monthly data points), and more detailed daily price charts for each individual fund that the IB portfolio holds.

It shouldn't be too much trouble keeping sharesight updated - there will only be four purchase transactions to enter when each quarterly deposit is processed, plus some transactions when each annual rebalance is performed.

Thursday 7 March 2024

Trading Accounts update

I haven't done an update on how my 'trading' accounts have performed since the end of December, so here is a quick status update.

Superhero App account:

A$284.05 This is 19 units of BetaShares Global Robotics and Artificial Intelligence ETF RBTZ.AU. Currently total return is +18.93%.

US$4,144.94. This is split across 7 investments:

6.51767 units of GOOGL.US Avg cost $139.0917. Last price $131.40

5.9521 units of AMZN.US Avg cost $152.3059. Last price $173.51

2.54349 units of BRK.B.US Avg cost $356.4197. Last price $403.96

1.46934 units of QQQ.US Avg cost $408.3466. Last price $438.79

5.0124 units of CORN.US Avg cost $24.2299. Last price $19.48

14.75716 units of WEAT.US Avg cost $8.2299. Last price $5.06

US$0.27 sitting in cash.

3.17395 units of ITA.US Avg cost $106.2101. Last price $129.53

Currently total return is 6.29%

Moomoo trading account:

Basically this is just 'day trading' the VAS ETF.

Currently the open position is 57 units of VAS bought at a notional $96.44 (I had previously bought at $94.55 but the price hit my 'take-gain' price target and still appeared to be in an up trend, so I notionally 'closed' that position and recalculated new stop-loss ($95.48) and take-gain ($98.37) price targets for the current trade. Latest closing price was $97.04.

Overall my current account value is $5,679.94 having made an overall profit of $632.31 (+8.96%) since I started trading on 26 Jul 2023. I have had 11 trades that made a gain, and 11 trades that made a loss, which is the 50:50 win:loss ratio I was hoping for. My stop-loss and take-grain price targets are set at 2% profit or -1% loss. So, with a trading position of around $5K, this mean I *should* make $100 on a profitable trade and lose -$50 on losing trade. With a 50:50 win:loss ratio that should result in an average overall profit of around $25 per completed trade.

In reality I initially had trouble keeping positions open that were profitable (selling before the price target) when I got nervous, and once kept a position open when it dropped through the stop-loss price target (as it *seemed* to be bouncing off the bottom at a price that seemed like a technical support level). I have finally got a bit better at keeping trades open until they either hit the stop-loss or take-gain price target, and then close out the losing trades and either closing out the winning trade (if the trend seems to be weakening) or keeping it open after booking a 'notional' sale and calculating new price targets. I also had a couple of losing trades exceed my stop-loss due to gapping at the open, when I wasn't able to close out the position at my price target.

Overall, so far the trading results have been:

The positive results in both accounts are likely due mostly to the overall 'bull market' trend, so it will be interesting to see how I fare during a bear market period. The superhero account is intended to just be a long term investment to see how these 'picks' perform over 5-10 years, but the moomoo trading account should see my positions close out when the market starts to drop, and I generally should not be opening new positions in a general down trend (but the might be a few 'dead cat bounce' periods that fool me into placing a losing trade). We'll see how well my 'trading rules' perform in reality.

Monday 4 March 2024

Do me a favour?

For my PhD research I will be gathering some survey results. One of the channels I might use for some aspects of my research is a 'survey sharing' platform called 'SurveySwap'. You earn credits (to use to 'pay' for having your own survey done by suitable members) by completing the survey of other platform users.

Anyhow, if you have a survey you would like done by a random sample of respondents (or just want to help me get some credits that I can use to 'buy' survey responses for my PhD project), you can join up using the link below. If you join and fill in one survey, you will get 15 'credits' and so will I -- win-win ;)

You help other users by answering their surveys, and they will answer yours in return!

We both get 15 credits if you sign up with this link:

https://surveyswap.io/invitations?invitation_token=a84ceb06-3b5a-4b51-8f11-c995d6861af9

ps. My survey will probably 'cost' about 15 credits per response, which would cost about A$10 if I bought 'credits'. So any assistance in getting some free 'credits' will be of great help. Poor student and all that ;)

Image from https://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1168

End of Week 3 of '90 day transformation challenge'

My progress so far:

Body Recomposition Averages (per day)

Week# Wt (kg) Body Fat % cals g prot % carbs % fat steps/day

1 -3.4 -1.1% 1,348 85 35% 39% 11,118

2 -1.0 -0.4% 1,378 92 39% 31% 12.126

3 -2.3 -0.8% 1,528 121 27% 26% 12,358

So after the usual rapid weight loss in the first week due to water loss with lower food bulk, the progress in week 2 was rather modest (and disappointing) given the extra exercise activity and caloric deficit. But in the third week my progress was more rapid with considerable weight reduction and commensurate reduction in body fat. I managed to increase my average daily protein intake to about what I think is required to support the amount of weight training being undertaken, without increasing total caloric intake too much. This shifted the macros balance so that a considerably lower percentage of the total calories is coming from carbs and fat.

I didn't quite hit 15K steps on any day last week, but managed to get in over 12,500 steps on three days. The overall average daily step count increased slightly, but I still need to focus on this a bit more. I did my three gym sessions and total weekly exercise volume increased from 39,175kg to 48,790kg.

I did a rough estimate in change in lean body mass using 5-day averages of weight and % body fat to calculate an estimate of 5-day average lean body mass. Plotted against the change in body weight it looks like I am doing a reasonable job so far at body recomposition (fat loss without lean mass loss). Hopefully I can get my weight down to around 100 kg by the end of the 13 week 'transformation challenge' while keeping my lean body mass around 74kg. This would mean a final body fat % of around 26%. Still a lot more than I ultimately would like to achieve (12%-15% body fat), but would be great progress over a 3-month period. I think the drop in estimated lean mass in the first week (from 75kg to about 74kg was likely due to reduction in retained water (which counts as 'lean mass'). Lean mass seems to have stabilized in weeks 2 and 3.

Body weight is on the LH scale and estimated lean mass is on the RH scale.

Sunday 3 March 2024

Insurance cover

Moomin has been reflecting on his mortality and considering the need for some liquid cash to cover immediate financial needs 'if anything happens'. He has most of his financial assets invested productively, so not a huge amount sitting around in a cash 'emergency fund' or his mortgage offset account. So I suggested that is what life insurance (and possibly Trauma or Critical Illness, and/or Income Protection insurance is for).

Moomin posted that he has 180K death cover via his employer superannuation, so I decided to check what my current level of 'default' cover is (there is a set premium which provides 'units' of cover, that decrease in dollar terms as you get older). Currently my death cover is only $46,450 (with the $12.59 premium paid by my employer) and the TPD cover is for the same dollar amount, but the monthly premium paid by my employer is $29.88. Not a huge amount of cover, but enough to cover our basic household expenses for about one year.

I currently have 99 days of accumulated sick leave, 69 days of accumulated long service leave, and 143 days of unused annual leave) and I have some Income Protection Insurance via my Employer's superannuation fund (my employer subsidizers the admin fee and refunds the insurance premiums - currently $56.87 per month). The IP policy has a 90-day waiting period and two year benefit period - so it would currently provide income replacement to age 64.25 if I had a health crisis tomorrow. Between sick leave and LOI insurance my salary is pretty much guaranteed to continue to 'normal retirement age' in the event of 'critical illness' or total and permanent disability.

The unused annual and long service leave will get 'paid out' if I get retrenched or reach retirement, so I am happy to accumulate most of that leave (I usually only take a week off at Christmas time). As the pay out would be calculated using the current salary rate, the value is pretty much inflation adjusted. My NW estimate should probably include the current value of the unused vested leave - which is current worth about $88K.

Aside from life insurance, my super would get 'paid out' to my dependent beneficiary (DW) in the event of my death. Since DW and DS1 are the other trustees in our SMSF, getting my super paid out in the event of my death should be quite rapid -- they should just have to fill in a form and provide a copy of a death certificate to be able to sell off some of the SMSF investments and then transfer out cash from the SMSF bank account to DWs personal account (although for tax purposes DW might be better off getting a reversionary pension - I'll have to check into this when I turn 65 and move my SMSF account into pension phase. (ps. I'm not sure how DWs SMSF pension phase account is setup - whether or not there is a reversionary pension option).

Overall feel my insurance cover is adequate, as in general I 'self insure' by having a reasonably high NW. Having several investments that can be sold and 'cashed out' within a few days also makes the need for insurance cover less important. The biggest financial inconvenience if I died unexpectedly would be that DW would have to sell off the investment rental apartment to clear the mortgage, or else use some of my superannuation death benefit to pay off the investment property mortgage. There won't be any urgency to make any decision, as there is enough money sitting in the offset account to cover about two years of mortgage payments. She might do that, move into the apartment and then sell our home and make a 'downsizer' contribution into her super? I won't be around to know or care, and she is quite capable of making her own financial decisions (even if they probably aren't the same as I would make).

ps. In terms of contemplating one's own mortality, it is probably more productive/useful to take action regarding diet and exercise than reviewing insurance coverage and how 'liquid' one's financial assets are ;) Insurance is just another 'risk mitigation' tool, and poor BMI and fitness is another 'risk' that should be addressed. Easier said than done though -- transferring money from one account to another is a lot quicker and easier than shifting 10kg of fat into lean mass!

Friday 1 March 2024

Net Worth - FEB 2024

Chart updated to end of February in sidebar.

Stocks/cash increased $3,243 (+1.35%) to $243,959. (This isn't as much as you would expect, because I lump my various cash accounts into the 'stocks' category -- my 'liquid' cash in various accounts is about $184,452.31. Most of it is sitting in my mortgage offset account, so effectively 'earns' 6.54% by reducing the monthly interest charged on my investment property mortgage).

Retirement savings (SMSF etc) increased by $49,646 (2.96%) to $1,728,146 in line with the market trend and our asset allocation.

Est. valuation of our home (my half) increased by $776 (0.07%) to $1,139,053. The 'Other real estate' (my 'lake house' and the investment apartment) increased by $13,270 (0.63%) to $2,108,010.

The outstanding balance of the investment property mortgage remains at $999,993 during the 'interest only' period of the mortgage. Another 4 years remain of the 'interest only' period.

Other assets (my online depository bullion account at Perth Mint, and the bullion value of my gold and silver proof coin collection) increased by $376 (1.00%) to $38,032.

Overall, NW increased by $67,313 (1.60%) to $4,265,207 during February.

Tuesday 27 February 2024

End of Week 2 of '90 day transformation challenge'

I've been sticking to 'the plan' for my lifestyle change (less junk food and more exercise) since the 'Pro Physique 90-day transformation challenge' started on 12 Feb. My main goal was to cut out all junk food, reduce daily calories by 'intermittent fasting' (not having breakfast and having a 'brunch' around noon, then having dinner before 7pm) and try to get enough protein intake to try to increase muscle mass by doing weight training 3 days/week, despite being in overall caloric deficit. I've also aimed to get in at least 10,000 steps/day on the 'rest' days. I've found the easier way to accumulate sufficient steps each day was to simply get up and do a ten minute walk around my 'home office' every hour or so during the day.

The first week I only did two gym sessions -- I had been only going once a week (and skipping some weeks) for the past year, so I was quite exhausted at the end of the second session and had sore muscles for a couple of days. By the second week I was already getting adapted to the workouts, as was able do all three planned sessions without getting too 'wasted' (and I didn't have any muscle soreness the following day). Each session I've increased the weights slightly and added another exercise or a few more sets, so the total 'volume' (kg) per session has been rapidly increasing. I expect the rate of increase will slow dramatically over the next few weeks. The gym sessions involve 20 mins on the treadmill to warm up, then half of my resistance training, another 20 mins on the treadmill to let my muscles recover a bit, then a final group of weight training exercises, before finishing off with a final 20 mins on the treadmill. The total session lasts just under 2 hrs (I go just before 9pm when the gym is fairly empty) and consists of about 1 hr on the treadmill and about 45 minutes of weight machines.

Overall I'm fairly happy with my progress so far:

Body Recomposition Averages (per day)

Week# Wt (kg) Body Fat % cals g prot % carbs % fat steps/day

1 -3.4 -1.1% 1,348 85 35% 39% 11,118

2 -1.0 -0.4% 1,378 92 39% 31% 12.126

The main changes I still want to make are to increase my protein intake to around 150g/day while not increasing caloric intake too much -- so I there will be more chicken breast and broccoli, and less fillet steak and cereal in my immediate future. And I want to try to get closer to 15,000 steps/day.

Based on my caloric deficit I should continue to lose around 0.8 kg/week, and by ensuring adequate protein intake and sufficient weight training I should be able to avoid losing any muscle mass (and might even gain a small amount). Perhaps losing 1kg/wk of fat and putting on about 0.2 kg/wk of lean mass? At the end of the 13 week 'challenge' the change in average body fat % should allow me to do a rough calculation of the change in lean body mass vs. overall weight change.

Anyhow, its 9pm and time to head off to the gym...

Saturday 17 February 2024

Deferred Lifetime Annuity Annual CPI adjustment

I logged into my Deferred Annuity account to check if the annual cpi adjustment had been made. The purchase date (after a bit of a delay processing my initial online application) was 6 Jan 2023. The initial $10,000 purchase was for a lifetime annuity with the monthly payment start deferred until age 99 (I initially picked 100, but it turned out that 100 was maximum allowed age for the first payment date, so I had to start receiving payments prior to age 100). The annuity has no spouse benefit and no cash-out option, so it will be (is?) worthless (to me) if I die before 6 Feb 2062. But I still thought it was worth a gamble as my great-aunt lived to 104, my parents are both alive (in their 90s) and two of my grandparents lived to 94. And who knows what medical advances may extend healthy lifespan during the next 40 years? Life expectancy in Australia has been increasing by 3 months per year since the start of the 20th century, although maximal lifespan hasn't been increasing as much (generally maxmimum lifespan seems to be limited to around 110 or so except in very exceptional cases).

Anyhow, the initial monthly payment amount was $3,722.92 ($44,675.04 pa) and is supposed to be indexed annually to increase with the official CPI figure. The new monthly rate is now showing when I log into my online account - as $3,922.99 ($47,075.88 pa) which is in line with the September Quarter 2023 annual cpi rise (5.4%). I had expected it to increase by the December Quarter figure, which just came out as being 4.1%. So I am glad that the increase used the September Quarter figure (which was the latest one available as at the anniversary date).

One positive thing about having a deferred annuity that will provide enough to cover my basic retirement income needs from a fixed age (99) is that I *could* calculate my retirement savings to be fully consumed by that age ( the old "die with zero" retirement spending strategy), without any concern that I might 'outlive' my retirement funds. But it isn't really an issue for me, as I expect the initial minimum withdrawal rate of 4% from age 65 when I move my SMSF account balance into 'pension phase' will be more than enough to cover this (while I am still working I will either recontribute this 'pension' payment into my QSuper account (I want to build it up to $600K by age 70 so I can purchase a 'Lifetime Pension' from them - which should provide around $44,416 (with no spouse benefit option selected), and/or use it to pay off my investment property loan while I am still working. The QSuper Pension isn't indexed to inflation, but does have an annual adjustment based on how the underlying Balanced Investment Fund. The past 10 year average performance has been 7.5%, so this *should* mean an average annual increase of 2.5% over the past ten years. During that period inflation averaged about 2.7%, so the adjustment may be roughly in line with cpi during my retirement.

Basically the $600K Lifetime Pension purchase at age 70 should cover my minimum retirement income needs in perpetuity, so any payments I receive from age 99 onwards from the Deferred Annuity would simply be a bonus. I would have to live to at least 101 to get a decent ROI on the $10K Deferred Annuity 'investment', but the ROI would become very impressive if I lived as long as my great-Aunt ;)

Thursday 15 February 2024

Another attempt at lifestyle change

One of my most frequently failed goals is to shed the extra weight I've had since high school, and to make regular exercise a part of my daily routine. I was slightly overweight in high school (78kg) and not very active (although I did do some soccer, judo and comp tennis, and did my bronze medallion and bronze cross lifesaving qualifications). I gained weight during university, and then slowly put on more weight over the years, despite being interested in healthy eating (CRON) for longevity and did some occasional activities (SCUBA diving, skiing, hiking etc.), but not part of a daily routine.

There have been several times when I've stuck to my 'healthy eating' plan for 6-12 months and gone regularly to the gym, but overall the weight slowly increased over the years of having a sedentary office job and not much interest in exercise for fun. (having extremely bad eczema getting 'hot and sweaty' was never a fun time for me). My last serious attempt to reach my 'ideal' weight (around 75 kg) and go regularly to the gym three times a week was well underway just before Covid began. Then the combination of occasional 'lock-downs', gym closures and working from home undid all the good work in fairly short order, and it has been a struggle to get back into the routine of sticking to a meal plan and doing regular walking and gym sessions.

So, this week I began a '90 day challenge' via the Pro Physique 'New Year New Start Transformation Challenge'. Paying $50 to join up and posting a (very embarassing) photo for 'day 1' was a good motivation to get started again -- and this time it will have to be for the rest of my life. No more snacks and lollies for me!

Anyhow, my basic 'plan' is:

<1,800 kcals/day -- and using 'intermittent fasting' to not eat after 7pm then delay 'breakfast' until noon. Having a 'brunch' instead of breakfast and lunch helps keep the total daily calories in check. I'm also aiming for >100g protein/day, and <15% fat, but need to replace some more carbs with protein to meet that target.

Do daily walking (around the house) of at least 10K steps/day. Doing a short stint every hour as a break from staring at the computer screen is good - but I just need to remember.

Go to the gym for some weight training 3x per week, and do '5BX' at home on the 'rest' days. I had been going once a week to the gym, so this week I'm adding in a second session, and will start three sessions a week from now on.

I'm expecting to be able to lose about 10kg during the 90 day 'challenge', and should be able to get down to my 'ideal weight' by the end of this year. Looking at my weight over the past 20+ years it is certainly 'doable', but the trick will be to stabilize once I hit my 'ideal weight'. I have a bad habit of going back to 'ad libitum' eating with a lot of junk food and lollies as soon as I stop focussing on tracking my food intake and exercise is minute detail.

ps. There is a correlation between my wt and nw, but correlation is NOT causation! Both are simply due to time/age.