Net Worth JUL 2026

Chart updated in sidebar - networthshare was back online after a week or so.

Stocks/funds/cash total increased by +$10,008 (+1.78%) to $572,189. The only bright spot in a rather lackluster month.

TSB decreased by -$521 (0.02%) to $2,327,888. Investment gains and my modest SGL contributions just about offset the reduction in the 'money-back protection' value of my QSuper Lifetime Pension accounts (the amount that would be paid to my estate if I died before total pension payments exceeded the initial purchase price).

Realestate - PPOR (home) estimated valuation remained unchanged. My other properties decreased by -$12,388 (-0.56%) to $2,191,834 (while the mortgage remained unchanged at $999,991 while it is still in 'interest only' mode). Due to the tax changes I expect my real estate assets to continue to decline in value over the next 2-3 years. However, due to the 'wealth effect' that residential property has on consumer sentiment/spending (around 50% of 25-34 yo Australian adults, and 65% of 35-44 yo Australian adults are homeowners -- the core 'spending cohort' that drives a large part of GDP) I expect the impact of falling house prices will not only impact the building industry, banking (lending), real estate and mortgage broker business, but also dampen consumer spending overall -- so there might be a recession, reduced inflation (if exogenous factors like oil prices moderate), and a resulting reduction in interest rates to try to boost the Australian economy. And hence fuel the start of the next 'real estate cycle' upturn in 3-4 years time. We'll see. Labor could also lose government (or need support from other parties to pass any legislation, so have to make 'deals') or at least their majority, and might well reverse/modify some of their recent changes (it happened last time Labor tried to reduce the attraction of negative gearing (by simply restricting 221D PAYG variations) -- which led to a spike in rents, and plunge in residential construction, and was quickly reversed).

Other assets (PM bullion, coin collection etc.) barely increased by +$39 (+0..05%) to $76,707 as gold and platinum prices stabilized.

Overall NW decreased by -$2,562 (-0.05%) to $5,472,183. I suspect it will be quite a while before I might hit A$6M. And it is quite possible it will be worth less than my current NW in real terms (adjusted for inflation) if/when I get there.

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My QSuper Pension adjustment for FY27

Having just posted that I didn't know what adjustment would be made to my QSuper pension, I decided to go have a look into the details of the annual adjustment calculation. Turns out the annual adjustment is made on 1 July each year, and for this year the total adjustment will +2.13% (about half the inflation rate). The way the adjustment is worked out is based on how the underlying 'Balanced Risk Adjusted' fund performs relative to a 5% benchmark/hurdle (ie. if the fund annual return was 6% you would get a +1% adjustment, but if the fund annual return was 4% you would get a -1% adjustment). The investment adjustment came in at 2.01% (I.e. the underlying fund performance was 7.01% - the 5% 'hurdle'). There is also a secondary, smaller adjustment made based on the actual mortality results for the 'pool' of pension recipients relative to actuarial expectations. This year the 'mortality adjustment' was 0.12%. So the total adjustment was 2.13%.

However, this does not tell me exactly how much my fortnightly pension payments would be adjusted, as in the first year the fortnightly pension amount is adjusted upwards to take into account that you do not receive a payment during the initial 14-day 'cooling off' period, and this amount is then spread out over the remaining payments for the FY. As I started both of my QSuper pensions early in the FY, this should work out to be roughly one fortnightly amount divided by 23, 24 or 25, which would mean that my fortnightly $ amounts during this first year were about 4-6% higher than they would have been if I had received 26 fortnightly payments during the year. This would mean my pension payments should drop back by about 4%, which will then be partially offset by the 2.13% pension adjustment. So, overall, I expect my fortnightly pension payments will now be slightly (2-3%)  lower than they were during the first year.

Update: I double checked when my last PP had been deposited, and it was a few days after the start of the new FY, so the annual adjustment had already been applied to my last PP. So I checked the PP amount and it had indeed decreased slightly - from the previous $1,216.98/F down to $1,176.66/F (a decrease of 3.31%).

Going forward my PP should just vary by the reporting 'adjustment amount' at the start of each FY.

Adjustments in previous years have been:

Year	Investment adjustment (after 5% benchmark)	Mortality adjustment	Net pool result
2025-26	+2.01%	+0.12%	+2.13%
2024-25	+4.95%	+0.64%	+5.59%
2023-24	+2.37%	-0.50%	+1.87%
2022-23	-1.34%	-0.33%	-1.67%
2021-22	-6.45%	-0.44%	-6.89%
2020-21	+7.93%	-0.40%	+7.53%

This means the average adjustment over the past 6 years has been 1.43%. In comparison the 5-yr average inflation rate up to 2025 was 4.21%.

Historic Performance for the underlying Balanced Risk-Adjusted fund has been:

Investment Option: Balanced Risk-Adjusted

10 yrs (p.a) 7 yrs (p.a) 5 yrs (p.a) 3 yrs (p.a) 1 yr

7.07% 6.20% 5.86% 8.19% 7.19%

The 10-yr average performance suggests that my QSuper pensions will not quite keep pace with CPI inflation, but the decline in real purchasing power will be modest over the next 20-30 years.

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Budget plan FY27

I updated my monthly expenses tracker with June data, so now have the complete 'actuals' data for last FY. Turned out that the 'budget' I had drawn up in July 2025 (just after I was retrenched and entered retiremen, but before then deciding to seek a new career) was excessively optimistic. The major expense blow-outs were:

* monthly groceries averaged $1,711 per month, a lot higher than I had projected ($1,000/mo). For this FY I have increased my 'target' to $1,250 per month, but meeting this goal will still require cutting out a lot of snack and junk food purchases (which will be good for my health anyhow). Cutting down on diet cola consumption since resuming full-time work will also slash my grocery bills (the latest monthly bill for the credit card I use for all my grocery shopping was 'only' $1,066).

* household items averaged $1,228 per month. But this was inflated due to large 'one-off' expenses in May/June due to having to replace 30+m of garden boundary fence, and also having a major repair done to our sewer line. Barring any unexpected major expenses, the $550/mo target should be sufficient for normal minor repairs, appliance replacements etc. We are not planning on any major home repairs or renovations, as we might 'knock-down, rebuild' our house in 5-10 years time (when my investment property is paid off).

* entertainment costs were inflated by spending on hobby equipment (gold fossicking mainly). I have more than enough hobby items cluttering up the garage, and with my full-time job and part-time PhD to occupy my time, I really do not have time to waste on any hobbies at the moment -- so it should be easy to avoid making additional purchases this FY.

All the other categories were reasonably close to expectation in FY26, so I've used similar amounts for FY27, just incrementing those costs I expect will have significant price rises (council rates, electricity and water bills). 

My budget for FY27 comes in at $4,438 per month ($53,256 pa). This fits in with my regular QSuper pension income ($2,637 per month) and part of my take-home salary ($2,218 per month). I am diverting part of my take-home salary into my investment loan offset account. And my annual minimum SMSF pension payment (around $62Kpa) is being recontributed into super (using my concessional contribution 'cap space') and the balance added to my investment property loan offset account (to reduce the amount of loan interest payable each month, and offset the loan entirely within 5-10 years).

The budget is more of a 'road map' to follow, and track actuals vs. budget, rather than a 'rule book' I have to follow. I expect the actuals for FY27 will not end up exactly matching my budget plan - after all I don't know what expenses will rise due to inflation, and I also do not know if my QSuper pension will increase (there is an annual 'adjustment' based on actuarial data and the performance of the underlying investment fund vs. a benchmark hurdle). I also do not how my employment and salary may vary during the next twelve months.

Budget FY 27 (expenses):                                            Income FY (to cover budget):

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Net Worth JUN 2026

Chart not updated in sidebar - networthshare appears to have shutdown a week ago. I will remove the chart snippet if it is still NA next month.

Stocks/funds/cash total increased from $496,559 to $562,180. Mostly due to my annual minimum SMSF pension payment being processed in June and the funds transferred into my mortgage offset account.

TSB decreased from $2,364,371 to $2,328,409, Mostly due to the above-mentioned annual minimum SMSF pension payment,

Realestate - PPOR (home) estimated valuation remained unchanged. Holiday home increased slightly from $945,000 to $954,916. My investment unit decreased slightly from $1,250,831 to $1,249,305.

Other assets (PM bullion, coin collection etc.) decreased from $84,344 to $76,668 due to significant drop in gold/silver prices.

Overall NW increased from $5,436,026 to $5,466,342. This is about 055%, roughly in line with inflation.

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