Net Worth Update: February 2009

My net worth as at 28 February decreased by another -$34,351 (-5.59%) during the month to $580,214 (AUD). This month the decline was mostly due to continued losses in my geared equity investments (down by -$41,863), which more than offset the slight rise in the valuations of our real estate investments (up $10,508 or 1.39%) and a small decrease in the value of my retirement savings (SMSF down -$2,510 or -1.06%). The decrease in the retirement savings was actually a lot worse than it appears on the surface - last month our account received three months of employer contributions and my salary sacrifice for that period, totalling around $13,000.

The balance of my half of the mortgage was fairly constant at -$367,863. Our monthly payments and rent from our tenant are now just enough to meet the interest only loan payments, so no further redraws are required for the time being. Hopefully by the time the economy recovers and interest rates start to rise again DS2 will have started school and DW will be able to increase her paid employment from 2 days a week to four. Next month the loan balance will drop by about $6,000 as we were able to make a one-off repayment of principal using the Family Tax Benefit "top up" payment we received when we finally lodged our tax returns for 2008.

DW has started to complain about our compact car (a 2000 model Ford Festiva 2-door), and asking when we can replace it with a second hand Subaru Forester as we had planned. Unfortunately, spending $25,000 to upgrade our vehicle looks a lot less affordable now than it did back when my NW was over $1m and I could sell off some stocks to fund such a purchase. The Festiva has only done 100,000km and is still running well, so I'll put off trading it in for several more years.

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