Chart updated to end of MAR in sidebar.
Who would have guessed that possibly starting WWIII and creating a 1970s style oil shock to cause a global recession/Greater Depression could be bad for everyone's finances :) Apparently everyone except POTUS and MAGA voters it seems.... Ah well, now for the exciting March performance data:
Stocks/cash decreased -$10,502 (-2.19%) to $469,277. This was actually better than one would expect, due to about $300K of this figure being cash sitting in my mortgage offset account.
Retirement savings (SMSF etc.) decreased by +$97,668 (+4.18%) to $2,240,942. No contributions made this month.
The real estate figures are unchanged, as the source data has not been updated for March. The federal Labor government is floating ideas about limiting negatively geared properties to a maximum of two, and/or reducing the capital gains tax 'discount' (which was actually just a simplified method to avoid taxing the effect of inflation -- they replaced the cost base indexing method with the 50% 'discount' method, as at the time the inflation rate and typical holding period meant about 50% of realized capital gains were simply due to inflation) to 1/3 or 1/4. These changes are likely to make property investing less attractive, and the decreased demand is likely to cause a slump in property prices. It won't actually help renters who want to buy their first home however, as the last time Keating fiddled with negative gearing (simply delaying deductions to EOFY rather than being able to seek a PAYG variation) it resulted in a property slump, shortage of renting housing (due to fewer new constructions), and then a hike in rental costs (which makes it much harder for renters to save the required deposit to obtain a home loan). We'll see what actually gets announced in the budget, and then how the expected and unexpected impacts wash out during the following year or two.
Other assets (my online depository bullion account at Perth Mint, and the bullion value of my gold and silver proof coin collection) decreased by -$14,523 (-13.89%) to $90,035. I am currently still adding $200 worth of gold to my Perth Mint online depository account each month. In theory a price dip is good while using DCA to accumulate an asset over time. Every cloud has a silver (or gold) lining I suppose.
Overall, NW decreased by -$122,693 (-2.27%) to $5,291,426 during Mar. NW needs to increase by about 0.2% per month on average to keep pace with inflation (I.e. maintain real value), so the decrease during March was about +2.4% in real value.
It would be nice to think that April won't be as bad as March was, but the economic impacts of Trump's war will take several months to become fully apparent, and the war could still escalate further.
I got a quote for adding a 'granny flat' to my holiday home property (around $235K), but in the current global situation I think it would be prudent to the leave the money sitting in my loan offset account, rather than spend it on a property improvement. Although the cost is likely to rise substantially in a year or two, I think putting this expense off for the time being is a wise move.
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