December turned out to be our second most expensive month so far (number 1 being the first month we moved out because of all the stuff we had to buy) with the number 1 expense being… Christmas presents ?
I’m not going to go into my issues with Christmas because I’ve touched on it many times before. I just accept that this is a month that the budget will be blown and there’s little I can do about it. I guess it really depends on what sort of family you have, but I don’t think I could get away with no presents on my side and Mrs Firebug’s family is ten times worst. There’s just no way we could skip presents on that side. It’s like the super bowl for her mum come present time.
Maybe the above graph is a little harsh. I do care about my family but I just value time spent together over material objects.
Net Worth Update
Nice bump this month of around $10K.
This was mainly due to savings and Super. There was a bump of just under $2K from the share market which was nice.
Properties
No change in the property values this month.
*DISCLAIMER*
Various data sources (RP data, Domain.com etc.) are used in combination of what similar surrounding properties were sold for to calculate an estimate. This is an official Commonwealth bank estimate and one which they use to approve loans.
ETFs
We managed to add close to $12K to our ETF’s this month which took our cash savings down a little.
Out of that $12K around $10K was brought and just under $2K was gained through the market
Below are our current splits (hover over each pie slice for more info)
Networth
Nice job you two 🙂
keep up the good work!
It’s very inspiring as a 23 year old to see these posts.
Gives me confidence in my own plans.
and a great end to a very shitty year haha.
Thanks George.
I hope 2017 is a wonderful year for you 🙂
Great job, Firebug! I definitely agree with you about Christmas and presents. I’m lucky in that that my family don’t really celebrate Christmas so December isn’t as bad financially for us. The whole thing is just one big chance for consumerism heaven.
Good luck for 2017 and I’m looking forward to more of your posts.
I recently read your post on accessing equity in your home and am planning on doing something similar. The hard part is finding a property in Australia with some form of cash flow. I have a couple of properties in the US where it’s a much more lucrative property market. What are your thoughts?
Hi Len,
Yeah cash flow properties are hard to come by but they do exist! I’m leaning more and more towards ETF’s these days to be honest.
I don’t have any experience with the US real estate market but from I hear there are plenty of opportunities out there.
Cool blog btw 🙂
We are thinking of renting out a room using air bnb too. Can I ask you, what is the population of where you guys are living?
We only live in a small country area and I’m not sure how successful air bnb would be for us.
Cheers
According to Wikipedia, population here is 140,000. Since we upgraded our room, we have been getting a steady flow of visitors once every few weeks which is enough for us at the moment. It’s not a bad source of additional income and forces you to clean your house which is a win/win. I’d suggest giving it a go and see what happens. It’s also a great way to meet people and when you travel it’s an awesome accommodation option.
4% increase in December is great… Perfect end to the year…!!!
Look forward to reading more this year…
Thanks TWI