Financial Review - December, 2014

December was a poor month for my investments.

Net worth declined.  Asian equities fell slightly, Australian/New Zealand equities appreciated slightly as did commodities and FX movements were unfavourable. Expenses were moderate.

Here are the details:

1. my Hong Kong/China equity portfolio fell with declines in my two biggest investments (China Gas and Hutchison) dragging down the portfolio . There were no transactions this month;

2. my AU/NZ equities appreciated. I added more shares in New Zealand Refining to the portfolio;

3.my equity ETFs were mixed (India, Vietnam, Hong Kong and China) in line with the local markets. There were no new purchases;

4. my commodities rose slightly. Silver is my only position;

5. the properties are at full occupancy and all tenants are paying on time. However, I will have at least one vacancy just before Chinese New Year in 2015. I received a big bill for an overseas property (water pipe into the property needs to be dug up and replaced);

6. currency movements were negative with falls in the NZD and the AUD;

7. my position in bonds remains small;

8. expenses were moderate;

9.there were no transfers to Mrs Traineeinvestor this month.

My cash position fell slightly. I currently hold 34.9 months of expenses in HKD cash or equivalents.

For October, my net worth fell by 1.0%. The year to date increase is 3.41%.

I will do a year end report in the next few weeks. I have over provided for tax which would lift the number very slightly but otherwise, it would appear that in my first full year of retirement, the portfolio has more or less generated sufficient returns to meet our living expenses and to match inflation. The biggest single contributor to the poor performance was the decline in the AUD and NZD against the HKD - if my currency of account had been the NZD our household net worth (which includes Mrs Traineeinvestor's assets and property market to market so not a perfect comparison) would have appreciated more than 20%.