Asset values rose firmly and Santa Claus gave the sharemarket a late boost.

Houses, farms and commercial properties all gained value, as did other assets like shares, superannuation and managed funds.

According to investment research firm Lonsec, the typical diversified portfolio with 70 per cent in growth assets such as shares and property earned 14.6 per cent for the year.

That is similar to the mix of investments that many default superannuation funds hold.

Some industry super funds take a higher risk approach, with around 80 per cent of their money in shares and property.

Funds with that strategy earned 16.8 per cent on average before tax. Super funds pay a low rate of tax, reducing the net returns a little.

Savers who chose conservative super fund options earned much less due to the very low interest rates.

Funds with most of their money in fixed interest and less than a third in shares and property earned 5.7 per cent pre-tax on average, Lonsec says.

The Australian sharemarket had another good year.

The All Ordinaries Total Return Index (includes dividends) earned 17.7 per cent.

Medium-sized companies did best and both large and small companies earned a little less.

The best performing sharemarket sector was telecom stocks, up 41 per cent, followed by financials including banks, up 25 per cent.

Surprisingly, healthcare companies were one of the weakest areas, with gains of only nine per cent.

Overseas shares outperformed Australian shares once again, with the MSCI World Total Return Index up 26.5 per cent.

Looking at individual markets, we see the S&P500 in the US returned 27 per cent, while the Hong Kong market lost 14 per cent and the Chinese market in Shenzhen fell five per cent.

Commercial property investments traded on the Australian sharemarket made 26 per cent, while overseas commercial property returned slightly more.

Unlisted direct Australian commercial property returned around 16 per cent on average.

We should remember that some of these returns are somewhat artificially high because they include a good part of the recovery from the COVID slump of early 2020.

Prices started 2021 from an abnormally low point.

In 2021, most Australian government bonds produced small losses as their market values declined when interest rates edged up towards year end.

Among commodities, the best performer was oil, up 59 per cent, while gold lost 3.6 per cent.

Currency movements were fairly small, with the value of the Australian dollar not moving far against most others.

Inflation for the year is estimated to have been 2.9 per cent.

Let's hope 2022 produces sound returns too.