March 2008 Financial Asset Roundup

Here are my current financial assets as of the market close on March 11th, 2008:

Asset	February 2008	March 2008	Change
Checking	734	854	120
Money Market	20,805	22,710	1,905
Savings Bonds	4,669	4,685	16
Treasury Bills	0	0	0
CDs	98,364	98,785	421
Brokerage	97,491	96,963	-528
401k	95,491	95,537	46
Roth IRA	31,223	31,193	-30
SEP IRA	171,304	179,433	8,129
529 Savings	36,240	36,181	-59
Credit Card 0% Balance Transfers	0	0	0
Total Assets	$556,321	$566,341	$10,020 (1.80%)

The market volatility has continued since my last update, with the S&P 500 index falling by another 2.09% during that time:

(chart courtesy of msn.com)

It's been another wild ride over the past month. The FOMC tried another liquidity injection and could follow that up with more rate cuts at their March 18th meeting. The increasing risk of inflation is finally being acknowledged and oil is continuing a climb toward $110 per barrel. My personal increase in financial assets over the past month can primarily be attributed to my final 2007 SEP IRA contribution, but the only other money move on the short term horizon is dealing with the proceeds from a Bank of America 5.15% APY 4-month CD that matures at the end of the month. For that money, it is looking like putting some cash in I Bonds could once again be an attractive choice when the March 2008 CPI-U numbers are released on April 16th.

And of note on the personal recession watch, it appears that I am about to lose one of the largest clients of my IT services S Corporation. That is particularly noteworthy for me since the same thing happened to me in 2001 during the last recession. Fortunately, I have a nice cash cushion on hand for just such an occasion, although it would be a shame if I had to forfeit some interest by breaking some of those 6% APY CDs that I've been accumulating over the past two years.