October 2008 Financial Asset Roundup

Here are my current financial assets as of the market close on October 10th, 2008:

Asset	September 2008	October 2008	Change
Checking	295	409	114
Money Market	21,306	21,514	208
Savings Bonds	14,851	14,899	48
Treasury Bills	0	0	0
CDs	105,183	107,639	2,456
Brokerage	106,937	88,753	-18,184
401k	87,639	63,201	-24,438
Roth IRA	28,964	21,127	-7,837
SEP IRA	172,301	131,142	-41,159
529 Savings	36,951	29,731	-7,220
Credit Card 0% Balance Transfers	0	0	0
Total Assets	$574,427	$478,415	-$96,012 (-16.71%)

Ouch! The S&P 500 index has been at a receiving end of a major smackdown over the past ten days or so (down 28.16% since my last update!), and is now down to levels we haven't seen since 2003:

(chart courtesy of msn.com)

While fear and uncertainty has pretty much slammed the entire world, one of the few positives has been the corresponding fall in oil prices to below $80 per barrel, which could provide a little relief for pinched consumers of gasoline and home heating oil.

Moneywise, I plan on staying the course with the investments in my retirement accounts, just like I did after the tech bubble popped in 2000. I've advocated locking in CD rates now since rates are still attractive while banks are desperate for cash, but I am not confident that these rates will be around long. Following my own advice, I rolled my maturing E-LOAN 5.75% APY 2 year CD into a E-LOAN 5.25% APY 5 year CD.

One event of note to savers is the release of the September 2008 Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) inflation data on Thursday, October 16th, which will give us the rate of return for October 2008 issue I Bonds the next 12 month period. Even with a 0% premium over the rate of inflation, they could still be an attractive (and safe) place to put cash for the next year or so.