April 2009 Financial Asset Roundup

Here are my current financial assets as of the market close on April 9th, 2009:

Asset	Mar 2009	Apr 2009	Change
Checking	579	505	-74
Money Market	20,233	14,763	-5,470
Savings Bonds	15,198	15,257	59
Treasury Bills	0	0	0
CDs	118,212	128,694	10,482
Brokerage	67,692	80,875	13,183
401k	51,921	61,473	9,552
Roth IRA	22,417	25,843	3,426
SEP IRA	134,257	153,482	19,225
529 Savings	27,781	31,923	4,142
Total Assets	$458,290	$512,815	$54,525
			(11.90%)

We've had a nice bounce since the last update with the S&P 500 index up 19.03% since the last update:

(chart courtesy of msn.com)

Unemployment is still rising and is now up to 8.5%. Hopefully the stock market rally over the past few weeks is indicating that we have hit a bottom, although earnings announcements this week could bring us back to reality.

Moneywise, I have a one year Patelco CD @ 4.07% APY CD maturing at the end of the month and opened a one year Bank of America CD @ 2.65% APY in anticipation of not having a decent place to put that cash in a couple of weeks. I'm also looking to put $5000 into electronic I Bonds later this month, which should have approximately a 3% tax equivalent return over the next year (a 5.64% rate for the first six months and likely 0% over the next 6 months with a negative inflation component when the March 2009 CPU-I numbers come out on Wednesday).

Overall, things have been going pretty well even though I haven't been blogging much lately. My 2008 personal and business tax returns are now officially done! I've also finalized a contract extension with my largest client, so it's looking like I'll continue to bring in consulting revenue throughout 2009 and continue with my typical saving, investing, and spending habits. With a little luck I'll be in great shape if and when some economic recovery starts to happen in 2010.