January 2011 Financial Asset Roundup

Here are my current financial assets as of the market close on January 10th, 2011:

Asset	Dec 2010	Jan 2011	Change
Checking	670	1,334	664
Money Market	60,951	54,711	-6,240
Savings Bonds	36,582	36,679	97
Treasury Bills	0	0	0
CDs	83,681	84,035	354
Brokerage	98,243	101,175	2,932
401k	98,298	98,947	649
Roth IRA	44,418	50,196	5,778
SEP IRA	239,438	244,425	4,987
529 Savings	50,030	51,271	1,241
Total Assets	$712,311	$722,773	$10,462
			(1.47%)

The S&P 500 has continued to climb, rising 2.36% since the last update:

(chart courtesy of msn.com)

The unemployment rate for December actually fell to 9.4%, although some believe that means a portion of the unemployed have given up on their job search. Things aren't looking to turn around soon according to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, with unemployment projected to be around 8% two years from now despite the hints of an economic recovery starting to surface. Oil prices have continued to stay somewhat flat, remaining around $90 per barrel. It's certainly looking like the return of $4 per gallon gasoline is on the horizon once the summer driving season arrives later this year.

On the financial front it's been déjà vu all over again as my asset levels once again surpassed my all time high from December 2010. As far as money moves go, I finally made 2010 Roth IRA contributions for Mrs. Frugalson and myself and my 5% APY CD reservation at Penfed will hopefully go down this week without issue. I also recently found out that I am part of the Penfed data breach last month, with Penfed sending me replacements for my unused debit cards and offering two years of ID TheftSmart service. :(

As for everything else, I've made some good progress on our latest home improvement moulding install project, and now have crown moulding installed in most of the first floor of our house. I still need to install some on our second floor hallway, but I will try to make a point of posting an update on cost, materials, lessons learned, etc with a few pictures once the actual work is complete. I also need to start thinking about gathering 2010 personal and S Corp income tax info, so I have a few things to keep me busy during early 2011.

Showtime Free Preview this weekend

Showtime is offering a Free Preview Weekend starting today, January 7th and ending on Monday, January 10th.

If you are a DirecTV customer like me, all programming on channels 545 - 558 will be free for the entire weekend, so fire up your DVR and record some free stuff. Enjoy!