Picking up Nickels

Monday, September 12, 2011

September 2011 Financial Asset Roundup

Here are my current financial assets as of the market close on September 9th, 2011:

Asset Aug 2011 Sep 2011 Change
Checking 2,221 2,405 184
Money Market 33,108 33,124 16
Savings Bonds 47,098 47,154 56
Treasury Bills 0 0 0
CDs 99,358 99,784 426
Brokerage 92,534 88,019 -4,515
401k 88,600 89,544 944
Roth IRA 47,106 46,131 -975
SEP IRA 256,504 253,194 -3,310
529 Savings 52,925 52,904 -21
Total Assets $719,454 $712,259 -$7,195
      (-1.00%)



The S&P 500 has remained volatile since the last update, dropping 1.56% during that time:

(chart courtesy of msn.com)

On the jobs front, the unemployment rate for August remained at 9.1% while the President is proposing a new plan to attempt to lower that number. Oil prices have remained somewhat flat, rising slightly from about $85 per barrel to around $86 per barrel. And somehow, all of our financial woes don't seem so terrible when compared to the memories stirred up by the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

On the financial front, my 4 year Penfed CD @6.00% APY from September 2007 is due at the end of the month. I'll put $5k of that toward some Series I savings bonds at treasurydirect.gov, while a quite a bit more of that cash will be put toward paying the final tuition bill for Mrs. Frugalson's graduate school education (yay!) as well as the down payment for braces for the eldest of the Frugalson offspring (ouch!). Perhaps I'll take the left over cash and à la Trading Places, maybe I'll go to the movies... by myself. :D

And finally, a bit of thanks to Hurricane Irene for not flooding or causing our property a bunch of damage. Despite that, we were without power for 50+ hours and even that modest outage has motivated me to research a portable generator purchase. At least the next time we have an extended power outage, we will hopefully have running water and heat (for winter storms), and not have to throw away the contents of our fridge and basement freezer. Zut alors!