November 2012 Financial Asset Roundup

As many people are home from work or school today in honor of Veterans Day, I would like to give my sincere thanks to all veterans for your service to and sacrifice for this fine nation of ours. The freedom that we all treasure and enjoy doesn't exist without you.

As for less serious matters, here are my current financial assets as of the market close on November 9th, 2012:

Asset	Oct 2012	Nov 2012	Change
Checking	622	1375	753
Money Market	58,740	42,315	-16,425
Savings Bonds	67,094	67,255	161
Treasury Bills	0	0	0
CDs	56,067	72,275	16,208
Brokerage	102,262	95,646	-6,616
401k	106,265	103,158	-3,107
Roth IRA	59,574	63,492	3,918
SEP IRA	318,440	311,884	-6,556
529 Savings	72,048	72,165	117
Total Assets	$841,112	$829,565	-$11,547
			-1.37%

The S&P 500 has fallen the last few sessions, down 3.68% since the last update:

(chart courtesy of msn.com)

Well, we re-elected President Obama last Tuesday and we can finally get the "silly season" of the Presidential election behind us. My sincere hope is that the Republican Party learns a lesson from this defeat and finally distances itself from party radicals who alienate the independent voters that help decide elections. I believe that strong Republican and Democratic parties are good for our nation, at least when they work together like mature adults for the greater good of us all (much like Governor Christie and President Obama). Now we need these folks to put on their big boy pants and resolve the fiscal cliff. On the jobs front, the unemployment rate for October inched up to 7.9% with the caveat of a boost in hiring (isn't there always a caveat these days?). Oil prices have continued down to $86 and I've seen local gas prices drop by about 18¢ during that time.

On the financial front, Penfed actually has a very competitive CD rate special a bit like the days of old (although the 6% rates on long term CDs of 5+ years ago have been replaced by 1.26% - 1.61% APY rates on short term CDs). Mrs. Frugalson and I both shifted some cash from money market accounts to 12 month Penfed CDs @ 1.26% APY last week. These rates likely won't keep up with inflation over the next year, but this is about as good as you can do for a safe federally insured place for cash in this rate environment (particularly with I Bond limits maxed out).

In other news, we had a bit of a brush with Hurricane Sandy since the last update. While we didn't have the massive flooding and wind damage that those poor people in New York and New Jersey are still trying to recover from, we did lose power a couple of times during the storm (a minor inconvenience compared to Hurricane Irene however). This time, we were able to have some light and running water thanks to the portable generator I bought in August. While I would be sincerely pleased to never have to use it again, it was wonderful being able to do things we take for granted like flush toilets and wash our hands.