Picking up Nickels

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

August 2015 Financial Asset Roundup

Here are my current financial assets as of the market close on August 10th, 2015:


Asset Jul
2015
Aug
2015
Change
Checking 3,163 1,945 -1,218
Money Market 66,871 61,531 -5,340
Savings Bonds 95,244 95,380 136
Treasury Bills 0 0 0
CDs 46,154 46,267 113
Brokerage 130,751 130,725 -26
401k 137,616 138,307 691
Roth IRA 103,393 104,169 776
SEP IRA 513,714 517,202 3,488
529 Savings 123,553 125,639 2,086



Total Assets $1,220,459 $1,221,165 $706
   
 
0.06%


The S&P 500 has rebounded since the last update, rising 1.33% during that time:


(chart courtesy of yahoo.com)

Nine years ago this month I started this blog! The growth of my assets over that time has been remarkable:


In hindsight, it's certainly interesting to see how the recession from December 2007 through June 2009 is represented by such a small blip on the graph.

On the jobs front, the unemployment rate for July remained unchanged at 5.3%, with 215,000 new jobs added. Oil prices have continued to fall to the $43 level, with talk of gasoline below $2 per gallon when the switch is made to winter blend gasoline.

On the financial front, I decided to hold off on making an additional 2015 contribution to my SEP IRA until after I run my next payroll this month. I do wonder if we may see a surprise Penfed CD deal this fall since there has been talk about the Federal Reserve raising interest rates.

In spite of my efforts to focus on saving and investing, spending seems to be the current trend in the Frugalson household. Between a brief family vacation, getting our house painted, and the new refrigerator we will be buying during the Massachusetts sales tax holiday weekend, we seem to have started our own economic stimulus program. Hopefully we will be able to reverse that trend sooner rather than later.