Picking up Nickels

Thursday, February 11, 2016

February 2016 Financial Asset Roundup

Here are my current financial assets as of the market close on February 10th, 2016:


Asset Jan
2016
Feb
2016
Change
Checking 1,444 2,064 620
Money Market 74,188 62,817 -11,371
Savings Bonds 105,784 105,798 14
Treasury Bills 0 0 0
CDs 36,681 48,792 12,111
Brokerage 113,049 112,511 -538
401k 117,223 112,632 -4,591
Roth IRA 99,546 96,110 -3,436
SEP IRA 479,569 461,365 -18,204
529 Savings 125,796 125,774 -22



Total Assets $1,153,280 $1,127,863 -$25,417
   
 
-2.20%


The S&P 500 is down for the third update in a row, falling 3.73% over the past month:

(chart courtesy of yahoo.com)

On the jobs front, the unemployment rate for January fell to 4.9% (the lowest since February 2008), with "only" 151,000 jobs added. Oil prices have continued to slide to the $26 level, which is remarkable considering that the prices has fallen by half over each of the past two years (remember $100 oil in February 2014?).

On the financial front, I opened a Penfed 1.51% APY 15 month CD during the seven day window that Penfed offered them in January. I don't recall Penfed ever taking an attractive CD offer off the table so quickly before, so I would guess that the demand for it was quite high. I'm also about ready to wrap up my 2015 my business tax returns so that I can get that final 2015 SEP IRA contribution taken care of.

On the non-financial front, we've actually hit the point of the winter where it's still light outside at 5 PM. It'll be time to change the clocks next month when DST kicks in, so hopefully the cold and snowy Northeast winter will be behind us soon enough.