August 2016 Financial Asset Roundup

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

Asset	Jul 2016	Aug 2016	Change
Checking	2,063	4,931	2,868
Money Market	76,394	74,471	-1,923
Savings Bonds	109,236	109,382	146
Treasury Bills	0	0	0
CDs	39,226	39,336	110
Brokerage	130,227	132,403	2,176
401k	126,798	133,082	6,284
Roth IRA	109,988	112,957	2,969
SEP IRA	550,841	561,443	10,602
529 Savings	139,944	142,190	2,246
Total Assets	$1,284,717	$1,310,195	$25,478
			1.98%

The S&P 500 hit continued to hit all time highs since the last update, rising 1.79% during that time:

(chart courtesy of yahoo.com)

First, I'd like to note that this month is the 10 year anniversary of this blog! If nothing else, this blog has made me spend time each month assessing my assets and planning my savings and investments. During that decade, my assets have nearly tripled from their initial level in August 2006.

On the jobs front, the unemployment rate for July remained at 4.9%. In addition, a better than expected 255,000 new jobs were created. Oil prices have dropped to the $42 level, and I've once again seen local gasoline prices fall below the $2 per gallon price point.

On the financial front, my asset level has once again reached a new all time high for the fourth month in a row, eclipsing the previous high from last month. At the end of the month I am planning on making a 2016 SEP IRA contribution as well as taking a distribution from my S Corporation. Unless an unexpected Penfed CD deal pops up, I'm not planning on doing much else in the near future.

On the non-financial front, the biggest news is that we bought a new car in July! We were apparently a bit nostalgic over our old Nissan Maxima that we had for fifteen years, and we bought a 2016 Maxima to scratch that itch. And even though I had intended to do so when we bought our last car three years ago, I do intend to share my approach to the new car buying process. I cringe whenever I read some of the ways people get taken advantage of by car dealers, and perhaps my approach could help someone be better prepared when running the gauntlet of the new car buying process.