April 2019 Financial Asset Roundup

Here are my current financial assets as of the market close on April 10th, 2019:

Asset	Mar 2019	Apr 2019	Change
Checking	2,620	1,308	-1,312
Money Market	50,361	44,346	-6,015
Savings Bonds	156,149	156,523	374
Treasury Bills	15,000	20,000	5,000
CDs	57,977	58,163	186
Brokerage	177,764	176,919	-845
401k	183,217	191,993	8,776
Roth IRA	153,463	163,861	10,398
SEP IRA	769,998	794,235	24,237
529 Savings	175,815	178,640	2,825
Total Assets	$1,742,364	$1,785,988	$43,624
			2.50%

The market has continued to rise since the last update, with the S&P 500 up 3.46% during that time:

(chart courtesy of nasdaq.com)

On the jobs front, the unemployment rate for March remained at 3.8%, with 196,000 new jobs created. Oil prices have continued to rise to the $64 level (+11.5%), which has translated locally to unleaded regular gasoline prices rising about 20¢ per gallon.

On the financial front, my assets have once again hit another all-time high, surpassing the previous high from March 2019. I've once again rolled my maturing 28 day T-Bills (plus a little extra) into new ones with an investment rate of 2.434% and will continue to do so as long as the yields stay competitive. And as mentioned last week, my personal tax returns are done (with some of the Federal refund in the form of paper Series I savings bonds) along with 2018 Roth IRA contributions for Mrs. Frugalson and myself. I'll also figure on taking a distribution from my S Corp before the next update.

Another topic that I'd like to touch on is the March 2019 CPI-U release yesterday and what that means for I Bonds (I'm hoping to try to get to that soon in a separate post). Another decision I made in light of capped SALT deduction due to the tax cut is to start throwing some additional cash at our mortgage. I've never been in a rush to pay it off, but we're about halfway through a 15 year mortgage with a relatively modest balance, so why not retire it for good? I'm guessing that we can take care of it in about three years if Mrs. Frugalson and I are healthy and working.

As for the non-financial, lawn season is officially here! I've done my yard cleanup, have sent in a lawn soil sample for analysis, and will be applying my pre-emergent herbicide shortly. I'm looking forward to everything greening up and enjoying the mow. :)