June 2020 Financial Asset Roundup

Here are my current financial assets as of the market close on June 10th, 2020:

Asset	May 2020	Jun 2020	Change
Checking	3,227	3,647	420
Money Market	56,375	92,837	36,462
Savings Bonds	162,556	162,852	296
Treasury Bills	0	0	0
CDs	95,764	96,021	257
Brokerage	174,290	181,002	6,712
401k	219,701	248,042	28,341
Roth IRA	165,781	181,396	15,615
SEP IRA	837,556	889,308	51,752
529 Savings	186,582	188,752	2,170
Total Assets	$1,901,832	$2,043,857	$142,025
			7.47%

In spite of being in a COVID-19-fueled recession since February along with nation-wide civil rights protests, the S&P 500 has inexplicably climbed 8.87% since the last update:

(chart courtesy of nasdaq.com)

On the jobs front, the unemployment rate for May actually fell from 14.7% to 13.3% with claims that it was artificially low due to a misclassification error. On top of that, projections indicate we could be looking at 200,000+ COVID-19 deaths in the USA by September under current trends. Oil prices are up 40%+ to the $37 level (from $26), which translated to a local regular unleaded gasoline price of $1.89 at my last fill up.

On the financial front, my assets have hit an all-time high, surpassing the previous high from February 2020 and once again reaching the $2m asset milestone. While that is an impressive number, I don't believe the stock market is taking a realistic view of the long-term impact of COVID-19 since we will be dealing with it for quite some time.

As for the non-financial, the youngest Frugalson just "graduated" from high school and will begin attending college in the fall. Based on awarded scholarships, I'm also in the enviable position of having saved too much for college. With that in mind, I've been looking into the 529 plan scholarship exception, which should help me free up some of that cash for other uses without being subject to the 10% penalty. On a lighter note, it was a great pleasure to get a much needed haircut last week, which puts my plan for starting a 1980s hair metal band on hold.