September 2020 Financial Asset Roundup

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

Asset	Aug 2020	Sep 2020	Change
Checking	6,607	6,927	320
Money Market	88,213	97,556	9,343
Savings Bonds	163,424	163,679	255
Treasury Bills	0	0	0
CDs	81,101	65,968	-15,133
Brokerage	186,864	191,091	4,227
401k	266,693	270,350	3,657
Roth IRA	189,556	189,107	-449
SEP IRA	934,202	928,891	-5,311
529 Savings	191,482	182,285	-9,197
Total Assets	$2,108,142	$2,095,854	-$12,288
			-0.58%

It's been nineteen years since the 9/11 attacks, but that terrible day seems like a distant memory when compared to the nearly 200k people dead due to COVID-19. Sometimes it's hard to believe this is really happening.

On a more mundane note, the S&P 500 is down 0.63% since the last update:

(chart courtesy of nasdaq.com)

On the jobs front, the unemployment rate for August continued to improve, falling from 10.2% to 8.4%. Sadly, we're still down about 11+ million jobs due to the pandemic recession. Oil prices have dropped ~13% to the $37 level, which seems to have had a minimal impact on the local regular unleaded gasoline prices around $1.99 that I've been seeing in my neck of the woods for several weeks now.

On the financial front, my Alliant 2.35% APY 12 month CD matured last week and rates have dropped so quickly this year that the current APY for the same CD is now 0.55%. With CD rates in the toilet and Alliant's savings account at 0.65% APY, Mrs. Frugalson and I have decided to retire the modest amount of mortgage and auto loan debt that we still have on the books over the next few months. I remember thinking how low the interest rates were on our 3.125% mortgage and 1.99% auto loan when we borrowed that money years ago, but now it seems silly to keep them in the current rate environment when we have the ability to eliminate that debt completely.

As for the non-financial, both of the Frugalson offspring started their college year last week. It's an odd experience with most of the work being remote due to the pandemic, but that is the world we currently live in. *sigh*