Picking up Nickels

Friday, September 11, 2020

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*

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