May 2023 Financial Asset Roundup

Here are my current financial assets as of the market close on May10th, 2023:

Asset	Apr 2023	May 2023	Change
Checking	953	6,411	5,458
Money Market	62,718	51,646	-11,072
Savings Bonds	225,628	228,152	2,524
Treasury Bills	60,000	60,000	0
CDs	53,803	63,985	10,182
Brokerage	313,601	323,881	10,280
401k	249,704	255,080	5,376
Roth IRA	241,614	243,958	2,344
IRA	1,236,709	1,244,141	7,432
529 Savings	167,031	167,427	396
Total Assets	$2,611,761	$2,644,681	$32,920
			1.26 %

The S&P 500 has been a bit volatile, rising 0.69% (+7.77% YTD) since the last update:

(chart courtesy of nasdaq.com)

On the jobs front, the unemployment rate for April fell to 3.4%, matching the January 50+ year low with a better-than-expected 253,000 new jobs added. Oil prices fell to the $72 level (from $80), which translates to a local regular unleaded gasoline price of $3.36 per gallon at my last fill-up. In addition to that, the FOMC raised rates by an additional 0.25% and our good friends in the House of Representatives may decide to burn the world economies to the ground by forcing a default on our debt. :(

On the financial front, I did the usual Fidelity 401k transaction (FSKAX) and Vanguard VTI purchase in my taxable brokerage account. I plan on taking the funds from my maturing 13 week T-Bills (4.708%) and moving that $20k into a 3 month Fidelity brokered CD @ 5.15% APY due to the debt ceiling "crisis". I also took a distribution from my S Corp and opened a Alliant 5.15% APY 23 month CD to lock in some cash at that rate for the next two years. We also received our 2022 personal tax refunds, which included a decent amount of paper May issue Series I savings bonds.

Due to having a lot going on at work and home, I didn't make my usual update on the April CPI-U inflation data's impact on I Bond rates. In April I leaned toward buying I Bonds before May, but we had a surprise 0.9% fixed rate announcement with May issue I Bonds, which is the highest it has been since 2007. I haven't bought my 2023 annual allocation of I Bonds yet, so I will likely be buying my share before the end of October 2023 to lock in that fixed rate. I guess being wishy-washy pays off every once in a while.

As for the non-financial, we're actually getting close to the end of the school year. Before you know it we'll be enjoying the warm weather and heading out on a summer vacation road trip.