Picking up Nickels

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

February 2024 Financial Asset Roundup

Here are my current financial assets as of the market close on February 12th, 2024:

Asset Jan 2024 Feb 2024 Change




Checking 2,856 2,748 -108
Money Market 56,933 60,591 3,658
Savings Bonds 235,279 235,979 700
Treasurys 90,000 90,000 0
CDs 50,855 51,018 163
Brokerage 365,621 398,308 32,687
401k 332,409 352,962 20,553
Roth IRA 269,484 277,427 7,943
IRA 1,360,546 1,401,769 41,223
529 Savings 172,879 173,572 693
Total Assets $2,936,862 $3,044,374 $107,512
      3.66 %

The S&P 500 finally broke the 5000 barrier, rising 4.98% (+5.28% YTD) since the last update:

(chart courtesy of nasdaq.com)

There's a lot to like about the US economy right now: a strong labor market, strong GDP growth, surging consumer sentiment, moderating inflation, stock market all-time highs, record domestic energy production, and more. The past year has been a great time to be an investor, with my assets up 19% since February 2023.

On the jobs front, the unemployment rate for January remained at 3.7% for the third month, which was a blowout result with 353,000 new jobs added. Oil prices rose to the $77 level (from $72) with conflict in the Middle East not helping matters. The $77 price translates to a local unleaded regular gasoline price of $3.02 and a heating oil price of $3.45 at my last fill-up.

On the financial front, my assets have again hit an all-time high, surpassing the previous high from January 2024 and breaking the $3m milestone! That's a pretty remarkable achievement considering I hit $1m in November 2013 and $2m in February 2020. Of course, I did the usual Fidelity 401k transaction (FSKAX) and Vanguard VTI purchase in my taxable brokerage account. My 13 week T-Bills (5.446%) matured and were rolled into new ones at 5.394%. My only other move of note was taking a distribution from my S Corp.

As for the non-financial, my 2023 business tax returns are in progress and I have all of the info on hand to complete my personal returns. At this point I'm trying to survive the current snow storm and am prepping for a big work project next month. :)