May 2025 Financial Asset Roundup

Here are my current financial assets as of the market close on May 12th, 2025:

Asset	Apr 2025	May 2025	Change
Checking	409	2,225	1,816
Money Market	80,182	61,894	-18,288
Savings Bonds	248,173	258,669	10,496
Treasurys	110,000	120,000	10,000
CDs	62,209	62,422	213
Brokerage	443,274	512,593	69,319
401k	427,644	479,890	52,246
Roth IRA	307,218	339,325	32,107
IRA	1,541,172	1,594,599	53,427
529 Savings	167,117	170,465	3,348
Total Assets	$3,387,398	$3,602,082	$214,684
			+6.34 %

The S&P 500 has rebounded strongly, rising 10.94% (-0.64% YTD) since the last update:

(chart courtesy of nasdaq.com)

The stock market had a good day yesterday as the US and China agreed to a 90 day pause on 145% tariffs. Unfortunately, there are still high (30%) tariffs in place and what will happen after the pause is anyone's best guess. I also have no idea why the stock market has performed as well as it has considering the chaos that has been injected into the global economy and it seems that our best economic policy is simply undoing the trade war that we started against the rest of the world a few short months ago.

On the jobs front, the unemployment rate for April remained at 4.2%, with a strong 177,000 new jobs created. Oil prices are up a bit to the $62 level (from $60) with that $62 price reflected in a local unleaded regular gasoline price of $2.79 at my last fill-up.

On the financial front, I skipped my usual Fidelity 401k transaction (FSKAX) and Vanguard VTI purchase in my taxable brokerage account because I am not comfortable adding to our equity holdings at this time. I did take an S Corp distribution and my 13 week T-Bills (4.325%) matured and were rolled into new ones at 4.325% while ironically my 4 week T-Bills (4.293%) also matured and were rolled into new ones at the same 4.293%. The CD/Treasury ladder in my Fidelity Cash Management account also got another rung with a 5 year T-Note at 3.995% and I bought 5 year TIPS with a real yield of 1.702% in my IRA.

As for the non-financial, I'm trying to keep things positive as my youngest is on the cusp of finishing grad school and starting life as an independent adult. Hopefully we can ride the momentum into a nice family vacation this summer as economic bad news seems to be piling up.