Picking up Nickels

Thursday, June 11, 2020

June 2020 Financial Asset Roundup

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


Asset May
2020
Jun
2020
Change
Checking 3,227 3,647 420
Money Market 56,375 92,837 36,462
Savings Bonds 162,556 162,852 296
Treasury Bills 0 0 0
CDs 95,764 96,021 257
Brokerage 174,290 181,002 6,712
401k 219,701 248,042 28,341
Roth IRA 165,781 181,396 15,615
SEP IRA 837,556 889,308 51,752
529 Savings 186,582 188,752 2,170



Total Assets $1,901,832 $2,043,857 $142,025
   
 
7.47%


In spite of being in a COVID-19-fueled recession since February along with nation-wide civil rights protests, the S&P 500 has inexplicably climbed 8.87% since the last update:

(chart courtesy of nasdaq.com)

On the jobs front, the unemployment rate for May actually fell from 14.7% to 13.3% with claims that it was artificially low due to a misclassification error. On top of that, projections indicate we could be looking at 200,000+ COVID-19 deaths in the USA by September under current trends. Oil prices are up 40%+ to the $37 level (from $26), which translated to a local regular unleaded gasoline price of $1.89 at my last fill up.

On the financial front, my assets have hit an all-time high, surpassing the previous high from February 2020 and once again reaching the $2m asset milestone. While that is an impressive number, I don't believe the stock market is taking a realistic view of the long-term impact of COVID-19 since we will be dealing with it for quite some time.

As for the non-financial, the youngest Frugalson just "graduated" from high school and will begin attending college in the fall. Based on awarded scholarships, I'm also in the enviable position of having saved too much for college. With that in mind, I've been looking into the 529 plan scholarship exception, which should help me free up some of that cash for other uses without being subject to the 10% penalty. On a lighter note, it was a great pleasure to get a much needed haircut last week, which puts my plan for starting a 1980s hair metal band on hold.