September 2006 Score Card — Part II: Net Worth

Summary:

September was another good month for us in terms of nest egg growth as we added $14,728.45. Excluding house and cars (both as assets and liabilities), the total number is $384,297, up 3.99% from August. Year-to-date, our net worth growed nearly 31%.

Details:

Credit card debt:  Most part of the $26K+ credit card debt is due to 0% balance transfers I took from Chase. The offer will expire in December, so by the that time, the monthly credit card debt will be around $1000 if I don't take any other promotion offers. Since I pay our credit card bills in full every month, I don't see any problem in the future in paying off the bills.

Cash: We currently have about $44K in EmigrantDirect and HSBC accounts, earning a 5.05% APY. About $24K are borrowed from my two Chase credit cards. Comparing to August, our cash reserve almost remains at the same level, with a slight dip of severla hundred dollars. Though EmigrantDirect slashed thire rates on the last day of September, I have no plan to move our cash else where.

Taxable accounts: We have about $175K in brokage accounts and mutual fund accounts and our investments include individual stocks, ETFs, and mutual fund. Comparing to August, we saw our assets in taxable accounts increased about $6K, which can be mainly attributed to the price appreciation of one single stock China Life Insurance (LFC). For the past month, LFC has jumped from $71.00 per share to $78.29 per share. The number could have been even better if the stock ended the month at its peak of $83. For the month of September, we added $1000 in our taxable accounts.

Retirement: At the end of last month, we have about $165K in our retirement accounts (401(k)s and Roth IRAs) and the total market value increased about $8K as compared to August. Both my wife and I contributed the maximum amount allowed every month into our 401(k) and IRA plans so we can reach the contribution limits by the year end.

529 plans: Every month we put $300 into our daughter's 529 plans and comparing to August, the market value increase a little more than $400. Subtracting the added money, about $100+ are due to price appreciation of the holdings. In addition, I also got cash backs from two credit cards, Citibank Upromise and MBNA Fidelity 529 College Reward, which are invested in the 529 plans.

Bonds: Though I still have about $10K invested in 4-week T-Bills, I have cancelled all the future purchases previously scheduled due to recent rate declines (the latest 4-week T-Bill rate was 4.624%). Throughout this month, our bond holdings will gredually decline as $3000 T-bills mature every week. Whether or not I will restart purchasing T-Bills totally depends on how the rate moves. For September, I continued the monthly purchase of $100 I-Bond.