April 2009 Score Card — Part I: Net Worth

May 04, 2009 Sun

On top of the 9% gain in March, our net worth grew strongly in April, due to the robust rebound in the stock market, even though we took out cash last month to pay taxes. Without house and vehicle related items, our net worth at the end of April showed a gain of $58,504.90 to $544,954.76, up 12.03% from a month. The percentage gain is the largest since I started tracking our net worth in July 2006.

Here are some details of how each category looks like on April 30th:

Credit card balance(—-): I am very pleased with our effort to reducing credit card balance. After cutting the total balance by more than 29% in March, we lowered our credit balance by another $1,028.01, or 21.76%, to $3,696.36. Of course, credit card bills from previous couple of months were higher than normal due to some one-time charges.
Cash(–): It’s not unexpected to see our cash in online bank accounts took a hit last month after we paid a large sum in federal and state income taxes and moved some money to fund my SEP-IRA account. However, the overall decline, $8,364.78, or 9.62%, appears to be smaller than expected. At the end of the month, we had a total of $78,547.42 in mostly online savings accounts such as Dollar Savings Direct and Bank of America Checking Account.
Taxable accounts(++++): All our investment accounts grew in double-digit last month, with the gain in taxable accounts being the smallest percentage wise. As I mentioned early, I took advantage of the sharp decline in the stock market and bought many beaten-down stocks recently. My strategy paid off as our taxable investments gained $30,929.75, or 15.72%, last month to $227,653.46. Going forward, I expect this portion keeps doing well if the stock market continues to improve (at least May is off to a good start).
Retirement accounts(+++++): Well, our retirement savings accounts are the winner of last month, because of the new SEP-IRA account addition. At the end of April, we had $208,060.06 in our IRA/401(k) accounts, up $32,440.84, or 18.47%, from the month before.
529 plans(+++): What is really impressive is that our investments in 529 accounts also sew a health gain last month. Since we use mostly index funds in those accounts, we kind of expect this part to be relatively stable. But the $2,377.58, or 16.16%, gain in April cannot be described as stable. At the end of the month, the market value of all 529 accounts was at $17,090.08.
Bonds(+): We still bought I-bonds last month, but since the I-bond interest rate for the next 6 months will be zero, I am reconsidering whether we should keep buying. For the bond part, the gain in April is $171.28, or 1.12%, bringing the total to $15,432.08.