January 2009 Score Card — Part I: Net Worth

After the 5.31% rebound in the last month of 2008, our net worth took a hit again in January, thanks to the 8.57% plunge (the S&P 500) of the stock market. On January 31, 2009, our net worth totaled at $452,236.08 without items related to house and cars. That’s $20,524.23 (4.34%) less than a month ago.

Here’s a quick look at each element that I am tracking every month:

• Credit card balance(+): Our total credit card balance increased by $501.84 (3.09%) to a total of $16,756.38. The increase is largely due to the $2,000 we put down when we replaced our furnace last month. The credit card balance will return to a normal level next month since I already sent payment to pay off the remaining balance on the Citi Driver’s Edge Card which I used to pay off our car loan a year ago.
• Cash(++): The only good news is that we kept increasing our cash, despite the increase in our spending. For the month, we added $3,381.68 (3.83%) to our bank accounts, making the total at $91,738.68. This number is likely going to go down in the coming months because we seem to owe a sizable amount of taxes
• Taxable accounts(—-): Big disappointment in this category as you can imagine, given the size of the drop in the stock market. Actually, our losses in taxable investment accounts matched the drop of the S&P, $15,715.45 (8.41%). At the end of the month, we had a total of $171,091.12 in brokerage and mutual fund accounts.
• Retirement accounts(—): We did slightly better in our retirement investments than in taxable investments, only losing $7,705.50 (4.20%). With the much bigger losses in taxable accounts, our assets in 401(k)s and IRAs are now the largest at $175,572.25.
• 529 plans(–): Without the $600 new contribution, this part could have been worse. For the month, our investments in 529 plans dropped $258.58 (1.86%) to $13,644.86.
• Bonds(+): Our I-bond investments increased $169.68 (1.14%) last month to $14,990.46.

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