March 2008 Score Card — Part I: Net Worth

Just when I thought maybe the worst was over last month after seeing a negligible drop in our next worth in February, we were hit again in March as the stock markets continued to struggle, though the amount lost on paper isn’t as bad as the first couple of months of 2008. In fact, except our brokerage accounts which hold our investments in individual stocks, we managed to get some positive numbers in all other categories. But the losses in stocks were big enough to offset those gains. So we ended up having another month in the red, the fifth consecutive month. At the end of March, our wealth on paper is close to the level we had at the end of July 2007 That’s pretty bad, I guess.

The stock markets ended March mixed. The Dow is the biggest loser among major indices with a decline of 3.06% to 12,262.89. The S&P dropped 0.60% to 1,322.70 and the NASDAQ actually gained a little bit (0.34%) to close the month at 2,279.10. As for our money, we had $542,806.70 on March 31st. That’s $7,936.13 (1.44%) lower than a month ago. Somehow I wish I do the tally today instead of yesterday. Given the rally we had today on the April Fool’s Day, we could very well break the losing streak Well …

Here’s a quick summary in each category I am tracking:

• Credit card balance(+): We have a total of $19,043.17 on our credit cards, which include $17,000 0% APR balance transfer. The overall balance is $240.18 (1.25%) smaller than last month. It’s quite consistent that we charge about $2,000 on our credit card every month.
• Cash(+): Our cash grew a little bit last month to $59,861.43, $1,193.56 (2.03%) higher than a month before though we paid our annual life insurance premiums in March. Our cash will take a hit this month as we will have to (again) write a fat check to Uncle Sam on April 15 Actually I started to pay estimated tax since last December so the process (the pain I mean) will be gradual. But looks like I may need to start it in the summer.
• Taxable accounts(-): Here’s where things got ugly. Overall, our taxable investments lost $12,311.88 (4.74%) last month to $247,405.99. Most of the losses came investments from Chinese ADRs. Also last month, I sold two of my stocks, Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) and Nortel Network (NT), in order to buy Visa (V) on its IPO day. The stock is currently a little higher than the price I bought. In the long-term, I hope it can do well (though may be not as well as MasterCard). In March, I also started to use a small fund in my Zecco account to do active trading (I will talk about it more later). At the end of the month, I made more than $110 in that account. BTW, I am glad I finally got rid of NT, which has been a major pain for too long.
• Retirement accounts(+): A little gain in our retirement savings, which is at $226,822.22, up $2,439.40 (1.09%) from previous month. Obviously, the reason for this part being positive is because of our own contributions. Without the new money, it would be another big hole.
• 529 plans(+): Our daughters’ 529 plans rose $479.03 last month to $13,380.25, that’s an increase of 3.71%. Since all investments in 529 accounts are index funds, this part is by far the least affected by the market volatility.
• Bonds(+): The boring but safe part of our investments added $100 (0.76%) last month to a total of $13,323.78.

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