May 2008 Score Card — Part I: Net Worth

It’s that time of the month again to see how we did in May.

After seeing a robust 9.25% growth in April, our net worth changed modestly last month, gaining 2.11%. That’s the second consecutive monthly increase. As of May 31, our net worth is at $605,520.98, up $12,489.11 from April, thanks to another month of gain in stock markets.

Here’s a quick look at each element in our net worth:

• Credit card balance(-): Our total credit card balance at the the end of May was almost identical to what we had on April 30th. At $18,299.89, the balance was only $157.60 (0.85%) less than last month. Excluding balance from 0% APR balance transfer, we charged about $2,570 on our credit cards, nearly $400 more than previous month. Part of that increase, like everybody else, is due to the even higher gas price. Good thing is that my wife’s employer just started to let them work at home once every week. That should help a little bit.
• Cash(+): Our savings in bank accounts totaled at $60,885.22 on May 31st, up $3,792.92 (6.64%) from a month ago, which is the biggest gain percentage-wise among the six categories. Last month, I opened a Capital One Online Savings Account and moved most of cash from IGoBanking (3.28%) to the new account to earn a better interest rate (right now at 3.75% APY). In addition, I also setup a bi-weekly transfer from our checking account at Bank of America to Capital One. And as I did last time when moving from FNBO Direct to IGoBanking, I increased the auto-transfer amount from $500 every two weeks to $600. The reason for increasing our cash portion is not that I don’t have anywhere else to invest the money (I do have a couple of stocks I want to buy), but we are saving for our house downpayment. I hope we can double the amount we have now in next spring to buy a bigger house.
• Taxable accounts(+): We were virtually break-even last month in our taxable investment accounts. On May 31st, we had a total of $284,800.45 in various brokerage accounts, losing a meager $159.30 (0.06%) in a month in our investments. The biggest dragger last month was China Life Insurance (LFC) which happened to be the biggest gainer in April. The loss was offset a little bit by gains from other stocks such as Visa (V). In May, I didn’t add any new money in our taxable accounts and made only four trades with my play money at Zecco.
• Retirement accounts(+): Unlike our taxable investments, May was a good for our retirement accounts as the total market value of our 401(k) and IRA accounts added $6,915.55 (2.88%) to $247,108.64. The gains were from price appreciation and new contributions in our 401(k) accounts. Speaking of 401(k) accounts, my employer switched bookkeeper last month, so I will soon have more and better choices in my 401(k).
• 529 plans(+): This part of our investments has always been quite stable, because we mostly use balanced funds (a mix of equity and bond funds) in our daughters’ 529 plans. In May, the total market value of 529 accounts rose $781.65 (5.10%) to $15,536.66.
• Bonds(+): Our investments in I-bonds increased by $147.50 (1.10%) to $13,614.08.

Though our net worth has gained two months in a row, we are still slightly below where we were when 2008 began. YTD, our net worth dropped $2,601.38 (0.43%).

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