November 2009 Score Card — Part I: Net Worth

Can’t believe it’s the last month of 2009 already.

November turned out to be a very good month for us, especially for our investments which so far have been the main driver of our net worth growth. Overall, the stock markets worked in our favor in November, with the Dow gaining 6.51%, the Nasdaq adding 4.86%, and the S&P 5.74%. With that kind of help from the stock markets, our net worth last month grew $55,196.76 (6.76%) compared to a month before to reach a new high of $872,296.15.

The following is the breakdown of the net worth:

• Credit card balance(—-): Last month, we reduced our credit card balance by $659.09 (10.19%) to a total of $5,809.06. Of the total balance, more than $1,800 is from 0% APR loan on a card that I obtained in 2008. As we are considering buy a house early next year, I am thinking of paying that balance and closing the account if it helps my credit score. I don’t really need that card anyway.
• Cash(+): In October, we saw the biggest increase of cash for us to date, thanks to the fat check we received from selling our house in New Jersey. This month things have returned to normal, including the pace of growing our cash reserve. In November, the total balance in our savings and checking accounts reached $223,152.92, the highest level for us after an increase of $2,672.61 (1.21%) from the month before. The increase last month is actually smaller compared to the average monthly growth so far this year. For this month, the gain could be even smaller because of holiday spending, even though we didn’t buy a lot of stuff in Thanksgiving holiday.
• Taxable accounts(+++): Our taxable investments did much better last month than the month before. On November 30th, we had a total market value of $316,496.61 in taxable accounts which investments including both stocks and mutual funds. Most of our taxable investments are held in brokerage account at Scottrade. The increase in market value in November is $22,864.45 (7.79%) from October.  In November, I bought two IPO stocks, both with Scottrade. One is Dollar General (DG) which I purchased at $22.69; the other one is 7 Days Group Holdings Limited (SVN), a Chinese economic hotel chain operator, purchased at $12.50. So far these two stocks are doing quite well.
• Retirement accounts(+++++): Our retirement accounts did even better last month after a steep in October. The market value of our 401(k) and IRA accounts at the end of the month was at $291,416.04, a gain of $26,409.68 (9.97%) from previous month.  I don’t have explanation of what caused the big jump as most of our investments are in index funds which are supposed to be quite stable in terms of short-term performance. Anyway, I am happy to take the nearly double-digit monthly gain
• 529 plans(++++): Once again, the 529 plans had another solid month in November, largely due to some bonuses we received last month from the Ohio CollegeAdvantage 529 accounts referral program (see how you can get $50 bonus from CollegeAdvantage). At the end of November, the total market value of our 529 plans was $28,049.56, an increase of $2,205.45 (8.53%) from October.
• Bonds(+): Our investment in bonds grew $100 (0.61%) last month to $16,484.24 due to our monthly purchase of I-Bonds.

Year-to-date, our net worth has increased $399,535.84 (84.51%). Year-over-year, the net gain is $423,371.15 (94.31%).