September 2009 Score Card — Part I: Net Worth

Another solid month is in the books.

September didn’t turn out to be the month of market sell-off as I heard from some predictions when the month began. To the contrary, September was a good month for stock investors with all major indices finishing the month in positive territories: The Dow gained 2.2% for the month, the Dasdaq surged 5.6% and the S&P climbed 3.6%. As a result of the strong performance of the stock market, we saw our net worth jumped to a new level, crossing the $700K mark for the first time. At the end end of September, we had a total of $726,638.74 on paper in our savings and investment accounts, an increase of $32,811.62, or 4.73%, from the month before, the 7th straight monthly increase since March.

The following is the breakdown of the net worth:

• Credit card balance(+++++): A huge increase in our total credit  card balance last month, but not because we suddenly spent 18.41% more in September. A jump of $957.79 was entirely due to that we now can pay our children’s tuition with a Discover card. It means that we not only got to keep the money a little longer, but also receive 1% cashback by switching from cash to credit card. At the end of September, we had a total of $6,159.44 on our credit cards.
• Cash(+++): Comparing to the month before, we increased our cash savings by $5,117.48, or 4.65%, in September, to a total of $115,109.71, the highest level for us. We were hoping that the sale of our old house could complete at the end of last month, but it didn’t happen due to an issue with the FHA loan the buyers are getting, thus, there was no a 100% increase in cash last month. The issue seems to have been resolved. So the close could be this week.
• Taxable accounts(++): Our investments in taxable accounts, including both mutual funds and individual stocks, returned nicely last month, thanks to the strong performance in the stock market. At the end of the month, we had a total of $297,641.80 in brokerage and mutual fund accounts. The  increase was $13,372.87, or 4.34% compare to last month. Again, there was no additional new money added into taxable accounts except regular monthly purchases. This month, however, I am thinking of making some new purchases, especially a couple of new IPO stocks that I am interested in.
• Retirement accounts(++++): And once again, our retirement investments outperformed taxable accounts. In September, the market value of our  401(K)s and IRAs increased by $13,731.65 to a total of $276,062.33. The gain is equivalent to 5.23%, mainly from contributions to our 401(K) accounts. So far we haven’t maxed out neither 401(K) nor IRA accounts, but contributions to IRA account will reach the limit this month.
• 529 plans(+++++): I want to thank those who used my referral link to open their Ohio CollegeAdvantage 529 accounts (see how you can get $50 bonus from CollegeAdvantage). Without them, our 529 plans would not have the best performance, percentage wise, last month among all categories. For September, our529 accounts increased $2,079.37, or 8.84%, to $25,606.08, with more than half of the gain coming from new contributions.
• Bonds(+): Our investment in bonds grew $143.04, or 0.89%, last month to $16,229.56.

Year-to-date, our net worth has increased $253,878.42 (53.70%). Year-over-year, the net gain is $161,664.49 (28.61%).

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