Last year I gave monthly updates of my net worth. That was a bit much since nothing really changed month-to-month, so this year I'll be updating my progress once a quarter. Here's what happened in April through June this year.
The market was down again this quarter and is down for the year. What made this quarter unusually cruel was that the market went up dramatically (on May 19 it peaked -- up 7.86% since the end of March) before starting its mid-May through June free fall. So we end up a bit below the close last quarter after quite a roller coaster ride. Here are this year's stats for the S&P 500:
- Down -11.55% since the start of the year
- Down 3.23% since the end of March (date of my last update)
- Down 8.60% for the month of June
One downside to having a good deal of assets in the market is that when the market goes down, so do my investments. My net worth is down -3.92% for the year so far. I'm doing better than the market for two reasons:
- I kept on making contributions to my 401k as well as my taxable accounts. In other words, my current savings is off-setting some of the investment losses.
- A good portion of my net worth is in my house (which is already fully depreciated in my records) and cash that I'm saving up for a downpayment on our new house (if we ever find one). So in a declining market, these two factors actually protect my net worth from the drops my stocks are taking.
A few more notes for this month:
- I continued to buy and invest throughout the quarter (most of my investing is automated), knowing that my long-term view (20-25 years) would end up giving me good, solid gains if history was any indication of the future.
- My quest to make more money with my two-credit-card strategy is doing "ok". I have about the same amount of charges this year as last and the same level of rewards as well ($130 to date), though last year I used the Blue Cash from American Express card alone and this year I'm using both it and the Chase Freedom Cash Visa Card. I have reached the second tier now on the Amex card, so things should start to ramp up quickly from here on out.
- I'm not sure what to expect from the market for the rest of the year. Oil seems to be jerking the market to and fro and with an election coming up, it's anyone's guess what will happen. I'm planning to keep on investing as much as I can and waiting for the market to turn -- which it will, it just may take a lot longer than any of us are hoping for.
You must have had a $250 bonus payment from Chase near the end of 2007 to only have made $130 so far this year. I'm pretty sure from previous posts you spend more per month that we do, but I've already had one $250 check and have accrued over $100 towards my next one.
Posted by: Kevin | July 17, 2008 at 04:52 PM
Kevin --
I'm splitting my charges between two cards -- not just one.
Posted by: FMF | July 18, 2008 at 07:51 AM