Networth Update

Wow, looking back, it's been a good two months since I've posted a networth update.

On the whole, things are going pretty well. Now that the stock market is back, my investment account and 401(k) are both steadily rising, while no new major expenditures have helped keep me heading toward the break-even point.

As of May 31, 2009, my networth is -$5,569.23. My networth increases about $610 a month with a 62.3% probability. I'm trying to increase that probability month to month by sticking closely to my budget.

Is the dead cat bouncing?

As I blogged before, there's plenty of belief out there that the last month's worth of bounceback in the stock market is just a momentary uptick during an otherwise downward trend.

One big economic statistic driving the market down today was the release of foreclosure data, suggesting last month was a record high level of foreclosures. Then you have retail sales data below expectations and a round of negative earnings from insurance companies, and we're back to where we started.

So do I think we're in a dead cat bounce? I still don't believe in it. I think in general, investors are behaving rationally as economic data comes. The horde mentality and the wild swings are gone. Drops are within regular variance in the stock market.

What we need now is a more solidified banking sector and a final decision on the failing US auto manufacturers, and we can start digging ourselves out of this mess.