The more your stake is in stock market, the stronger heart you need. Month of April is a classic example of how fortune can be changed overnight. Until the last trading day of April, I was sporting on five-figure monthly investment return from my foreign-equity-heavy portfolio, and expecting to close the month with over $20,000 improvement of net worth. Suddenly, a mishandling of investor relationship of my employer surprised the market and triggered a landslide in MSFT stock price. The consequence: my employee stock option account balance was cut by more than half in a single day -- an $18,000 loss.

Elsewhere, the fundamentals in our household finance remain strong. Revenue at our sideline business recovered from multi-month nadir in March. That, combined with my normal job income and rationalized spending pattern, sealed a monthly saving from regular income of over $11,000. In addition, thanks to the falling dollar, our portfolio delivered an outsized gain of 2.6%, or another $11,000, in the month.

All in all, our net worth still improved a not-too-shabby $6,667. The year-to-date progress of $55,000 on bottomline is also very in line with our plan for the year of $145,000 net worth increase.

BALANCE SHEET

One note on Cash & Savings: this line includes all money sitting in risk-free checking accounts, savings accounts and money market accounts, including cash positions in our brokerage accounts. The brokerage, 401(k) and Roth IRA balance include our exposure in the market with money-losing risk. During the month of April, one of our previous purchase of treasury bills was redeemed, resulting in money flowing to the Cash & Savings line.

IMPORTANT PERSONAL FINANCE ISSUES IN MONTHS AHEAD

Late April and early May is usually the busiest season of my profession at Microsoft. After that, I intend to spend more time on sorting out the corporate records of our registered Delaware company, and spend more time on tax readings.