Networth Calculation Mistake

[wanaberetiree]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Midpack I guess I'm a slacker, I review our holdings (net worth spreadsheet) quarterly...

...or maybe it's OK +/- 25% mistake in your NW... :-)

[RunningBum]

OK, I confess that I probably look more than every week or two, but I don't look and update my spreadsheet every day anymore. I used to when stock options made the swings more wild.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RunningBum OK, I confess that I probably look more than every week or two, but I don't look and update my spreadsheet every day anymore. I used to when stock options made the swings more wild.

I hope you did it yesterday! The market surged, and like some others I hit another all time high net worth yesterday.

Since nothing happened when I said "Wheee!!" about a month ago, I guess there is no point in repeating that particular exclamation of joy, but gosh, it sure looks beautiful.

[dessert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R I hope you did it yesterday! The market surged, and like some others I hit another all time high net worth yesterday.

Whew, I was wondering why it was down today, but now I have the explanation.

You're right though, every time it slips above the previous high, it goes down the very next day. (or it seems that way)

[RunningBum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R I hope you did it yesterday! The market surged, and like some others I hit another all time high net worth yesterday. Since nothing happened when I said "Wheee!!" about a month ago, I guess there is no point in repeating that particular exclamation of joy, but gosh, it sure looks beautiful.

I hadn't, but I did just now. Wheeee!!! I was higher back at the height of the dotcom boom but this is the highest since the bust.

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R I hope you did it yesterday! The market surged, and like some others I hit another all time high net worth yesterday. Since nothing happened when I said "Wheee!!" about a month ago, I guess there is no point in repeating that particular exclamation of joy, but gosh, it sure looks beautiful.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dessert Whew, I was wondering why it was down today, but now I have the explanation. You're right though, every time it slips above the previous high, it goes down the very next day. (or it seems that way)

Quote:

Originally Posted by RunningBum I hadn't, but I did just now. Wheeee!!! I was higher back at the height of the dotcom boom but this is the highest since the bust.

I hope you guys and gals know that on a roller coaster you are saying WHEE as it plunges down the steepest hill.... nobody is saying WHEE on the slow clankty clank on the way up....

[RunningBum]

We're not on a roller coaster, we're on a rocket, and hope to escape the pull of gravity!

[Katsmeow]

I log into Vanguard (where we have IRA and taxable account) every business day. I log into Fidelity (where my 401(k) is about once a week or so). I long into our bank at least every other day. I display net worth info in YNAB and update investment account balances once a week.

As far as making mistakes, I recently made one on Firecalc that was significant. I mainly run retirement calculations and projections in Firecalc and in the Fidelity planner (occasionally I will check others). Right now, DH is retired and I am semi-retired but still working. We are paying our income taxes this year from my earnings so I just use my net income after taxes in doing Firecalc for this year. Looking ahead after the next 3 or 4 years our projected taxes each year will be negligible so I don't have to do much to include them in Firecalc.

However, for the next few years we will have higher expenses since we are still supporting and educating a couple of kids. During those few years if I quit work we would be withdrawing from the IRA and so would have higher taxes than we will have in the future. High enough that they need to be accounted for in spending on Firecalc (but not in the Fidelity planner). Well, I hadn't been accounting for taxes since until now I have been accounting for them by using my compensation net of taxes. However, I have been modeling me fully retiring. I failed to include the taxes for the next 3 years which meant about a $10-12k difference in spending for 2014-2016.

Thankfully, because I run Firecalc several times usually I realized my mistake and was able to run it correctly. Had I been the type to just run Firecalc once and call it good then that would have been a bad mistake. As it was, my tendency to run it multiple times gave me enough feedback and time to realize I had left out the taxes.

[ERhoosier]

Been using Quicken (Mac version) for yrs & have noticed the periodic odd quirk. Like a funny calc or entry that doesn't make sense. But then most online reviews have noted similar issues. (Never have been able to get Quicken to handle stock splits or spin-offs right). Bottom line is DW & I NEVER take the "word" of Quicken as absolute financial 'truth', but always do serious AA's/rebalancings using individual acct stmts from our banks/brokers/etc.

[Lisa99]

I also use Quicken and have transactions auto-downloaded as well, but I periodically look at our online statements and make sure they match to the penny with what Quicken says we have in our accounts.

[heeyy_joe]

No worries. Repeat the mistake? If so, then contact a money manager.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanaberetiree I am not sure what you mean by "automatic download", but I use downloads in Quicken daily and when transactions were downloaded I have no choice but to review them and either accept to reject. So I guess it's nice to discover "new" money, but I'd be nervous about what other mistakes I may have in calculating my NW.

I see. I need to try this. I've been entering stuff into quicken since 1995. There was a time I entered stock prices in manually. I got in the habit of doing it all manually. When on-line accounts came online, I didn't add them to the update list. I have to try it. That's what I mean by "automatic downloads." Downloads of your accounts, not the software.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RunningBum Vanguard lets you track outside accounts too, and tells you when it was last updated (default is daily) but I still log into those accounts directly as well.

This is where I discovered it. I was adding outsides stuff to Vanguard to let it do the AA calculations. So, now we have a separate source for the calculation, and at least the Vanguard part is correct and automatic. It is our largest portion.

[brewer12345]

I keep track of everything on an excel sheet which I update errartically (sometimes daily, sometimes not for a month at a time). Since it is all manual. I make a point of auditing the sheet vs. the contents of each investing account at least once a year. I did it about a month ago and discovered that my sheet was missing 1000 shares of AXL. Not a huge amount, but nice to find some money I did not know I had in the virtual couch cushions.

[Chuckanut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWras This is where I discovered it. I was adding outsides stuff to Vanguard to let it do the AA calculations. So, now we have a separate source for the calculation, and at least the Vanguard part is correct and automatic. It is our largest portion.

Where does one find this ability? On the Vanguard website?

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuckanut Where does one find this ability? On the Vanguard website?

Yes. It is nice. Say you have FBALX (Fidelity Balanced) in another account. You can add it to your overall view. Then you can go to portfolio view and it splits out the equities and bonds by percentage, knowing this information from the published details.

To add it to your view go to:
- Account Balances
--- Balances and Holdings
----- Current Balances

Under that, you can hit "Add Accounts" to the section at the bottom titled "Outside investments - Accounts that you've added".

And go from there. After you add your shares, you can view them later various ways to include them or not.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWras I guess this has me thinking of a few things, including whether we should have some data downloaded via quicken. Another bonus (besides the extra money) is the DW is getting more engaged in this process. I've intentionally tried to let her do some of the stuff she owns, to keep her interest. When she saw this last night, her eyes popped out of her head, and I think she's feeling better about an ER exit strategy, and is going to pay more attention to these matters.

I reconcile my Quicken accounts with my monthly Fidelity statements. That way I find discrepancies in a timely manner.

I also download my transactions.

[pb4uski]

I reconcile share counts from vendor statements to Quicken quarterly. If you had done that you wouldn't have had that pleasant surprise.

[Amethyst]

Keep whee-wheeing, folks! I am not yet retired, and I want stocks to be cheaper!

Amethyst

Quote:

Originally Posted by RunningBum I hadn't, but I did just now. Wheeee!!! I was higher back at the height of the dotcom boom but this is the highest since the bust.

[photoguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWras So, who do you have to "audit" your situation?

I just do it myself by comparing the summary totals on Vanguard / Fidelity against my spreadsheet. It annoys me to no end when things are off by a penny.

You have to wait until all the prices are updated though, and some accounts (like 401k) usually update later in the day.

[obgyn65]

To the OP : please don't be too harsh on yourself. All of us have made mistakes. I would move on.