Weird Question... How often do you count your money/assets?

[kcowan]

I do a net worth assessment once a month and I update my spreadsheet once a quarter.

On the monthly one, I contemplate reinvesting surplus cash from dividends. I only do it when I have a significant buildup, like $10k. That happens seldom because of our spending. But the spending is a but lumpy owing to annual costs like insurance.

 

[Morgan22]

Morning of January 1st every year I update the annual portfolio balances in my excel spreadsheet.

 

[wanaberetiree]

+1

 

[Enuff2Eat]

Can I assume rich people count their money on a regular basis, if not all the time? : )

I guess I am rich because I checked my balance sheet 2, 3 times a week...lol

enuff

 

[skyking1]

We are in the short game now, ~94 weeks to go. I have been checking and doing more with my accounts more than ever before, mostly due to this forum
I tally everything up every 10th of the month. The one exception is a group of accounts that I don't have an online access to, and I wait for the quarterly reports.

 

[rk911]

A friend want to learn about investment, retirement and finance in general. He pop the question "how often do you count your money?" Hmm... caught me off guard and got me thinking.

I find that as I get older and closer to retirement, I obsessively check on retirement account, asset sheets, then calculate retirement needs and FireCal ... something like 2,3 times or even 4 times a week.

Am I nut or is this normal? I know my Buddies check on their stocks everyday because we're on a group chat and lots of "stock tips" exchanged every hour.

Just wonder if you can share your thought. : )

Enuff

i don't know about "counting" but i track our net worth weekly using Quicken and an excel spread sheet. too often? not for me. been doing this for more than 20-years.

 

[VanWinkle]

I check daily when it's going up, I don't look when it's going down-except to re-balance if it goes down long enough.

 

[Koolau]

Someone mentioned their check book. THAT is what I try to keep an eye on. We have two checking acts. One is our local bank and the other is an old credit union account we've used for maybe 30 years. One act. receives our SS and the other receives my pension. I typically look at the balances at least once a week. I like to know that all the electronic transfers IN have taken place on time. Also, having two accts. to draw on is one of my "back ups." If one act. were to be compromised, I would (in theory) have the other - call me paranoid and I won't even flinch!

Our spending is so lumpy that I look at checking balance almost every time we anticipate spending a $grand or more. The brokerage acct., the Index funds and the SPDAs, MYGAs, I-bonds, PMs, etc. are WAY too much trouble to calculate and (in reality) have little to do with day to day or even month to month spending. I know in general terms what the various markets are doing, so I know when NW is likely up or down a bit. SO, cranking through the numbers seems like "w*rk" to me. Same with recording our spending. As long as the check book(s) are flush, I know we're not out of bounds and our "enough status" is well in hand.

Absolutely NO criticism implied, but I'm surprised at how many retirees here check NW daily or weekly. Having said that I used to do that when anticipating FI. It was a good feeling seeing that I was approaching my goal (or, eventually exceeding it PRIOR to FIRE.) But, after retiring, most of my angst began to fade - especially after a year or two. Checking often became boring. I'm guessing that checking NW is a habit some of us formed and it's difficult to break. My (rhetorical) questions would be "How often do we make strategic or tactical changes based on daily or weekly NW calculations? If we're not tweaking our plans, why check so often?" Again, no suggestion that checking often is "wrong." Just wondering (to myself) what it gives us in return for the effort. Just wondering out loud, so YMMV.

 

[doneat54]

First of every month I pull balances from some 8-10 accounts and put them into a spreadsheet to track total portfolio value. I give myself the leeway to carry over balances from some "piddly" accounts from previous months if I don't feel like logging in. The SS then graphs the major accounts growth so I can see who is doing what.

Every 6 months I spreadsheet all the holdings and compute AA.

 

[Dash man]

If we're not tweaking our plans, why check so often?" Again, no suggestion that checking often is "wrong." Just wondering (to myself) what it gives us in return for the effort. Just wondering out loud, so YMMV.

Because we can!

 

[38Chevy454]

I just pulled the couch cushions today to check for coins so I have an exact count.

Did you check behind the dresser?

Don't forget to check under and around your car's seat

 

[jkern]

I officially check every quarter to enter the portfolio data into a spreadsheet. When it's going up, I'll check frequently. when it goes down, I don't check at all.

 

[euro]

A friend want to learn about investment, retirement and finance in general. He pop the question "how often do you count your money?" Hmm... caught me off guard and got me thinking.

I find that as I get older and closer to retirement, I obsessively check on retirement account, asset sheets, then calculate retirement needs and FireCal ... something like 2,3 times or even 4 times a week.

Am I nut or is this normal?

Enuff

Yes, nut!


Confession: back before I finally ditched Quicken, I would occasionally pull the "net worth report". Maybe once a month. Other than that, I do keep an occasional eye on the overall market, but "enough is enough".

 

[Unpaintedhuffhines]

Absolutely NO criticism implied, but I'm surprised at how many retirees here check NW daily or weekly. Having said that I used to do that when anticipating FI. It was a good feeling seeing that I was approaching my goal (or, eventually exceeding it PRIOR to FIRE.) But, after retiring, most of my angst began to fade - especially after a year or two. Checking often became boring. I'm guessing that checking NW is a habit some of us formed and it's difficult to break. My (rhetorical) questions would be "How often do we make strategic or tactical changes based on daily or weekly NW calculations? If we're not tweaking our plans, why check so often?" Again, no suggestion that checking often is "wrong." Just wondering (to myself) what it gives us in return for the effort. Just wondering out loud, so YMMV.

Good question. I check because it makes me feel good (investments, not net worth - I can change my NW by just thinking my house is worth $100K more today). It's like a security blanket - I have strived my entire life to get here, and I have succeeded. I don't make adjustments based on what I see (good or bad), mainly because it seems to be working pretty damn good already. When I see a market drop of 500, 1000 points, I will generally avoid looking for a while. It's more of an irritant than anything else.

And yes, it is a difficult habit to break.

 

[ERObjd]

I log onto my vanguard about every 6 weeks. I dont watch TV or have 1 but i do listen to radio on AM1110 KFAB Omaha . It is a conservative talk radio station and they give fox news at top and bottom of hour the news gives a brief on the markets S&P, DOW etc are up if markets are up my Vanguard fund is up if market si down my account is down. Now need to log on to vanguard every day or even every week

 

[ncbill]

Personal Capital every weekend.

 

[Live And Learn]

Back when I hated my j*b, I would check almost daily. Once I created my own area of expertise within Megacorp (and all but created my own assignment) I backed way off and only checked for "Financial Independence" every month or so. Once retired, I kept tabs on my cash reserves, but didn't check NW except every 3 months (when all the quarterly statements arrived.) Now, I do a NW overview once a year (after all the yearly statements arrive) and once in a while, I'll review the quarterlies and update the NW.

Once I decided that I had "enough", the pressure to know NW or individual asset performance seemed to fade. I guess I still fear black swans like hyperinflation or LTC, but I no longer fixate on FI since I am already there. YMMV

same here!

 

[ownyourfuture]

I have the ability to update while on vacation or visiting family, I do not have the desire.

I thought I was the only one....lol
I've had smart phones since 2007, but I don't even take it with me unless I'm leaving town.
When I buy/sell stocks/funds, transfer money from my checking to Fidelity, etc, I prefer to do it on my iMac desktop.

'Some' people are too connected to their phones.

Before the show cops was pulled from the air !@#$!@#$
I was amazed by how many times they'd do a felony stop...........
(That's where they ask the driver to interlace their fingers behind their head, & walk backwards to the sound of the officers voice)
& the perp couldn't/wouldn't let go of their phone!

 

[Out of Steam]

We don't own any individual stocks. Barring some major market move, no more than quarterly.

 

[steelyman]

Google Sheets makes it easy to glance at my investments (not net worth). I have one for my retirement portfolio and one for non-retirement investments. I don’t do a lot of trading.

I generally view it each morning over coffee with plenty of time to do the New York Times mini-crossword before the day starts.

 

[aja8888]

I keep a monthly spreadsheet of spending (gross amounts by account - no transaction details: checkbook, CC1, CC2). No cash spending is recorded and we don't spend much cash anyway.

I add this all these summaries up at the end of the year and see if we exceeded a rough family budget I prepared. Nothing too detailed, as I really don't care how much we spent on gasoline, electricity, food, etc, etc.

I have a Google sheets spreadsheet that lists all my investment accounts and non-investment ones. Essentially, that totals our net worth minus big assets like house and cars. I update this monthly and equity prices are updated automatically.

I log into Schwab on Monday to see which of my option trades had expired and if I had to take any new equity positions. If i did, I sell covered calls on them and call it a day. I only trade 4 or 5 options at a time and only with short expiration dates. I do this to keep my mind active and make a few bucks, which I have been lucky to do.

We charge 97% of our spending on a 2% cash back card and the rest is either a paper check for our housekeeper or an occasional check mailed in for a bill that won't accept a CC without charging a fee. We have had that same checking account for 30 years.

 

[Marti]

Then I start my daily financial accounts review. First, I download any new transactions into Quicken which updates all account balances. Then, one by one, I sign into all my bank, credit card, and brokerage accounts and make sure the balances and transactions match up to Quicken. While in my banking website, I pay any bills that are due electronically. I pretty much pay every bill the same day it is presented to me. Most are sent to me via email or I see it is due when I sign into my accounts.

Have you ever found that there was a discrepancy between Quicken and your banks' websites? I never have so I don't do that anymore.

 

[Scratchy]

A few times a day I look at Mint to monitor for any fishy transactions. Also look at a Google spreadsheet I created which updates in almost real time and shows asset values by ticker symbol, account type, asset type and change compared with previous day.

 

[H2ODude]

This thread makes me feel a lot better about what I sometimes feel is obsessive attention to financial matters.

My attention is to the "small money," which is charges to our one credit card that gets used and the checking account. On first of month update what the "big money" (all at Fido) is doing. Just about never make changes in the MF's held there. The attention to the small money is to set a target spend rate, which we almost never make. The excess goes into the credit union savings, where cars and trips are bought. I think twice since retired I moved some of that back to the investments just because it got too big and nothing was calling. For me it's all about setting a monthly move from the "big" money to our accounts that is well below a SW rate. For me that's what the Fido calculator says based on assets, incomes, and projected lifespan. It works, keeps me comfortable.

 

[big-papa]

Someone mentioned their check book. THAT is what I try to keep an eye on. We have two checking acts. One is our local bank and the other is an old credit union account we've used for maybe 30 years. One act. receives our SS and the other receives my pension. I typically look at the balances at least once a week. I like to know that all the electronic transfers IN have taken place on time. Also, having two accts. to draw on is one of my "back ups." If one act. were to be compromised, I would (in theory) have the other - call me paranoid and I won't even flinch!

Our spending is so lumpy that I look at checking balance almost every time we anticipate spending a $grand or more. The brokerage acct., the Index funds and the SPDAs, MYGAs, I-bonds, PMs, etc. are WAY too much trouble to calculate and (in reality) have little to do with day to day or even month to month spending. I know in general terms what the various markets are doing, so I know when NW is likely up or down a bit. SO, cranking through the numbers seems like "w*rk" to me. Same with recording our spending. As long as the check book(s) are flush, I know we're not out of bounds and our "enough status" is well in hand.

Absolutely NO criticism implied, but I'm surprised at how many retirees here check NW daily or weekly. Having said that I used to do that when anticipating FI. It was a good feeling seeing that I was approaching my goal (or, eventually exceeding it PRIOR to FIRE.) But, after retiring, most of my angst began to fade - especially after a year or two. Checking often became boring. I'm guessing that checking NW is a habit some of us formed and it's difficult to break. My (rhetorical) questions would be "How often do we make strategic or tactical changes based on daily or weekly NW calculations? If we're not tweaking our plans, why check so often?" Again, no suggestion that checking often is "wrong." Just wondering (to myself) what it gives us in return for the effort. Just wondering out loud, so YMMV.

Thank you for asking this question the way you did. I've been on other forums when this sort of thing comes up and there are often rude comments to those of us who look often to "find another hobby" as if they are the person to dictate what someone else should or shouldn't enjoy doing.

Thanks to aggregators and some nifty spreadsheet programming, it takes all of 5 minutes for me to update and see where things are. I like it, it's enjoyable to me, and as I noted upstream, it's part of my "me time" over my first cup of coffee before anybody else in the house wakes up. Nothing more than that.

It's not for everybody. Some may find it boring. For some it may cause unwanted behavioral-finance types of problems. Neither of these apply to me.

Cheers.