Need to limit my account viewing.

[Koolau]

I will admit to looking often (2-3 times/week) at the stock price of old Megacorp. It's been on a tear and it's sorta neat to check it out. No idea what I'd do if it suddenly started to plummet.



Otherwise, I've been ignoring most of my holdings and just sorta looking at the Dow and S&P or NASDQ results on the financial porn stations occasionally. YMMV

 

[rayvt]

Sounds like you have too much time on your hands. Maybe a new hobby or activity will help.

I need new glasses. I read that as "Maybe make a new baby."

Of course, that is always a good idea.

 

[rayvt]

I look at my main account almost every day and sometimes more than once per day. I don't see how it is harmful unless I make changes which I almost never do. In fact, it probably helps me since I see the small incremental changes on a regular basis, I am never surprised by a big change up or down. I think it really depends on the individual.

I agree with this. I suspect that the behavioral finance folks (Thaler, etc. ) research suffered from selection bias.
By the time someone is in the FI and RE group they have learned to sit tight and not over-trade and not panic.

Many brokers show you the total balances of all accounts and the daily change when you log in. It is instructive and desensitizing to check your account daily and see daily swings of $20,000 up and down. You don't panic on a day you are down $20,000 because you know that like-sized swings up are also common.

 

[street]

I check a few times a month just to make sure I haven't been dreaming. Then aways the last market day of each month to see where things are at. I then track and document 12 times a year for history and comparison.

 

[audreyh1]

My investments are spread over several financial institutions so I never know what the total is until Quicken is updated.

 

[Gremlin]

I read that as "Maybe make a new baby.".

That would certainly take care of a “too much time on my hands” problem.

 

[meleana]

I don’t check per se, but every month I enter all our balances in an excel sheet.

 

[jpeter1093]

I look at my account daily, primarily during my "me time" in the early morning hours before anybody else is awake. Look at data, update spreadsheet, and then move on to something else.

Merely looking isn't a bad thing unless you're prone to make decisions based on what you just saw or if you feel it's become some sort of unhealthy obsession.

Cheers.

I do exactly the same over my morning coffee. It assures me nothing slipped by fraudulently (alerts or no alerts). Only difference is I use Quicken rather than a spreadsheet.

 

[Jerry1]

So it took a lot of willpower not to look today, but I didn’t. One thing I got from this post is it made me think about security. A lot of people said they check their accounts frequently to ensure nothing suspicious is going on with their accounts. I need to do something to ensure that my accounts are secure. Most of my money is in fidelity so that’s the main one I want to lock down tight.

 

[maestro]

I think in this last year, we all like to look at BIG numbers, numbers most have not seen before, and we rub our eyes thinking it's a dream. Are they still there?!? One must remind themself, it's just on paper.

 

[steady saver]

I check our Fidelity account several times a week. I just find it interesting. I rarely act on anything and when I do it is planned over a period of time, not reactive.

I reconcile our bank statements and cc accounts every 2-3 weeks, sometimes it gets stretched to 2 months! But I do reconcile in YNAB so if I wait too long it's a pain. But Fidelity? Yep, I check it several times a week. It's just a pre-retirement habit, I guess. I think I'm still just blown away that we had enough to retire and that the principal continues to grow. I find that fascinating...

 

[VanWinkle]

I remember Fidelity indicating the best returns of their account holders were the ones that either forgot they had an account, or had died and the account never claimed. I'm guessing that is an endorsement for not looking daily..... or ever.

 

[frank05]

Yes, you need other things to do to distract you and form a new habit.

I have to manually download data into my old Quicken these days importing via an intermediary spreadsheet, so I only update asset prices about twice a month.

However I still check and reconcile all statements from several financial institutions as they come in - that’s the security part.

With the advent of on-line access, no more written checks and alert capability from my financial firms, I have stopped using Quicken. It is much easier just to look for suspicious transactions on-line and I have linked all by accounts on Schwab to get the trend chart.

 

[audreyh1]

I use Quicken heavily for tax planning which requires detailed YTD income reporting.