Need to limit my account viewing.

[Jerry1]

I'm going to try to stop looking at my account balance every day. Starting April 1st, after I do my 1st quarter analysis, I'm going to try to not look at my account until next quarter. Wish me luck.

I'm trying to break a habit and also reinforce that I'm on auto pilot and there's "nothing to see here". Certainly not on a daily basis. I'm going to look into Fidelity and see if I can hide my retirement accounts. I need to look at my main account because that's my day to day money but everything else needs to be out of sight, out of mind.

 

[freedomatlast]

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

 

[MarieIG]

I monitor - for security reasons.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[mountainsoft]

I've been checking our retirement account balances almost daily for the last few years. Like you, I've been trying to space that out a bit lately. I'm down to once or twice a week now. Eventually I might get to once a month or so.

 

[audreyh1]

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.

 

[Midpack]

Wow. I have never checked daily or even weekly. Maybe monthly at one time. Nowadays I log into Vanguard once a quarter to

• see/record dividends/STCG for estimated tax planning,
• update my net worth spreadsheet, and
• see if I need to rebalance (rarely).

I see what the markets are doing every day on PBS or online, so if something drastic happens I can look at my account, but my balance will roughly follow markets so I almost never bother.

The only other times between quarters that I log into Vanguard is

• to buy/sell when a treasury matures or
• twice a year for Roth conversions (in Jan and again in Dec).

Security? Right or wrong, I assume every time I log in I create an opportunity for a hacker, so I log in as infrequently as possible and delete my history immediately after. YMMV

 

[Aerides]

When I was saving/working, I would spend the friday morning of payday every two weeks updating my personal spreadsheet after looking at everything.

But since retiring? No schedule, can often go weeks or more, especially if I see folks here talking about a good day on the market - I like to see the good stuff!

You don't "need" to look at your day to day (checking/savings?) on a daily basis. If you feel that need, perhaps move your daily cash over to another online bank.

 

[Car-Guy]

When I quit trading equities and went 100% fixed income, I quit looking all the time. I'm probably still logging on a couple of times a week to check what CD rates are doing but right now, I couldn't even tell you what my balance is. I do know it just keeps going up. No more ups and downs.

Plus, I have regained several hours a day not having to keep up with markets so much.

 

[PlayinwithFIRE]

On the road to FIRE still, so I watch every blip and bleep on a daily basis.

I do keep a spreadsheet that I update once per month for total investment, credit card expense and bank account balance-been doing that for years and years.

These are things I like to do...so i haven't really thought about changing the habit. I don't get stressed by the day to day noise..if that's not you, changing the daily habit to weekly or monthly might be better for your stress levels

PWF

 

[Teacher Terry]

I look at my checking and savings accounts daily. A friend of mine had her B of A account robbed of 20k. They refused to reimburse her because she didn’t notice it for 48 hours. They told her it needed to be reported within 24 hours. She filed a police report and intends to hire a lawyer to help get her money back. If I banked there I would be leaving.

 

[Midpack]

I look at my checking and savings accounts daily. A friend of mine had her B of A account robbed of 20k. They refused to reimburse her because she didn’t notice it for 48 hours. They told her it needed to be reported within 24 hours. She filed a police report and intends to hire a lawyer to help get her money back. If I banked there I would be leaving.

Interesting, we automatically get instant alerts from BoA on any transaction over whatever amount we choose - I think DW has it set at $150. We would have noticed and alerted the bank instantly if someone made a $20 K withdrawal. We get immediate alerts on our credit cards too (IIRC she set those at $75), so we’d report anything suspect there immediately as well.

 

[TheWizard]

I'm not that sure that monitoring your investments is a bad thing. I check my three Vanguard accounts on my smartphone most weekdays.
I almost always have buy limit orders outstanding and I might want to change the limit price, depending.

Three times a month, I have money hitting my checking account and I generally pull the excess into my Vanguard taxable settlement fund.
So anyway...

 

[Al18]

I monitor - for security reasons.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

FYI Fidelity, and probably the other major brokers have active security monitoring and will send you a text message and an email the second any withdrawals are made from your accounts that you have locked down.

 

[pacergal]

I monitor retirement/investment accounts monthly. Occasionally look more often, if "the market" is going crazy--nice to see it go up, but it can just as quickly go back down!

 

[FREE866]

Ha. I'm very guilty of looking at my accounts a few times a day, sometimes several times. I'm extremely disciplined in that I don't make any moves, but it's just a habit I have and have been doing it for years.

 

[big-papa]

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.

 

[Al18]

Some would consider checking your balances daily an unhealthy obsession.

I check balances once or twice a month. I have a stock ticker on my phone so I can see changes instantly.

If you feel the need to check your holdings daily, maybe you should track a penny stock such as Atari PONGF whose stock price frequently goes up and down 5-15% every day! That should desensitize you.

 

[audreyh1]

Interesting, we automatically get instant alerts from BoA on any transaction over whatever amount we choose - I think DW has it set at $150. We would have noticed and alerted the bank instantly if someone made a $20 K withdrawal. We get immediate alerts on our credit cards too (IIRC she set those at $75), so we’d report anything suspect there immediately as well.

Right, we also get alerts from all financial institutions for every withdrawal, deposit, credit card charge above $X, bill paid, bills due, transfer, order filled, etc. It’s very nice getting these timely notifications.

 

[LateToFIRE]

Don't worry, I've been monitoring your accounts daily. You're in good shape. Plenty $$$ in there.

 

[jebmke]

I monitor - for security reasons.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I do too; once a month. But I doubt I could tell you what the last balance was or how individual items were performing -- even 1 minute after logging out.

 

[skyking1]

Don't worry, I've been monitoring your accounts daily. You're in good shape. Plenty $$$ in there.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I have a morning routine that I do every day that I am at home. And I like it. I don't see me changing that.

I download any new transactions into Quicken and categorize the ones that are Spending.
I sign into my bank account to verify my Checking, Savings, and one credit card that I have with the bank. I verify it matches Quicken.
I sign into each credit card account and verify it matches Quicken and that I am responsible for all transactions that show up.
Then I sign into Schwab and verify the transactions in all 4 of my accounts there match Quicken and that I understand what has happened since the last time I checked in.
Then I manually update a Google Spreadsheet that I use for tracking my Portfolio overall -- Asset Allocation, Grand Totals, Value over Time, etc. I prefer my own spreadsheet over what Quicken offers.
I do only check in on my small HSA account at Fidelity about once a week, since there isn't really any daily activity there.

This works for me and I consider it one of my hobbies. My friends are always teasing me about my need to "chart and graph everything in colors".

 

[marko]

Every day and during the day as well. Updates automatically on Excel every Saturday morning.

After doing this 20+ years I've been able to develop a bit of intuition on how my portfolio will react, and more importantly, when I should react or not. "Is this shift something I need to move on or is this something that will rectify itself in a week or so? "

 

[AZsniper]

I would like to change my "Multiple times a day" to once a week or so.

Maybe when I retire next year and am not putting into the market as much.

 

[jebmke]

I would like to change my "Multiple times a day" to once a week or so.

Maybe when I retire next year and am not putting into the market as much.

it is mainly a behavioral thing. For 20+ years, the bulk of our equity was in a private pension scheme. They only reported valuations once a year in March (or whenever they got to it) as of December 31 of the prior year. Got used to flying blind. In most ways it was better than having access to daily data.

Now that I'm retired, I care not what it is and generally have more interesting things to occupy my time. I also no longer re-balance so the need to know is even lower.