Poll:How often do you check your financial holdings?

[donheff]

I tend to check our investment balances frequently when the bull is surging and infrequently when the bear rears its ugly head. Like Audrey I check our checking and credit card transactions frequently, usually daily.

Ditto. But I don't bother logging into investment accounts I just glance at a spreadsheet that updates prices daily. I log into the accounts every couple of moths to make sure I have updated holdings to account for dividends.

 

[kcowan]

Are you my Dad? He did that. Of course, he would be 89 if he were alive today.

I kept the last 12 months on a rolling basis back in the day. Now I am all electronic since 1993.

 

[imoldernu]

Twice a year, when IBond rates change. Older bonds earning 6.49% others a little less.
I follow the market, just for fun... not enough in stocks to make a difference.

While IBond purchase Limits are now $10,000, in the early 2000's the limits for one person were more. We were able to max for several years

Savings bond purchases have been subject to an annual limit since Series E Bonds were first issued in 1941. Over the years, limits have been adjusted by the Treasury Department several times and have ranged from a low of $3,750 for Series E bonds from 1941 through 1947 to the $30,000 limit for both Series EE and Series I bonds from 2003 through 2007.

 

[RonBoyd]

I did. From my Fidelity Elan VISA. Was notified the instant someone bought airlines tickets from PanamaAir. So called into fraud department immediately.

That's exactly how it worked for me in three of the case. The other one was a notification in the PC e-mail. In all cases, the CC bank took care of it. (But let's not talk about the extreme inconvenience of switching all of your "auto" accounts to a new number/expiration. <chuckle>)

Speaking of that, we still have a checking account that except for about 4-5 handwritten checks a year is used to automatically pay our bills -- and auto deposit income. I am more interested in PC tracking those transactions than I am in the CCs and portfolio items. We keep a balance of around $2-4,000 in the account but would not want any of the "auto" payments to "bounce" if there was a "surprise" withdrawal.

 

[Surewhitey]

Spreadsheet nerd here. I just like to analyze and find another way to look at things. Recently I found our income # in relation to the monthly increase or decrease of our nest egg.

One day I will use the data to convince or, at least, go it alone and quit the j@b...

 

[GrayHare]

Since I don't day trade and don't time the market I don't feel the need to check things often. Up one month, down another, often brings the total back to where it started. Close monitoring feels too much like w*rk to me. Then there's that "watched pot never boils" factor. With each log on exposing personal info and creating a meta data trail it feels safer to do it less often. I prefer checking a mailed statement every so often since it is more secure.

 

[sengsational]

I'm surprised so many here monitor your credit cards so closely. If you catch it in the first hour, or on the 59th day, it's the same result...you are not responsible.

 

[RonBoyd]

I'm surprised so many here monitor your credit cards so closely. If you catch it in the first hour, or on the 59th day, it's the same result...you are not responsible.

I agree. I do it for several reasons. Not the least of which is it may indicate a much larger problem with identity theft. The sooner something like that is brought to one's attention, the better (IMHO).

Another reason would be to slow down (stop really) the activity on the card. It could get very complicated if a month's (or several) worth of charges had to be disputed.

Going over your credit limit would cause problems with any automatic payments.

There are probably a slew of other reasons but these come immediately to my mind.

 

[W2R]

I agree. I do it for several reasons. Not the least of which is it may indicate a much larger problem with identity theft. The sooner something like that is brought to one's attention, the better (IMHO).

Another reason would be to slow down (stop really) the activity on the card. It could get very complicated if a month's (or several) worth of charges had to be disputed.

Going over your credit limit would cause problems with any automatic payments.

There are probably a slew of other reasons but these come immediately to my mind.

Another reason is to make sure I didn't forget to put any purchases on my spending spreadsheet. Looking at charges to my credit card and also to my checking account, can be very helpful that way.

Also, by examining my credit card transactions about once a week I also get a sense of how much will be automatically paid on the 15th (I have my credit card set to pay off in full every month). It helps me in keeping track of whether I am already going nuts on spending this month, or whether I should engage in some delayed gratification right now.

 

[TwoByFour]

This poll should be cross-polled with whether you are retired. I suspect that people who are retired, especially for some length of time, check less frequently.

We have been investing for 30+ years and retired for 5 years. I pretty much know by now that the market goes up and down and I don't get too excited about whatever it does any more. I check our portfolio maybe once every 1-2 months.

 

[NW-Bound]

Quicken and I have a close personal relationship. The stocks and bonds get recorded pretty much daily but the variances don't make an impact. However, payments going out or coming in are scrutinized closely and recorded. Guess I'm a watch the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves kinda guy. Or maybe I'm pennywise and pound foolish.

Ditto. Quicken and I are joined at the hip. I like catching banking and credit inconsistencies before they become an issue. For example, we opened a HELOC a couple of years ago with no intention of using it. About 2 months later I noticed (thanks to Quicken) I had a $2500 balance on that account. It was their error, which they were very embarrassed about.

While I do watch, I don't worry about investment performance on a daily basis.

I am the same. I hit "Download" on Quicken daily to make sure nobody reaches into my accounts and steals some money. And being an active investor, I also look at my stock holdings to see if there's any big jump.

"Whoa, this stock jumps 7% today. Lordy, this one drops 10%. Must be good/bad earning reports. Or is it the CEO getting indicted for fraud? "

I always look for the reasons for a big jump, and often there is not any that I can see. Just random stuff, or perhaps a big institutional investor makes a big move. I may not be able to know the reason for the jumps, but the existence of the jumps will not escape me.

Say, if your skin develops a red patch, you may not know why, and do not want to come crying at your doctor the next morning, but don't you want to know that it's suddently there?

 

[GravitySucks]

This poll should be cross-polled with whether you are retired. I suspect that people who are retired, especially for some length of time, check less frequently.

We have been investing for 30+ years and retired for 5 years. I pretty much know by now that the market goes up and down and I don't get too excited about whatever it does any more. I check our portfolio maybe once every 1-2 months.

Indeed. My first few months of retirement I probably checked hourly. [emoji29]

 

[Katsmeow]

I am the same. I hit "Download" on Quicken daily to make sure nobody reaches into my accounts and steals some money.

I do that too...but I also log in and check because I want to catch stuff before it happens if possible. For example, if I logged into Vanguard and saw a pending transaction that wasn't mine I could try to do something then rather than finding out after the fact.

Or, the time I saw pending Amex transactions that showed someone using a card hundreds of miles away I was able to call Amex and immediately get that card number cancelled and get a replacement card (yes, I know I wouldn't be responsible for the charges but I feel it is better to solve things early to avoid potential future problems).

 

[NW-Bound]

I do that too...but I also log in and check because I want to catch stuff before it happens if possible. For example, if I logged into Vanguard and saw a pending transaction that wasn't mine I could try to do something then rather than finding out after the fact.

Or, the time I saw pending Amex transactions that showed someone using a card hundreds of miles away I was able to call Amex and immediately get that card number cancelled and get a replacement card (yes, I know I wouldn't be responsible for the charges but I feel it is better to solve things early to avoid potential future problems).

I do not log into individual investment and credit card accounts daily because that takes a lot of time. My wife's job is to log into the credit cards to pay the balance in full before they charge any interest, but I do not know how often she does it.

I know that pending recurring transactions that she pre-enters into our Bank of America checking account get downloaded into Quicken, such as home real-estate taxes, and some monthly bills. I did not know if credit card transactions can be pending. I thought they took effect immediately when a vendor accepted the cards for payment, meaning they were reflected in the account balance right away.

 

[Katsmeow]

I thought they took effect immediately when a vendor accepted the cards for payment, meaning they were reflected in the account balance right away.

To the credit card company a pending transaction will be reflected in how much available credit you have but usually it will be shown as pending on the web site. Sometimes pending transactions never become actual transactions or the amount changes. A gas station may do a pending transaction for $50 or $100 and you won't see the actual amount until it gets out of pending. Same thing for hotels.

When someone cloned my son's Amex card and started using it across the country I called Amex immediately when I saw this (same day it happened) and they immediately cancelled the card. However, I could not formally dispute the transactions until they moved out of pending a couple of days later.

 

[jabbahop]

I tend to check our investment balances frequently when the bull is surging and infrequently when the bear rears its ugly head. Like Audrey I check our checking and credit card transactions frequently, usually daily.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

That is my system as well.

 

[NW-Bound]

To the credit card company a pending transaction will be reflected in how much available credit you have but usually it will be shown as pending on the web site. Sometimes pending transactions never become actual transactions or the amount changes. A gas station may do a pending transaction for $50 or $100 and you won't see the actual amount until it gets out of pending. Same thing for hotels...

Yes, I forgot that this mechanism exists for hotels and car rentals to reserve security deposits. I just never log in at the right time to see it.

I wonder if the credit card companies report it to Quicken, the same way Bank of America reports pending transactions that my wife enters for automatic execution at a future date.

 

[scrabbler1]

LAst week, I went out to eat and used my CC to pay for the meal including the tip. At first, only the meal portion of the total charge appeared in the website as a "pending" charge. There was a note about pending charges which said that tips may not be reflected in the total charge for a few days. A few days later, the final amount was shown which included the tip.

 

[tmm99]

I check DJIA once a day or so, but I don't look at my holdings much.

 

[NW-Bound]

LAst week, I went out to eat and used my CC to pay for the meal including the tip. At first, only the meal portion of the total charge appeared in the website as a "pending" charge. There was a note about pending charges which said that tips may not be reflected in the total charge for a few days. A few days later, the final amount was shown which included the tip.

Ah, that makes sense too. How else do they handle additional tips? We just never log into our credit card account often enough to see this.

 

[SumDay]

.....

Also, by examining my credit card transactions about once a week I also get a sense of how much will be automatically paid on the 15th (I have my credit card set to pay off in full every month). It helps me in keeping track of whether I am already going nuts on spending this month, or whether I should engage in some delayed gratification right now.

THIS!!! I thought I'd be really meticulous about budgeting by category after I retired. 2.5 months in, and I found that too much like w*rking, so I just use the "going nuts" method of budgeting. So far, so good.

 

[kgtest]

At least 2x a day. Usually in the morning and again at lunch and after work.

I run a daily balance history that's basically a single cut/paste to update each day. I thought about automating to open the browser, go to my spreadsheet, adding a row for the next workday in the sheet, pasting the current balance and closing the browser, but I think I can manage to do that much.

Then I also manually add up the dividends 2x a year which I am literally in the process of doing so I can see how much of my return was from DIVs.

I also glance at my equity weights Pie Chart I made to see where my weighted market cap is.Right now its looking good.

 

[OldShooter]

Equities? A serious look annually. We are 100% passive. I know of no statistical or academic argument for any other strategy.

I follow the markets as a kind of casual spectator sport but never take any actions based on their gyrations. When I am traveling I have no angst over not following. Once in a while I will look at a trailing 1-year history graph to see the general direction and to put the current day's silliness into perspective.

I put credit card transactions into Quicken monthly when the statement comes and download brokerage account activity monthly to make sure Quicken ties out to the brokerage statements. I almost never look at the holdings, though.

Maybe one year out of three we will make a trade as a result of our annual review. In addition, we have a floating rate fund (SAMBX) where we sell small amounts as needed to replenish checking accounts.

I monitor a couple of investment accounts for DW's nonprofits. I look at quarterly and cumulative performance but do not attempt to judge the managers until there is at least two years of history. FIve would be better but investment committees' patience has its limits.

 

[kite_rider]

Interesting poll. I was a bit surprised by the number of folks who check this daily or weekly given the vast number of posts of this forum promoting a passive investment strategy using broad index tracking ETF's or mutual funds.

For all those folks; it would seem boring and unnecessary to check so frequently. Yet, most do according to this poll. It would be an interesting follow up poll to see how many of those 'active lookers' were also passive investors.

As an active investor who lives on investments I regularly check; my poll answer would have been - "At least weekly, but usually daily."

 

[OldShooter]

... For all those folks; it would seem boring and unnecessary to check so frequently. ...

Yes. I tell the students in my Adult-Ed investing class that investing is boring. If you're not bored, you're doing it wrong.