Watching the markets

[audreyh1]

I haven’t been paying attention because I’ve been way too busy.

[target2019]

Been watching for about ten years. On individual stocks I may take action. But most is held in index funds, so the AA takes care of most gyrations for me.

[ejman]

The market ups and downs are wonderful as entertainment but I never do anything unless my 50/50 AA gets so far out of alignment that my wide 10% bands are breached. This hardly ever happens so I usually end up having a decade or more of entertainment before I actually have to do anything. Currently 52/48 so the spectator sport continues. ER'd for 17 years now liquid NW 2.3X of retirement amount- this approach works for me.

[easysurfer]

I don't watch unless there are huge swings. Then, just for entertainment purposes .

[Dtail]

Check it daily except on vacation. Update my accounts daily with about 5-7 minutes of work.
Retired almost 2 years. Didn't panic at all with the Dec 18 drop. Trust the calculators.

[SumDay]

Now that I'm retired, I check daily - mainly when I do my daily Quicken download to make sure nothing nefarious is going on with credit cards of bank accounts. My AA is set, and like ejman, I just do it for entertainment, not to make adjustments.

Honestly, I love sitting in my home office which is where the computer is, and if you guys would post lots more entertaining stuff here, I wouldn't spend so much time watching my portfolio gyrate.

[marko]

Check my portfolio balance every evening.

[NW-Bound]

More fun to check on a good up day like today.

I am up $51K, and that's just the individual stock portion. MFs have not reported.

[COZICAN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound More fun to check on a good up day like today. I am up $51K, and that's just the individual stock portion. MFs have not reported.

"More fun to check on a good up day"

I'm notorious for that myself. There's even a couple of months in the last twelve that I didn't update my monthly spreadsheet.

[NW-Bound]

Monthly?

I have a diary file on my laptop where I logged the total value of my investable accounts after market close every day since 1999.

Yes, every single day, except for the days I had no Internet access, such as when I was in the Alaskan boondocks. It's a daily ritual. I can look back to see those days with huge swings, and refresh my memory of them.

[COZICAN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Monthly? I have a diary file on my laptop where I logged the total value of my investable accounts after market close every day since 1999. Yes, every single day, except for the days I had no Internet access, such as when I was in the Alaskan boondocks. It's a daily ritual. I can look back to see those days with huge swings, and refresh my memory of them.

I quick check my investments almost daily I just don't keep track other than monthly. I'm working on a daily spreadsheet for just prior and after RE.

[W2R]

I've been retired for 10 years and every day I still check the markets, the values of each of my mutual funds, and contents of my bank accounts and record all those details in Excel. Then I compute and record the total value of my investment portfolio plus bank accounts that day.

But this month I have only checked and recorded these values about every other day. I think that's just because I forget, or take a nap instead of checking. I just looked and yep! Forgot to do it yesterday so I'll go get those values, as well as today's values, and record them. I hope this doesn't mean that I am getting old and drifty.

I do this because I like to do it, not because I have to do it. I love numbers and also feel pretty certain that knowing is better than not knowing (for me).

[audreyh1]

I download at least once a week to save all the data in Quicken. But this summer I have been lazy (busy, actually) and only updating portfolio spreadsheets at end of month. I’m still behind for May.

I get a lot more motivated in Dec when I’m tracking distributions and taxable income, and getting ready for first of year withdrawal and rebalancing.

[rk911]

Quote:

Originally Posted by COZICAN For 28 years watching the market is a daily (if not hourly since I'm always online) thing for me. I've rejoiced in the ups and stomached the downs at times. I can't imagine the stress post-ER. I don't hear much chatter on here regarding the market. So do you? Daily? Monthly? Quarterly? I will be in a lower AA once ER'd but I can't imagine me changing the habit of checking it regularly. I know I don't want to have to. Coz

each friday i chart the dow, s&p and the value of our investments compared to the prior week and year more for fun, an intellectual exercise and to measure our net worth than watching or obsessing over the market. we practice buy and hold and have done that through all of the major downturns. i don't watch CNBC, Fox Business, read the WSJ or similar publications. i have much better things to do with my time.

[foxfirev5]

I pay little attention to my current portfolio balance. However I do check my money markets daily for interest, dividends and matured CD's. It's always nice to see the balance going up.

[donheff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Retired 14+ years, I still check it daily but the ongoing gyrations rarely have any impact on my blood pressure. It's a habit, much like checking the temperature...

Ditto. I hit 15 years next January and still load my Google Sheet most mornings. I will sometimes ignore it for a while when it is consistently going down but after big drops I check in because I like to enter data in a "last low" cell for comparison with current value.

[ckelly78z]

I keep an eye on what the markets are doing for my own personal reasons. I usually check my Principal 401K daily, because it follows the ups, and downs of the market more so than many others I know. I checked it today, and I am up 20.99% so far this year...needless to say, I don't follow the preplanned age appropriate funds set up for most.