Don't look at your investments too closely.

[Badger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R I check and record how each of my investments is doing every day the NYSE is open. I have always done this, starting back in the accumulation phase when I had almost nothing invested... ...When I record my investment values in my Excel spreadsheet I don't actually DO anything, like buy or sell; I just record them. I guess I just want to know how my portfolio is doing so maybe curiosity is the main reason I do it.

+1
I am not an active investor. After we retired and later had to take RMDs I made sure our investments were as reasonable and simplified as I could make them. A few years ago I even wrote instructions to "my future" me and my wife. They are for us to follow should I go first or unable to think clearly and to leave everything alone. It also includes how and from which investments to take living expenses. RMDs are also on auto-pilot with Vanguard.
I do like to check our investments a couple of times a month for fun (no adjustments from the plan) to keep my Excel spreadsheet updated. I trust my younger self of 5+ years ago to have made the best decisions than to rely on an increasingly fuzzy brain as I get older.

Cheers!

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by single2019 I find it hard to believe that some of you claim to look at your investments on a monthly/quarterly basis, but log in to this forum on a daily basis 😂

Why would that be hard to believe? For many years I only logged in once per month to record totals in my book. In retirement I have more responsibility, and a few accounts do need more attention.

[jollystomper]

I look at my investments in Quicken almost every day. I will look at the market every day, usually (if I am in the house) once in the morning and (if I am in the house) just before or after closing time. But I look with an abstract, humorous "okay, much did I 'gain' or 'lose' today" view. If the daily ups and downs caused me to panic or make sudden, rash decisions, I would never have retired in the first place .

[athena53]

Quote:

Originally Posted by single2019 I find it hard to believe that some of you claim to look at your investments on a monthly/quarterly basis, but log in to this forum on a daily basis 😂

I have a spreadsheet that calculates annualized IRR YTD by investment and when the market is heading up on a regular basis I tend to use it a couple of times a week. Times like these it's at the end of the month only. I've been though down cycles before. If you make sure to weed out the under-performers along the way, the good stuff will recover. No need to dwell on the decreases.

[Time2]

I have a yahoo page that tracks prices in almost real time. I'm on the computer daily and often click on the page to see what going on. I have 3 ETFs and 3 REIT stocks. I very rarely make any changes.
I do a quarterly net worth calculation on paper that I keep in a slot file next to my computer chair. It was started 1-1-2011, some amazing progress since then!!
Three more days and I'll do the next quarterly statement, it hasn't been as much fun this year.

[NW-Bound]

Being a contrarian, when I look at my positions every day and see that some go up and some go down, I ask myself if I should sell some of the ones that go up, and buy some more of the ones that go down. More often than not, I do neither.

I usually wait to see a trend, then sell OTM calls or OTM puts. It's a chicken way of betting on reversion to the mean, not on the entire market but on sector rotations.

It's the days when the whole market going up or the whole market going down that cause me to scratch my head. Why such elation? Why such gloominess? Is it warranted? It's an interesting thing to observe.

[Car-Guy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Time2 I have a yahoo page that tracks prices in almost real time.

I use Yahoo stock quotes too.. Great service for free... I have four separate groups on my front page that I watch. (a few ETF's, ~10 for swing trading stocks, the entire Dow 30 and another ~40 that I'm interested in. Their quotes are closer to real time (by 20 to 30 seconds) than the business channel on Fox news. I guess Fox has a broadcast delay...

[gamboolman]

ms gamboolgal and I will admit to looking everyday.

During this downturn we do wait till 5 o'clock... ha !

[MarieIG]

I could not access the article - w/o subscribing. A short summary beyond the title of the thread would have been helpful.

With regard to looking at accounts, I did not have time to view them often while working - but I do since retired. I am currently in the process of "house keeping" transferring funds for higher fixed income and buying treasuries. I also bit the bullet on an ugly mutual fund which I never should have bought in the first place, but didn't know better at the time. Allegedly, it's being sold and the money transferred to Vanguard (where it will be replaced by a broad based index fund, and be allowed to sit indefinitely).

[Koolau]

My quarterly reports are all I look at. Try to rebalance at RMD time. YMMV

[Graybeard]

In the final 7 or 8 years I was working, I checked my 401k daily. That was not good, on big up days the thrill was exhilarating but on the big down days that was depressing. I stopped that and would never look every day again.

I do an asset allocation check mid month and month end. One side of the sheet is just tax deferred to know what fund balances are for RMDs. The other side is everything for a total AA review. It's been pretty depressing for the past 6 months but it's just money!

[Koolau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graybeard In the final 7 or 8 years I was working, I checked my 401k daily. That was not good, on big up days the thrill was exhilarating but on the big down days that was depressing. I stopped that and would never look every day again. I do an asset allocation check mid month and month end. One side of the sheet is just tax deferred to know what fund balances are for RMDs. The other side is everything for a total AA review. It's been pretty depressing for the past 6 months but it's just money!

During a rough patch at megacorp, I was looking every day. I was trying to convince myself that I would be able to retire at the very earliest allowed by megacorp (age 51 in my case.) Once the rough patch passed, I more or less forgot to look (we did get a yearly statement which always surprised me at how much my stash had grown.) YMMV

[NW-Bound]

In the 90s, I was so busy with work at megacorp and also moonlighting at a startup that I went for at least 5 years without paying attention to my savings and 401k. Of course they grew, but if I paid some attention, would not have so much money sitting idle.

When I discovered my mistake, I swore never to neglect my financial affairs again. Even when traveling and not making trades, I still make the point of looking at the total daily figure as reported by Quicken.

With Internet connection worldwide, there's no reason not to, although when I was RV'ing in Alaska, did lose contact for several days.

[Koolau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound In the 90s, I was so busy with work at megacorp and also moonlighting at a startup that I went for at least 5 years without paying attention to my savings and 401k. Of course they grew, but if I paid some attention, would not have so much money sitting idle. When I discovered my mistake, I swore never to neglect my financial affairs again. Even when traveling and not making trades, I still make the point of looking at the total daily figure as reported by Quicken. With Internet connection worldwide, there's no reason not to, although when I was RV'ing in Alaska, did lose contact for several days.

Sorry, but checking every day begins to sound like a j*b to me. As long as I know I have enough, I don't need to be checking that often. Now, my money w*rks for me, not the other way around. YMMV

[NW-Bound]

Oh, but I think this job pays me well. And it is enjoyable too, just like my past engineering job.

Sold only 3 OTM covered calls today, but bought back 46 contracts for pennies. They were going to be worthless on Friday anyway, but might as well clear them off my book to get ready to sell the next batch.

[nobody]

I'm not an active trader. Have an app on my phone that gives me SP500, DJIA and VTI. I get a notification end of market day and can see what happened. Only look directly at my brokrage account maybe once every couple of months but I do check checking account daily.

[CyclingInvestor]

In my final job 1998-2006 I was (among other projects) programming stock price data feeds. One of my "test" programs was a tracker for my portfolio, with up to the second prices. I thought it was so cool to watch my own trades cross the ticker (these were stocks that only traded like once per minute) less than a second after submitting them.

[ERObjd]

I log in to my Vanguard and Fidelity about every month and of course when I buy more shares. My funds pretty much track with the Total Market and SP500, and since I do not have a tv and only listen to radio. .When the top of the hour news says markets stay the same or are up or down whatever %, then my funds are up or down accordingly. I have no need to log on to my accounts every day.

[pacergal]

I check how the market is doing on a daily basis. I check and print out our investment monthly balances on the first of every month, place them in my notebook. Finally got our IRA rollovers completed, adjusted to closer to 70/30 comfort level, now nothing to do but leave them be.

[F.I.R.E User]

I check it everyday on Mint.