Author Topic: How often do you calculate your networth  (Read 8603 times)

NorCal

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1464
Re: How often do you calculate your networth
« Reply #50 on: October 31, 2018, 09:45:02 AM »
My net worth updates daily in Quicken.  I keep a pretty close eye on it, as well as spending.  I don't pay too much attention to the ups and downs of the market, although this pull-back has been much more noticeable (mostly because I have more invested).

I update the value of my illiquid assets (house, cars) once a year in January. 

OzzieandHarriet

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1180
Re: How often do you calculate your networth
« Reply #51 on: October 31, 2018, 10:00:22 PM »
I've been checking it about once a month for the past three years. I was afraid to look this month, but finally did it today - we lost about $100k (!). And DH just retired last week.

However, we don't have plans to change anything. We're basically 60/40 across all accounts.

MustacheAndaHalf

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 6633
Re: How often do you calculate your networth
« Reply #52 on: November 01, 2018, 01:40:05 AM »
A spreadsheet calculates my net worth every time I visit it.  But I'm not looking at the number so much as the delta.  If markets have dropped, then it might be time to rebalance into the recently cheaper stocks.

Villanelle

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 6657
Re: How often do you calculate your networth
« Reply #53 on: November 01, 2018, 01:52:19 AM »
Literally never.

And if you are talking about more of a "stache" calculation--invested or other assets that will be used for living expenses in retirement, I suppose the true answer there is also never, but about 95% of that is in the portfolio trackign spreadsheet I use, which does have a formula and a tiny box way at the bottom that adds everything up, along with a few other calculations (like the amount it will be in x years at y% growth and w years at z% growth).  I added those just because when I was building the spreadsheet I was having fun including every bell and whistle.  But I don't check those every time I update the sheet, and a few of our stashe assets aren't included (like our two rental properties, for example). 

I just don't care, especially about net worth.  If I sold my car and my tv and my sofa and my computer, I'd have $X.  But I don't plan on selling any of those things (and in fact will replace all of them when they die) so what good does knowing the value of X do me?  And as for my stache amount?  It's nice to have a rough idea of what things look like, but retirement for DH and I is based on some career goals for him, not on getting to a specific number.  By the time he reaches those goals, there's almost no way (outside of a catastrophic market collapse) we won't be at well more than the stashe amount we need.  And fluctuations in the value of that stache don't trigger any actions according to my personal investing plan, so what's the point?

sol

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8433
  • Age: 47
  • Location: Pacific Northwest
Re: How often do you calculate your networth
« Reply #54 on: November 01, 2018, 08:25:12 AM »
I tally our financial assets once per month, plus or minus a few days whenever I get around to it.

More frequently than that and I think your signal to noise ratio is too low.  Less frequently than that and it's hard to stay motivated about your progress towards FI.

I'm a red panda

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8186
  • Location: United States
Re: How often do you calculate your networth
« Reply #55 on: November 01, 2018, 08:45:02 AM »
We lost a comma this month :(

I would have gone crazy if we looked at it daily with all the bumps this month.

BoonDogle

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 152
Re: How often do you calculate your networth
« Reply #56 on: November 01, 2018, 08:48:58 AM »
Quarterly.  Got in the habit of doing it quarterly when the balances were much smaller and didn't change as much from one quarter to the next.  Have bigger swings now but it still seems like the right balance for tracking but not obsessing.

JLee

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7512
Re: How often do you calculate your networth
« Reply #57 on: November 01, 2018, 08:53:34 AM »
Once a month, when I posted in the race to $xxx thread.

moneytaichi

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 247
  • Location: Southern California
Re: How often do you calculate your networth
« Reply #58 on: November 03, 2018, 09:15:08 PM »
Doing it this way allowed me to change my networth from -$89,000 (student loans are a b*tch) to +$1,300 in 20 months.

Congratulations @specialkayme ! Great job! I found tracking my networth in my early wealth accumulation stage really motivated to pay off the mortgage and save extra. Now I think I need to switch the focus on expenses after FIRE.

moneytaichi

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 247
  • Location: Southern California
Re: How often do you calculate your networth
« Reply #59 on: November 03, 2018, 09:18:14 PM »
I've been checking it about once a month for the past three years. I was afraid to look this month, but finally did it today - we lost about $100k (!). And DH just retired last week.

However, we don't have plans to change anything. We're basically 60/40 across all accounts.

Keep breathing... Our loss is huge too. But I feel comforted with my earlier decisions on cash reserve for a year in the bank, bonds for the next tier. Bad markets are especially valuable for validating your withdrawal assumptions.

RWD

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 6529
  • Location: Arizona
Re: How often do you calculate your networth
« Reply #60 on: November 03, 2018, 09:50:49 PM »
Every Friday I officially record my NW and do averages and projections.  Been doing that since 2001. 

I used to look daily with Quicken but I refuse to buy the upgrade only for its automatic downloads of stock prices.  I have to update prices manually so that is only weekly now.  I always manually entered 401K deposits and dividends into Quicken, never did the automatic linking of accounts there.  I have never done Mint or Personal Capital either because I don't trust them with all my financial accounts with account numbers and passwords.  I am kind of a luddite on that stuff even though I know that is the future.  I have a few single stocks and the rest are mutual funds so it is not like updating dozens of data points.   

GnuCash (which is free) will grab quotes semi-automatically. Once you have it set up you click the get quotes button whenever you want to grab the most recent prices for all your stocks/funds/currencies. Though since Yahoo shut down its API it hasn't always worked as smoothly as it used to.

OzzieandHarriet

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1180
Re: How often do you calculate your networth
« Reply #61 on: November 04, 2018, 10:55:40 AM »
I've been checking it about once a month for the past three years. I was afraid to look this month, but finally did it today - we lost about $100k (!). And DH just retired last week.

However, we don't have plans to change anything. We're basically 60/40 across all accounts.

Keep breathing... Our loss is huge too. But I feel comforted with my earlier decisions on cash reserve for a year in the bank, bonds for the next tier. Bad markets are especially valuable for validating your withdrawal assumptions.

It's not a loss until you sell!

We have about 3 months' cash in savings + checking and another ~ 18 months' funds in after-tax accounts, and we're both going to be earning combined probably a couple thousand $/month (DH is planning to work 1-2 days per week at the place he just retired from as a part-time on call IC, and I have some self-employed work) so shouldn't have to draw on any of the big accounts for another couple of years.

We really need to find a tax advisor/financial planner to go over all this stuff with us soon so we have a plan for how to withdraw after that. But I am dragging my feet on spending that much money for advice.

Sunshinewhenitrains

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 12
Re: How often do you calculate your networth
« Reply #62 on: November 04, 2018, 08:21:40 PM »
I do my budget every month.

I undertake one or two focused action steps to increase my net worth every month.

However, I only update my net worth sheet once a year.

You have to plant seeds to get the fruit.

It takes time for the fruit to grow.

Looking at my net worth monthly would depress me, because it's too soon to see progress, and too easy to get hung up on market fluctuations. 




shingy

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 70
Re: How often do you calculate your networth
« Reply #63 on: November 05, 2018, 06:05:52 PM »
I make updates to my net worth spreadsheet as needed (typically only when I buy or sell stocks) and do a full update with all of my account balances twice a year in Jan and July. Anything more often then quarterly seems like a bit much :)