tracking net worth versus stock market performances

[johndoe]

I just happened to notice how, in the last few years, the value of SPY and my net worth have lined up pretty close.  Kind of a funny coincidence... here are some datapoints (obviously not a total coincidence since that's where a lot of my net worth lives, but just the y-axes being exactly the same):


Apologies if this has been done before but I couldn't find anything in a search.  This makes me wonder if it may be useful in some way...or if I just like staring at numbers :)  The SPY value doesn't include reinvesting dividends.  Is there a better way to do this with Personal Capital?  The "performance" tab is cool, but it only counts your "investments", not your total net worth.

[Indexer]

My biggest investment is VTI(Vanguard Total Stock) so no surprise, my net worth tends to bounce around with VTI.

When you are stock heavy this is bound to happen.

Is there a better way to track your balance sheet(net worth)? I use a spreadsheet I update each month. Initially building it took time, but updating it each month only takes 5-10 minutes and it's really useful for looking back through time. I only use apps like mint(or personal capital) for tracking spending. I've found the net worth functions of each have flaws that eventually screw up the data.

[2sk22]

Is there a better way to track your balance sheet(net worth)? I use a spreadsheet I update each month. Initially building it took time, but updating it each month only takes 5-10 minutes and it's really useful for looking back through time. I only use apps like mint(or personal capital) for tracking spending. I've found the net worth functions of each have flaws that eventually screw up the data.

I have been using Quicken for many years to track my net worth. Its a bit pricy at $50 per year but I still find it to be worthwhile.

[Ichabod]

Apologies if this has been done before but I couldn't find anything in a search.  This makes me wonder if it may be useful in some way...or if I just like staring at numbers :)  The SPY value doesn't include reinvesting dividends.  Is there a better way to do this with Personal Capital?  The "performance" tab is cool, but it only counts your "investments", not your total net worth.

Re: Personal Capital. There's a net worth tab under banking, which includes non-investment assets and liabilities. I also thought the holdings tab under investment included additional contributions. Otherwise, I'm not sure what I'm looking at. Which is very possible.

Edit: I tried looking at their support, then googling it. It looks like I have this reversed where performance reflects your added contributions and holdings is tracking only the underlying assets. Still not 100% on it.

[johndoe]

I've found the net worth functions of each have flaws that eventually screw up the data.

Out of curiosity what flaws did you find in Personal Capital?  My biggest fear is one day it goes away (at least in a free format).

Re: Personal Capital. There's a net worth tab under banking, which includes non-investment assets and liabilities. I also thought the holdings tab under investment included additional contributions. Otherwise, I'm not sure what I'm looking at. Which is very possible.

Edit: I tried looking at their support, then googling it. It looks like I have this reversed where performance reflects your added contributions and holdings is tracking only the underlying assets. Still not 100% on it.

I think holdings will tell you how well what you're currently holding performed, whereas performance takes out contributions and actually shows your...performance :)

[Indexer]

I've found the net worth functions of each have flaws that eventually screw up the data.

Out of curiosity what flaws did you find in Personal Capital?  My biggest fear is one day it goes away (at least in a free format).

Ever change banks, investment firms, credit cards, pay off a loan or mortgage? When you close the old account aggregation services like Mint and Personal Capital lose their connection to the data. That means years worth of transactions, balances, etc. disappear. If you are only using them to track expenses in the short term it's easy to work around, but using them to track changes in your net worth over time runs a risk you could lose a lot of data.

It isn't just closing accounts. What if one of the companies you have an account with stops making data available to data aggregation services?