Author Topic: How often do you check your assets?  (Read 3446 times)

Weisass

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How often do you check your assets?
« on: September 09, 2019, 01:40:00 PM »
Hi there! I have been lurking for a couple years and finally decided to dive in, and there’s this one question I have, and that is: how often do you find yourself “checking in” on your accounts? I started using personal capital two years ago, and I love how it aggregates everything, but one potential downside seems to be the temptation to constantly check my spending, my investments, etc etc. I find myself going on every evening, and recently my husband teased me about it, which made me wonder: what is the average person’s practice?

TVRodriguez

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2019, 01:43:14 PM »
I check in pretty much daily.  We experienced fraud on a bank account once and on credit cards several times, and I'm ever vigilant.  It only takes a minute, so it's not really a time-suck, IMHO.

BECABECA

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #2 on: September 09, 2019, 01:44:25 PM »
I check about once a month to manually update my net worth & budget spreadsheet. I have to log onto each account in order to get these numbers, so I’m discouraged from doing it every day. I do have stock tickers on my phone that I typically look at daily, so I have a general sense of if it’s going to be good news or bad news when I update the numbers for that month.

six-car-habit

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #3 on: September 09, 2019, 01:51:36 PM »
 Maybe once every month or two.  But i have most of my money tied up in one account, and getting spouse to look at theirs is like pulling teeth [ partly because i say " you need to save more' ] .   I don't look at house values because we still have a lot left on the mortgage, and do not plan on moving for 10 yrs or more, so the house value is not important at this stage, we have "positive" equity.

  I do look at my liabilty once a month as well - vehicular....

  If i look more often, i get more anxious, as my main savings vehicle has a large component tied up in stocks, and i cant control the swings in the market. But i feel crappy if the # goes down. Now that the # in the account is big enough - if cashed out-  to pay taxes on it, and pay off our house [ assuming i perish ] - i don't feel the need to check as often.

ender

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #4 on: September 09, 2019, 02:56:54 PM »
I find the more we have saved, the less I check.

When I first started I was obsessed with checking account balances. Now, I even forget to check to add to our tracking spreadsheet occasionally.

Rdy2Fire

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #5 on: September 09, 2019, 03:00:25 PM »
Recently (since not working) I had been checking it pretty ch every day or two but then the twitter effect had been bumming me out so I stopped

JLee

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #6 on: September 09, 2019, 03:01:17 PM »
About once a month.

thesis

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #7 on: September 09, 2019, 03:46:03 PM »
Every couple of days. It's fun seeing the pile that's grown over the past 3 years. It's less interesting these days just because "the market" is so dumb from a daily perspective that those little fluctuations just become slightly annoying and don't give me a good indication of how the money is really growing.

WhiteTrashCash

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #8 on: September 09, 2019, 04:17:37 PM »
Daily, but I am currently in the accumulation phase, so I tend to watch carefully right now.

Swish

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #9 on: September 09, 2019, 05:08:09 PM »
I have a spreadsheet I update weekly and plot net worth debt and investment progress and tally spending monthly. We didn't really have a specific goal when I started tracking it but just by tracking we started to be a lot more conscious about our spending and it has worked out well. The first 9 years together we accumulated the same net worth as we did in the last 2 years since we started tracking. Conversations like did you know we spent x on that last year led to conversations like "that is the same as a trip to here" or "I could retire x years earlier if we kicked that expense". I have historically been an invest instead of pay off debt. Since I have started tracking all of our debt is on a pretty aggressive plan counter to how I believed I was.

Uturn

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #10 on: September 09, 2019, 05:41:50 PM »
I log into Personal Capital every Friday.  This is mostly to check the week's CC charges.  Twice in the last 4 years, I have found fraudulent charges.  If all are legit, I then log into the bank and transfer from checking to CC, and bill pay anything that might have come in that week.  Although I'm not specifically checking net worth, I can't help but see it.  Early on, I had my house and car values in Personal Capital, but have removed them.  The house value fluctuated too much.  Depreciating items such as vehicles are just not tracked.  In my mind, that money is gone on purchase day. 

ctuser1

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #11 on: September 09, 2019, 08:28:32 PM »
Haven't checked since last Oct (10/2018).

I'm much happier that way!!

I hear Mr. Market has done some crazy things since then. What do I care? I don't have an imminent FI -> RE date set!!


Ynari

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #12 on: September 09, 2019, 08:57:22 PM »
Spending: Once a week or so will log into YNAB to see if anything looks funky. Good to watch for fraud, and easier to categorize transactions that aren't obvious (like if we made a local purchase via squarecash, and we don't categorize it for a month, we usually forget what it was.)

Assets: Once a month with my paycheck, to make sure automatic payments have gone through, and to manually update amounts in 403b/457/etc (I forget if it doesn't play nice with auto update, or if I just never bothered). I don't bother tracking the volatility, just the contributions. I'll true up every now and then (once or twice a year?) just because I feel like it.

Sometimes I ogle the net worth graph, but it gets boring when each month is more or less the same. I kind of miss when it needed to be tracked more. Really feel like we're on autopilot.

Kris

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #13 on: September 09, 2019, 09:01:12 PM »
Rarely. Our assets are pretty stable.

But sometimes I look, just for fun. And because it makes me happy.

Travis

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #14 on: September 09, 2019, 09:02:45 PM »
I look at checking/credit cards every couple days to sync my ledgers, but I look at investments on the 1st of the month.

Zikoris

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #15 on: September 09, 2019, 09:03:06 PM »
I review everything in Mint daily, but not like really delve into it, just skim over it and correct any transactions that need it. I dig in more for month-end accounting, and really get into it for my annual financial report.

BlueHouse

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #16 on: September 10, 2019, 01:22:55 PM »
Multiple times per day.  I'm really trying to find a way to reduce my time to FI without changing anything about my kinda-spendy lifestyle. 

GuitarStv

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #17 on: September 10, 2019, 01:25:30 PM »
I check our credit card statements and bank account every month or so.  I check our investments three or four times a year.

JSMustachian

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #18 on: September 10, 2019, 02:00:54 PM »
I update mine once a month usually. Maybe more often if I know my accounts are reaching record highs from contributions or market gains. 

EvenSteven

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #19 on: September 10, 2019, 02:34:04 PM »
+1 to all the monthly spread sheet updaters.

I exclude the value of my house and cars, and assume the depreciation of the cars equals the appreciation of the house.

DeniseNJ

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #20 on: September 10, 2019, 02:54:58 PM »
Multiple times per day.  I'm really trying to find a way to reduce my time to FI without changing anything about my kinda-spendy lifestyle.
Once you figure that out, feel free to share!

I check Mint daily.  Getting carried away with it.  I really just need to update transactions, see what bills need paying, etc., but I find myself staring at the numbers willing some to go up and others to go down.  I think I need to reduce to once per week.

caracarn

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #21 on: September 10, 2019, 03:06:50 PM »
I check daily.  We use YNAB for budget management and have done so for the last 5 years.  Currently about about 150 Age of Money and over 100 days for buffer even after I intentionally stepped back to a job that paid 40% less than what I made before, so we still have a good cushion over the average American who lives paycheck to paycheck.  So I am not checking to see if our NW went up, but just because I am managing our finances.  Now if you asked how often I log in and check our investment accounts?  Once a year when it is time to rebalance, and many years not enough movement to do anything so a 5 minute exercise.

chaskavitch

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #22 on: September 10, 2019, 04:57:01 PM »
I check almost daily.  We track our expenses manually in Google Sheets (which I honestly enjoy), so I log in and update any transactions since the last time I logged in.  We're also in the process of buying a lot of things (house, solar panels, tractor, water heater, etc), so I'm making sure I've moved enough money from Ally savings to our checking account to pay for things as they come up.

Also I just like looking :)  Other than the crazy few months of buying things, we're definitely in an accumulation phase, and I enjoy seeing how things grow over time, even with the variations of the market.

bbqbonelesswing

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #23 on: September 10, 2019, 07:20:00 PM »
I tend to check multiple times per day if I'm in front of my computer. Lately, I've been trying to cut back and just update my balance sheet once per week. It's tough to step away and let the machine run.

LightStache

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #24 on: September 10, 2019, 07:42:02 PM »
Once or twice daily. It's how I relax in the morning and evening ... in the morning I see which ACH transactions cleared overnight and in the evening I check to see market action for the day.

So I kinda enjoy it, seeing the money move around according to my master plan muahhahaaa!

Car Jack

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #25 on: September 11, 2019, 07:53:10 AM »
I check investments maybe every other work day on average.  I don't keep track of spending other than looking over credit card transactions, looking for anything unusual or keeping track of rewards or marking cards that need to be used to keep them up for tradeline sales.  My investments are all documented in an excel spread sheet on a flash drive.  I tend to only update that when the market goes up.  So maybe once a week on average.

Trudie

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #26 on: September 11, 2019, 10:31:10 PM »
Daily.  Mostly to check for fraud and make sure that all of our dividends are getting reinvested and not sitting around in cash.

Probably too damn often, TBH.  But habits are hard to break.

pdxmonkey

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #27 on: September 12, 2019, 12:53:16 AM »
I generally check almost daily if/when markets are up. I record the date I cross major milestones in the upward direction. I don't check as often when markets are going down because I don't record when I pass the same milestones on the way down. I do still check probably at least 2x a week when a week is down all 5 days. Probably once during the week and then after the markets closer on Friday. Can't do any panic selling that way.

Also.... I check significantly less when on vacation even if it's a staycation.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2019, 12:54:59 AM by pdxmonkey »

RWD

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #28 on: September 12, 2019, 06:36:04 AM »
Every other week when I enter my paycheck into GnuCash.

ddoren

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #29 on: September 12, 2019, 06:55:07 AM »
A few years ago, I found myself checking my net worth too often (1x/day)

To balance the need to look over daily transactions and net worth, I began using Mint for day-to-day transactions and Personal Capital for a look at the total landscape.

Now I have a good balance of monitoring credit cards/checking (1x/day) and total net worth (1x/qtr)

DadJokes

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #30 on: September 12, 2019, 06:55:48 AM »
Way too much, and it's unhealthy.

I would prefer to do it once per month. Sometimes I do that, but I was close to a milestone (100k), so I've been checking it daily for the last couple weeks. Maybe now that I've crossed that milestone, it'll be easier to not obsess over it for a while.

iris lily

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #31 on: September 12, 2019, 11:00:18 AM »
Each year we complete a snapshot  inventory of our assets as of December 31.

Over the past 15 years I seldom look at any one investment outside of that measure. A recent exception was when I just happened to open mailing of a quarterly report on my retirement account (usually DH just confiscates that stuff) and found that balance $20,000 higher than I last remembered. That gave me the impetus to go out and buy the red roadster I have been wanting forever.

I do however check the Dow almost dailey to get the overall health of the market.

iris lily

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #32 on: September 12, 2019, 11:05:42 AM »
Oh by “accounts” I guess the OP means  checking account, credit account, etc? Imconsider these the micro-accounts, the daily activity accounts to run our life.

DH handles the micro-accounting work in our household. So, the literal answer is
I NEVER check our checking and savings account because DH does that. I review my credit card statement for accuracy each month.

iris lily

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #33 on: September 12, 2019, 11:07:05 AM »
Way too much, and it's unhealthy.

I would prefer to do it once per month. Sometimes I do that, but I was close to a milestone (100k), so I've been checking it daily for the last couple weeks. Maybe now that I've crossed that milestone, it'll be easier to not obsess over it for a while.

 It then, if you are that close, you can dip below the $100,000 mark again in fluctuating markets.

Stop looking at it!  :)

Rosy

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #34 on: September 12, 2019, 11:40:46 AM »
Savings and investments - monthly.
The budget - depends, right now I'm devising a new plan and testing the waters - so I check a couple of times a week, but on average I check at least twice a month to see if all is well or if I want to make an adjustment.

I think starting in January that will all change to once a month since I've reached all my goals, there is nothing to hover over anymore - all that is left is an easy autosave on the back burner.
Then again, there may be projects that require monitoring, so the budget might get scrutinized more often until all is finished.

Sugaree

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #35 on: September 12, 2019, 12:01:07 PM »
Bank accounts and credit card account:  Once or twice a week.  In theory, my spreadsheet is set up so that I can look at it on payday and immediately see everything that needs to be paid.  Once those are done I don't have to worry about it for another two weeks.  In reality, I will pay off credit cards nearly as soon as the charge hits and balance my bank accounts against that transaction.

Retirement accounts:  I'll check on those once a month when I update my net worth and retirement tracking worksheets.  Instead of maxing out my IRA in January this year, I split it up into bi-weekly deposits, so I do check on those a little more often, just to make sure they went in.

Weisass

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #36 on: September 12, 2019, 12:33:31 PM »
A few years ago, I found myself checking my net worth too often (1x/day)

To balance the need to look over daily transactions and net worth, I began using Mint for day-to-day transactions and Personal Capital for a look at the total landscape.

Now I have a good balance of monitoring credit cards/checking (1x/day) and total net worth (1x/qtr)

This is actually really sensible, and gets at my motivation for the question. I don’t want to feel like a dragon watching her hoard, but I do like monitoring activity.

MrThatsDifferent

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #37 on: September 12, 2019, 01:26:57 PM »
Daily, but I am currently in the accumulation phase, so I tend to watch carefully right now.

This is what I do and why, and it’s helped me see that this actually works. I make money for doing nothing except investing it. When it goes down I take a week or so break cause it bums me out to see losses, but then it comes back up.

pdxmonkey

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #38 on: September 12, 2019, 10:54:28 PM »
A few years ago, I found myself checking my net worth too often (1x/day)

To balance the need to look over daily transactions and net worth, I began using Mint for day-to-day transactions and Personal Capital for a look at the total landscape.

Now I have a good balance of monitoring credit cards/checking (1x/day) and total net worth (1x/qtr)

This is actually really sensible, and gets at my motivation for the question. I don’t want to feel like a dragon watching her hoard, but I do like monitoring activity.

I use mint for both. So when I'm in checking transactions is usually when I take a peek at the nw when things are down. Today i crossed my original goal # from many years ago. That was in $ back then though and i crossed it in today's $ so I'm not too my adjusted for inflation goal number yet, but it feels good. Probably about 2 more years to go and 350 -450 checks between now and then...

Calimerostache

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #39 on: September 12, 2019, 11:28:05 PM »
Once or twice daily. It's how I relax in the morning and evening ... in the morning I see which ACH transactions cleared overnight and in the evening I check to see market action for the day.

So I kinda enjoy it, seeing the money move around according to my master plan muahhahaaa!

+1 to this
Do Mint for the expenses/budgeting part
And personal capital for the net worth evolution.

Zola.

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #40 on: September 13, 2019, 07:14:19 AM »
Stocks about once a week, update NW every month..

Morning Glory

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #41 on: September 13, 2019, 07:55:08 AM »
I look at my Mint every day to monitor transactions and check for fraud. I might look at husband's Mint account every couple months and the stuff that doesn't talk to Mint twice a year.

35andFI

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #42 on: September 13, 2019, 08:03:05 AM »
I check personal capital daily. Sometimes a few times a day just for the fun of it.

I like to look at all of my accounts and make sure that everything looks as expected.

I update my Excel workbook on a monthly basis for everything but stuff for tracking paychecks (that's done bi-weekly when I get paid).

sparkytheop

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #43 on: September 13, 2019, 08:59:48 AM »
I go through my credit union and credit card accounts at least 1x/week to make sure I've put everything into YNAB.

I'm so incredibly close to a personal goal ($500k in retirement accounts when 40, I just missed "by 40" so updated the wording of my goal, lol.)  One or two good market days will make the goal happen, so I'm checking way more than I normally would (every couple days).  Once I hit the goal, I'll go back to only checking it once a month or so.  I know it will go back down even after I hit it, and I'm not worried about that at all, I just want to make it!  I'd probably already be there, but I reduced my contributions to just matching this year so that I could have more cash to use now.

MatthewK

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Re: How often do you check your assets?
« Reply #44 on: September 13, 2019, 09:18:56 AM »
Credit card/bank account= once or twice a week

Investment/Assets= every 3 months. I used to check these more often, obsessively, but decided to dial it back. I try to tune out the noise and am much calmer now.