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Around the World => UK Discussion => Topic started by: Monkeytennis on June 10, 2018, 02:49:31 AM

Title: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: Monkeytennis on June 10, 2018, 02:49:31 AM: I’m still ~7 years off fire (I’m 37 years old), but I’d find myself updating my investment / net worth spreadsheet twice a month and checking many of my investments daily, this is pretty irrationally ans potentially counter productive but I was wondering if anyone else had this habit?
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: never give up on June 10, 2018, 02:57:15 AM: I would be like this for sure but when I joined this forum and read more about investments I vowed not to be. It seems at odds with the buy and hold long term approach. I check and update my ISA holdings quarterly and my pension holdings every six months. That’s it. No deliberate looking at what the markets are doing in between or logging in to my accounts allowed. It has stopped a lot of worrying and more importantly tweaking, timing and fiddling that’s for sure.
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: itchyfeet on June 10, 2018, 03:58:54 AM: I cant help myself. I keep looking most days at my brokerage account.

Sometimes I can go a whole week without checking if I am busy with work and life, but if I am vegetating on the sofa I will invariably have a quick peak.

I only make transactions maybe once every 2 months to add a little more to the pile, so looking or not looking changes nothing. I am certainly not going to sell anything and I keep my mix of investments roughly same %s.

I also check property auction results for my city every Sat night, and follow quite closely the home price indexes for the cities I own houses in. Again, not likely to sell anything for at least 3-5 years so pretty pointless looking every week.
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: RetirementInvestingToday on June 10, 2018, 05:10:06 AM: I've updated my financial position (spending, saving, investment returns, current wealth etc) weekly since late 2007. I've found it an incredible motivator to stay the FIRE course. Particularly when you see charts like this:
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-caXdycTmWGs/WloC7oK7RhI/AAAAAAAADrk/z3HttV42bicyNnB1f6F0JYFv3gtsXo1VQCK4BGAYYCw/s400/180113-7.png)

It also helps you then build relevant charts like:
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_4YvgACxcHU/WloCv9n9X9I/AAAAAAAADq0/pCu6oWn2UeYVZcb1Ep-R6IFvfXyVmr7HACK4BGAYYCw/s400/180113-1.png)
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Pl6xFQRwXqE/WloCwx2-HhI/AAAAAAAADq8/OngU_Mds6ZAOvglVlbmXF33LTV3e2wrvgCK4BGAYYCw/s320/180113-2.png)
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fDmjRpQFHw0/WloC0NZZ7NI/AAAAAAAADrE/CPpyDL7wLoMNh8i1gjCnDcnuTdJUsTdQACK4BGAYYCw/s400/180113-3.png)
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ScBRIQcM2Ms/WloC1XNkehI/AAAAAAAADrM/A19ca8Fn42QahMCXilgdrYnpu7zsAMdyACK4BGAYYCw/s400/180113-4.png)
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tg74vwhz3Qs/WloC4fqTqYI/AAAAAAAADrU/Rbv3dQ_idkgqvTB9SYIcBDfHTucH7NXnQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/180113-5.png)
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DKKRXHrzmKc/WloC6LZh4nI/AAAAAAAADrc/12T38Il5RYEMxdJYx1NfiOAWiZyu67gwACK4BGAYYCw/s400/180113-6.png)
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: PhilB on June 10, 2018, 08:41:50 AM: You need to find the method that works for you. I log data weekly on a chart (though not as sophisticated as RIT!) I find that has really helped me get used to the ups and downs of the market and not sweat too much when it dips. This probably wouldn't work for you if you were going to totally panic at every dip, and if you were completely blasé about things then you might not need it. For me it's been a bit like curing a phobia via regular exposure!
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: beattie228 on June 10, 2018, 03:53:38 PM: I tinker with spreadsheets and log my net worth monthly on the 1st. I check my accounts daily out of habit but I don't make any changes to my allocation or plan based on what the markets are doing. As others mentioned, you've got to find what works for you.
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: cerat0n1a on June 11, 2018, 03:56:42 AM: In spite of saving/investing since 2000, I didn't track net worth at all, and only checked individual investments irregularly (every few years in some cases) - classic buy & forget investor. I started doing an annual net worth calculation (on a piece of paper) in about 2013, found MMM in 2015 and realised that I wasn't too far away from FIRE status. It wasn't until the start of 2018 that I made a spreadsheet and started tracking monthly though.

I think I would have found it very difficult psychologically to have been checking too often and/or counting down only 7 years to go, or whatever.
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: katekat on June 11, 2018, 04:08:12 AM: I check every day, unless I'm away or something. I realise this is a terrible answer and that a watched pot never boils, but it's sooo difficult to stay away and so far I don't really suffer for it. I don't 'track' anywhere at the moment, though, unless you count irregularly posting amounts I've reached in my journal here, I just like to know a current snapshot in my head.
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: melanie2008 on June 11, 2018, 04:54:14 AM: I have mine on personal capital (I don't know if that works for the UK) so I check them pretty much everyday. I don't think I need to, but I do find it encouraging even though sometimes it goes down or is stable.
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: Zola. on June 11, 2018, 05:14:37 AM: I check my S&S ISA about once a month.

I am in my internet banking every day at the moment, as I am tracking all my spends to try to lower expenses etc.
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: FIFTWUK on June 11, 2018, 10:28:24 PM: I check my ISA balance twice a week or so; I guess it's a mixture of nervousness at the start of the FI journey, interest in how different funds react to bulls* political news and identifying drops in the fund prices to put my next chunk in.
Atm I'm not so worried about 'asset allocation' in my ISA, I'm more or less buying the cheapest of the 3 main funds (World, Europe excl. UK and Emerging Markets).

I check my SIPP every now and then, just to update to my contributions; I don't actually update the fund values. I think this came about a year ago when I switched from 40% gross salary to 9% contributions (I wasn't maxing out my ISA at the time).
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: Zola. on June 13, 2018, 03:42:32 AM: What funds are you in FIFTWUK?

I just have Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Acc.
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: FIFTWUK on June 13, 2018, 04:28:49 AM: Quote from: Zola. on June 13, 2018, 03:42:32 AM
What funds are you in FIFTWUK?

I just have Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Acc.
I'm currently mainly invested in
- Fidelity Index World Fund P GBP Income (0.12% charge, 1.08 Sharpe, 92.7% R-squared, 1.11 Beta and -0.6 Alpha),
- HSBC European Index Fund Income C (0.07% charge, 0.78 Sharpe, 93.8% R-squared, 1.01 Beta and 0.42 Alpha),
- Fidelity Index Emerging Markets P Income (0.20% charge, 0.68 Sharpe, 96.8% R-squared, 1.02 Beta and -0.53 Alpha),
and I do recognize I might need to look into how often Fidelity and HSBC rebalance their portfolios. Vanguard apparently does it daily, which would in my mind justify the higher cost, and I might use their equivalents going forward.

Don't get me wrong, I have my small share of UK FTSE trackers, even a bit in the Vanguard LifeStrategy, but the above currently fit my preferences. I am 100% equity in my ISA, have a few month cash stash in high interest current accounts/promotion savers and the majority is invested in my property (I'm going to remortgage from Feb next year so I'm hoping there are still some good deals around).
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: Watch them all fall down on June 13, 2018, 02:56:12 PM: I check every three months, as some dividends are not paid monthly. Very easy to "scare" yourself to death if you look at stock market prices just because Donald Trump has opened his motor mouth and global prices take a temporary dip.

Keep going people, that feeling you get when you can tell the boss where to go is fantastic :)
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: Zola. on June 14, 2018, 02:55:48 AM: Why would you choose Dividends over Accumulation?

Only if you have a huge amount invested?
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: FIFTWUK on June 14, 2018, 02:59:27 AM: Quote from: Zola. on June 14, 2018, 02:55:48 AM
Why would you choose Dividends over Accumulation?

Only if you have a huge amount invested?
I use it (1) to see what the income actually is (to give me an idea on how many assets I'd have to sell when FI) and (2) to reinvest in the cheapest fund at the time (helps with rebalancing as well).
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: Zola. on June 19, 2018, 07:17:13 AM: At what point should one consider having dividends?

I only have just under £10,000 invested in my S&S ISA at this stage.
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: Playing with Fire UK on June 24, 2018, 02:08:54 AM: Quote from: Zola. on June 19, 2018, 07:17:13 AM
At what point should one consider having dividends?

I only have just under £10,000 invested in my S&S ISA at this stage.

IMO, when you get beyond ISAs and start investing in taxable accounts. Both because of the absolute value vs the time it takes to rebalance and because it is SOOOOOO much easier to measure any tax calculations.

Ignore anyone that recommends using Acc funds rather than Inc to avoid tax. They are well-meaning but wrong.
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: 2Birds1Stone on June 24, 2018, 04:33:02 AM: Every day.
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: DreamFIRE on June 24, 2018, 08:34:53 AM: A few times per week, mostly late in the day when the market is up after the online balances are updated.
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: skip207 on June 24, 2018, 01:02:48 PM: I check my accounts once a week or so, maybe twice a week if bored.

I update my excel sheets once a month (last day of the month) and thats it.

I dont generally touch my actual funds / investments, unless something major happens. I rebalanced my SIPP 2 years ago. Might be due another look in a year or so.
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: Playing with Fire UK on July 01, 2018, 02:07:55 AM: I used to check mine daily or weekly. I now maybe check quarterly and I'm sooooooooooooo much more chilled about it. I'd highly recommend it to my past self.
Title: Re: How often do you check your savings / investments
Post by: sea_saw on July 03, 2018, 04:16:21 AM: When I first started investing I dropped some money in, paid close attention for a few weeks (up! Down! Up! Gosh), then checked on it monthly for a few months, then life happened and I basically ignored it for almost two years. Then I unexpectedly wanted the money to buy a house, and sold everything. I was very lucky that 1) I caught a good few years there, and 2) my portfolio did about as well as if I had rebalanced to my original allocations - I checked retrospectively because I felt really guilty about not doing it 'properly' and wanted to face the music!

Since then I'm starting from scratch, and my portfolio is currently tiny (in the hundreds) which makes it all very low stress ;). But I've set up a system where on a quarterly basis I log in, make new contributions/rebalance if necessary, and update my records. It's only been two quarters so far, but I'm hopeful it's a routine that should work well long term, and that I'll get some practice with the emotional side of investing as my portfolio grows.