Hi all,
I can't figure out an easy way to view my actual investment gains/losses in my schwab funds, given that I reinvest my dividends.
Schwab presents gains and losses based on the cost basis. The cost basis acts as if reinvested dividends are money that I put into the account. I know that is technically true, since I could take the dividends and run. I get why cost basis is relevant for tax purposes. However, if I take $7,283 (or some random number) from my checking account and put it into a schwab fund with automatic dividend reinvestment, I want be able to look at it x months later and quickly know how much I made on that $7,283 from both dividends and growth.
I became frustrated with schwab telling me at a glance that I'm down $1,000s of dollars based on my cost basis, when I was actually up $1,000s of dollars if you look at how much money I actually put in originally.
My method right now is to invest in multiple of 10s so I know at a quick glance how much I'm up or down, and to manually track how much money I put in to date and what the current value is in an excel spreadsheet.
Why can't I just log into schwab and know how much I'm making on my investments? Am I missing something?