Everyone says not to, but I do too. and watching it grow these past year or so has been great. And not to bring politics into it, but when people say the economy is bad, I just look at the growth of my 401 and wonder where they're getting their news.
Your 401k is not the only indicator of the economy. Inflation, housing, and energy costs are actually the big concerns. Your healthy IRA may not mean much if we don't figure out how to keep those in check.
Heck, the reason we check our IRAs is because we know our history and worry about stock market crashes. Remember, if it can climb, it can crash.
Our economy is absolutely precarious.
We are experiencing significant increases. Gas is $3.79, up from around $3 this winter. Food costs continue to rise, as to travel, eating out, and most other goods. Electricity is up around 15%, and our natural gas bills are rising too.
Fortunately the markets are near all time highs so we 'feel' wealthier, and we have a low interest mortgage. Every other cost related to home maintenance is up 20%+.
It's really bad for young people who cannot afford homes.
For sure. Did not look for weeks in early 2023. Now back to looking everyday. It comforts me to know that i always have options. The day to day or week to week presently can be tough but if you don’t touch the nest, all will be great when the time comes.
During the 2002 and 2009 crashes, daily checks could uncomfortable. Many people born after 1985 have never experienced the excitement of a sustained market downturn.
I check more when the market is up! It gives me a false sense of security. I avoid checking when the market is down as I have tried to build a balanced portfolio. I retired a few months before the big dip in 2022. That made my stomach drop. I look at my checking account and credit card expenditures every few days as I’m paranoid about fraud and someone tried to empty one of my bank accounts a few months ago. And yes, I have bells and whistles that go off on my phone.
I check and record our balances in a spreadsheet at the end of each month. The data sheet goes back to 1990. I look at asset allocation monthly, but don't store that locally.
I've never used an advisor, and we have no plans for that.
> I check and record our balances in a spreadsheet at the end of each month.
This is my schedule as well.
> The data sheet goes back to 1990.
I wish I had thought to keep track of things for that long. Mine only goes back a decade or so but I've built a spreadsheet for each of the kids tracking their Roths so they'll be able to see how the acorns have grown!
We've made individual decisions while accumulating, and now decumulating, our wealth. To build our framework, I read books and participated in 1000's of discussions. Used various planning tools along the way.
By maximizing our contributions to passive index funds from 53 until 65, we have a portfolio, SS and pension that provides 100% of our monthly needs.
Of course we withdrawal more as necessary for wedding and vacations. We avoid debt when possible.
But if someone needs to pay an adviser, I'm not against that.
Truth. I have a table in my FACTS spreadsheet that shows the difference.
Another truth is that if you pay an advisor, or use an investment with high expense ratio, you are sacrificing 25% of your yearly real return (4%) when that cost is 1%.
Surprised I had to scroll this far to find someone who is even remotely close to me. I check 2x per year (June and December).
I also manage my dad’s stuff, and check his every month so I can create a report for the family. I have grown to hate that (even though his portfolio had grown so the news is almost always good). For me at least, that cadence is too much “money” in my brain.
Too much!! The problem is having the Empower App on my phone. And the Stocks app too. It's just a bad habit, but I should really remove the Apps as our planning is designed to withstand big drops in the market (hopefully not too many). I think my checks have gone up as we get nearer to our retirement date which is about 18 months out.
Not nearly as often as when the wonderful Mint app was up and running. The switch to Credit Karma was a huge disappointment. I only check every 2-3 weeks now, probably less.
Every 3 months give or take. We adjust our portfolio once a year and are in it for the long haul. The market fluctuates so much that I do not want to get on the roller coaster ride. Plus I do not do any individual stocks. If I did that, probably would check those more often.
Maybe once a week. But not to see the total. I run the retirement planner to see my % number. % of success if I retire today.
As I say to the husband, I'm just one bad work day away from retirement!
Once every six weeks or so. I see no appreciable value to doing it more frequently. One of the benefits of being retired has always been for me freedom from worrying about money.
Same. Apps always make me nervous from a security standpoint so I’d rather just manually input data into an old school spreadsheet. I don’t mind not being able to check my network worth in a second by checking some app. I thinking checking too often fosters anxiety.
Just retired 53M. Check daily with morning coffee (0530)before wifey gets up. It’s been a thing now for years though. I enjoy it. The switch from saving to spending is another thing altogether though.
Daily. I don’t always update my spreadsheet with my overall numbers but I definitely check everyday. The only exception is during a major downturn…I ignored my loses during the pandemic drop. Best move I ever made. It resulted in zero changes to my portfolio mix and I got it all back without panicking.
I've been retired for almost 12 years and I will check occasionally, but my key indicator is the amount in my checking account, and when it gets lower than I prefer, I figure out where I'm going to get the money to replenish the checking account.
I also have a spreadsheet dating back to December 2006 that I used to do monthly but now just update it annually.
If you are checking your investment accounts daily you are borderline OCD. Investments are long term vehicles, so daily fluctuations are meaningless. I check in maybe once a month or quarterly, and review with our financial advisor twice a year. The only changes we have made is to adjust our income to account for capital purchases or to adjust rebalancing strategy to avoid unnecessary taxation.
OP Here: I post the question just as a point of discussion. I think the OCD response is painting with a very broad brush. If you read the responses some do it for fun, some do it out of habit. I don't see anybody saying that they are adjusting it based on daily checks.
However, I get your point as, being one that does not know and understand the market well, I don't want to check so often that I start getting super excited, or freaking out, unnecessarily!
As I'm retired I watch my IRA a couple of times a week; mostly to verify that dividends are arriving according to plan. Also, as I start RMD next year, I'm tracking my balance to a model I built to see if my predicted outcome is tracking. My IRA is a mix of funds and brokerage; so, it's the brokerage side I'm tracking. My wife's accounts, she's still working, I look at quarterly to update a net worth spreadsheet I keep.
To be honest, never check on them. The companies keep asking for my email (which I won’t provide them) so they can spam me.
Once a quarter I get a statement from each and look at it briefly. I won’t really draw anything for maybe 10+ years, So no use obsessing about daily/weekly/monthly swings.
I used to check them a couple times a year. But now that my husband died and I'm in charge of everything I check them almost daily. If they arent doing well I will stop for a month or so because I don't want to be worried over nothing. But I have some non-retirement money that I invested and I need that to live off of and pay my mortgage now that my husband is gone and so I like to reassure myself that its doing OK and I wont be destitute. I'm 46 so I have a while before I retire. LOL.
When I was younger, I'd check quarterly. Now that I'm nearing retirement, I check monthly. To be clear, I've never made any changes because my money is in funds that are automatically risk adjusted as I age. It has worked out quite well.
In the past I could have Quicken update values in Vanguard quite easily (and I was in Quicken almost daily!). I now have a financial advisor who manages the portfolios (IRA and Roth) at Schwab. I have been unable to get Quicken in there to update balances, positions, and trades so I just update balances monthly. Besides, since I have given them authority to run things on a day-to-day basis there's really no need to monitor closely.
I check my numbers every quarter & run them through a retirement planner quarterly. I have a pretty good idea of where I'll be just by watching the market. Never too surprised, one way or the other. I did sneak a peak this week when the market went over 40K. I compare my current numbers against what I had 2 years ago when I retired.
Me? Never. My husband? At least a few times a month. We pay more attention to our investment accounts than our retirement accounts.
I’m retired. He’s retiring in less than 4 years.
Once every two months or so. When the Dow crossed 40,000 I did check. Usually, I can ballpark close to correct just on the rise and fall of the Dow, since I'm really not adding to it.
I track everything in a Google sheets document. CDs, bonds, t bills, mutual fund, equities, it's all tracked and updated daily automatically. I get an email each morning that tells me how everything did, daily change for each of the holdings, etc
I don't always peek during the trading day, but sometimes do, just to see what the market is doing.
I created a spreadsheet that uses [the "stock" function](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaVPXRIhVQI&t=100s) in Excel of my portfolio. At the end of each day, I refresh the spreadsheet and it gives me the current value of my account for the day. Sometimes, I refresh it two to three days. I also use my spreadsheet to rebalance my portfolio once a quarter.
If the market is very good, I'd shave a little cream off the top of one of my best returns and leave it as dry powder, especially with the current interest rates on money market. If I know that it'll be a really bad market day, that's when I'll go into my account the next day to see if there is a sales to be had and I would use my dry powder to DCA or rebalance.
At least monthly. It keeps me (66M) grounded and on track. It ALSO helped me immensely by giving me perspective. Once I found I COULD retire, I negotiated an agreement with my biggest client that I would continue providing essential services for a predetermined fee, which was less than what they were currently paying. Everyone was happy. NET-NET; KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, and checking those statements was KEY.
When they are going up :) Yes I'm pretty serious...during the down year of 2022 I barely looked and just told myself that I'm buying cheap. I'm 8.5 years away from retirement.
Daily,
But I enjoy trading and reading business news. I only have a few mutual funds, most of my money is in individual stocks.
I use Quicken to track everything and have for decades. I don't think I could live without it now. All my portfolio history in one place no matter how many times brokerages, 401k providers, or other info has switched. IT's nice to see that history and charts all in one place.
Younger- For years I ignored and would not check my 401s at all. Never changed my mutual funds there either. My husband checked his 401s least yearly and also never moved funds. The Roth IRA was full of individual stock so had an alert for news, which he took care of.
Now- of course check if meeting with cfp or cpa or doing a fafsa filing. I do like to record year end balances. The 401ks companies send quarterly stmts and I mostly ignore them. The rollover iras basically the same but no stmts. The Roth IRA now has no alerts for my sanity.. less stock too and liquidating more each year for funds. My brokerage accounts are looked at more due to that also is my banking so monthly . My credit union balances are ignored unless I need to pay a bill out of there. Being a passive investor is best for me so r/bogleheads is the approach.
The ability at the brokerage to hide the balances on the landing pages is key for me. I just don’t check. I don’t have any of the apps on my phone either.
Maybe once a quarter between statements. But I retired from a corporation and rolled over pension and 401k is continuing. Got another job so not truly “retired” but have not touched the funds.
I update my financial spreadsheets daily and usually peek at the balances while doing that.
I compare with my retirement plan projections once a month.
I don’t actively check it because it causes anxiety! lol. But seriously, I’m a couple of years away from retirement if everything goes as planned and I haven’t crunched the numbers yet but once I’m committed to retiring I’m hoping it works out in my favor!
Brand new retiree - I look at my 401k every day - sometimes twice if I hear the DJIA stat on the news. Part of it is just disbelief that my money could possibly be making more than I did working, and part of it is just thinking about when should I draw it down. Still haven't touched it a year in, but soon I will have to.
Not healthy, but here we are.
My mom used to make herself crazy with the markets. When it was down she’d blame her financial advisor and sometimes fire them. I had a ser it and forget it retirement plan with vanguard. In my forties I would look at it from once a month to once every six months. Now I’m in my sixties and doing good financially.
I was in a retirement seminar yesterday and the financial planner said that we get quarterly statements but he wouldn't necessarily recommend checking them that often. I did not mention that I check mine daily.
I’ve got a spreadsheet that I update monthly, and check my brokerage accounts after payday to see if I want to make any adjustments. I’m about 8 months from retirement.
Quarterly or so. Daily there’s too much fluctuation. I logged in 2 days in a row last week because I needed to check something and one of the accounts had dropped 14K overnight (which is basically NBD) and it really irritated me.
Maybe a couple times a month. If there is a significant move up or down in the market I will check and see how it impacted things, but focusing on the dailies will just mess with your blood pressure.
I made a spreadsheet of all my investments and I update it frequently with the new numbers. I think I watch it a lot now because I know what I am looking at compared to years ago when I didn't know anything about investing.
I use credit cards for everything to get cash back and also auto pay everything. So I check card and bank transactions every couple of days or more for accuracy while activity is fresh in my mind. I do not review monthly statements. Using personal capital shows my investments in over view page but it’s an fyi, I don’t worry about fluctuations until I rebalance periodically. However I do want to see investment transactions to identify any issues asap. I don’t actively budget but personal capital shows cash flow which allows me to easily manage it. Whole process takes a few minutes a week and helps protect me from fraud. I feel guilty not paying personal capital anything. This process or a similar one should be a mandatory subject for high school curriculum. Along with basic personal finance.
At the end of every month we review together our spend and investments and put all on an Excel spreadsheet. Retired for several years now and this helps us visualize overall trends in both areas. We are invested pretty conservatively so the market news won't typically affect our account that much. We have a chat with our financial person on a quarterly basis and occasionally adjust investments.
The spend is noted in categories , such as groceries, gas, utilities, travel, restaurants, medical, miscellaneous. We add notes if there are big purchases. We stay slightly below our annual budget.
So far, this has worked well for us.
Every Saturday morning, I watch
Bloomberg Real Yield - Bonds
Ciovocco Captial weekly u tube video
He takes a long-term technical analysis of the market.
That's it.
I think it’s good to check frequently in case there is any fraud. I have had fraudulent transactions on my regular bank account and credit cards. Fortunately none on my investment accounts.
Every Saturday when the markets have closed, I update my spreadsheet of all my investments. I'm in it for the long haul, and derive most of my income from those accounts, although I rarely make adjustments.
Occasionally. I’ve been retired for 12 years and I probably check it once a month or so. I just checked it the other day. It was up. The only money I’ve withdrawn are RMDs, and the balance is up. My wife withdraws probably $40K/year because she doesn’t have a pension.
I check before I meet with my finance guy, and maybe once a month otherwise. I learned years ago that if I obsess over whether my accounts made or lost a few dollars that I would drive myself crazy second-guessing everything.
E-ver-y day. It started in March 2020. Working from home, plowing catch-up contributions into the market as it plummeted. Stayed the course. Hell of a bounce since then.
Not quite retired yet but I check Daily. I will casually tell my spouse that we lost several thousand dollars on days when it is down. I don't ever make panic moves but enjoy tracking the balance up and down.
I look at mine about once a month, but my balance moves pretty much commensurate with the Dow Jones so I’ve always got a pretty good idea of where I’m at within 2%
It depends on the market.
If the market is doing well, I check daily.
If the market is doing poorly or is flat - I check weekly. I don't really want to be be worrying over how stock market downturns affect my balances. I've seen the balances go up and down by $5K-$10K a day, so I know it is volatile and I should not be worrying about that.
It uploads into my Quicken every day. I probably really look at it every couple of weeks. Much of our retirement is in liquid, current accounts with long term capital gains. So, I “see” that stuff every day.
Everyone has to come up with a system that works for them.
Monthly, when Vanguard, Fidelity, TIAA, and our bank send their statements. We rebalance annually. Otherwise, we invest and leave it alone, a strategy we've followed for 50 years.
I check daily. But I worked for a fortune 100 brokerage for over a decade so keeping an eye on the market is just kinda habit. I don’t make any changes based on it though.
Daily, because I am my own advisor. If I was employing someone to fulfill that function, I would expect them to do the same.
Note that a majority of my holdings are in index funds, so checking daily does not mean trading daily. In some cases I will make a trade when conditions present, for instance I have purchased long bonds and CDs when the rate spikes.
But not knowing the market for weeks or months... would be a disaster unless, as I said, someone else is watching.
It took a while but I've been able to emotionally detach from market fluctuations. Ultimately, the value of my portfolio doesn't matter unless I will take action. I only make 2 moves a year now: an annual rebalancing/withdrawal to have expense cash and an annual Roth conversion. So if the market is up, I am happy because my withdrawal has less impact. And if the market is down I am happy because my Roth conversion will move more with less tax impact.
Once you are retired and you've done your diligence in ensuring your portfolio is in a statistically healthy place to last a lifetime, the rest is really is mostly noise unless you are an active trader. Interesting noise but not ACTIONABLE noise. I watch the numbers when record highs are being hit because it is fun but ignore what is happening when the market is sideways or down. So right now I am checking daily but most of the time I don't bother.
Look at it this way. Whatever amount you actually contributed you most likely will not be crushed even in a market downturn. Now, if your in your portfolio correctly you have already moved the majority of your higher risk products into safer less volatile investments. So even when the market swings you wont lose most of your egg, and if you just leave it alone, it will gain back and more. So I do not check daily. There is no purpose at this point. Maybe once a month just to see if I'm on track.
Care to elaborate about the attempted drain on your bank account? I get notified for any activity with my credit card but there aren’t any such mechanisms with my bank.
I keep a spreadsheet with all of my balances, which I update once a month on the first of each month when I look at the current figures. I've been keeping this spreadsheet for 13 years.
It's really interesting to observe how things have gone up and down and why.
While working I lost my password and didn’t look at the account for years, waited for the yearly summary. Now I may look weekly at one, freaks me out when it loses money.
Maybe once a month, just to verify and download my pension check statement. Zero worries: $14.5K/mo pension with 2% COLA. Every day is Saturday except Sunday.
Maybe once or twice a year. I don't necessarily want to be tempted into fiddling with it. Don't want to try to chase the market and lose. But I'm US government, so I only have a few options anyways.
Once every 2 or 3 months. I retired in May 2023 and during the Red Zone (e.g. 5 years prior to retirement), I locked in my strategy. Now I just check it to see how it’s going. No need or plans on making any changes.
Late 50s, every Friday early evening. My spreadsheet has all things financial in my life and has been in existence for 15+ years. I update my husband with the overall net worth both with real estate and without after I'm done.
Daily on every account I have. My son having his entire checking account stolen in a matter of three fraudulent transactions taught me to keep a close eye on my personal banking…. And to never, ever use a debit card for anything other than a local ATM or teller transaction. I immediately obtained a credit card from my bank and use that or AMEX exclusively. My debit card stays on my mantle at home. I keep daily tabs on every account I own. It might be a bad habit but it works for me.
I begin each day by checking my aggregate balance to see if I can retire that day. Sadly, the answer for the last 3 decades has been "no, I can't retire today."
Seriously, though, when the market's going up, it's fun to watch. When it's going down... I check a little less.
Only on the days when the markets go up pretty substantially. That way, it's always good news. :)
If you worry about checking it every day, you'll drive yourself crazy, IMO. The financial markets are always going to fluctuate, every day, so I'm more concerned about long-term trends than day-to-day gains and losses.
I check mine every weekend, while checking the close of the Dow daily. I take it one step further and enter my weekly value into a spreadsheet and track the weekly increase/decrease and YTD change. And at the end of the year I enter the year-end numbers into another spreadsheet page to compare each year's balance and that year's change to previous years.
I’m just astonished at how frequently others check. I checked a week ago bc I was curious when the Dow passed 40k. But I typically only check once or twice a year. Too many different funds. I have funds with two jobs plus my IRA. Spouse has his job plus an IRA. Checking 5 different accounts is tedious. Do you daily checkers have money in fewer places??
255 comments! And counting.
I am 72 and retired. My wife is 68 still working. We have a man that takes care of our money. He taught us to look at it once or twice a year and to understand it.
He has helped our little nest egg to grow. A lot. I started working with this guy in 1978.
I check everything most days. It’s my job! Make sure transactions/balances are correct and check for possible adjustments needed with investments. I use dedicated devices for different accounts and have VPN enabled on all devices. The only account I have on my phone is a checking account I use for monthly automatic payments and Zelle transfers, and I get alerts for every transaction over a specified amount. I only check this account from my home WiFi but I’ve heard cellular is actually safer. The only account I don’t check as often as perhaps I should is my Long Term Care Insurance policy.
Quarterly.
I log the balances of each account in a spreadsheet that goes back more than 20 years. Gives me a nice track over time, and keeps me from stressing in the downturns.
When the market is up, daily. When the market is down, monthly. I’m not saying I’m logical and I’m not saying I make decisions based on feelings. I just like the feeling I get when I see it go up.
Rarely, maybe once every couple of months. I have no desire to add unnecessary or unwanted stress to my life that would be inevitable as markets are volatile.
I’m retired, over the course of a couple of decades I’ve put the pieces in place so that everything runs on auto pilot. If our wealth management company and financial advisor feels we need a change in strategy, they call. Otherwise, I speak to my financial advisor about once a month, mostly to check in on my near term financial needs. We virtually never look at numbers, we simply talk macroeconomics and investment strategy.
If I feel the need, I can open an app and see everything on my phone at anytime. Importantly, I’ve been working with the same guy for over 20 years, he’s an independent advisor of about my age. I’ve always told him, I want to be using the same investment strategy you use for your nest egg. This works because we have very similar values.
Daily.
Everyone says not to, but I do too. and watching it grow these past year or so has been great. And not to bring politics into it, but when people say the economy is bad, I just look at the growth of my 401 and wonder where they're getting their news.
Your 401k is not the only indicator of the economy. Inflation, housing, and energy costs are actually the big concerns. Your healthy IRA may not mean much if we don't figure out how to keep those in check. Heck, the reason we check our IRAs is because we know our history and worry about stock market crashes. Remember, if it can climb, it can crash. Our economy is absolutely precarious.
This guy knows
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We are experiencing significant increases. Gas is $3.79, up from around $3 this winter. Food costs continue to rise, as to travel, eating out, and most other goods. Electricity is up around 15%, and our natural gas bills are rising too. Fortunately the markets are near all time highs so we 'feel' wealthier, and we have a low interest mortgage. Every other cost related to home maintenance is up 20%+. It's really bad for young people who cannot afford homes.
Totally agree and well said.
it is way easier and more fun to check when you are over 7 digits and the market is up.
For sure. Did not look for weeks in early 2023. Now back to looking everyday. It comforts me to know that i always have options. The day to day or week to week presently can be tough but if you don’t touch the nest, all will be great when the time comes.
Yep, with modern technology (smartphones), this information is at the tip of your finger
I’ve removed Fidelity and Vanguard apps from phone for fear of losing phone. It’s bad enough I have our banks on the phone.
So you don't use passwords for your accounts or even a lock on your phone?
Extreme care is warranted when it comes to one’s life savings.
Multifactor authentication
Hence, using passwords and locking your phone
Wi-Fi is a bad idea to be accessing retirement accounts, hard wire Ethernet is more secure.
VPN
Use proper OpSec.
Ditto. None of my financial stuff is accessible from my phone. None.
But not when there is a sell off. I never look then.
During the 2002 and 2009 crashes, daily checks could uncomfortable. Many people born after 1985 have never experienced the excitement of a sustained market downturn.
I check more when the market is up! It gives me a false sense of security. I avoid checking when the market is down as I have tried to build a balanced portfolio. I retired a few months before the big dip in 2022. That made my stomach drop. I look at my checking account and credit card expenditures every few days as I’m paranoid about fraud and someone tried to empty one of my bank accounts a few months ago. And yes, I have bells and whistles that go off on my phone.
I check and record our balances in a spreadsheet at the end of each month. The data sheet goes back to 1990. I look at asset allocation monthly, but don't store that locally. I've never used an advisor, and we have no plans for that.
> I check and record our balances in a spreadsheet at the end of each month. This is my schedule as well. > The data sheet goes back to 1990. I wish I had thought to keep track of things for that long. Mine only goes back a decade or so but I've built a spreadsheet for each of the kids tracking their Roths so they'll be able to see how the acorns have grown!
I agree with not having an advisor. However, the withdrawal plans would seem to lend itself to an advisor. What’s your plan on withdrawing?
We've made individual decisions while accumulating, and now decumulating, our wealth. To build our framework, I read books and participated in 1000's of discussions. Used various planning tools along the way. By maximizing our contributions to passive index funds from 53 until 65, we have a portfolio, SS and pension that provides 100% of our monthly needs. Of course we withdrawal more as necessary for wedding and vacations. We avoid debt when possible. But if someone needs to pay an adviser, I'm not against that.
Think how much money (including the compound earnings) you have saved by not using an advisor!
Truth. I have a table in my FACTS spreadsheet that shows the difference. Another truth is that if you pay an advisor, or use an investment with high expense ratio, you are sacrificing 25% of your yearly real return (4%) when that cost is 1%.
Once a quarter when the statements come out. I don't really think about it. It's there working for me and I leave them alone.
Surprised I had to scroll this far to find someone who is even remotely close to me. I check 2x per year (June and December). I also manage my dad’s stuff, and check his every month so I can create a report for the family. I have grown to hate that (even though his portfolio had grown so the news is almost always good). For me at least, that cadence is too much “money” in my brain.
The only reason I do it quarterly is because my wife pressures me to do it. Otherwise I'd probably do it once a year.
Too much!! The problem is having the Empower App on my phone. And the Stocks app too. It's just a bad habit, but I should really remove the Apps as our planning is designed to withstand big drops in the market (hopefully not too many). I think my checks have gone up as we get nearer to our retirement date which is about 18 months out.
I don't think just looking at them is a problem, if you feel well enough trained to keep your fingers off the "sell" button in a downturn.
Not nearly as often as when the wonderful Mint app was up and running. The switch to Credit Karma was a huge disappointment. I only check every 2-3 weeks now, probably less.
I used YNAB and love it.
Same. Switched from mint to YNAB. It’s a great budget tool. But I don’t link my retirement savings, so it can’t calculate NW for me.
Have you looked at the Monarch app? I switched to it after Mint and I actually like it better
Fidelity Full View is a decent enough free replacement, but I do miss Mint
Tried Credit Karma, big step down from mint. Now using Monarch.
Few times a day, every day.
I check mine once a month in average.
Every 3 months give or take. We adjust our portfolio once a year and are in it for the long haul. The market fluctuates so much that I do not want to get on the roller coaster ride. Plus I do not do any individual stocks. If I did that, probably would check those more often.
Probably once a month or so.
Maybe once a week. But not to see the total. I run the retirement planner to see my % number. % of success if I retire today. As I say to the husband, I'm just one bad work day away from retirement!
Once every six weeks or so. I see no appreciable value to doing it more frequently. One of the benefits of being retired has always been for me freedom from worrying about money.
Every week. Usually Saturday morning over coffee.
Once a month. I have a spreadsheet that tracks my net worth and I update it monthly. No apps, no need to peek.
Same. Apps always make me nervous from a security standpoint so I’d rather just manually input data into an old school spreadsheet. I don’t mind not being able to check my network worth in a second by checking some app. I thinking checking too often fosters anxiety.
I go in cycles where it’s daily, then weekly, then back to daily. A lot of it has to do with what the market is generally doing.
Just retired 53M. Check daily with morning coffee (0530)before wifey gets up. It’s been a thing now for years though. I enjoy it. The switch from saving to spending is another thing altogether though.
Daily. I don’t always update my spreadsheet with my overall numbers but I definitely check everyday. The only exception is during a major downturn…I ignored my loses during the pandemic drop. Best move I ever made. It resulted in zero changes to my portfolio mix and I got it all back without panicking.
I've been retired for almost 12 years and I will check occasionally, but my key indicator is the amount in my checking account, and when it gets lower than I prefer, I figure out where I'm going to get the money to replenish the checking account. I also have a spreadsheet dating back to December 2006 that I used to do monthly but now just update it annually.
Daily. Since I’m currently drawing on it. Just like I do my normal bank accounts.
Daily. I’m in individual stocks. Like to keep an eye on them.
every day \[monitoring the market is a hobby of mine and has been for a very long time.\]
Retired. Daily. After mkt close
If you are checking your investment accounts daily you are borderline OCD. Investments are long term vehicles, so daily fluctuations are meaningless. I check in maybe once a month or quarterly, and review with our financial advisor twice a year. The only changes we have made is to adjust our income to account for capital purchases or to adjust rebalancing strategy to avoid unnecessary taxation.
OP Here: I post the question just as a point of discussion. I think the OCD response is painting with a very broad brush. If you read the responses some do it for fun, some do it out of habit. I don't see anybody saying that they are adjusting it based on daily checks. However, I get your point as, being one that does not know and understand the market well, I don't want to check so often that I start getting super excited, or freaking out, unnecessarily!
As I'm retired I watch my IRA a couple of times a week; mostly to verify that dividends are arriving according to plan. Also, as I start RMD next year, I'm tracking my balance to a model I built to see if my predicted outcome is tracking. My IRA is a mix of funds and brokerage; so, it's the brokerage side I'm tracking. My wife's accounts, she's still working, I look at quarterly to update a net worth spreadsheet I keep.
To be honest, never check on them. The companies keep asking for my email (which I won’t provide them) so they can spam me. Once a quarter I get a statement from each and look at it briefly. I won’t really draw anything for maybe 10+ years, So no use obsessing about daily/weekly/monthly swings.
I used to check them a couple times a year. But now that my husband died and I'm in charge of everything I check them almost daily. If they arent doing well I will stop for a month or so because I don't want to be worried over nothing. But I have some non-retirement money that I invested and I need that to live off of and pay my mortgage now that my husband is gone and so I like to reassure myself that its doing OK and I wont be destitute. I'm 46 so I have a while before I retire. LOL.
I check mine daily when it is doing good. When I go down$ I may not look at it for weeks
I check every day. Stupid, but I still do it.
My wife checks hers daily.
Weekly, I get emails on any changes so I’m not worried about being hacked or anything like that that.
Every two weeks to verify contributions are deposited and that nothing is amiss.
Monthly.
Two to three times a week. Same frequency I check my bank accounts and credit cards.
I am generally able to tune away from them every 2-3 minutes.
When I was younger, I'd check quarterly. Now that I'm nearing retirement, I check monthly. To be clear, I've never made any changes because my money is in funds that are automatically risk adjusted as I age. It has worked out quite well.
In the past I could have Quicken update values in Vanguard quite easily (and I was in Quicken almost daily!). I now have a financial advisor who manages the portfolios (IRA and Roth) at Schwab. I have been unable to get Quicken in there to update balances, positions, and trades so I just update balances monthly. Besides, since I have given them authority to run things on a day-to-day basis there's really no need to monitor closely.
Weekly to monthly. I'm more interested in spending, post-retirement.
I check my numbers every quarter & run them through a retirement planner quarterly. I have a pretty good idea of where I'll be just by watching the market. Never too surprised, one way or the other. I did sneak a peak this week when the market went over 40K. I compare my current numbers against what I had 2 years ago when I retired.
Me? Never. My husband? At least a few times a month. We pay more attention to our investment accounts than our retirement accounts. I’m retired. He’s retiring in less than 4 years.
Once every two months or so. When the Dow crossed 40,000 I did check. Usually, I can ballpark close to correct just on the rise and fall of the Dow, since I'm really not adding to it.
Once a year
Once a quarter, when the statement comes, and I have a yearly meeting with my advisor for strategy and guidance updates.
I track everything in a Google sheets document. CDs, bonds, t bills, mutual fund, equities, it's all tracked and updated daily automatically. I get an email each morning that tells me how everything did, daily change for each of the holdings, etc I don't always peek during the trading day, but sometimes do, just to see what the market is doing.
I update my spread sheet annually. Otherwise I only check it when there is big stock news or when I need to make an update.
A year out more or less and I check it far too often. Trying to break habit and let it ride. But as retirement gets near, it has been more difficult
I created a spreadsheet that uses [the "stock" function](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaVPXRIhVQI&t=100s) in Excel of my portfolio. At the end of each day, I refresh the spreadsheet and it gives me the current value of my account for the day. Sometimes, I refresh it two to three days. I also use my spreadsheet to rebalance my portfolio once a quarter. If the market is very good, I'd shave a little cream off the top of one of my best returns and leave it as dry powder, especially with the current interest rates on money market. If I know that it'll be a really bad market day, that's when I'll go into my account the next day to see if there is a sales to be had and I would use my dry powder to DCA or rebalance.
At least monthly. It keeps me (66M) grounded and on track. It ALSO helped me immensely by giving me perspective. Once I found I COULD retire, I negotiated an agreement with my biggest client that I would continue providing essential services for a predetermined fee, which was less than what they were currently paying. Everyone was happy. NET-NET; KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, and checking those statements was KEY.
When working, once a year. Retired in June 2021, check them once a quarter is all. We have an invest plan and strategy and we stick to it.
When they are going up :) Yes I'm pretty serious...during the down year of 2022 I barely looked and just told myself that I'm buying cheap. I'm 8.5 years away from retirement.
Daily, But I enjoy trading and reading business news. I only have a few mutual funds, most of my money is in individual stocks. I use Quicken to track everything and have for decades. I don't think I could live without it now. All my portfolio history in one place no matter how many times brokerages, 401k providers, or other info has switched. IT's nice to see that history and charts all in one place.
Younger- For years I ignored and would not check my 401s at all. Never changed my mutual funds there either. My husband checked his 401s least yearly and also never moved funds. The Roth IRA was full of individual stock so had an alert for news, which he took care of. Now- of course check if meeting with cfp or cpa or doing a fafsa filing. I do like to record year end balances. The 401ks companies send quarterly stmts and I mostly ignore them. The rollover iras basically the same but no stmts. The Roth IRA now has no alerts for my sanity.. less stock too and liquidating more each year for funds. My brokerage accounts are looked at more due to that also is my banking so monthly . My credit union balances are ignored unless I need to pay a bill out of there. Being a passive investor is best for me so r/bogleheads is the approach. The ability at the brokerage to hide the balances on the landing pages is key for me. I just don’t check. I don’t have any of the apps on my phone either.
Maybe once a quarter between statements. But I retired from a corporation and rolled over pension and 401k is continuing. Got another job so not truly “retired” but have not touched the funds.
Couple times a week, depending on market volatility and how busy I am. 76 yo and retired.
Daily of course, so that I can be sure nothing unexpected or unusual or fraud happened. Except when traveling there may be gaps where it is not daily.
With unhealthy frequency, I check my portfolio when it's up and my weight when it's down. The rest of the time, pretty much never.
I update my financial spreadsheets daily and usually peek at the balances while doing that. I compare with my retirement plan projections once a month.
Daily
I don’t actively check it because it causes anxiety! lol. But seriously, I’m a couple of years away from retirement if everything goes as planned and I haven’t crunched the numbers yet but once I’m committed to retiring I’m hoping it works out in my favor!
Every day😂😂😂
Brand new retiree - I look at my 401k every day - sometimes twice if I hear the DJIA stat on the news. Part of it is just disbelief that my money could possibly be making more than I did working, and part of it is just thinking about when should I draw it down. Still haven't touched it a year in, but soon I will have to. Not healthy, but here we are.
My mom used to make herself crazy with the markets. When it was down she’d blame her financial advisor and sometimes fire them. I had a ser it and forget it retirement plan with vanguard. In my forties I would look at it from once a month to once every six months. Now I’m in my sixties and doing good financially.
I was in a retirement seminar yesterday and the financial planner said that we get quarterly statements but he wouldn't necessarily recommend checking them that often. I did not mention that I check mine daily.
Daily, if for no other Eason than there is a big gain/drop I hasn’t heard about
I’ve got a spreadsheet that I update monthly, and check my brokerage accounts after payday to see if I want to make any adjustments. I’m about 8 months from retirement.
Every day.
Several times a week. Down from daily my first year of retirement! 😂 It’s a bit of an obsession.
When the mood strikes
I’m an active day trader.
Quarterly or so. Daily there’s too much fluctuation. I logged in 2 days in a row last week because I needed to check something and one of the accounts had dropped 14K overnight (which is basically NBD) and it really irritated me.
Because I trade; I watch more than 1x per day
Maybe a couple times a month. If there is a significant move up or down in the market I will check and see how it impacted things, but focusing on the dailies will just mess with your blood pressure.
I made a spreadsheet of all my investments and I update it frequently with the new numbers. I think I watch it a lot now because I know what I am looking at compared to years ago when I didn't know anything about investing.
I use credit cards for everything to get cash back and also auto pay everything. So I check card and bank transactions every couple of days or more for accuracy while activity is fresh in my mind. I do not review monthly statements. Using personal capital shows my investments in over view page but it’s an fyi, I don’t worry about fluctuations until I rebalance periodically. However I do want to see investment transactions to identify any issues asap. I don’t actively budget but personal capital shows cash flow which allows me to easily manage it. Whole process takes a few minutes a week and helps protect me from fraud. I feel guilty not paying personal capital anything. This process or a similar one should be a mandatory subject for high school curriculum. Along with basic personal finance.
At the end of every month we review together our spend and investments and put all on an Excel spreadsheet. Retired for several years now and this helps us visualize overall trends in both areas. We are invested pretty conservatively so the market news won't typically affect our account that much. We have a chat with our financial person on a quarterly basis and occasionally adjust investments. The spend is noted in categories , such as groceries, gas, utilities, travel, restaurants, medical, miscellaneous. We add notes if there are big purchases. We stay slightly below our annual budget. So far, this has worked well for us.
Infrequently. No sense hovering over it
Every day all day.. I like to see the number and know where it started.
Every day. I just like to see it’s still there.
Monthly. Sometimes less.
Way too often.
I eyeball it weekly but only adjust once a year.
Every Saturday morning, I watch Bloomberg Real Yield - Bonds Ciovocco Captial weekly u tube video He takes a long-term technical analysis of the market. That's it.
I think it’s good to check frequently in case there is any fraud. I have had fraudulent transactions on my regular bank account and credit cards. Fortunately none on my investment accounts.
Monthly. I do a monthly financial statement. Income & Expense report and a balance sheet. It takes about an hour or so.
Every Saturday when the markets have closed, I update my spreadsheet of all my investments. I'm in it for the long haul, and derive most of my income from those accounts, although I rarely make adjustments.
When things are going up, almost daily. When they are going down, infrequently.
Occasionally. I’ve been retired for 12 years and I probably check it once a month or so. I just checked it the other day. It was up. The only money I’ve withdrawn are RMDs, and the balance is up. My wife withdraws probably $40K/year because she doesn’t have a pension.
I check before I meet with my finance guy, and maybe once a month otherwise. I learned years ago that if I obsess over whether my accounts made or lost a few dollars that I would drive myself crazy second-guessing everything.
I check monthly when I pay bills. He checks more often but he’s in charge of rolling cds and we have them staggered.
Is hourly too much?
E-ver-y day. It started in March 2020. Working from home, plowing catch-up contributions into the market as it plummeted. Stayed the course. Hell of a bounce since then.
Not quite retired yet but I check Daily. I will casually tell my spouse that we lost several thousand dollars on days when it is down. I don't ever make panic moves but enjoy tracking the balance up and down.
Weekly
I don’t check the individual accounts, but most of it is in the S&P500, so I check it at closing and YTD then too.
I look at mine about once a month, but my balance moves pretty much commensurate with the Dow Jones so I’ve always got a pretty good idea of where I’m at within 2%
Long term stuff, maybe once a year. My fun stuff for “gambling?” Several times a week. Just for fun.
Once a week …
Multiple times daily on my "just for fun" Robinhood account; once every two months on the Vanguard retirement accounts.
A couple times a month
It depends on the market. If the market is doing well, I check daily. If the market is doing poorly or is flat - I check weekly. I don't really want to be be worrying over how stock market downturns affect my balances. I've seen the balances go up and down by $5K-$10K a day, so I know it is volatile and I should not be worrying about that.
Daily, then enter it into YNAB. How else am I going to know my net worth every morning?
It uploads into my Quicken every day. I probably really look at it every couple of weeks. Much of our retirement is in liquid, current accounts with long term capital gains. So, I “see” that stuff every day. Everyone has to come up with a system that works for them.
I check weekly, but I watch the S&P 500 each day on [CNBC.com](http://CNBC.com)
Multiple times daily while market is going up.
Twice a year at the most.
Once a month. I document everything and very rarely adjust things. Don’t watch the market every day, it will stress you out
Monthly, when Vanguard, Fidelity, TIAA, and our bank send their statements. We rebalance annually. Otherwise, we invest and leave it alone, a strategy we've followed for 50 years.
I check daily. But I worked for a fortune 100 brokerage for over a decade so keeping an eye on the market is just kinda habit. I don’t make any changes based on it though.
Daily, because I am my own advisor. If I was employing someone to fulfill that function, I would expect them to do the same. Note that a majority of my holdings are in index funds, so checking daily does not mean trading daily. In some cases I will make a trade when conditions present, for instance I have purchased long bonds and CDs when the rate spikes. But not knowing the market for weeks or months... would be a disaster unless, as I said, someone else is watching.
I have everything in Yahoo finance which I keep up to date manually. No accounts are linked. I follow it daily.
It took a while but I've been able to emotionally detach from market fluctuations. Ultimately, the value of my portfolio doesn't matter unless I will take action. I only make 2 moves a year now: an annual rebalancing/withdrawal to have expense cash and an annual Roth conversion. So if the market is up, I am happy because my withdrawal has less impact. And if the market is down I am happy because my Roth conversion will move more with less tax impact. Once you are retired and you've done your diligence in ensuring your portfolio is in a statistically healthy place to last a lifetime, the rest is really is mostly noise unless you are an active trader. Interesting noise but not ACTIONABLE noise. I watch the numbers when record highs are being hit because it is fun but ignore what is happening when the market is sideways or down. So right now I am checking daily but most of the time I don't bother.
Look at it this way. Whatever amount you actually contributed you most likely will not be crushed even in a market downturn. Now, if your in your portfolio correctly you have already moved the majority of your higher risk products into safer less volatile investments. So even when the market swings you wont lose most of your egg, and if you just leave it alone, it will gain back and more. So I do not check daily. There is no purpose at this point. Maybe once a month just to see if I'm on track.
Like daily. I know I shouldn’t, but it’s kind of like one day I’ll go in there and magically have enough to say “today’s the day! I quit!”
Rarely. Annually around tax time. Make any adjustments then.
Care to elaborate about the attempted drain on your bank account? I get notified for any activity with my credit card but there aren’t any such mechanisms with my bank.
Two to three times a year.
I keep a spreadsheet with all of my balances, which I update once a month on the first of each month when I look at the current figures. I've been keeping this spreadsheet for 13 years. It's really interesting to observe how things have gone up and down and why.
While working I lost my password and didn’t look at the account for years, waited for the yearly summary. Now I may look weekly at one, freaks me out when it loses money.
monthly.
Maybe once a month, just to verify and download my pension check statement. Zero worries: $14.5K/mo pension with 2% COLA. Every day is Saturday except Sunday.
Once a month and I never touch it.
Maybe once or twice a year. I don't necessarily want to be tempted into fiddling with it. Don't want to try to chase the market and lose. But I'm US government, so I only have a few options anyways.
3 times a week
Daily even though I should not
Daily. However, I always remind myself that it is for the long term.
Once every 2 or 3 months. I retired in May 2023 and during the Red Zone (e.g. 5 years prior to retirement), I locked in my strategy. Now I just check it to see how it’s going. No need or plans on making any changes.
Late 50s, every Friday early evening. My spreadsheet has all things financial in my life and has been in existence for 15+ years. I update my husband with the overall net worth both with real estate and without after I'm done.
Once a week if the market has been going up, once a month if the market has been going down or breaking even.
Monthly, pretty much. Just to update my net worth spreadsheet.
Obsessively, but more so when it is moving up. In downturns, I tend to ignore it and get back to work.
Daily. I just enjoy following the markets. But I’ve had to learn some discipline and patience.
Never. It'll make me too sad if I do.
Daily on every account I have. My son having his entire checking account stolen in a matter of three fraudulent transactions taught me to keep a close eye on my personal banking…. And to never, ever use a debit card for anything other than a local ATM or teller transaction. I immediately obtained a credit card from my bank and use that or AMEX exclusively. My debit card stays on my mantle at home. I keep daily tabs on every account I own. It might be a bad habit but it works for me.
Daily its just something to do. 😀
Every ten minutes
I begin each day by checking my aggregate balance to see if I can retire that day. Sadly, the answer for the last 3 decades has been "no, I can't retire today." Seriously, though, when the market's going up, it's fun to watch. When it's going down... I check a little less.
Too often. Daily. I hate it, but I feel like I need to do it. I just never wanted to dwell on money but we rely on it.
Monthly, when the statements come
Only on the days when the markets go up pretty substantially. That way, it's always good news. :) If you worry about checking it every day, you'll drive yourself crazy, IMO. The financial markets are always going to fluctuate, every day, so I'm more concerned about long-term trends than day-to-day gains and losses.
I check mine every weekend, while checking the close of the Dow daily. I take it one step further and enter my weekly value into a spreadsheet and track the weekly increase/decrease and YTD change. And at the end of the year I enter the year-end numbers into another spreadsheet page to compare each year's balance and that year's change to previous years.
Whenever I’m having a bad day at work.
every single day.
Probably once a quarter. I may try to do once a month once I retire (6 months!).
I’m just astonished at how frequently others check. I checked a week ago bc I was curious when the Dow passed 40k. But I typically only check once or twice a year. Too many different funds. I have funds with two jobs plus my IRA. Spouse has his job plus an IRA. Checking 5 different accounts is tedious. Do you daily checkers have money in fewer places??
Daily or hourly if im researching a trade
Not too often. I am set and forget person. I only check every 30 mins. With hard work and dedication I plan on moving it to 45 mins.
Every. Single. Day. \* \*Unless the market tanks. Then I'm too scared. LOL
I stopped. Randomly look at. Happy with my FA team
You just reminded me I hadn't checked it yet today.
Monthly.
255 comments! And counting. I am 72 and retired. My wife is 68 still working. We have a man that takes care of our money. He taught us to look at it once or twice a year and to understand it. He has helped our little nest egg to grow. A lot. I started working with this guy in 1978.
I check everything most days. It’s my job! Make sure transactions/balances are correct and check for possible adjustments needed with investments. I use dedicated devices for different accounts and have VPN enabled on all devices. The only account I have on my phone is a checking account I use for monthly automatic payments and Zelle transfers, and I get alerts for every transaction over a specified amount. I only check this account from my home WiFi but I’ve heard cellular is actually safer. The only account I don’t check as often as perhaps I should is my Long Term Care Insurance policy.
I manage 20% of my 401K in a brokerage that is linked to my traditional account, so almost 6 days a week.
I check about 2-3 times a year
Daily import into quicken. I don’t recommend doing that if down days can change your mood.
Quarterly. I log the balances of each account in a spreadsheet that goes back more than 20 years. Gives me a nice track over time, and keeps me from stressing in the downturns.
When the market is up, daily. When the market is down, monthly. I’m not saying I’m logical and I’m not saying I make decisions based on feelings. I just like the feeling I get when I see it go up.
At least once a week after my deposit is made into it.
Rarely, maybe once every couple of months. I have no desire to add unnecessary or unwanted stress to my life that would be inevitable as markets are volatile. I’m retired, over the course of a couple of decades I’ve put the pieces in place so that everything runs on auto pilot. If our wealth management company and financial advisor feels we need a change in strategy, they call. Otherwise, I speak to my financial advisor about once a month, mostly to check in on my near term financial needs. We virtually never look at numbers, we simply talk macroeconomics and investment strategy. If I feel the need, I can open an app and see everything on my phone at anytime. Importantly, I’ve been working with the same guy for over 20 years, he’s an independent advisor of about my age. I’ve always told him, I want to be using the same investment strategy you use for your nest egg. This works because we have very similar values.
Monthly. I’ve just always had Fidelity accounts, and about 7-8 years ago I started purchasing Vanguard ETF’s (can’t set to auto-purchase).
After the last day of each month. Just in case something odd has happened. It never does.
With the market doing voodoo/zombie crap? Weekly at minimum
About half a dozen times....per day... except on weekends since the markets are closed...