How do you track your retirement and cash?

[JoeP]

We have part of our portfolio managed by a local firm, and some of it self-managed with guidance from that firm to avoid allocation duplication and gaps. We get monthly statements from the firm that show balances and detail for IRA, stocks, bonds.

Every quarter, I pull those statements along with statements from our self-managed accounts and dump them into a spreadsheet. Going back 5 years, we've doubled our value. This doubling is a combination of asset performance and also our contributions. That figure is mostly those retirement assets, but also liquid assets that are funded by post-tax dollars, such as EF and bond funds. I am not counting 529s nor paper savings bonds gifted for college.

My question is this: Is there any value in tracking retirement assets separately from non-retirement assets such as the EF and bond funds? I made the spreadsheet to visualize balances over time, which it does well. Just wondering if there are any blind spots.

Thanks.

[Goldy]

I use an excel sheet to track net worth and as part of that, my retirement savings. My money is in a few places but nearly all of which is covered by Mint so I just check a few places at the end of each month and save that month as a separate sheet in my excel file so I have a record of each month since I started tracking it.

I don't see any value in tracking your retirement separate from non retirement so I tossed them all into the one sheet. And when I add a 529 I will add that one too.

[krantcents]

I use Yahoo Finance to track my portfolio. I do not distinguish my retirement from brokerage accounts or any other savings. I am just interested in tracking my investments and do not include my residence, furniture or personal possessions.

[scfr]

I track net worth. I have a sub-category for pre-tax financial assets (non-Roth IRAs and 401K) that I discount by 15% (because some day we'll have to pay income tax on those assets).

[feh]

My question is this: Is there any value in tracking retirement assets separately from non-retirement assets such as the EF and bond funds? I made the spreadsheet to visualize balances over time, which it does well. Just wondering if there are any blind spots.

Depends on what you want to keep track of; net worth or retirement savings. We track both; NW just because it's interesting to know; retirement savings is the important one, because that's the number that tells me when I can quit my job.

[JoeP]

For net worth, our firm gives us an annual report with all our assets against liabilities. We're ok with that being reported once a year; we have just one small liability which shrinks with regularity. The quarterly analysis I run is helpful to show asset growth, but doesn't count house equity.

So it sounds like there is limited value in segregating retirement against non-retirement. It is easy enough for us to get the non-retirement balances, which would be used for expenses such as vehicles and emergencies.

[TBH]

I've been on NetWorth IQ since 2005, but I also have the numbers on paper because I figure them out that way every month before I plug them into Net Worth IQ.