Since switching to E*Trade I am noticing an all-to-familiar behaviour creeping back into my daily life. It is something that I have not done since I had my TD Mutual Fund account in 2005. Last year I had an advisor and I pretty much never knew how my portfolio was doing except for those monthly statements I would get in the mail. I loved those days. Now I find myself checking my E*Trade account online about once a day, depending on the week. This week and last week were bad but the week before that wasn’t so bad. Checking your portfolio daily is bad for so many reasons. Reasons that are so obvious that I am not going to waste time mentioning them.
I am thinking of changing my password to something really complicated and giving it to my wife. Then once every 3 months or so (about the time it will take for enough cash to build up to buy some more ETFs) I will ask her for it. That might actually work.
Hey InvestingIntelligently,
CanadianCapitalist has offered some recommendations for upcoming Canadian Tour of Personal Finance blogs.
Care to drop by and comment?!!
Thanks,
Monty Loree
BTW…
Pitfalls of DIY Investing..
I would recommend that people ALOT of time learning about DIY investing.
It’s something that one should be very careful with. While it can be profitable, and I know of people who earn their living with Active Trading, it can also be a money loser for people who aren’t seasoned with the process.
I spent a few weeks with the TraderZone software, and while it is a powerful software, I didn’t start to actively use it because I didn’t feel confident that I was familiar with all aspects of trading.
IMHO
Monty, the word “investing” is not at all associated with “active trading” or even “trading.” So when I say DIY investing I mean investing for the long term, very little trading, but it is DIY, so you don’t work through a middle-man (advisor) who makes trades for you.
If you want to fight the urge to trade, wouldn’t it make sense to “train” at it? I think giving the password to your wife will not solve the root problem. You need a longer term solution. 🙂 I’ve been a DIY investor for 2 years now. Still check my portfolio everyday, but I don’t act on it.
BTW, love your blog. It’s very educational. I’m a new blogger, and hope to “see” you around in the bloggersphere.
Thanks JungleGuy. I was a bit better this week… I don’t think I checked it every day. I’ll be going on vacation soon for 2 weeks so that should help too. The fact that I will be trading very little will make more portfolio very boring and so I’ll probably lose interest eventually. I think I’ll change passwords, give it to my wife, then once I’m weaned off I’ll try to have control of it again and see if I check the account regularly.
I really like last year when I was only looking at the monthly statements.
Hey Dave,
Agreed.
However the same principals apply.
Spend a while learning about trading and how it works before investing any money. It’s like playing russian roulette to ask an advisor for investing advice when you’re not somewhat educated.
I don’t own stock market stocks, so i’m not an authority in the stock market.
I do own stocks in my own businesses and the principals apply with my own businesses. I have spent thousands of hours to learn my business inside out so that it is profitable. I would do the same thing with stock market stocks before I spent any money with them.
Hello Again,
RE: Canadian Tour of Personal Finance blogs #2
I’ve scheduled the next tour on May 7, 2007.
The Money Diva has accepted to be the host for this event.
Check out http://www.canadian-money-advisor.ca for more details.
I’ve set up a new email for the tour
tour (dot) canadian (at) gmail (dot) com
BTW… did you see that Google’s “Brand” is worth $66.4 Billion?
Google’s “Brand” is worth $66.4 Billion?
Monty Loree
http://www.canadian-money-advisor.ca
Hey InvestingIntelligently,
I tagged you on a game of Financial Tag