When it comes to tracking your investments there are many options at hand. For example, you can have an Excel sheet that combines all the data that you need. Of course, the type of data and analysis is dependent on your goals. In this article, we will highlight the respective concepts depending on what your goals are.
The goal of your investments
To understand the best way to track, you need to define your goals. This is largely dependent on two important concepts:
- Financial goals: where do you want to use the money?
- Horizon: how long do you want to invest?
If you are planning to save money for a large purchase, such as a sailing boat, you will approach your finances differently than when you are saving for your retirement. You need to have this clear to set your tracking tooling in place. Next to that, it could indicate how often you will look at your investments. This is an important indicator for your tracking tool selection.
Tracking tools
You can use different tools for your tracking needs. If you do not want to track that often and have a long horizon, a good Excel sheet could suffice. This also allows you to be more creative and create views that are a matter to you. For example, how far away are you from your retirement goal? With special formulas, you can retrieve real-time stock data from the exchanges, allowing you to have the latest views directly from your sheets.
Stock tracker applications
Some applications are dedicated to stock tracking. There you can add all your stocks and have real-time stock price data. Another advantage is the fact that there is often news integrated. Combined with push notifications, this can be a powerful tool to be updated on market trends.
Stock tracker example
A good example of a tracker application is Delta. This is an application that allows you to track all kinds of investments such as stocks and crypto. By leveraging push notifications, you can get updates about the market and also certain price fluctuations (e.g., when the price of a stock drops by 10%). This is completely configurable per your needs.
Computer software
Next to the traditional use of Excel and Google Spreadsheet, there are also software packages dedicated to tracking. These are useful for people who have longer investment horizons and want to have lots of features packed in. In essence, it can be considered as an option that sits between a stock tracker and the use of Excel. However, since it is desktop-based, it cannot be used on the go. Therefore, if you want to see your investments more frequently, an application for your smartphone might do the trick.
Crypto investments
Tracking your crypto investments is important: markets fluctuate and the sentiment is extremely relevant to monitor. A crypto tracker can come in handy. However, when you have both stocks and crypto it is better to go for an application such as Delta. There, you can combine both the assets and have news updates about them all day.