When the stock market is doing well, it seems like investing is exciting! However, when volatility hits, many individuals realize they do not have the knowledge or tools to track investments needed to accurately monitor their assets on a regular basis; for instance, by checking prices randomly, reading the news, or getting tips from social media.
The bottom line is clear: if you don’t have a system in place to keep track of your money and investment return calculator, then you are essentially investing without knowing what you are doing.
Fortunately, there are free and very low-cost solutions available that can help you become an organized and well-informed investor through free tools. Therefore, let’s look at how to use some investing tracking, stock monitoring, and returns calculator tools in a very simple, straightforward manner.
8 Tips to Smartly Use Investment Calculator Tools
1] Start with a Simple Stock Tracker
A reliable tracker is essential when investing in individual stocks. Free apps and websites exist that let you create a watchlist of stocks and display their current price, daily change, percentage gain/loss, and overall performance.
A stock market tracker will also show how your stocks are doing when compared to the overall stock market. Using these tools, you will gain perspective on the movement of the stock price as a component of overall price movement in the stock market. If your stock is down 2% and the whole stock market is down 3%, then that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Also, these tools can assist with better monitoring of stocks when holding multiple companies across multiple sectors.
2] Use a Share Tracker for Long-Term Holdings
If you’re investing for the long term, it is not important to check prices hourly. A structured share tracker is what you should use.
A share tracker lets you record:
- Buying prices
- Number of shares
- Total invested amount
- Current value
- Total profit or loss on shares
Many tracker products can also provide historical price charts as a share price tracker. These charts help show trends; they are not meant to help you make emotional decisions regarding daily movements in your share price.
In the long term, consistency matters more than how often you check share prices. Once per week is usually sufficient for long-term investors.
3] Track Mutual Funds the Smart Way
You require a good mutual fund tracker, whether your investments are made through SIPs (Systematic Investment Plans) or a lump sum.
Mutual funds are evaluated using NAV (Net Asset Value) rather than evaluating at the value of each share, as would be done with stocks. A free mutual fund tracker provides the following information:
- Current NAV of the fund
- Total invested amount in the fund
- Current portfolio value
- Absolute Return
- XIRR (annualized return) of the fund
The above data gives you better insight to evaluate performance accurately, while many investors may tend to panic if they receive negative returns over the short term; however, long-term historical data will give a clearer indication of fund performance.
4] Monitor Trading Activity with Volume Data
You should use a stock volume tracker if you are actively trading or doing extensive research into stocks.
Volume measures the amount of shares being traded. An increase in volume can signify a strong interest in either buying or selling.
Price by itself does not tell you the entire story; however, when combined with volume, it provides insight into the sentiment of the market as a whole. Volume is included on almost every free charting platform.
For novice traders, understanding that high volume typically supports strong movements will help them learn how to use volume effectively.
5] Use Investment Calculators for Better Planning
It is crucial to keep an eye on one’s previous performance; however, it is also of utmost importance to prepare for the next stage of growth. To assist in that process, calculators exist.
An example of this type of calculator is an investment calculator; it enables you to predict the growth of your investment through time by inputting:
- Your initial investment,
- The anticipated rate of return, and
- The duration of the investment.
Once you’ve entered the above information, you’ll receive an estimated future value.
6] Calculate Returns Accurately
Use a profitability trial calculator to learn if your plan is working.
It allows you to compute:
- Total Return Percentage
- Annualized Return
- Compounded Growth
It is particularly helpful if you’ve invested at different times & you are looking for a clear understanding of how well you did overall.
As an SIP investor, using an SIP Investment Calculator is utterly useful, as you can input your monthly contribution, estimated rate of return, & duration. It will demonstrate how disciplined little investments become large amounts of money.
Ultimately, seeing these numbers visually will be very motivating.
7] Measure Long-Term Growth
An investment growth calculator is a useful tool for serious investors.
The calculator is based on the concept of compounding. Compounding allows an investor to build substantial wealth, even with modest returns (e.g., 3-6% per year) over a long period of time (10-20 years).
Compounding also allows you to keep track of how your investments will continue to grow over time (with the focus on your long-term investment goals instead of reacting to short-term market fluctuations).
8] Organize Everything in One Place
A simple single sheet in an Excel file can function as your own personal dashboard.
A dashboard can include:
- stocks owned
- mutual funds owned
- total amount of money invested
- current value of portfolio
- total profit or loss on portfolio
By placing all of this information together, you will have a better understanding of the total picture to help you make decisions in your financial life.
Conclusion
It shouldn’t be hard or cost you a lot of $$ when keeping track of your investments. The easiest way is to get a FREE Stock Tracker, a reliable Mutual Fund Tracker, a secondary Stock Tracker, and good use of other tools (for example: Investment Calculator(s), and SIP Investment Calculators). This lets you keep track of your financial progress while staying focused and allows you to make informed, sound investment decisions.
Just remember: the main thing is not to focus on individual daily ups/downs. Stay focused on regularly tracking your stocks, keeping accurate records, and investing for the long haul.
You will have more confidence in your investing if you track investments performance accurately and consistently. Investors with confidence tend to be better decision-makers!
FAQs
The investment tracking tools ask you to provide your email ID, phone number, PAN, etc. when you sign up and complete your profile. There, it asks you to allow tracking your investment history as well.
If you have opted for that option, then the chosen tracking tools will fetch and give you details inside one dashboard.
You can use investment platforms like INDmoney or Groww to track all investments done in SIPs, mutual funds, the share market, and more in one place.
You just need to choose a reliable tracking tool and then sign up there by completing the form. And then you can allow the platform to give the level of accessibility to track your investment portfolio.
Creating an Excel template and manually entering your investments inside can be a tedious job and prone to miss adding important details. If you can manage the same, then using Excel would be easier to track everything in place, and if not, then it’s better to use handy investment tracker tools.
