I haven’t checked my net worth for four and a half months until recently. That wasn’t on purpose, because normally, since 2012, I check at least three times a week using Empower’s free app. The only reason I stopped was because I could no longer log in.
One day, I was suddenly locked out of the app. I tried to log in on my laptop instead. Same result. My password, which I hadn’t changed, no longer worked. No big deal, I thought. I’d just reset it. Except every time I went through the reset process, I’d get an email confirming the change, then immediately get a warning that the new password didn’t work and that I’d be locked out for 24 hours after two more attempts. After five rounds over a month, I gave up.
Although I appreciated the seriousness of Empower’s security, I was frustrated. Life was busy. Summer rolled around. I took the family to Honolulu for five weeks. Once school started for my kids on August 27, I finally decided it was time to call the helpline (1-877-216-4014, for anyone who finds themselves in my shoes).
After a 7-minute call, I was back in action. The support rep explained that Empower had migrated dashboards to a new system, and some accounts like mine got stuck in a loop. All I had to do was unregister, then re-register with my existing Social Security number and zip code, and voilà—I was back in with all my existing linked accounts.
Didn’t Have A Great Urge To Check My Net Worth
What surprised me most wasn’t that it took four and a half months to fix. It was that I didn’t feel a strong urge to fix it right away. If I really wanted to, I could have called the helpline immediately.
It’s not like my net worth was going to vanish just because I wasn’t looking at it. I knew the rough numbers in my head already—my equity exposure, my bond allocation, my real estate value, and so forth. Plus, when the market was tanking at the end of March and early April 2025, I wasn’t itching to see the damage anyway. Sometimes, not looking is the best way to stay calm.
It reminded me of social media: the less time you spend scrolling X, Instagram, or Facebook, the happier you tend to be. Checking your net worth too often can be the same type of mental junk food, so I experimented with staying away. Unless you receive a significant financial windfall, your net worth isn't changing much from day to day.
That said, the four-plus months off taught me something valuable. There are real benefits to not regularly checking your net worth.
The Five Benefits Of Not Checking Your Net Worth Regularly
1. Lower Stress And Anxiety
When markets are down, staring at your net worth daily is like poking at a bruise, it only makes the pain worse.
In March and April, the S&P 500 dropped sharply, and bonds weren’t helping much either. Had I been logging in every morning, I would have watched hundreds of thousands in paper losses pile up. Instead, by not logging in, I avoided the day-to-day sting.
It’s like weighing yourself every day when you’re trying to lose weight. If you fluctuate up and down, it’s demoralizing. But if you only check once a month, you’re more likely to see the real trend and less likely to quit.
Not checking your net worth regularly protects your mental health. You still know roughly where you stand, but you aren’t constantly reminding yourself of volatility you can’t control.
2. More Focus On What Actually Matters
When I wasn’t checking my net worth, I noticed my energy went elsewhere: my kids, my writing, my time in Honolulu visiting my parents. Instead of being distracted by a green or red number on a screen, I was more present. Of course, I still had the urge to check my investment accounts individually from time to time.
Every time you check your finances, you use up some of your limited daily attention. If you check three times a week like I usually do, that’s over 150 mental interruptions a year. Multiply that by decades, and you realize how much headspace you’ve given up.
By not checking, I was forced to focus on what I could control: working on new articles, being with family, and staying healthy. In the end, isn’t that why we’re building wealth in the first place?
3. Helps Break Your Money Addiction
Let’s be frank, tracking net worth can feel addictive. The little dopamine hit from seeing your portfolio go up is real. It's why some of us like to gamble. But like all addictions, there’s a cost.
When your mood is tied too closely to whether the market is up or down, you’ve given away control of your happiness. That’s dangerous. Unfortunately, I'm always moodier when the stock market is correcting because I'm in charge of the family's finances. When the finances are going backwards, I can't help feel like a failure for not better safeguarding our main source of freedom.
By taking four and a half months off, I broke that cycle. I rediscovered that I could go weeks without knowing my “score,” and life went on just fine. My cash flow didn’t dry up. The world didn’t end.
4. Prevents Knee-Jerk Reactions That Could Lose You Money
One of the biggest dangers of constantly checking your finances is the temptation to unnecessarily tinker. You see your portfolio drop and suddenly you want to sell (or hopefully buy the dip). You see a hot IPO go up 333% on the first day, and due to intense FOMO, you want to buy at the top.
As the old saying goes, “Time in the market is more powerful than timing the market.” The less you check your net worth and investment portfolios, the less temptation you will have to trade.
This type of overactivity often leads to worse long-term returns. The best investors are usually the ones who set up an allocation and then largely leave it alone.
By not regularly looking for four plus months, I gave myself a natural “cooling off” period. I wasn’t tempted to make drastic investment decisions. My portfolio allocation stayed largely intact, which is exactly how compounding works best.
Think of it like a farmer. If you dig up your seeds every week to check on them, they’ll never grow. Sometimes, the best move is to leave things buried and let nature do its thing.
5. A Chance To Test Financial Independence
The ultimate goal of financial independence is to not worry about money all the time. You want to move money in the background so you can spend time doing the things you really enjoy. If you need to track your net worth daily just to feel secure, you’re not truly free.
During my four-month break, I got an unfamiliar preview of what it feels like to live without constantly measuring. My bills were still paid. My investments still grew (or shrank). Life speed kept accelerating. Our money was taking care of our family, as intended. The less time I spent managing our money, the more rewarding the money felt. In other words, my Return On Effort improved.
If you want to know whether you’re really financially secure, try not checking your net worth for at least a quarter. If you find yourself panicking, you may be too dependent on external validation. But if you find yourself relaxed, you’re probably in good shape.
This test is powerful. It shows you whether you’ve built a fortress solid enough that you can step away without fear. You know where all your money is. That’s real independence.
Striking A Balance When Tracking Your Wealth
When you finally check your net worth months later, you might be pleasantly surprised to see a bigger jump in wealth than you expected, especially if you're in a bull market. It’s like seeing other people’s kids after summer break. Their growth feels dramatic because you weren’t watching them inch taller every day. Parents, on the other hand, often hardly notice the change.
After four plus months away, I’m back to tracking my net worth closely. Old habits die hard, and I still believe there’s value in keeping an eye on things, especially for someone like me, who writes about personal finance for a living.
I was happy to finally update the amounts in three private venture capital funds, which had $60,000 worth of capital calls during these four months. I also logged the additional $100,000 I invested in the Fundrise Innovation Fund at the end of June this year. Most private investments are manually tracked in the Empower dashboard.
This time off taught me that balance is key. For most people, checking once or twice a month is ideal. It keeps you informed without letting the numbers dominate your mood.
Personally, I’m aiming to scale back from three times a week to just twice a week. One practical trick? Move the Empower app off your home screen and bury it on page three or four of your phone so you’re not tempted to tap it out of habit.
Don't Let Your Net Worth Control You
If you’re in debt or working toward a savings milestone, you might check your accounts more often for motivation. It is worth reviewing your checking account regularly so you don’t get hit with overdraft fees or pay unnecessary expenses. I learned this the hard way when I neglected to check and ended up paying more for life insurance for two years than I realized.
But if you’re already retired or financially independent, you can afford to check less often. The key is making sure you control the numbers—not the other way around.
I never intended to take a four-month break from tracking my net worth. But between a stubborn login issue and a lack of interest, I unexpectedly got to experience life without my usual financial dashboard. And you know what? It was liberating.
If you’re someone who refreshes your portfolio daily, try stepping back. Go a week, a month, or even four months without looking.
You may discover, as I did, that the less you check, the more you actually enjoy your wealth.
Readers, how often do you check your net worth? Do you believe there’s a strong correlation between frequency and results? After all, people who are obsessed with something often end up getting better at it.
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I kinda split the difference. When market is up I typically check almost every day. It is fun to see my net worth reach new all-time highs. But when the market tanks or retreats significantly, I may not look at it for weeks or a month or more, maybe not until the market reaches a new high again if the pullback is really short. Not that I stress when it is down, just “nothing to see there” – not going to sell or panic. Just no fun.
Also, I set some limit purchases on stock and SPY for a downturn which makes me disciplined investor and buying the dips. Right now I have buy orders in for the SPY 50 and 200 day moving averages, and same for QQQ and NVDA the 200 day. IF it hits I’m thrilled, if not fine too.
“ Right now I have buy orders in for the SPY 50 and 200 day moving averages, and same for QQQ and NVDA the 200 day. IF it hits I’m thrilled, if not fine too.”
That’s good discipline. And I wouldn’t mind if it doesn’t hit either!
I check my net worth, using a spreadsheet, the first of every month, and have done so since 2003. I have skipped a month here and there when markets were tanking and I didn’t want to see the short term damage. Ultimately I have a 20 plus year net worth history (260 spreadsheet tabs at one per month) that serves as an excellent motivator and that gave me confidence to retire at 55, though I waited until 59. Following a challenging divorce three years ago the history and updates since then give me confidence in my retirement moving forward. I’ve tried Empower and other services to track my net worth, though I find completing my net worth spreadsheet and tracking key financial events each month keeps me grounded. I finished the September 1, 2025 update this morning.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for sharing. Can you also share why you waited 4 years? In retrospect, what was the best move?
“ gave me confidence to retire at 55, though I waited until 59”
Related post: Overcoming the One More Year Syndrome
I liked my job and the compensation, knowing that work was no longer mandatory. My experience was not one more year syndrome; I found the desire and satisfaction for the only time in a 35 year career, to keep working. In retrospect, and in light of my failed marriage, this was the best move.
Matt, I’m likely finding myself in a very similar situation. Wish there were a way to DM you (assuming you were willing), if for nothing else just to get the perspective from someone who went through it and made it to the other side. Happy to hear that you did! Thanks for sharing.
Since you asked — we check our net worth once per year, once we’ve filed our taxes. We do it the old-fashioned way, in that we don’t have a single service that has access to all our accounts and assets, but we instead have a spreadsheet that we have to manually update by logging into all our accounts to check and record the balances. I’m sure some will scoff, but we found that having that extra friction prevents us from obsessing over it on a day-to-day basis. That said, I will admit that we have a couple individual stocks that are big parts of our overall net worth, and I do find myself checking their prices several times per week and doing quick mental math to see what those positions are worth…. so even though we have a system in place to prevent obsessing over net worth, I still find other ways to obsess.
Only once a year is truly impressive! Where are you on your financial journey and can you share a net worth number or range?
I don’t think I’ve met anybody who can only check once a year. I really like to track progress and see debt go down or investments go up. It’s too fun not to track less than once a month, at least for me.
Thanks for the reply. Spouse and I are both around 50 years old with two kids, one in middle school and the other in high school. We’re in the SF Bay Area, both in tech. I’ve been working part-time since the covid days, wife is still full time because she’s still not convinced about the whole FIRE thing. Net worth is around 100x our annual expenses, and the annual expenses are enough to live a comfortable and typical life style in our over-priced South Bay community.
Back when we had a mortgage and we were actively paying extra to finish early, I would check my mortgage spreadsheet every month. You’re right, it’s very satisfying to see the debt going down, especially when you make extra payments and compare to not making those extra payments. We’re very debt averse, and I think our personalities are wired to appreciate more the decreasing debt, compared to appreciating investments. In retrospect, that attitude has probably cost us multiple millions (if we had just invested the extra money instead of paying off the mortgage).
As I mentioned in the first post, we don’t check total net worth often, but I do check a couple tech stocks regularly. I admit it’s fun to track when the numbers are going up!
A net worth equal to 100 times your expenses and having a wife who is still grinding is also impressive. Congrats!
As soon as I retired in 2012 at age 34, my wife, who is three years younger than me, wanted to retire immediately. But I told her to fight for equality and wait until she’s at least 34 as well. She left in 2015 and never wants to go back. And I can’t convince her otherwise.
How much do you think is enough for you and your wife? Or specifically, your wife?
I really like the part-time solution you have. It’s a good balance if you’ve got that net worth.
Right now, I think my wife chooses to work because the joy of the good days more than compensates for the woe of the bad days. When that balance shifts too far the other way, I think that will be it. I don’t think she has “her number” for net worth, like many folks have.
That’s good to hear. Your comment reminds me of this phrase though, “A bad day of golf is better than a good day at the office.”
I’ve been looking daily. I will try to scale back to once per month.
Another great post, thanks. I’ve really tried to scrutinize each of my discretionary purchases quite a bit more, while taking the emphasis off of watching my net worth too closely. Hopefully the right actions will show up in the net worth number over time.
I love all the points you made, especially about knee jerk reactions. It kind of explains why the accounts of deceased people at Fidelity outperform most others.
Solid post Sam. It makes me think isn’t the point of Fire once achieved to quiet that intense sense of attachment we have to the exchange of our time to others on the basis of earning a living and feeling secure independently? I wonder how in a time before the internet and our ability to be entertained with the personal lives of others or having such a detailed look at our finances right at our fingertips, we’d have to wait for letters or count wealth in a ledger. I have to believe that my ability to disconnect from feeling worth linked to net worth in a daily way is true independence as I’ve been conditioned and impressed upon to constantly have a health check. Some of the most successful artists I know seem to have their meaning tied to purpose, same with my wife who mid life started a new career. While financial independence is a goal that can bring one to closer to purpose, I don’t think it creates the fire which I think is sort of a conversation we have with ourselves. Your post reinforced this for me, to try not to get drawn into distracting habits.
Curious if you find Empower better to track net worth compared to Credit Karma which also has a number of API connections linked to even some private investments such as Fundrise. Regardless of app used, like many I check just about daily especially when the equity markets are improving as I really enjoy seeing a new NW high! Still check sporadically when the market is down but definitely not as frequently. Conversely to the point of this article, when I do check and it’s a new high, it provides me a much improved mindset and a general stress free feeling.
Credit Karma was built to provide its users credit card leads. A lucrative business, but not great for users looking to manage their money.
Empower (ex Personal Capital) was built for wealth management purposes and has improved over time. Now that you mention it, I think Empower does connect Fundrise accounts. I’ll try it out. It just doesn’t link to my closed-end venture capital and venture debt funds, so I’ve just manually updated all of them as a result.
I’m not religious about, but happened to check today and it’s a good moment to think about
1) Are you making the progress (on this metric) you want?
2) Are you diversified across assets and tax location?
3) Where are you forecasted to be – ex. will you be super wealthy in your 90s? Is that something you want?
4) Money is a tool and helps people be confident, but becomes way less important relative to things like health and family.
disclosure: Boldin founder
Really like how you laid this out. The “super wealthy in your 90s” point especially hits home—what’s the point if you can’t enjoy it earlier? I also agree on diversification across tax buckets. Too many people get caught with everything in pre-tax accounts and no flexibility later. And totally with you on health and family being the ultimate priorities.
I hope you’re enjoying record-high wealth!
Login loop errors have driven me nuts. I never had one with Empower, but I’ve had them with various vendor websites many times. And I’ve also delayed calling to get it fixed. Usually because it’s so hard to find the number or I figure I’ll just try again a few days later. Glad you got yours fixed!
thanks. we don’t reinvest dividends- so that we have choice of what to buy and when to buy; also, with the possibility of unbeknownst’ly – running afoul of TLH (tax loss harvesting)
Once when we were on extended vacay – we forgot to check and act – so, there were 4-5 figure dividends awaiting to be invested.
So, may be we don’t check often enough – may be we belong to that category!
I hear this. I check Empower multiple times a day. I don’t have social media, so my brain has found other ways to get dopamine hits — and checking my net worth is one of them. Of course, in 2022 I did a great job of not checking my net worth.
I think I often use Empower when I’m feeling anxious, even about things totally unrelated to money. It brings a sense of security. I recognize that’s unhealthy and something I need to work on, but like you said, old habits die hard.
I can relate to Rising Timber’s experience. Back when I was still working, I’d check my net worth on Empower 10 times a day. After I FIRE’d, I kept watching my balance at first, but I realized it was just making me anxious about the market. So I stopped. Now I just glance at my Chase app to make sure my checking accounts are fine, that way I know I won’t bounce a payment and that my tenants are paying on time. It has been very liberating!
Good call! Yeah, we gotta pay attention to our checking account regularly to make sure there are no overdraft fees or big negative balances.
I screwed myself by NOT paying attention close enough and ended up paying $700+/month more for two years for a life insurance policy I thought I cancelled!
See: A Terrible Life Insurance Mistake That Cost Me A Fortune