How does everyone keep track of what money they have put where, when, why etc. ie into pension, isa etc.

All stems from me thinking I’d put enough away in pension last year to maximise tax relief. Now when I go back through my notes, it’s mess of meaningless drivel that I can’t fully translate into my thinking at the time.

I’d be happy with a notebook/pen, doesn’t have to be electronic, just not sure what to record and how.

Just spend it all then less to worry about.
Simply an excel spreadsheet would do everything you want

Hahaha,

“Hun, where did I put the krugerrands?”

I just diversified 50% of my portfolio into a cheese sandwich and a bag of crisps.

Yeah, I’m poor, but if you’ve reached the stage where your portfolio is hard to manage you should consider a ‘managed solution’, if you just want a record for peace of mind, a notebook in a small fireproof safe or an excel spreadsheet backed-up ‘off-site’ depending on your preference for the tangible or electronic should do it. Only you know what’s important to you and why.

Yeah, I’m poor, but if you’ve reached the stage where your portfolio is hard to manage you should consider a ‘managed solution’,

Choose a “managed Solution” for your portfolio and it is is unlikely to get large enough to need managing…

How does everyone keep track of what money they have put where, when, why etc. ie into pension, isa etc.

Are you saying you’ve invested money and you can’t remember where you’ve put it? Are you sure you should be managing your investments yourself?

You must have heard of spreadsheets though so use one of them. You can name the columns where, when, why, how much, etc. That should help.

It’s also worthwhile keeping a track of insurance policies (car/house etc), utility accounts etc. especially if one member of the household is usually responsible for handling all of that stuff. Unplanned death (the worst kind) can make finding those details difficult just when they’re most needed.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Gary_M, not saying I’ve lost any cash, but things get more complicated as the years go by and the number of live pots expands. For example, I have a £250 share in local windfarm, it pays (fingers crossed) 7% for the next 25years. I need to be able to come back to that data at some point and review it, and for it not to get ‘lost’ in the noise of all the ISAs that I might take out over the next 25 years.

Looks like spreadsheet is the way forward. I had just hoped there was some sort of standard practice for recording this sort of info.

For example, I have a £250 share in local windfarm, it pays (fingers crossed) 7% for the next 25years

I really couldn’t be bothered with that level of micro investment for a £1300 return.

@scotroutes, that’s a very good point, I really should make a note of where (most) of the family loot is stashed in case I’m run over… 🙂 🙂

I really couldn’t be bothered with that level of micro investment for a £1300 return.

I assume that’s not really the point…

Gary_M. What some people might class as a pointless “micro investment”, others may see as worthy (for whatever reason). We could pretend that its a £250m stake in a multi-national if you like. I’d still like to keep track of it.

@kcal/@scotroutes – yep good points. Was thinking of this yesterday while listening to martin lewis bit on R5 regarding wills etc.

others may see as worthy (for whatever reason).

That’s fine, you described it in monetary investment terms so that’s what I responded to.

The problem is that whatever system you use now, it could be out of date/unusable in 10 years time (ie, if you used Google Drive then the online service may have been jettisoned, if you use a spreadsheet the software may become obsolete etc).

I am not in a particularly fortunate position personally so I don’t really need to worry about it but my brother has many investments and he emailed me a list of them (as he doesn’t have any dependants) which I have also printed out and put with my meagre pot so that in the event of his death I know what he has and where (as I assume I would be his executor).

ie into pension,

what pension? Just spend all your money on stuff that ensures you never make it that age 😀