Finally contributing to Roth IRA - now what?

Flopbot
Flopbot Superuser ✭✭✭✭✭
edited December 2022 in Investments
Greetings,

To start off, I don't know much about investing.  I've had one (1) Roth IRA for a long time, but it went unloved for a long, long time.  After many years, I'm FINALLY contributing again to it on a monthly basis!

My Current Understanding of the way Simplifi handles Investments:

There are three parts...
  1. Dashboard > Accounts > Roth IRA - This is the area that shows the individual transactions in the account.  Each individual buy/sell event.
  2. Investments > Portfolio Tab - This is the area where I can see how much money is currently invested in each individual fund in my one (1) Roth IRA and whether each one is + or -.
  3. Investments > Balances Tab - This is the area where I can see the overall balance over time.  What is the general trend over the last year?  How much total do I have in ALL my investments - if I actually had more than just the one.
My Questions:
  • What do I do when I receive the paper statement showing all the buy/sell events?  Do I need to reconcile it somehow?  There's no "Review" button in the Transaction Activity so I can't do my normal thing.
  • Do I need to do anything to the individual transactions in the account (#1 above) to keep Simplifi happy?  Note in the screenshot that the Description/Category is "Uncategorized" and there is no Qty and Price.  It seems like something should be there...I would think.



Thanks for any insight and wisdom!
Chris
Quicken Desktop user since 2014.
New to Simplifi in 2021.
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Comments

  • DannyB
    DannyB Superuser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2022
    Congrats on getting back to making contributions to your Roth.  I kind of "nag" my kids to make regular contributions... some do better then others!

    I’m still working on the new transaction feature for investment accounts.  I’ve only really worked on 3 of our investment accounts so far and those only intermittently. 

    Right now you will need to manually update your transactions either using your physical paper statement (do people still use those things? Just kidding, I know people still use paper statements :smile:) or going online and using the data provided in your investment account.  I find the latter to be an easier way to access the most recent data in a format that is easier for me to access/process usually found in a screen labeled "Transaction history" or some sort.

    You have probably already figured out you can click on the various fields and select or enter the required info for each transaction.  Here are a couple of screen shots of updated and yet to be updated transaction data.

    One problem that might crop up is how to categorize any cash in your account.  Simplifi doesn't have a selectable option for cash that is held by your investment firm in some kind of cash instrument.  





    I used to try and keep track of this level of detail in Quicken but finally gave up when Quicken offered the option to just track the totals instead of the details.  It was just too much work to try and keep it all up to date.  I'll try to keep up with the details in Simplifi to see how it goes.  Almost all of our accounts, currently we have 14, soon to be 15, investment accounts!  All but 5, soon to be 6, of those accounts are managed accounts.  The self-directed accounts are my g-kids custodial accounts and once they reach a certain threshold I convert them to managed accounts.


    Danny
    Simplifi user since 01/22
    Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions.” ~A.A. Latimer
  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    edited October 2022
    Hello @Flopbot,

    Thanks for posting your inquiry to the Community!

    When it comes to managing your Investment Transactions, these will not impact your account balances or Portfolio Value in any way. Investment Transactions are designed to be a behind-the-scenes type of scenario that allows you to track your individual transactions, as well as perform 'Transfers' to/from investment accounts. Your Portfolio Value is determined by the holdings displayed in the Investments section.

    Additionally, Investment Transactions are not currently designed to be included in Reports or the Spending Plan. At this time, however, there is a bug that is causing "cash flow" type Investment Transactions to be included in Reports, so you have to manually ignore them. Aside from that known issue, Investment Transactions should not be seen/calculated in Reports or the Spending Plan, though this ability is expected to become available at some point in the future. 

    Based on your screenshots above, it looks like you're using 'Payment/Deposit' for the type, which means that the Qty and Price would not apply. As for the Category, you can categorize these transactions however you'd like -- 'Payment/Deposit' Investment Transactions are considered "cash flow" transactions where you can assign any of your normal Categories. 

    Please be sure to check out our Support Article here for more details on using Investment Transactions in Simplifi. If you'd like to see a 'Reviewed' option added to Investment Transaction registers, I'd definitely suggest leaving your feedback here for the Product Team. 

    Let us know if you have any additional questions!

    -Coach Natalie
  • Flopbot
    Flopbot Superuser ✭✭✭✭✭
    @DannyB, thanks as always.  Super helpful info!  At the moment, I don't think the cash issue you mentioned is going to be a problem for me since any money transferred in gets used to purchase something else within just a few days.  In your screenshots, I see you don't have the "Description / Category" column displayed in your transaction activity register.  I'm assuming this means that you just ignore that field altogether and - if you actually viewed it - it would be filled with a whole lot of "Uncategorized" stuff.  I'm also assuming that this hasn't caused any problems that you've noticed so far.  Am I correct in these two assumptions?

    P.S. Are you currently taking applications for Grand Kids?  If so, how can I apply?  :)

    P.P.S. Keep 'naging' your kids.  They'll appreciate it someday!


    @Coach Natalie, thank you for sharing the additional links.  I read over the Support Article and my only questions - for anyone - at the moment are:
    1. What is the difference between "Payment/Deposit" and "Buy"?  The only reason my original screenshot shows "Payment/Deposit" in the Action column is because that's what automatically synced to Simplifi.
    2. If I switch this in the Action column to "Buy" wherever appropriate, does that truly affect anything?  I know coach said that these are behind-the-scenes and "will not impact your account balances or Portfolio Value in any way".  I'd interpret that as, I can change the individual transactions however I wish without impacting the important bits here...
    3. How do I know which options under the Action dropdown are "cash flow type investments" and which aren't?
    4. Is there some long-term added bonus if I take the time to log Buy/Sell/Qty/Price on individual transactions?  What if I don't go back and include the complete 20-ish year history for this account in Simplifi?  Do I still get the added bonus by just doing part of them?


    For reference, here are the options under the Action dropdown...





    Chris
    Quicken Desktop user since 2014.
    New to Simplifi in 2021.
  • DannyB
    DannyB Superuser ✭✭✭✭✭
    @Flopbot

    Here is a screenshot with the Description/Category column visible.  Note that when you edit an entry the information in the Security/Payee column moves itself to the Description/Category column. 



    Also notice the transaction with the Security/Payee descriptor "Pershing Govt Acct Mmf Pg..."  That is how this particular investment firm holds the cash portion of my portfolio.  A couple of things with this particular entry:
    1. When this data is downloaded the investment firm gives this entry the initials "PGR".  Simplifi sees PGR and translates that as the NYSE symbol for Progressive Corp. (PGR: NYSE).  This misinterpretation of this symbol causes the balance reported in the actual Investment module to be way off by a upwards of $300,000 total for the 3 accounts that have cash at this particular firm.  However, in the Accounts list my balances are reported correctly for these accounts.
    2. This transaction is cash that is held by my investment firm in an interest bearing account but there is no way to indicate that this is "Cash" in the selections available in the dropdown menu for the "Action" column or the Security/Payee column. 
    P.S. To earn the designation "Grand Kid" for inclusion in a custodial account you have to be born or adopted into one of my kids families... if you can track down one of them you can talk to them directly about adoption... but... my suspicion is that you will have already aged out of eligibility for such an account :smiley:

    P.P.S. I will.

    P.P.P.S. I'll create a 2nd post to give my responses to your questions.
    Danny
    Simplifi user since 01/22
    Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions.” ~A.A. Latimer
  • DannyB
    DannyB Superuser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Flopbot said:
    1. What is the difference between "Payment/Deposit" and "Buy"?  The only reason my original screenshot shows "Payment/Deposit" in the Action column is because that's what automatically synced to Simplifi.
    2. If I switch this in the Action column to "Buy" wherever appropriate, does that truly affect anything?  I know coach said that these are behind-the-scenes and "will not impact your account balances or Portfolio Value in any way".  I'd interpret that as, I can change the individual transactions however I wish without impacting the important bits here...
    3. How do I know which options under the Action dropdown are "cash flow type investments" and which aren't?
    4. Is there some long-term added bonus if I take the time to log Buy/Sell/Qty/Price on individual transactions?  What if I don't go back and include the complete 20-ish year history for this account in Simplifi?  Do I still get the added bonus by just doing part of them?
    For what it's worth, here are my responses to your questions:

    1. & 3. "Payment/Deposit" is for cash that is deposited into your investment account either from an external source (transfer from one of your cash bank accounts, funds deducted from your paycheck by and employer and deposited to your investment account), or cash from the sell of holding(s) in your investment account and thus is a "cash flow type investment" and I beleive this is what Coach Natalie meant about "cash flow type investment transactions," not that some or any of the other possible options count as cash flow type investment transactions.  I take that back, the 5 possible income selections (Income Dividend, Income Interest...) may also count as cash flow type investment transactions. 
    2. Switching "Payment/Deposit" to the correct action will allow you to fill in the other columns appropriately and give you correct accounting as investment accounts are further integrated into the Simplifi environment and architecture. I would hesitate to say that you can change the individual transactions however you want since I suspect, at some point, this will impact the "important bits."  Right now the ability to edit investment account transactions is completely separate from the existing "Investment " module and thus does not affect the data collected and displayed there.  My understanding is that adding the ability to edit investment account transactions is one step towards better integration of investment accounts into Simplifi especially for Spending Plan purposes - being able to track transfer to and out of Investment accounts and accessing/showing these transfers in the spending plan and reports being one of the benefits.
    3.  See "1. & 3." above.
    4. Wow!  I'll have to wait and see if one of the Coaches chimes in on this one... I, for one, will not be attempting to update the full history of my investment accounts!  That would thousands of transactions to edit... nope... ain't gonna happen :smile:
    Danny
    Simplifi user since 01/22
    Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions.” ~A.A. Latimer
  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    Hello @Flopbot,

    Great questions!

    @DannyB provided a great response above, however, I'll do my best to also chime in on your questions. 
    1. The difference between 'Payment/Deposit' and 'Buy' is that 'Buy' is an investing action and 'Payment/Deposit' is a cash flow type. If the transactions downloaded this way, you may consider editing them to the correct investing type. 
    2. Editing the transactions to the proper investing action won't impact anything as far as your Portfolio Value goes. It may come in handy for your own personal tracking, and, as @DannyB mentioned, it may come in handy if Simplifi ever further integrates Investment Transactions with the Investment Portfolio (as far as I'm aware, there are no plans to do this, but you never know). With that said, though, editing the type may impact the Investing: Balance Over Time (see here) and the Investing: Performance Over Time (see here) features, as I do know that Investment Transactions are supposed to impact these specific areas of the program.
    3. As far as I'm aware, the only "cash flow" investing types are 'Payment/Deposit', 'Income Miscellaneous', and 'Miscellaneous Expense'. The difference between these and the rest of the Investment Categories is that you can assign one of your normal Categories, and you can also elect to include them in Reports. For now, these are the only types of Investment Transactions that can be included in Reports. 
    4. It's totally up to you as far as taking the time to edit/log your historical investing data. As mentioned above, I'm not aware of any further plans to integrate Investment Transactions with your actual Investment Portfolio, but you never know. I think taking the time to do this would be a personal preference and would depend on how important tracking that data is to you. 
    I hope this helps clarify things!

    -Coach Natalie
  • Flopbot
    Flopbot Superuser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2022
    Well, I dipped my toe in the water and it didn't get bit off.  That's progress.  But, I need to phone a friend with questions...as usual.

    For these lines on my paper statement...

    9/01 | Dividend on American Bond Fund of Amer A on 265.713 Shares at Daily Accrual Rate | $10.10
    9/01 | Reinvestment into American Bond Fund of Amer A @11.78 | Quantity 0.857 | Amount -$10.10



    This is what the negative "reinvestment" transaction started with as default...



    This is what I tried to change it to which seemed to work, mostly...



    Questions for anyone:

    1. In my second screenshot, Simplifi automatically filled in the "Price per share" as $11.79, but the statement shows $11.78.  Does this difference truly matter or is it just a result of market changes over time (from the time of the paper statement to today)?
    2. At first, I tried to use the type of "Reinvest Dividend" however, the fields didn't seem to jive.  So, I changed it to "Buy" which seemed to work better.  Should I be choosing some other type, perhaps "Income Dividend"?
    3. Depending on the answer to #2, should the positive "Dividend" transaction line at the top of this reply use the "Reinvest Dividend" or some other type?
    Mainly, I think I'm just getting confused on what all the various "Types" mean...like I said, I don't know much about investing.  Feel free to say "Go read a book."  :#


    Investing Related:
         Investing Action
              Buy
              Sell
              Stock Dividend
         Reinvest
              Reinvest Dividend
              Reinvest Interest
              Reinvest Long-term Capital Gain
              Reinvest Short-term Capital Gain
         Income (Div Int. Dist)
              Income Dividend
              Income Interest
              Income Long-term Capital Gain
              Income Short-term Capital Gain
              Income Miscellaneous
              Add Shares
              Remove Shares
              Buy Bonds
              Sell Bonds
              Margin Interest Expense
              Miscellaneous Expense
              Return of Capital
              Stock Split
              Short Sell
              Buy to Cover
              Payment/Deposit

                   Bold/ Italics = "Cash Flow Items"
    Chris
    Quicken Desktop user since 2014.
    New to Simplifi in 2021.
  • DannyB
    DannyB Superuser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ruminations:
    1. I don't believe price per share is "live" in transactions working instead only with the actual data downloaded.  The price per share will be figured based on the total of the transaction divided by the number of shares.  But, Simplifi will round out the price to the 10th (.00) whereas the actual downloaded price may be to the 1000th (.0000).  In your example 10.10/.857 = 11.7852 and it appears your statement is cutting off the last two digits thus $11.78/share.  As far as I can tell Simplifi will perform a rounding function on the price, in this instance rounding up to $11.79 since .7852 would round up and not down.  That being said, I beleive number that counts in the end is the $10.10 and that is the same no matter how the price/share is handled.
    2. Not sure what to think about this.  It seems that "Income Dividend" should work for the dividend deposit to your account and I would expect "Reinvest Dividend" should be the proper choice.  It seems to me that would be a "buy" function and I would expect it to be the same as a "Buy".  But I'm not an investment pro, rather I'd be better classified as "know enough to be dangerous."  I'll wait to see how Coach Natalie responds to this.
    3. "9/01 | Dividend on American Bond Fund of Amer A on 265.713 Shares at Daily Accrual Rate | $10.10" I would expect this to be classified "Income Dividend".  "9/01 | Reinvestment into American Bond Fund of Amer A @11.78 | Quantity 0.857 | Amount -$10.10"  I would expect this to be classified as "Reinvest Dividend"  Again, I'll wait to see what Coach has to say about this.
    Danny
    Simplifi user since 01/22
    Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions.” ~A.A. Latimer
  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    edited October 2022
    Hello @Flopbot,

    Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be a whole lot of help when it comes to what 'types' to use. Hopefully some other users come along with suggestions, however, I'm not personally very familiar with investments. You might consider doing some online research to get a better grip on what each one means, or potentially even contact your brokerage for guidance. 

    Otherwise, I don't personally have any downloaded investment transactions to confirm with, but the price per share may be locked because the transaction has been downloaded as opposed to manually entered. When manually entering Investment Transactions, I'm able to enter the price per share no matter the 'type' selected or when using a valid ticker symbol.

    I also agree with what @DannyB stated above regarding Simplifi rounding up the price from what's displayed on your statement. This makes perfect sense to me when looking at the math. Again, you may consider contacting your brokerage to confirm that the last 2 digits are in fact cut off from the price displayed on your statement. 

    Sorry for not being able to assist much with the investing types! Let us know if you find anything further out, as Investment Transactions are still new for all of us, and others may come along and find the information helpful. :smile:

    -Coach Natalie

    Edit: When further reviewing the 'Price per share' field on manual Investment Transactions, it looks like it's actually locked no matter what. I think Simplifi gets this number by the 'Total Amount' divided by the 'Shares quantity' regardless of how the transaction was entered. This seems to make sense as far as I can tell. 
  • DannyB
    DannyB Superuser ✭✭✭✭✭
    This morning I spent some time updating another one of my investment account's transactions.
    1. Actual security buys were straight forward and all fields worked as expected
    2. Dividend deposits worked fine when I chose "Income Dividend" 
    3. Interest deposits worked fine when I chose "Income Interest"
    4. The issue I'm having is how to handle what happens to the dividend and interest.  My broker usually will sweep those cash deposits into a cash account perhaps to be reinvested at a latter date.  See screenshot:


    Both the interest and dividend income are swept into a money market fund (Pershing Govt Acct MMF PGR).  I can't figure out how to accurately reflect these transactions the way Simplifi Investment Transactions are set up at this time.  These are the majority of the transactions I have to update in my accounts so it's kind of an important one to get figured out.
    Danny
    Simplifi user since 01/22
    Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions.” ~A.A. Latimer
This discussion has been closed.