Investment Total Cost & Gains: Share your feedback here!

Bgz · September 26

I realized that you don't even need to a serious investor(with multiple buys a month) for the current “total cost basis with manual entries” to become very inaccurate as time goes by. When a casual (or serious) investor receives dividends with auto-reinvestment option enabled, they will see inaccurate data slowly creep in as the average cost basis will change even without the user realizing it.

SRC54 · October 2

I got my dividends in my Fidelity IRA and everything was swell except that my cost basis had the dreaded orange triangles. I checked the numbers and they were right! But Simplifi thought they were wrong for some reason.

I sent a private message to @Coach Natalie with a screen shot of the erroneous errors. To fix it I had to change the cost basis to something wrong and then change it back to the correct amount.

There was one that was actually wrong, the Core Account that is valued at $1 because I "bought" shares in it. I was able to change that easily but it was the only one that should have had to be changed. FYI.

Bgz · October 2

Interesting… Are you reinvesting your dividends? If so, depending on the amount of dividend received, that cost basis should be off (if not way off)…

If you don’t reinvest your dividends then your cost basis should be the same.

Coach Natalie · October 4

This feature is out of Early Access and live for everyone!

A couple of changes to note:

Cost Basis was renamed to "Total Cost" to avoid confusion
Profit was renamed to "Gains" per user feedback

SRC54 · October 4

@Bgz Just saw your message. Yes, I reinvest them and it's an IRA so no worries about capital gains. Just pay taxes when and if I take it out. I thought the same thing as you that there ought to be changes in the cost basis, but according to Fidelity they didn't change. So something is rotten in Denmark? On the other hand, maybe Fidelity did download the new cost basis to Simplifi but Simplifi didn't understand. Curiouser and Curiouser. I will do some more digging.

OTOH, help me with this if you can. Fidelity takes any cash and puts it into a Core Account, which is a Gov't Cash Reserves (FDRXX). When I get a "dividend" on that, it is just cash and income and would have to report it on my income tax (in my Brokerage but not IRA account). In Quicken Classic, I get an Income Dividend transaction and my cash amount goes up. Fidelity then buys more shares at $1 of FDRXX. All Quicken shows is Cash and no cost basis. In Simplifi, it actually shows FDRXX and its value and I did have to change the cost basis to the actual cash amount.

My question: Shouldn't this be just Cash with no FDRXX listed as in Quicken Classic? Should we request a change here? In my wife's Schwab IRA, Quicken Classic and Simplifi just calls it cash with no security tied to it.

SRC54 · October 4

@Bgz After scrutinizing the August and September Fidelity Statements, I see that the number of shares changed as my dividends were reinvested. This is correct. So I suppose the cost basis remained the same as the dividend simply becomes an unrealized capital gain. Had I taken the cash, it would go into FDRXX as dividend income and would be taxable for 2024 (if taxes were not deferred for IRAs).

So, really this is a bug in Simplifi that it wanted me to update the cost basis but it was actually correct. I suppose the AI figured more shares meant more cost basis? However, it wouldn't let me just confirm it, I had to change it to something wrong, then back to the correct amount. I should be able to confirm it. Has this bug been reported? @Coach Natalie Here is a screenshot of some securities showing the Orange Triangle, but they are actually correct:

Coach Natalie · October 4

@SRC54, this was forwarded to our product team. We will let you know if they'd like any further info from you.

Thanks for letting us know!

-Coach Natalie

SRC54 · October 4

Thanks! As I say, it isn't hard to fix, but it might help others. I try not to pay too much attention to the vagaries of the Market. It can drive one crazy.

Bgz · October 5

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/41787#Comment_41787

If I understood you correctly, I believe your cost basis remained the same in Fidelity due to 2 reasons-

1. Fidelity looks at average cost basis and the average of all your FDRXX shares (irrespective of when you purchased it and even with dividends reinvested) will always be $1.

2. On the Simplifi side, it does download number of shares correctly but it shows total cost basis which has to be manually updated. But considering the cost of these shares are always $1 and you have unrealized gains, it might make it seem correct.

The values will be different if you purchased shares at 100 and then at 200 and then back at 75$. That would throw off Simplifi based on manual total cost basis entry. The total basis in above example is $375 (which has to be updated manually) but average cost basis is $125.

I don’t have an answer for the bug you reported and I am glad coach Natalie is looking at it.

SRC54 · October 5

@Bgz Thanks so much.

Well, FDRXX change the numbers of shares and I had put in a Cost Basis and since the Cost basis is always going to be the same as the value, it would be better for Simplifi just to show it as Cash as Quicken Classic does and not keep up with the shares of FDRXX.

The other securities where the dividend is paid out in additional shares should not need updating as to cost basis as it is taken into account by the number of shares x current price.

So maybe Simplifi should assume cost basis is right and let you update it when you need to without the Orange Triangles.

I have no idea if Fidelity is right or how they come up with cost basis. I just trust them to do that right. Again since this is an IRA, it makes no difference, every penny I take out will be 100% taxable. I keep prolonging the agony.

SRC54 · October 11

I discovered something I didn't know (not shocking). I had a stock split overnight in the Schwab account and it updated the number of shares but the price update lags so it is wrong in Portfolio View although the downloaded balance is right. For some reason the price doesn't get updated but once per day and right now the price per share is double what it really is. I expect it will update later today or tonight and be right.

What I discovered is that I cannot edit the holdings in this account even the cost basis. I suppose because it is locked as Schwab downloads all that? I can edit the holdings in Fidelity and they don't download the cost basis.

WJB · October 16

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/41787#Comment_41787

Unless I'm misunderstanding the situation, I'm pretty sure reinvested dividends are taxable just like non-reinvested dividends (https://www.irs.gov/faqs/capital-gains-losses-and-sale-of-home/stocks-options-splits-traders/stocks-options-splits-traders-2). But I think you do raise the good question as to whether the "cost basis" feature is supposed to show tax basis or actual cost. If the former then reinvested dividends should be added to cost basis just like any other buy. If the latter then I guess they wouldn't be added to cost basis. In either case it would make sense for non-reinvested dividends to be added to the numerator to show total return (reinvested dividends would already be included due to the increased share count/market value) - I'm not sure how you solve for a lack of historical data here though.

WJB · October 16

I have an investment account that keeps resetting the manually-entered cost basis back to 0. Is there a way to stop Simplifi from doing this?

Coach Natalie · October 16

@WJB, is the account connected to the bank, or are you tracking it manually?

-Coach Natalie

SRC54 · October 16

@WJB Definitely the dividends would be taxable whether or not you reinvest them. But in IRAs, you only pay taxes when you take it out and with Roth IRAs, your interest is tax free after you reach 59.5 yo.

As far as cost basis, it would seem to me if you reinvest $100 dividends, you've added $100 to the cost basis. However, since it is an IRA again it won't matter. I don't know what my brokerage account would do as my dividends in it I take as income and report on my income tax and my investment cost basis never changes unless or until I buy some more.

BHazeltine · October 22

As someone who doesn't buy and sell frequently, I find this to be a very nice addition. For those funds/stocks that I have bought and sold several times, I use TipRanks to tell me my average cost, which I then enter into Simplifi. For me, that's not a lot of extra work, but I can see for those who buy and sell more frequently, it could be a problem.

DannyB · October 22

This is just me, but if I was an "active trader" I wouldn't use this app to try to keep track of it all - QS just isn't built for that. As someone with several active investment accounts all but a couple managed by a professional, I don't need to have a high level of tracking in QS.

Emacken · October 22

Doublechecking to make sure I followed: I contribute to a 403b every other week automatically from my paycheck. If I update my total cost today, it will list that as my total cost going forward unless I manually change it with each update? (i.e. what Simplifi lists as my total gain after Friday would actually be my total gain plus the value of a paycheck contribution?)

SRC54 · October 22

@DannyB I agree. Fidelity and Schwab and the rest offer a lot of tools that I use when I am trading, etc. I want Quicken or Simplifi just to show the value and my transactions. I think anything more is getting away from Simplifi's mission. Now anything that Simplifi offers should work for everyone or almost everyone, but we cannot have every bell or whistle. Even Quicken Classic doesn't do that.

UrsulaA · October 23

@SRC54 - I agree with "I want Quicken or Simplifi just to show the value and my transactions. I think anything more is getting away from Simplifi's mission."

I use the app to have a correct balance and transactions for investment accounts. If I want accurate cost basis information, the brokers' sites are best. After all, the tax information is provided by the brokers to the IRS and on occasion accountants provide cost basis to the IRS. I do not want to track cost basis in Simplifi, it is nice to view there provided such info comes from the broker's data feed.

g262 · November 6

I would like to know why my total cost basis values in my fidelity account are not populated in my Simplifi dashboard. It would be very time consuming and error prone for me to have to update these manually as they are part of a fund….

Coach Natalie · November 6

@g262, according to an earlier comment from me in this thread, Fidelity does not support cost basis downloads:

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/40966#Comment_40966

With that, you will need to enter this data manually in Quicken Simplifi.

Sorry for not having better news for you!

-Coach Natalie

WJB · November 12

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/42233#Comment_42233

it's connected to the bank.

Coach Natalie · November 13

@WJB, thanks for the reply!

I wonder if the financial institution is overriding the data you've manually input when the account updates. What bank is the account connected to? And at what point do you notice the cost basis has reset to $0? Do you see a cost basis for the holdings on their website?

-Coach Natalie

ToddSchaal · November 17

I'm trying to figure out how I would calculate my total cost basis for my Health Equity HSA account that does not provide that info. Would I just add up the total of all my buys of a particular holding ( not including reinvestments) and subtract the total of all my sells of the same holding? If I did that once would simplifi then be able to track that going forward or would I need to update it every time I made a purchase or sell?

llamafilm · November 18

I like the idea but as it stands today I don’t see myself using this because my cost basis is not static. I contribute to each investment twice a month, so it would be too much work keeping this up to date. Ideally, I’d like a way to identify those contributions automatically and adjust the cost basis each time.

Coach Natalie · November 18

@ToddSchaal, you would manually update the cost basis with any changes that take place.

I hope this helps!

-Coach Natalie

Investment Total Cost & Gains: Share your feedback here!

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