Creating Manual Investment Account - Balance showing zero, no shares
I am trying to set up my TSP investments as a manual investment account because it doesn't do a good job in showing performance due to the limitations in how they sync with financial software. I have created the manual investment account. In order to list my current balance, I did a transaction of a purchase of funds (by the way, it is really hard to create an unlisted stock/fund name - I wanted to create "C Fund" and it did not want to cooperate - finally got it to take by creating my own, which was extremely difficult, but even after that it doesn't show in the drop down of funds available to select)
Anyhow, I did a purchase stock transaction, entered the number of shares, the cost, the price, etc. I save it and then my balance still shows zero. I then tried to add holdings. Same problem. Why won't the program show the shares I have entered? What am I doing wrong, and how do I select/create the funds I need? I have spent hours now trying to get this to work, and I really don't want to be relegated to just use automatic syncing, because then I won't see performance/return, just total value.
Thank you.
Answers
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Hello @grahamtj01,
Thank you for reaching out! As long as the holdings are added with valid ticker symbols, they should update overnight during aggregation. For more information on how investment accounts are updated, please see this article:
I hope this helps!
-Coach Kristina
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Thanks - I guess the issue at hand is the Federal Government version of a 401K really only allows us to invest in funds that are unique and only available to Feds in their retirement investments - G Fund, F Fund, C Fund, S Fund, I Fund. None of these come up from the drop down to select as holdings, though I have used other software in the past that did populate these as an option. Also, when I did connect to the automatic updates before wanting to do it manually, the system would show that I had investments in the appropriate fund.
I have no issue keying in updated share prices every day in order to more accurately track my investment performance. Is that not possible?
Also, it did allow me to manually enter C Fund (not easily and rather hard to replicate) when I was trying to buy/add shares to my account to get the balance current, and it would show the transaction, but it would still say my balance was zero when it most decidedly was not. I keyed in (tried both ways, started fresh each time) to add or buy shares with the number of shares, their price and how much the holding was worth. I tried to make a dummy deposit of the total into the account and then try to enter a “buy” action thinking it needed the funds in the account in order to recognize a fund purchase, but that wouldn’t work and it would just show a cash balance. I really do not know what to do.0 -
I made a test investment account with the name C Fund, and it would not let me. I have tried several workarounds, and so far the only thing I could do is just set a cash amount. That would at least allow you to update the value of the account until Simplifi adds these funds to their list or allows the user to create their own funds.
I found this online:
The TSP C Fund, which is the Common Stock Index Investment Fund, tracks the S&P 500 Index. While the TSP funds do not have official ticker symbols, the equivalent ticker symbol for the S&P 500 Index is $SPX. This symbol can be used for tracking purposes on various financial platforms.
I tried entering $SPX and it didn't work either. I am still looking for a workaround. I tried it in Quicken Classic and couldn't find it either, and though I was able there to create a C Fund, it didn't add it to holdings or to the overall value.
I read up on the Thrift Savings Plan in Wikipedia. It sounds like a smart deal. And they do let you invest a small portion in private mutual funds too.
My dad was civil service, and retired in 1972 on disability. He lived until 2019 so he collected his pension for 57 years. He was only 49 when he retired. Long before they had a 401K offering. I have some family members to work for the Post Office.
You may just be better off using the TSP connection even with its limitations. I use Fidelity and it too has limitations. Simplifi was designed with minimal investment features although they have added more since it was released.
Good luck with this, and welcome to Simplifi. Hope you can find a workaround until Quicken adds your funds.
Steve
Quicken Simplifi (Safari & iOS) Since 2021
Quicken Classic (MacOS) Since 2009
MS Money (1991-2009) and Dollars & Sense (1987-1991)1 -
@SRC54 Thank you so much! Glad I was t losing my mind and missing something! Looks like I’ll stick to automated download for now. I appreciate your help on this and your description is dead on. It really a good deal, but as with everything, the software they use to allow us to download data is far behind everyone else…
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