Tracking a Hard Asset (like Silver)

Unknown

I hold Precious Metals in a safe deposit box, how do I track my purchases, love to have Precious Metals prices tracked too.

splasher

You could treat it like a brokerage account with each different type of PM as a different security with a made-up ticker.  That way you could update the quote price periodically with the weight as the # of shares.

UKR

I don't know if Quicken Mac allows you to create "fake securities", like collectibles, coins, old cars, etc. But that's the way I'd do it.

Create one or more "manual" investment accounts, e.g. "Coins" or "Precious Metals".
Create a security for each type of collectible you have, e.g., "Kruger Rand" or "Silver Bars, 1 oz. ea.".
Record each buy and sell where "number of shares" = number of coins, number of bars, etc.

You probably won't be able to download prices for these assets, so price updates would have to be entered manually.

Unknown

UKR said:

I don't know if Quicken Mac allows you to create "fake securities", like collectibles, coins, old cars, etc. But that's the way I'd do it.

Create one or more "manual" investment accounts, e.g. "Coins" or "Precious Metals".
Create a security for each type of collectible you have, e.g., "Kruger Rand" or "Silver Bars, 1 oz. ea.".
Record each buy and sell where "number of shares" = number of coins, number of bars, etc.

You probably won't be able to download prices for these assets, so price updates would have to be entered manually.

UKR, I tried walking thru this with Quicken on the phone with no luck.  What would be the steps to do this?  In my case, I collect artifacts and I buy them both with my checking account and credit card, so I'd like to have my linked credit card and checking account to "interface" with my "fake brokerage" account to track the purchases, authentication and grading services / expenses, etc.  Fortunately, I'm just getting quicken 2018 Premiere, so I have the chance to do this "correctly" from the beginning.  Much thanks!

UKR

UKR said:

I don't know if Quicken Mac allows you to create "fake securities", like collectibles, coins, old cars, etc. But that's the way I'd do it.

Create one or more "manual" investment accounts, e.g. "Coins" or "Precious Metals".
Create a security for each type of collectible you have, e.g., "Kruger Rand" or "Silver Bars, 1 oz. ea.".
Record each buy and sell where "number of shares" = number of coins, number of bars, etc.

You probably won't be able to download prices for these assets, so price updates would have to be entered manually.

In addition to
1) recording the Buy transaction for 1 oz. of Silver in the investment account ...
2) If you paid for your purchase with a check written from your checking account, record that in your checking account as a transfer to your investment account. That will act as if you put the necessary cash to cover the purchase into your investment account.
Look at the options available when recording the Buy transaction (1). You may have an option where you can select "Use cash for this transaction from [name of checking account]". That would directly post a cash transfer into the checking account register and eliminate the need for transaction (2).