How do I change the Net Worth report to include unrealized gains for a retirement account?

Unknown

              

I manually record the unrealized gain every quarter using the category _UnrlzdGain.
 The transactions are listed in the
register but not reflected in the report. Actually they are reflected  by their absence.

This used to work fine in QWIN17 when I did the prior
quarter but not for this quarter. Yes, the category is checked on the
customization menu.

Didn't the reports say "Includes Unrealized Gain" in
the title? The NET WORTH report is key to ruling my empire!

Sherlock

If the category is checked on the customization menu, I suggest you review the remaining filters.  For example, check the security is selected.

If the report doesn't say "Includes Unrealized Gain" in the title, examine the Advanced tab in the Customize Net Worth window.

splasher

I'm confused.  When I run the Networth report, it shows the Market Value for my investment accounts.  Last time I checked, by definition, unrealized gain is the difference between Cost Basis and Market Value, which means that it is included in the Networth report, so why do you feel the need to "manually record the unrealized gain every quarter using the category _UnrlzdGain" ? 

Wouldn't that overstate your networth?

Unknown

Sherlock said:

If the category is checked on the customization menu, I suggest you review the remaining filters.  For example, check the security is selected.

If the report doesn't say "Includes Unrealized Gain" in the title, examine the Advanced tab in the Customize Net Worth window.

My advanced tab is blank. Nothing on it.

Unknown

splasher said:

I'm confused.  When I run the Networth report, it shows the Market Value for my investment accounts.  Last time I checked, by definition, unrealized gain is the difference between Cost Basis and Market Value, which means that it is included in the Networth report, so why do you feel the need to "manually record the unrealized gain every quarter using the category _UnrlzdGain" ? 

Wouldn't that overstate your networth?

no, the account is used as a placeholder. No details It just has the statement balance.

splasher

splasher said:

I'm confused.  When I run the Networth report, it shows the Market Value for my investment accounts.  Last time I checked, by definition, unrealized gain is the difference between Cost Basis and Market Value, which means that it is included in the Networth report, so why do you feel the need to "manually record the unrealized gain every quarter using the category _UnrlzdGain" ? 

Wouldn't that overstate your networth?

So, you are not tracking the transactional data of the investment account in Quicken?

Jim_Harman

Maybe you could take a step back and explain what you want to track about this account besides the balance.



Are you making deposits to the account or taking withdrawals?



With this info, we can suggest ways to accomplish this short of ending all the actual holdings and transactions.

Sherlock

Sherlock said:

If the category is checked on the customization menu, I suggest you review the remaining filters.  For example, check the security is selected.

If the report doesn't say "Includes Unrealized Gain" in the title, examine the Advanced tab in the Customize Net Worth window.

The Advanced tab of the Customize Net Worth window for the default Net Worth report from Quicken 2016 R18.2:



If the Include unrealized gains check box is not checked, the greyed (Includes unrealized gains) disappears from the title.

Unknown

An example of a quarterly entry in my transaction register.
 
[TRANSFER IN] $8,000
Unrealized Gain $1,000
Realized Gain    $900
Interest income  $100
Total                 $10,000


Statement Q2     $10,0000
Statement Q1     $90,000
Increase             $10,000

It works for me.

Unknown

splasher said:

I'm confused.  When I run the Networth report, it shows the Market Value for my investment accounts.  Last time I checked, by definition, unrealized gain is the difference between Cost Basis and Market Value, which means that it is included in the Networth report, so why do you feel the need to "manually record the unrealized gain every quarter using the category _UnrlzdGain" ? 

Wouldn't that overstate your networth?

Correct, see example in my response to Jim below,.

q_lurker

splasher said:

I'm confused.  When I run the Networth report, it shows the Market Value for my investment accounts.  Last time I checked, by definition, unrealized gain is the difference between Cost Basis and Market Value, which means that it is included in the Networth report, so why do you feel the need to "manually record the unrealized gain every quarter using the category _UnrlzdGain" ? 

Wouldn't that overstate your networth?

@Gary Rademan:  In your "response below", do you have some extra 0's on the last three lines.  I am hoping you will still have the ability ti edit that post if so.

Jim_Harman

How are you entering the gain amounts? Normally Quicken calculates Realized Gain based on the difference between the sale price and the cost basis when you sell securities and Unrealized Gain based on the change in value of securities you still hold.

It's not clear (to me at least) how it should handle amounts in these categories that are entered in some other way.

Jim_Harman

One way you might be able to do this would be to set up a security in Quicken called "401k assets" or whatever, with say 1,000 shares, a share price to match your starting account value, and  cost basis to match your actual cost basis (if you really care about cost basis in a tax deferred account).

Have your transfers in buy enough more shares to equal the deposit amount.

Enter the interest income as reinvested at the last quarter's price.

Each quarter adjust the share price to match the account value.

Question: do you really care about realized gain in a 401k account, or just the balance? There are no tax implications to capital gains in a tax deferred account..

 

volvogirl

splasher said:

I'm confused.  When I run the Networth report, it shows the Market Value for my investment accounts.  Last time I checked, by definition, unrealized gain is the difference between Cost Basis and Market Value, which means that it is included in the Networth report, so why do you feel the need to "manually record the unrealized gain every quarter using the category _UnrlzdGain" ? 

Wouldn't that overstate your networth?

No looks like he just put the comma in the wrong place on the first line. 100,000

Jim_Harman

Jim Harman said:

One way you might be able to do this would be to set up a security in Quicken called "401k assets" or whatever, with say 1,000 shares, a share price to match your starting account value, and  cost basis to match your actual cost basis (if you really care about cost basis in a tax deferred account).

Have your transfers in buy enough more shares to equal the deposit amount.

Enter the interest income as reinvested at the last quarter's price.

Each quarter adjust the share price to match the account value.

Question: do you really care about realized gain in a 401k account, or just the balance? There are no tax implications to capital gains in a tax deferred account..

 

And if you care about the asset allocation in this account, you could also set the allocation for your new security to match the actual allocation.

In addition to giving an accurate picture of your net worth, this approach will also let you track the performance of the account reasonably accurately going forward.

Unknown

Thanks Jim, you've been more than helpful. In a 401(k) I just care about the balance, so your suggestion Is even easier implement w/o having to worry about cost basis or for that matter interest. Not the solution I was expecting but I like it!

Jim_Harman

You may be able to achieve a similar result for account level performance even more simply by keeping the share price for your bogus security constant at $1.00 and buying as above for your contributions but Adding or Removing shares to make the account balance match your statements as the actual securities fluctuate in value.

This method used to cause problems in performance reporting but I think they are fixed in QWin 2018.

Perhaps someone else can weigh in on which method is preferable.

Unknown

I vote for the constant price (Px) and changing quantity (Q). Easier to remember and work with. QWin18  may be the way to go then. I'm a QWin17 user now. Thanks!