By David Lim — Used to check his portfolio daily. Now checks once a month. Sleeps better.
Last updated: April 2026
I started investing a few years ago. Nothing fancy. Just index funds in a retirement account. The standard advice you read online: buy regularly, hold for decades, do not panic.
I knew the advice. I did not follow it.
I checked my app every day. Sometimes multiple times a day. The market went up, I felt smart. The market went down, I felt sick. One day I would be planning early retirement. The next day I would be calculating how many more years I had to work.
It was exhausting. And it was stupid. Because I was not doing anything with the information. I was just watching numbers go up and down. I was not trading. I was not selling. I was just feeling bad for no reason.
Then I deleted the app from my phone.
What Happened After I Stopped Looking
The first week was hard. I wanted to check. My thumb reached for the spot where the app used to be. It was muscle memory.
The second week was easier. I stopped thinking about it.
After a month, I logged in on my computer to check. The market had gone up. Not a lot. But up. I had made money without doing anything. Without worrying. Without checking.
That was the lesson. Not looking did not change my returns. But it changed how I felt about my returns.
What I Learned
Looking does not help.
If you are a long-term investor, daily prices do not matter. They are noise. Looking at them just makes you more likely to make a bad decision. Sell when the market dips. Buy when it is high. Panic.
Not looking helps you follow the plan.
The plan was simple: buy regularly, hold, do not sell. Checking the app made me want to sell when the market dropped. Not checking made it easy to do nothing. Doing nothing was the right move.
The best investment app is the one you do not open.
I used to think I needed to stay informed. I did not. I needed to stay calm. And the best way to stay calm was to not know what was happening every day.
What I Used to Do vs. What I Do Now
| Old Habit | New Habit |
|---|---|
| Checked app daily | Check once a month |
| Reacted to every dip | Ignore the dips |
| Felt anxious about money | Feel fine about money |
| Considered selling at the worst times | Stuck to the plan |
| Knew the daily price of everything | Have no idea what happened last week |
What I Am Not Saying
I am not saying you should ignore your investments completely. You should check in. Make sure nothing is broken. Rebalance once a year.
I am not saying this works for active traders. If you are picking stocks or timing the market, you need to pay attention. (I do not recommend doing that either.)
I am not saying this will make you richer. It will not. It will just make you less stressed about the money you already have.
I am just saying: for me, looking less made me worry less. And worrying less helped me stick to the plan. And sticking to the plan helped my returns.
A Few Things I Learned About Investing and Anxiety
The market goes down often. That is normal.
A 10% drop happens about once every 18 months. A 20% drop happens every few years. If you check every day, you will see these drops. You will feel them. If you check once a month, you might miss them entirely. You will just see the long-term trend.
Your future self does not need daily updates.
The money I am investing today is for retirement. That is decades away. My future self does not care what the market did on a random Tuesday in 2026. My future self cares about the average return over 20 years.
Anxiety is not information.
Feeling nervous does not mean something is wrong. It just means you are paying attention to things that do not matter.
How to Try This
If you check your investments too often, try this:
Step 1: Delete the app from your phone. You can still log in on a computer. But make it harder.
Step 2: Pick one day a month to check. The 15th. The last day. Whatever. Put it on your calendar.
Step 3: On that day, log in. Look at your balances. Do not make any changes unless something is seriously wrong.
Step 4: Close the browser. Do not look again until next month.
Step 5: Notice how you feel after a few months. Less anxious? Probably.
The Bottom Line
I used to check my investment app every day. I felt anxious all the time. I was tempted to sell when the market dropped. I was not helping myself. I was hurting myself.
Now I check once a month. I do not know what the market did yesterday. I do not care.
My returns are the same. Maybe better, because I stopped making panic decisions. But more importantly, I stopped feeling bad about money I was not going to touch for decades.
That is not a better return. It is a better life.
About the author: David Lim invests in index funds. He is not a financial advisor. He just learned that looking at his portfolio every day made him dumber.
This article reflects personal experience. Investment strategies vary by person. What worked for one person may not work for another. This is not financial advice.
