Ways to maintain money & investment records confidentially

We all do not want to share information about money and investments with anyone like how much money we have and where we have kept or invested it.

This confidentiality is very necessary in the present scenario where the greed of money among people has increased. It is also important that this information should be transferred to your spouse or to the next generation.

Now the question is how a person can maintain money & investment records who dose not have any accounting knowledge or have very little knowledge of maintaining finance.

These maintaining records of money & investment are not a process of one or two years, it is for life long. So before choosing the way you must choose the way by which you can maintain your money records lifelong.

One other aspect which is also very important is that it should cover minor details of your investments which generally we are not recording anywhere like…

• Where we kept cash money (locations).
• What we kept in Bank lockers.
• Where we kept Investment Certificate/ papers/passbooks.
• Details of user IDs/ password of online bank & investment portals.
• Recovery phone numbers/email ids.

These are the very basic and important information which we just try to remember but generally, we forget.

Before choosing a way to maintain Money & Investment records, keep all these aspects in mind.   

What are the alternates available?

Many alternates are available by which money & investment records can be maintained. In this technological era, maintaining with the help of technology is the right way. Only we need to see that option should be safe & secure and for lifelong.  These options are online and offline both…..

1. Online apps
2. Bank online portals
3. Google /pre-designed Excel Spreadsheets
4. In own Excel sheet

1. Online Apps

Many online apps are available. Such apps have few advantages and disadvantages too.

Advantages of Apps–

• Apps are organizing your money and investment records automatically by getting direct information from your bank/trading portals.
• You will get updated information without feeding any details.
• You need not to design anything or calculate.
• It will give you detailed information about your money & investments.

Disadvantages of Apps-

• As these apps are online so your money & investment information will always remain with the third party and exposed to too many threats.
• App provider companies will charge you monthly/ yearly fees. If they are providing free then in future, they may charge at any time and if you don’t pay then you are not able to access your money & investment details.
• These app providing companies are not permanent and in case of losses, they may shut the app or will not provide support in future.
• While choosing the app we generally like the interface of the app which is not permanent and later they may change which you may not like.
• If these Apps’s servers are down or you do not have internet reach then you may not get your investment information.

2. Bank Online Portals

Nowadays most of the investment options are available online where banks/ institutions have their own websites/portals/app by which people have been investing money. If investments have been made by such portal then these portal will have all your investment information in detail in a particular portal.

Advantages of bank portals–

• These individual investment websites/portals/apps have accurate information of investment made of particular investment portal.
• These are protected with user Id, password and OTP.

Disadvantages of bank portals-

• In one bank portal, you will get information about that particular bank. For other portal,you have to browse separately. You will not get all your information in one place.
• Remembering all the websites/portals/Apps names is difficult where you have invested the money.
• In case of any error happened in these portals, you do not have any check of your investment & maturity amounts.

 3. Free Google /pre-designed Excel sheets

By Google spared sheet or by pre-designed free Excel spreadsheets investment records can be maintained which is available on the internet.

Advantages of free Google/pre design sheet –

• These sparedsheets are free to use.
• You need to feed the details of your investment in prescribed format

Disadvantages of free Google/pre design sheet –

• As it free, it will cover limited features.
• You cannot feed all your details in an organized way.

4. In Own Excel Sheet

If you have very good knowledge of Excel then you can design your own investment tracking sheet by which you can track your money & investment information..

Advantages of own Excel sheet –

• You can design as per your requirements.
• It is offline, hence safe.
• You can modify it later as per your requirements.
• You can make password protected.
• You will get all the information in one place.

Disadvantages of own Excel sheet –

• You should have the best knowledge of Excel.
• You should have accounting knowledge.

Right way to maintain money & investment records confidentially

The said alternatives are having few pros and cons.

The best way, you should maintain it in Excel Spreadsheet so you will get holistic view and every detail of your money & investment. If you want to monitor a particular Investment like share market or any such investment then you can take the help of App but parallelly maintain all the details in Excel.

Now if you have a Pre-designed Excel Spared sheet then you need not to calculate anything. Once you feed your investment details you will get the detailed information automatically. It will give holistic views of your investments and you can also able to do password management & physical investment documents management. This pre-design Excel will remain with you confidentially lifelong. If you do password protection then it will be protected. You can keep this data in pen drive/ Hard drive or in your PC.

And for any particular investment, you can monitor in app or bank/trading portal.

Learn about Pre-designed Excel

Read more about Pre-Designed Excel spreadsheet

It is very necessary that your money and investment details remains with you in a simplest form in Excel Spread sheet with password protection so you can monitor your money & investment records confidentially in your pen-drive or external hard drive or in PC. Further if you want to monitor particular investment then you can use free or changeable Apps.