Initial balance for existing investment accounts

[Jason Crews (the1gofer)]

What is the best way to record the initial balances investment accounts such as 401k's and IRA's?

I know how many shares I am holding, but it's difficult to determine how much cash I've put in vs growth over the years. I don't want to track the market value, so I'm not sure how to proceed. 

[aa...@axvig.com]

What are you looking for beyond something like what you would find here?

Modified example:

2014-01-01 open Assets:IRA
2014-01-01 open Equity:Opening-Balances
2014-01-02 * "Deposit"
  Assets:IRA 100.00 VTI
  Equity:Opening-Balances

On 2024-10-23 5:14 pm, Jason Crews (the1gofer) wrote:

What is the best way to record the initial balances investment accounts such as 401k's and IRA's?

 

I know how many shares I am holding, but it's difficult to determine how much cash I've put in vs growth over the years. I don't want to track the market value, so I'm not sure how to proceed. 

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[Jason Crews (the1gofer)]

Thanks.  Will it cuase issues in the future if i do record the purchase price? 

[aa...@axvig.com]

I suppose if you record the purchase price then the entry put into Equity:Opening-Balances would be 20,000 USD instead of 100 VTI (assuming VTI price is 200 USD).  I doubt that matters to you.

I can imagine some bookkeeping differences when you go to sell.  Vagaries of how to record gains/losses and whatnot*.  If you have the price info now, you should include it so that you don't have to try to track it down years from now.  Easier to remove it at a later date.

I recommend reading this section.

(I admit a little confusion at how you have pricing information for "initial balances" when to me that term implies something like, "I choose to ignore the details of how past transactions got me to where I am, and just start with the current balances."  Maybe you have an average price or something.)

*Although for 401(k) and IRA accounts you don't care much about various lots or the price at purchase.

• Traditional-type: you didn't pay any taxes up front and pay the same tax rate on all withdrawals whether they are from contributions or growth.
• Roth-type: you paid taxes up front and pay no taxes on all withdrawals whether they are from contributions or growth.

On 2024-10-24 3:24 pm, Jason Crews (the1gofer) wrote:

Thanks.  Will it cuase issues in the future if i do record the purchase price? 

On Thursday, October 24, 2024 at 12:49:44 PM UTC-7 aa...@axvig.com wrote:

What are you looking for beyond something like what you would find here?

Modified example:

 

2014-01-01 open Assets:IRA
2014-01-01 open Equity:Opening-Balances
2014-01-02 * "Deposit"
  Assets:IRA 100.00 VTI
  Equity:Opening-Balances

On 2024-10-23 5:14 pm, Jason Crews (the1gofer) wrote:

What is the best way to record the initial balances investment accounts such as 401k's and IRA's?

 

I know how many shares I am holding, but it's difficult to determine how much cash I've put in vs growth over the years. I don't want to track the market value, so I'm not sure how to proceed. 

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[Joshua Cabrera]

If you're okay with not knowing your historical contributions and earnings, then I'd enter the opening balances like I did below - number of current units with total cost basis equal to current market value.

I started tracking everything starting from July 1, 2024, and while I'd love to know my historical numbers, I'm not about to go through years and years of previous statements - some of which I probably couldn't find.

This will at least allow me to track the growth of these units from that date forward.

2024-06-30 * "Opening balance"

 Assets:401k:Voya-Match                                                             36.54 SWPPX {{3,078.98 USD}}

 Assets:401k:Voya-Match                                                              2.57 VIMAX {{769.75 USD}}

 Assets:401k:Voya-Match-Safe-Harbor                                                114.44 SWPPX {{9,642.39 USD}}

 Assets:401k:Voya-Match-Safe-Harbor                                                  8.04 VIMAX {{2,410.60 USD}}

 Assets:401k:Voya-Rollover                                                       2,591.53 SWPPX {{218,362.55 USD}}

 Assets:401k:Voya-Rollover                                                         182.05 VIMAX {{54,590.64 USD}}

 Assets:401k-Roth:Voya-Roth                                                        613.96 SWPPX {{51,732.58 USD}}

 Assets:401k-Roth:Voya-Roth                                                         43.13 VIMAX {{12,933.15 USD}}

 Equity:Retained-Earnings                                                    -353,520.64 USD