Many people, whether they manage their own investments or retain a professional money manager, do not track the growth in the market value of their retirement portfolio, nor the total dividend income generated by their investments. If you ask them if they know the compound average growth rate (CAGR) of either their retirement portfolio or their annual dividends for the most recent 5 or 10 years, they will usually tell you that their investments are doing very well and they believe that their money manager is doing an excellent job. I don't know how they are able to make such statements, if they don't know the CAGR of their retirement portfolio and have no idea of the growth in the dividends being generated. I suspect that in many cases, they just accept at face value whatever their portfolio manager tells them.    

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I certainly agree that you should not broadcast your financial situation to everyone you meet, especially if your only objective is to make others envious of your success. However, you should certainly know the growth rate of your portfolio and of the dividend income being paid by your holdings, so that you can determine whether you will meet your financial goals within a reasonable time frame, or whether you need to adjust your rate of saving or your investment strategy to meet your financial goal. Not knowing this information is akin to driving on a twisting mountain road at night with your eyes closed. The probabilty of arriving safety at your destination is slim.

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It is a good idea to track the market value of your portfolio (the total shares times current market price) each year. You will find that it fluctuates randomly in the short term, however over periods longer than 3 to 5 years, it should be on an upward trend. The good news is that the random gyrations in the value of your portfolio are not a major concern, because they have no effect on the dividends you receive from your investments.

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However, it is absolutely imperative that you track the annual growth of the dividend income you receive from your holdings, which should not fluctuate significantly and should increase at relatively constant rate each year. Tracking your dividend income (or asking your portfolio manager to track it for you) is neither difficult nor time consuming. Once you know the growth rate of your dividend income over the most recent 3 to 5 years, you can adjust your rate of savings and/or your investments, as necessary, to ensure that you will meet your financial goal of becoming financially independent within in a reasonable number of years.​​

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