Add Assets

Overview

Adding assets to Forbidden Finance lets you see your complete financial picture in one place. You can track stocks, ETFs, bonds, cryptocurrency, real estate, retirement accounts, and custom items like vehicles or collectibles. Each asset type has its own setup flow tailored to the information needed for accurate tracking and valuation.

This feature is available on Pro and Premium plans. Custom assets (vehicles, art, jewelry, collectibles) require a Premium plan.

How to Add an Asset

Stocks, ETFs, and Bonds

For publicly traded securities, there are two ways to track them: connected via your brokerage (recommended — prices sync automatically) or fully manual.

Connected via a brokerage (recommended)

When you link your brokerage through Plaid, we import your holdings automatically and show you the price your brokerage reports. No typing, no maintenance. Plaid is supported by most major US brokerages — Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, Robinhood, E*TRADE, and many more.

• Quantity, ticker, and cost basis — All come from your brokerage automatically.
• Acquired date — Inferred from your earliest transaction. Once Plaid delivers the actual purchase transaction, the date is confirmed (the amber "estimated" chip disappears).
• Per-lot detail — Premium subscribers see each individual purchase lot with its own acquired date and cost per unit — useful for FIFO/LIFO/specific-ID tax accounting.

Manual entry (no brokerage connection)

If your brokerage isn't supported or you'd rather track by hand, you can add a stock manually. Manual entries don't auto-price — you enter the current value and update it when you want.

• Ticker symbol — For your own reference (e.g., AAPL, VTI, BND).
• Quantity — The number of shares you hold. Fractional shares are supported.
• Current value — What the holding is worth today. Update this when you're ready to refresh.
• Acquired date — When you bought it. This bounds your return chart.
• Cost basis — The total amount you originally paid.
• Cost basis method — FIFO or Average for stocks, ETFs, and bonds. LIFO is also available for cryptocurrency. See Cost basis methods below for the full rules.

Price freshness (connected holdings)

Connected holdings refresh up to every hour during US market hours on Premium, and daily on Pro. Prices reflect what your brokerage last reported — we show you the same number they do. Every price displays an "as of" timestamp so you know exactly how current your data is. When a price is older than your plan's freshness threshold, the app suppresses the figure in emails and the API response rather than show you something stale — the "as of" stamp still tells you when the last known price was.

Ownership-period charts

Your holding detail chart defaults to Since Acquired — the line starts the day you bought, not the day the company went public. You can switch to a calendar window (1M/3M/6M/1Y) or Max, which is capped at 12 months on Pro and 24 months on Premium.

Cryptocurrency

Track any cryptocurrency by searching for the token name or ID.

• Token — Search from thousands of supported tokens (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and many more).
• Quantity — The amount you hold, supporting up to 8 decimal places for precision.
• Cost basis — The total amount you originally paid in your base currency.

Crypto prices update automatically. Wallet sync is not available; all crypto holdings are entered manually.

Real Estate

Track property values manually for your home, rental properties, or land.

• Property name — A label for the property (e.g., "Primary Home," "Rental Unit 1").
• Address — The street address of the property.
• Purchase price — What you originally paid for the property.
• Current estimated value — Your best estimate of what the property is worth today. Update this periodically as market conditions change.

Real estate values are manual only. Forbidden Finance does not automatically estimate property values.

Valuation history

Each property keeps an append-only history of every valuation you record. When you update a property's estimated value, the previous figure isn't overwritten — both are kept on the timeline so you can see how your estimate has shifted over time. The "Valuation History" section on the property detail screen shows every recorded valuation with the date and source ("imported," "purchase," or "manual update"). Past valuations cannot be edited or deleted; if you need to correct a typo, add a new valuation that supersedes it. This is intentional so your net worth history can't be retroactively rewritten.

Recording a new valuation requires re-authentication (biometric, device PIN, or password) because property valuations directly change your net worth chart.

Retirement Accounts

Track your retirement savings with the appropriate account subtype. When you connect a retirement plan via Plaid, Forbidden Finance reads the account subtype directly and tags the holding accordingly — no manual selection required.

• Account subtype — 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA, or HSA. Detected automatically from Plaid; can be overridden manually.
• Account name — A label like "Work 401(k)" or "Vanguard IRA."
• Balance — The current account balance.
• Connected or manual — If your retirement account provider supports Plaid, you can connect it for automatic balance updates. Otherwise, enter the balance manually and update it periodically.

Retirement holdings are counted in your Total net worth but excluded from Liquid and Investable. The IRS generally imposes a 10% early-withdrawal penalty plus ordinary income tax on distributions before age 59½, so we don't treat retirement balances as accessible wealth in the short-term views. See Liquid vs. Investable Net Worth for more.

Custom Assets (Premium)

Premium users can track non-standard assets that do not fit the other categories.

• Asset name — Descriptive label (e.g., "2021 Toyota Camry," "Original Oil Painting").
• Category — Choose from vehicles, art, collectibles, jewelry, or other.
• Estimated value — Your best estimate of the current market value.

Custom asset values are always manual. Update them whenever you get a new appraisal or market estimate.

Cost basis methods

Cost basis is what you originally paid for a holding, and the method you choose determines which units are considered "sold first" when you compute gains or losses. Forbidden Finance supports three methods on Pro and Premium:

Why LIFO is crypto-only

Under IRS Treasury Regulation §1.1012-1(c), LIFO is not permitted for sales of equity securities (stocks, ETFs, bonds) acquired after 2011. The IRS requires FIFO or specific-identification for those sales. Cryptocurrency is currently treated as property by the IRS and is not subject to the same rule, so LIFO remains available for crypto holdings. Forbidden Finance enforces this on the server: if you try to set LIFO on a stock, ETF, or bond, the request is rejected with a clear error message.

This is why the cost basis selector hides LIFO when you're editing a stock, ETF, or bond and shows it for crypto.

Per-lot tax detail (Premium)

Premium unlocks the individual purchase lots that make up each holding — useful for tax-lot accounting (FIFO / LIFO / specific-ID) and harvesting decisions. When your brokerage syncs via Plaid, each purchase becomes its own lot with an acquired date and cost per unit. Manual entries can be added too. Open any holding and tap View tax lots to see them.

Premium also includes tax-lot CSV export — download a per-lot CSV (date acquired, quantity, cost basis, current value, realized/unrealized gain/loss) suitable for handing to a tax professional. The export is rate-limited to three per day, requires re-authentication, and ships with a disclaimer reminding the recipient that the figures are estimates and not tax advice.

After Adding an Asset

Once saved, each asset:

• Appears in your net worth calculation immediately.
• Shows in your portfolio allocation pie chart under its asset class.
• Is included in daily net worth snapshots going forward.
• Can be edited or deleted at any time from the asset detail screen.

Tips

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I track the same stock across multiple brokerage accounts?

Yes. Add separate entries for each account with their respective quantities and cost bases. They are combined in your total net worth but shown individually in the detail view.

How often do stock and crypto prices update?

Connected brokerage holdings sync up to every hour during US market hours on Premium, and daily on Pro. The price shown is what your brokerage last reported, stamped with an "as of" timestamp. Crypto currently refreshes every 6 hours during our beta — we plan to tighten this to hourly as our subscriber base grows and we upgrade our market-data provider tier. Manual stocks (added without a brokerage connection) update only when you enter a new value. Prices older than your plan's threshold are suppressed — we'd rather tell you the data is stale than display a misleading number.

Can I connect my brokerage account for automatic import?

Yes. Brokerages that support Plaid's Investments product can be connected for automatic holdings sync, per-lot transaction history, and cost basis inference. Retirement accounts often support this too. Brokerages that don't support Plaid can still be tracked — just add the holdings manually and update the value yourself when needed.

What's the difference between an estimated and confirmed acquisition date?

When you first connect a brokerage, we use the earliest price we have on file to estimate when you started holding each position — that's an estimated date and shows as an amber chip in the app. Once Plaid sends the actual purchase transaction, the date is promoted to confirmed and the chip disappears. You can also set the date yourself at any time.

Why does my chart start at my purchase date instead of showing the full history?

That's intentional. The "Since Acquired" view shows your return, not the market's. If you want to see the market's history too, switch to Calendar Window or Max at the top of the chart.

What if I sell an asset?

Edit the asset to update the quantity (for partial sales) or delete it entirely. Your net worth history preserves past snapshots, so the asset's contribution to previous periods is not affected.

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