How often should I check my portfolio, and can checking too often actually hurt me?

For a long-term investor, checking once a quarter or even just once or twice a year is plenty. Daily monitoring rarely helps and often hurts, because seeing red numbers triggers the urge to 'do something,' and that something is usually a costly mistake like panic-selling or performance-chasing.

Behavioral research describes 'myopic loss aversion': the more frequently you look, the more losing days you'll see (since markets are volatile day to day), and the more emotionally painful investing feels, nudging you toward overly cautious or reactive choices. Investors who look less tend to trade less and earn more. Set up automatic contributions and rebalancing rules, then largely ignore the daily noise. A calm annual review to confirm your allocation and goals is far more valuable than a nervous daily glance at the balance.