People often use total portfolio value and use it as measure of whether its going up or down month to month. but this is subjected to great market variation...something no one can control. More often than not this can be depressing when its all red, creating unnecessary fear. If its a bull market, smiling all the way. Haha. nowadays i use dividend to chart my progress. -this is far more stable. Even during bad times, rarely will this drop much. None of my counters are expected to skip dividends. A cut would be rather unlikely. -over a long time this will invariably increase due to reinvestment Ytd..my dividend has grown 6-7%....