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11-24-2017, 08:17 AM
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#41
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 6,695
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Besides the finance-related spreadsheets I wrote about in an earlier post, I have several spreadsheets for other personal tasks. Some are for my Scrabble stuff, from the older spreadsheets I created for my word lists and tournament results to the newer, more complicated stuff for my school Scrabble tourneys I run.
I have many spreadsheets for my Strat-o-Matic projects. They compile my stats and do all other tedious tasks I used to do with pencil and paper. I have a complete inventory of all the teams I am trying to sell, too.
Being a political junkie, I have many spreadsheets to keep track of stuff such as histories of office and office holders for major offices as well as at the state level.
I put my recent medical bills (EOBs) into a spreadsheet so I can estimate my medical expenses when picking a new ACA plan.
I keep track of my best friend's finances (for a very small fee), especially after his large inheritance 5 years ago.
And I have a calendar I enter my appointments into. When I was still working (part-time), it kept track of my days off, which were many. I worked different 2-day and 3-day a week schedules, so it was confusing and tough to remember my schedule when I put it together every month. Glad I don't have to deal with that crap any more! Still, even in ER, I have a lot of appointments to include, both for me and for my ladyfriend (I drive her around).
__________________
Retired in late 2008 at age 45. Cashed in company stock, bought a lot of shares in a big bond fund and am living nicely off its dividends. IRA, SS, and a pension await me at age 60 and later. No kids, no debts.
"I want my money working for me instead of me working for my money!"
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11-24-2017, 09:45 AM
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#42
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 47,498
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I have several spreadsheets. One is an Excel workbook devoted to retirement financial planning and projections, other personal finance matters, spending, and investments, that I started around the year 2000, combining info that I had in a number of prior Excel files.
By now this particular workbook contains 21 well populated spreadsheets. I know exactly where everything is in it. I use it or refer to it every day or every other day and TBH, my life would not be the same without it.
When I want to think something through, I start by going to this file and typing in numbers and computations on an appropriate spreadsheet to help me figure things out. For example, this is what I did before deciding that I could afford to look for and purchase my dream home a few years ago.
__________________
Already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lost in its unshored, harbourless immensities. - - H. Melville, 1851.
Happily retired since 2009, at age 61. Best years of my life by far!
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11-24-2017, 11:04 AM
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#43
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: chicago
Posts: 541
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OldShooter
At some point in your spreadsheet life you are going to seriously damage or destroy the spreadsheet that you are working on.
1) Be sure to back up periodically, the length of the period reflecting the amount of manual work you are willing to re-do when you revert to a backup.
2) During periods of heavy lifting, creating a big spreadsheet or making major changes, save a backup before every major step. If you survive the gantlet without making any mistakes, just delete the backups. If there is a screwup, a recent backup will keep you from having to start over from scratch
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One thing I do is a batch type file that copies the file I use to a different place with a new name year_mo_day name after I enter my stuff for the day. the files are thus easy to identify and occasionally I save one as Year_mo_day modify if major changes. Makes it easier to find a working one if some part gets broken. About quarterly I back up all of these files.
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11-24-2017, 12:01 PM
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#44
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 7,436
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I use Google Sheets to track my investments including my DRIPs so have total cost calculated.
Was some work setting it up but now I mostly need to update shares monthly or quarterly.
I updated a Numbers template for a checkbook register to track all my spending and it sorts by category -- which I can create endless number of categories -- as well as tracking how much I charge on each credit card. It is a lot of data entry but I like the results.
I also put together quick spreadsheets for planning trips, looking at possible timelines, how many days in each location or hotel, etc. It makes it easy to get the right dates when making the actual bookings.
I didn't use spreadsheets that much when I worked.
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11-24-2017, 12:10 PM
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#45
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 6,695
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OldShooter
At some point in your spreadsheet life you are going to seriously damage or destroy the spreadsheet that you are working on.
1) Be sure to back up periodically, the length of the period reflecting the amount of manual work you are willing to re-do when you revert to a backup.
2) During periods of heavy lifting, creating a big spreadsheet or making major changes, save a backup before every major step. If you survive the gantlet without making any mistakes, just delete the backups. If there is a screwup, a recent backup will keep you from having to start over from scratch
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I do quick backups of my personal files every month into an update area of a thumb drive which contains only the files I have changed in the last month. Every 3 months, I do a complete backup onto a different thumb drive of all personal files.
At times, when I was having some problems with the PC, I did more frequent backups of recently used files. This was crucial when I was working from home for a few years and did daily backups of recently change files so I wouldn't lose anything when the problems grew worse.
I recall one spreadsheet which had somehow become corrupted and I could not call it up. It wasn't a spreadsheet I accessed often, so just being able to call up a much older (and clean) version I had stored elsewhere was good enough to save me from having to recreate the whole spreadsheet.
About a year ago, when the hard drive was failing, I was able to access files I had used in the last few days even though I could not boot up Windows. I was able to save them onto a thumb drive. The combination of these backups made it a little messy to find all the most recent versions of my files when I reloaded everything onto the new hard drive. But I was able to sort through the minor mess and get back up and running again.
__________________
Retired in late 2008 at age 45. Cashed in company stock, bought a lot of shares in a big bond fund and am living nicely off its dividends. IRA, SS, and a pension await me at age 60 and later. No kids, no debts.
"I want my money working for me instead of me working for my money!"
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11-24-2017, 12:21 PM
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#46
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Pacific latitude 20/49
Posts: 7,677
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There is a repository of Excel utilities provided here:
gummy stuff ... about Investing (mostly)
by Peter Ponzo, a retired math professor. As is.
There is also an FA who is an imposter but not on this site.
__________________
For the fun of it...Keith
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12-31-2017, 06:54 AM
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#47
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 13,142
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Speaking of spreadsheets, did my end of year tallying of asset allocations.
Every time when comes time to move amounts around to rebalance, had to take out calculator, pen and paper to figure out how much to move where and should how much moved out from the source accounts should cancel how much put into the receiving accounts . Kind of a cumbersome process of taking out the calculator and adding and jotting down several times on piece of paper.
So, for next year, I created a spreadsheet that hopefully will make the process a bit less cumbersome. Still not pretty, but better than having to add and subract again and again with a calculator.
__________________
Have you ever seen a headstone with these words
"If only I had spent more time at work" ... from "Busy Man" sung by Billy Ray Cyrus
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12-31-2017, 07:19 AM
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#48
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 2,522
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Spreadsheets
Quote:
Originally Posted by easysurfer
Speaking of spreadsheets, did my end of year tallying of asset allocations.
Every time when comes time to move amounts around to rebalance, had to take out calculator, pen and paper to figure out how much to move where and should how much moved out from the source accounts should cancel how much put into the receiving accounts . Kind of a cumbersome process of taking out the calculator and adding and jotting down several times on piece of paper.
So, for next year, I created a spreadsheet that hopefully will make the process a bit less cumbersome. Still not pretty, but better than having to add and subract again and again with a calculator.
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I do this as well. On the spreadsheet that details and summarizes our individual investments in our multiple accounts, I have created a simulation tool that not only reflects the variance from our allocation by dollar and percentage for a particular category(e.g. US Large cap growth) but enables me to play with and simulate rebalancing options of our various accounts back to our overall allocation goals. And this will one of my many year end tasks for tomorrow.
Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
__________________
"Luck favors the prepared mind"
Pasteur
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12-31-2017, 07:35 AM
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#49
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 13,142
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Golden sunsets
I do this as well. On the spreadsheet that details and summarizes our individual investments in our multiple accounts, I have created a simulation tool that not only reflects the variance from our allocation by dollar and percentage for a particular category(e.g. US Large cap growth) but enables me to play with and simulate rebalancing options of our various accounts back to our overall allocation goals. And this will one of my many year end tasks for tomorrow.
Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
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I also, on one spreadsheet have a variance by allocation and percentage. That way I can quickly look and see if the variance is greater than my target percentage. Plus, the amounts to rebalance by. Of course, the rebalancing was a total manual process with calculator, pen and paper.
__________________
Have you ever seen a headstone with these words
"If only I had spent more time at work" ... from "Busy Man" sung by Billy Ray Cyrus
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12-31-2017, 08:07 AM
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#50
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Sarasota, FL & Vermont
Posts: 36,358
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I have a workbook where one sheet is data that I copy and paste from a standard Quicken report on my portfolio holdings and values by account.
Another sheet (see below) summarizes the data and analyzes my AA vs target and %/$ differences, analyzes our holdings between taxable, tax-deferred and tax-free and a buckets analysis and domestic equity holdings between large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap vs targets.
Every couple weeks or so I update Quicken, generate the report, copy it to the clipboard, past it into the data sheet and then review the summary sheet to see how close my AA is to target. Takes less than 5 minutes.
| Base AA | US/Int'l | | Target | Actual | % Diff | (Over) Short | Domestic Equities | 60.0% | 65.0% | | 39.0% | 39.1% | 0.1% | (x,xxx) | Int'l Equities | | 35.0% | 85.0% | 17.9% | 18.1% | 0.2% | (x,xxx) | Emerging Markets Equities | | | 15.0% | 3.2% | 3.2% | 0.0% | (xxx) | Domestic IG Bonds | 35.0% | 80.0% | 80.0% | 22.4% | 22.3% | -0.1% | x,xxx | Domestic HY Bonds | | | 20.0% | 5.6% | 5.5% | -0.1% | x,xxx | Int'l Bonds | | 20.0% | 85.0% | 6.0% | 5.9% | 0.0% | xxx | Emerging Market Bonds | | | 15.0% | 1.1% | 1.1% | 0.0% | (x) | Cash | 5.0% | | | 5.0% | 4.9% | -0.1% | x,xxx | | | | | 100.0% | 100.0% | | 0 | | | | | | | | | Equities | | | | 60.0% | 60.3% | 0.3% | (x,xxx) | Fixed income | | | | 35.0% | 34.8% | -0.2% | x,xxx | Cash | | | | 5.0% | 4.9% | -0.1% | x,xxx | | | | | 100.0% | 100.0% | | 0 | | | | | | | | | | | | | Year end 2011 | Current | Change | | Taxable | | | | 43.8% | 23.5% | -20.2% | | Tax-Deferred | | | | 53.0% | 55.2% | 2.2% | | Tax-Free | | | | 3.3% | 21.3% | 18.0% | | | | | | 100.0% | 100.0% | 0.0% | | | | | | | | | | Bucket 1 - Liquidity | | | | 5.0% | 4.9% | -0.1% | x,xxx | Bucket 2 - Stable Value | | | | 22.4% | 22.3% | -0.1% | x,xxx | Bucket 3 - Inflation Protection | | | | 72.6% | 72.8% | 0.2% | (x,xxx) | | | | | 100.0% | 100.0% | | 0 | | | | | | | | | Large-Cap | | | | 65.0% | 68.0% | 3.0% | (xx,xxx) | Mid-Cap | | | | 27.0% | 24.7% | -2.3% | xx,xxx | Small-Cap | | | | 8.0% | 7.3% | -0.7% | x,xxx | | | | | 100.0% | 100.0% | | - |
__________________
If something cannot endure laughter.... it cannot endure.
Patience is the art of concealing your impatience.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Retired Jan 2012 at age 56
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12-31-2017, 08:41 AM
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#51
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 734
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I have 3 Excel spreadsheets:
1. daily spending
2. assets/investments/net worth
3. projected yearly income
My Excel skills are very basic so these are pretty simple but they work for me. I began tracking spending about 10 years ago when I started thinking seriously about retirement & it was an eye-opener about financial realities (& also motivated me to tighten up in some categories & loosen up in others). The assets spreadsheet doesn't automatically update values so I have to do manual updates periodically, but my investments are not complicated so it doesn't take long. The projected income spreadsheet is a relatively recent creation but also an eye-opener especially as to likely future income from RMDs.
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12-31-2017, 09:04 AM
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#52
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Spending the Kids Inheritance and living in Chicago
Posts: 17,087
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lucky penny
I have 3 Excel spreadsheets:
1. daily spending
2. assets/investments/net worth
3. projected yearly income
My Excel skills are very basic so these are pretty simple but they work for me. I began tracking spending about 10 years ago when I started thinking seriously about retirement & it was an eye-opener about financial realities (& also motivated me to tighten up in some categories & loosen up in others). The assets spreadsheet doesn't automatically update values so I have to do manual updates periodically, but my investments are not complicated so it doesn't take long. The projected income spreadsheet is a relatively recent creation but also an eye-opener especially as to likely future income from RMDs.
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+1
This year I broke out our investments by pre-tax vs post-tax so I could do RMD estimates in today's dollars.
I recognize inflation will increase the value, while some tax brackets don't increase, but it's all too complex and unknown for me to bother about.
So my spreadsheet calculates the RMD then I add in the estimated SS plus yearly dividends and interest, and realized we need to support the economy more
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12-31-2017, 10:15 AM
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#53
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 2,872
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I’m curious, how does everyone track benchmark performance vs your portfolio performance? Do you use end of year performance for the fund and consider it close enough?
In past years, I used a spreadsheet to calculate this taking into consideration cash flows throughout the year. This has always been a pain, and somewhat limiting, since I need to go back and enter price/dividend data for the benchmark fund, account for dividends, etc. This year I automated this calculation using a python script. It’s still a little a bit of work, since I need to get the data, but it’s a lot easier than my old approach and less prone to errors.
__________________
Eat, Drink and Be Merry.
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12-31-2017, 11:31 AM
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#54
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Sarasota, FL & Vermont
Posts: 36,358
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I use the Vanguard Lifestrategy Moderate Growth fund as a benchmark and compare my returns to the funds return. I used to have a portfolio of 8 or so index funds and would calculate a weighted average return for thse funds as a benchmark, but that was too much work.
__________________
If something cannot endure laughter.... it cannot endure.
Patience is the art of concealing your impatience.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Retired Jan 2012 at age 56
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01-02-2018, 09:01 PM
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#55
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: the City of Subdued Excitement
Posts: 5,588
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kcowan
There is a repository of Excel utilities provided here:
gummy stuff ... about Investing (mostly)
by Peter Ponzo, a retired math professor. As is.
There is also an FA who is an imposter but not on this site.
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Gummy rocks! An education in Excel as well as asset allocation.
__________________
I have outlived most of the people I don't like and I am working on the rest.
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