Need your help

[packrat44]

I have been very bad. Retired 4 + years ago and have not been managing my investments. I had created a very crude excel spreadsheet (I had to manually input stock or fund values) to determine updates. More than a year ago my computer crashed and I lost all data. Since then I have been asleep regarding the investments.

It is past time to start tracking and managing properly. Looking for help in acquiring good/decent software programs. Would like to have a program that with stock/fund symbols in place, it would automatically update the latest unit price. It would be a great benefit to have a spreadsheet that required minimal effort to instantly view your financial health. If would also be nice if it could be set up to track asset allocations and to raise a flag when a re-balance should be addressed. Also looking for programs for tracking other (pensions; SS; etc) income and expenditures.

Information on where to purchase/acquire such programs would be greatly appreciated. If there is available free-ware that is safe to use, that would be even nicer.

 

[RonBoyd]

Well, this should be interesting. I use Moneydance but... that may be way beyond what you are willing to do.

I do have some questions, however:

I have been very bad. Retired 4 + years ago and have not been managing my investments. I had created a very crude excel spreadsheet (I had to manually input stock or fund values) to determine updates. More than a year ago my computer crashed and I lost all data. Since then I have been asleep regarding the investments.

That apparently produced some negative effect. What was it?

It is past time to start tracking and managing properly.

What does that mean -- "managing properly"?

It would be a great benefit to have a spreadsheet that required minimal effort to instantly view your financial health.

And by "minimal effort" you mean what?

If would also be nice if it could be set up to track asset allocations and to raise a flag when a re-balance should be addressed. Also looking for programs for tracking other (pensions; SS; etc) income and expenditures.

Again, the "minimal effort" question.

Information on where to purchase/acquire such programs would be greatly appreciated. If there is available free-ware that is safe to use, that would be even nicer.

Not a question but to explain my "interesting" comment and to give assurance that you came to the right place:

You are going to get many responses to your post. Most of them will contain very valuable advice... but it will be very conflicting because everyone does what you are asking in a different manner... some even do it your current way.

 

[pb4uski]

I use Quicken Deluxe ($60 at Costco), mostly due to inertia since I have everything set up how I want. I use Vanguard exclusively and have our Vanguard accounts linked so they are updated automatically. My employer's 401k also updates automatically, but a bit more klunky.

Quicken is good for tracking but less effective for analysis. For that I use Vanguard's Portfolio Watch and Financial Engines.

Best $60 every other year that I spend. I would consider switching to something free but the hassle of switching everything to get back to the state that I have now would be high.

Good luck.

 

[donheff]

I use a Google Docs spreadsheet. I put the ticker symbol for each fund I own, manually entered the holdings in shares and multiply that number by the end of day price function Google supports*. I have to periodically update the numbers to include dividends and interest. I also review and update everything at the end of the year before running SWR numbers. It contains cells for what my actual withdrawal is, what it would have been using a straight 4% rule, and what it would have been using a Guyton modification. I can't loose this spreadsheet in a crash.

* The function I mentioned is: '=GoogleFinance(B8; "closeYest")' where B8 is the ticker symbol. I learned about this here a couple of years ago.

 

[Automatika]

All of my investments are at Scottrade which allows you to export your positions into Excel format. I have developed a consolidated spreadsheet which I then import the columns from the Scottrade sheet and save monthly. My sheet also contains my planned budget and a number of formulas to calculate expected dividends and compare positions with the previous months. I add features to the spreadsheet fairly regularly so it becomes a work in progress. I then back it up to several different locations.

 

[LOL!]

The OP's post suggests they have a computer with a web browser and an internet connection.

Try using the Morningstar Portfolio Manager and X-ray tools as described in the http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/asset-allocation-tutorial-31324-2.html#post578722 They are all free to use.

 

[REWahoo]

If you have an account with Vanguard they have a "My Portfolio" tool that also allows you to input non-Vanguard assets. This software will keep track of your investments and also provide asset allocation information. Simple, easy to set-up, requires little maintenance, and the price is right - free.

 

[Onward]

and have not been managing my investments

That sounds like a good thing, not a bad thing. You've probably outperformed the majority of investors.

 

[RonBoyd]

I should add that there are a number of Finacial Magazines that have really good Financial Tools -- some totally free. I have, for many years, used Smart Money Magazine's Portfolio Tracker. I have investments in 22 stocks, MFs, and ETFs spead across three brokerages. SM Porfolio Tracker lets me see it all as a single package (outside of my Moneydance file -- for cross-check purposes). In addition to all the usual Portfolio Tools, I get an e-mail every business day (after closing) with a comprehensive report showing overall performance plus a quite detailed report of each individual investment. I believe this is Free but I also subscribe to their Select product so I may be mistaken about that.

 

[braumeister]

I use Quicken Deluxe

+1
This is what I use (actually, I use the Premier version), and it will do everything you say you want, once you set it up.
One click to update all prices, allocation and many other types of pre-built reports, etc., etc.

 

[DeborahB]

I'm a pretty active investor. I pay for "Market Tracker" from yahoo (abou $10/month) although lately there are free tools that do similar things, so I'm not sure I still need it. Once you set up the portfolio in yahoo you can see the current trades, prices, etc. Setting up the portfolio is FREE, it's the Market Tracker that costs $. It will show you slightly delayed quotes. You can download the portfolio into a spreadsheet.

I also use Quicken Deluxe to track finances and net worth - just recently switched from MS Money which is no longer available. I update the stock prices daily or when I think of it just by clicking a button. That way I have a saveable record of all the transactions. I do it manually (the transactions) due to paranoia about having my investment account and password info out there.

I tried MoneyDance but it seemed too complicated to import from MS Money - Quicken won because of the importing capability. I was concerned that I would have data I couldn't access if my PC running XP Pro crashed and I couldn't load MS Money data on it. Quicken would load and pick up the file.

I enjoy this - a lot of people do not enjoy it. The free tools are out there, and the tools you pay for aren't that expensive (like Quicken).

 

[Dimsumkid]

Well, I think you have plenty of suggestions re:software tracking tools. I just want to suggest doing backups! Simple to do a CD/DVD burn onto disk, buy (if you don't have one already) and store on an external hard drive (they're very cheap now) and/or using an online backup facility, I've used Norton online since it was free and included w/my antivirus security package.

 

[pb4uski]

+1
This is what I use (actually, I use the Premier version), and it will do everything you say you want, once you set it up.
One click to update all prices, allocation and many other types of pre-built reports, etc., etc.

Braumeister, I was mistaken, I use Premier 2009, not Deluxe. I usually only update every other year or so.

 

[jazz4cash]

. ......Would like to have a program that with stock/fund symbols in place, it would automatically update the latest unit price.

Even AOL has a free portofolio service that can do this much (and I'm sure most of the other free portal services do as well). From there, you could then download to various generic or commercial spreadsheet programs to make analysis easier if that's what you prefer. Additional benefit is thatt need to worry about data crashes. Does require occaisonal manual input of dividend distributions, etc. as someone else mentioned.

 

[travelover]

I think you are making it too hard. Sell everything and buy 50/50 Wellesley and Wellington.

 

[DeborahB]

Braumeister, I was mistaken, I use Premier 2009, not Deluxe. I usually only update every other year or so.

Oops, me too - Premier Quicken 2010... I said Deluxe.

 

[RonBoyd]

I think you are making it too hard. Sell everything and buy 50/50 Wellesley and Wellington.

See. What did I tell you?

... some even do it your current way.

 

[haha]

Why not just use your brokerage website? I have two accounts, each with a good website. I use Yahoo finance to make portfolios for other things I want to follow. I aggregate all my CDs, I bond values etc there, and upsdate it about the 12th of each month when I have the prior months statements from banks.

Otherwise, I prefer to make Excel sheets to aggregate this data exactly as I want it, rather than be locked into some other system, paid or free.

Ha

 

[FIREd]

I use Quicken Premier. I know a lot of people hate Quicken, so I must be doing something wrong because I like it.

 

[foxfirev5]

If you have an account with Vanguard they have a "My Portfolio" tool that also allows you to input non-Vanguard assets. This software will keep track of your investments and also provide asset allocation information. Simple, easy to set-up, requires little maintenance, and the price is right - free.

I use the Vanguard tool for an overall snapshot of my portfolio. If you want to keep it simple it's ideal. Sometimes its a little slow -over a day, to update some prices , but it's very user friendly.

 

[Tractor guy]

I've been using Quicken Premier and its predecessors for 20 years. Its a bit of a hassle to set up but once its done, everything is automatic. I track my investment accounts, bank account, and primary credit account with automatic downloads every week or so. It gives me the asset allocation view that you're looking for.

I didn't use to track bank and credit card accounts but found the couple of years of data before retirement very handy when I put together my retirement budget and made the decision that I could afford to FIRE. Now I'm using it to make sure that my forecasts were right.

I also use Morningstar and Vanguard's portfolio manager. Frankly, I'm finding that Morningstar's portfolio manager is redundant and I may cancel my premier membership. Between Quicken and Vanguard's portfolio manager, I'm getting all the information that even a dedicated data hound needs.

 

[youbet]

If you have an account with Vanguard they have a "My Portfolio" tool that also allows you to input non-Vanguard assets. This software will keep track of your investments and also provide asset allocation information. Simple, easy to set-up, requires little maintenance, and the price is right - free.

Ditto at Schwab.

 

[Rustward]

Well, I think you have plenty of suggestions re:software tracking tools. I just want to suggest doing backups! Simple to do a CD/DVD burn onto disk, buy (if you don't have one already) and store on an external hard drive (they're very cheap now) and/or using an online backup facility, I've used Norton online since it was free and included w/my antivirus security package.

+1

Every disk will eventually fail if you use it long enough. The problem is that an early failure can be catastrophic if you don't have a backup. Considering the hours that you have invested in your data, and the fact that you may not be able to recreate the data (could I recreate my expense data from 1996 to present? Probably not. May be able to go back three or four months at most, but that misses some significant stuff). External storage is pretty cheap these days. A good strategy would be to have two external drives and periodically alternate between the two -- weekly or monthly and keep one offsite at a friend, relative, or neighbor's house. I use Acronis True Image backup software. There are other good ones.

And every now and then I hear of someone losing all their digital photos.

 

[jazz4cash]

Yikes...all the drama required to backup the backup....doesn't anybody do hard copies anymore?

 

[freebird5825]

The OP's post suggests they have a computer with a web browser and an internet connection.

Try using the Morningstar Portfolio Manager and X-ray tools as described in the http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/asset-allocation-tutorial-31324-2.html#post578722 They are all free to use.

I use the Morningstar Portfolio Manager for tracking with real data and also for modelling "what-if" portfolios for projections of AAs I may want to migrate to in the future.
I am a Preferred Subscriber, renewing on a 3 year basis. The low monthly cost (approx $12/month based on my renewal cost 3 years ago) and freedom from having to buy/install/update COTS shrink wrap financial tracking software is my justification for the subscription cost. YMMV on this.
I have considered cancelling the subscription. But if it ain't broken....
Periodic data entry requirements: All I have or do to update the data is log on, Modify the portfolio's ticker symbols or share counts, and presto....instant update. It takes me less than 10 minutes.