Good Site to Track a "Theoretical" Portfolio

CoolRich59

Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Joined
Jun 27, 2017
Messages
1,127
Location
Chicagoland
We've used Vanguard's Personal Advisor Services for a couple of years now. Overall, we've been satisfied, but I've been doing a lot of reading (some books and the Bogleheads site) and I'm at the point where I want to "test" my thinking against our advisor's guidance.

Rather than making any hasty decisions, what I'm thinking I'd do is set up my own "theoretical" portfolio and track it for a couple of months against the my real portfolio overseen by Vanguard.

Is there a site where I can do this?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
I’m sure others will come up with some fancier suggestions, but you can use google sheets to type in symbols and pull in live prices easily. So you can create a portfolio and track it that way. That’s how I track my holdings. As customizable as you want.
 
Thanks, but I know I would make a mess of that approach.

I spent most of my career in megacorps -- but in the Legal Dept. I can do Powerpoint, but went groveling to my admin for help if I needed to open an Excel doc. :D
 
You could use SigFig to track your Vanguard portfolio then set up a manual portfolio for your "theoretical" one.
 
Within the Vanguard display of your stocks, at the bottom you can add external accounts.

You can give the external account any name you want, and you can insert any symbol. There is no need to actually let it access a real account.
 
We've used Vanguard's Personal Advisor Services for a couple of years now. Overall, we've been satisfied, but I've been doing a lot of reading (some books and the Bogleheads site) and I'm at the point where I want to "test" my thinking against our advisor's guidance.

Rather than making any hasty decisions, what I'm thinking I'd do is set up my own "theoretical" portfolio and track it for a couple of months against the my real portfolio overseen by Vanguard.

Is there a site where I can do this?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Morningstar.com is where I do this kind of tracking. Sign up for a free account and be on your way. The level of detail you can get in the results is worth the time.

A young friend had an account managed by an FA. I entered exact amounts of the 10 funds he was in, and created an alternate 3-fund portfolio of Vanguard funds in the same allocation. Since 6/2018 the original FA managed design return is 13.13% (without the AUM fee) annualized, while my 3-fund is 12.24%. That is with no rebalancing. The difference between the 2 portfolios in their balances is probably the AUM fee.

Edit; You'll be able to enter your original portfolio and the theoretical portfolio as of the date you started with PAS.
 
Last edited:
We've used Vanguard's Personal Advisor Services for a couple of years now. Overall, we've been satisfied, but I've been doing a lot of reading (some books and the Bogleheads site) and I'm at the point where I want to "test" my thinking against our advisor's guidance.

Rather than making any hasty decisions, what I'm thinking I'd do is set up my own "theoretical" portfolio and track it for a couple of months against the my real portfolio overseen by Vanguard.

Is there a site where I can do this?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.


I'm curious what they have you doing with your money, percentages in what funds?
 
Thanks everyone. SigFig and Morningstar both look like good options.

@Time2: While I haven't been dissatisfied with Vanguard's PAS, I haven't been delighted with it either. After spending time here and on the Bogleheads site, I feel like I could do just as well on my own and drop their fee.

I am looking on adopting the 3-fund strategy advocated by many on Bogleheads. My theoretical portfolio will be made up of three Vanguard funds (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index fund (VTSAX), Vanguard Total Int'l Stock Index fund (VTIAX), and Vanguard Total Bond Market Index fund (VBTLX)). I will also set aside some cash in a money market fund.

I'll compare the actual portfolio performance against my theoretical portfolio performance over the next couple of months. If I'm satisfied with the results, I'll drop the PAS and implement the 3-fund strategy.
 
Back
Top Bottom