I'm still about 2 yrs from RE, and I'm using Excel to track my portfolio.
I comingle both short term funds and longer term cash, and I account for the short term cash as a line item in my spreadsheet. For example,
If I have $1M, and I want 65% stocks, 30% bonds, and 5% cash (as a hypothetical):
I'd have $650K stock
$300K bonds
$50K cash
...but I also have, say, $30K in short term cash, because I'm going to buy a new car soon. I'm not counting the $30K as part of my *retirement* portfolio. But I keep the $30K in my MM acct because it gives me the best short term interest. So I have $80K in my MM acct.
So to track overall *retirement* portfolio performance, I need to somehow not account for the interest I earn on the short-term $30K. To make things even more complex, I am adding to savings regularly. I also get periodic dividend payouts from certain stocks I own, which go into the MM account.
I can *approximate* my portfolio performance, but some of you are posting *daily* performance numbers! I'm just wondering about clever ways you do your numbers. Are you using MS Money, Quicken, etc.? A spreadsheet? Online portfolio site? etc.
I comingle both short term funds and longer term cash, and I account for the short term cash as a line item in my spreadsheet. For example,
If I have $1M, and I want 65% stocks, 30% bonds, and 5% cash (as a hypothetical):
I'd have $650K stock
$300K bonds
$50K cash
...but I also have, say, $30K in short term cash, because I'm going to buy a new car soon. I'm not counting the $30K as part of my *retirement* portfolio. But I keep the $30K in my MM acct because it gives me the best short term interest. So I have $80K in my MM acct.
So to track overall *retirement* portfolio performance, I need to somehow not account for the interest I earn on the short-term $30K. To make things even more complex, I am adding to savings regularly. I also get periodic dividend payouts from certain stocks I own, which go into the MM account.
I can *approximate* my portfolio performance, but some of you are posting *daily* performance numbers! I'm just wondering about clever ways you do your numbers. Are you using MS Money, Quicken, etc.? A spreadsheet? Online portfolio site? etc.