What's the best application for tracking stock portfolio, 401k, and Roth IRA performance in one place?
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Answer:
There are a lot of websites that allow you to enter all of your holdings (you need the ticker symbol) and track their performance. There are 3 that I use regularly:
Yahoo Finance
CNN Money
Morningstar
All of these allow you to enter the number of shares you own as well as give you a total value.
Here's what I do:
I created an Excel spreadsheet that is broken down by each type of account (IRA, 401k, etc.), and each of those is further broken down to the individual stock or mutual fund, showing the units, current price, and total. I have a portfolio saved on Yahoo! Finance with each of these individual stocks and mutual funds. At any point during the day, I can click on this portfolio's name, choose "Download Spreadsheet", and that will list the current prices in Excel format. I copy the prices to the spreadsheet that has all my accounts. The numbers are linked automatically to update all my accounts to reflect the new prices (so I don't have to cut and paste each new price). Further, I've set up the spreadsheet to include charts that show what percentage of my money is in each account (IRA, 401k, etc.) and also how my money breaks down by type (large cap, small cap, international, bonds, etc.).
As long as you have Excel on both your PC and your Mac, this should work for you. Further, you can save the file in Yahoo! Briefcase (briefcase.yahoo.com) so it is accessible to you whether you are at work or home.
If you don't need something that thorough, I would suggest just setting up multiple portfolios in Yahoo! Finance (i.e., one for your Roth IRA, one for your 401k, etc.).
Sign up for a free account at www.morningstar.com and use their portfolio tracker. It won't calculate your overall stock to bond ratio or asset allocation (that is for their pay service), but you can track their prices and total amounts, as well as various other stats. You can even customize what stats you want to see.
Just be cautious not to give too much weight to their Morningstar ratings. Their star ratings are based heavily on past performance. Past performance is about as useful as reading tea leaves for predicting future performance. A much better predictor of future performance is cost.
If you have a Vanguard account, you can use their portfolio tracker. You can even enter in outside funds and stocks/bonds. It will then show you a pie graph and breakdown of your asset allocation. It's a "free" service to anyone with an account.
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