Thanks to
@Old_Skeet who I believe first mentioned this website:
funds-newsletter.com/I receive free updates through email and October's updates just hit my inbox so I thought I'd share it with members with the hopes that others could share some of their portfolio challenges as well as some of your successes.
I try to track my portfolio by personally creating a spreadsheet using MS Excel. I import data from places like Yahoo Finance (daily price changes) as well as from my brokerage houses where I can update share transactions (buys, sells, exchanges, dividend re-investments, etc.) to my spreadsheet. Almost as infrequently as I floss, I attempt to run an analysis of my overall portfolio through M* Portfolio Manager. This tool is available through my brokerage house (TR Price) for free. Having a single spreadsheet helps update all of this more easily as well as pool together lots of accounts into one place. The hope is to be able to identify the good, the bad, and hopefully to improve the ugly.
YTD my portfolio experienced losses in the months of May - Sept (totaling about -6.5%). Gains in others months offset those losses leaving my portfolio where it started in January of 2015. From the perspective of my portfolio experiencing losses from new highs I sit about 4% away from that new high mark which was set in May of 2015. All hell broke loose as the S&P tried climbing above 2130.
I try to reference portfolio highs and lows on a monthly basis. Portfolio lows are a good representation of the negative side of volatility (risk) and for me a more realistic view of my portfolio's overall success. As a rule, I try to discipline myself to consider new highs as an opportunity to raise cash. A harder discipline to follow for me is during periods of negative volatility. Negative volatility is the precise time to put cash to work yet it emotionally doesn't feel that way. This is always a work in progress for most investors.
This process is an attempt to get rid of some of the emotional decision making I face by establishing actionable rules. I'm not there yet, but I thought my journey worth sharing.
Comments
I am retired, thus I am in the withdrawal stage, not the accumulation phase. I use a Lazy Portfolio Scheme to implement an asset allocation of 50/50 stocks to bonds.
I use Excel worksheets as follows:
A “Portfolio” worksheet tracks the portfolio (I also have a “Temp” and “Rebalance” worksheets described later). At the top are today’s date, current value, value at end of last year, and YTD percent gain/loss. My current YTD is a loss of 2.114% that includes all drawdowns to date including most of my Minimum Required Distribution (MRD).
NEXT is the “Assets” table of current price, shares owned, value and category (Domestic Stock, International Stock, Fixed Income, and Cash) for each asset. It is arranged in alphabetic order to accommodate brokerage watch lists and Excel LOOKUP functions.
I use the following categories:
Domestic Stock
International Stock
Fixed Income
Cash
NEXT are details for each account in my portfolio (Rollover IRA, TIAA Traditional, A-Trust, B-Trust, Individual, Experimental, and Credit Union). For each account the Price, Shares, Value and category of each asset are listed. A summary by category shows the value, and percent of each category in the account.
LAST is a Consolidated Details for all accounts. I use a separate table for each of the categories. For each asset I list Price, Sum of shares from all accounts, Value, Current Allocation, and Target Allocation.
Thus I can visualize my portfolio in terms of assets, assets in each account, and assets sorted by category.
A “Temp” worksheet provides an intermediary for specifying current asset prices. I copy values from a Watchlist in my Fidelity account. I paste the values from the watchlist into the Temp worksheet and then copy the price column to the portfolio worksheet. (Note that I have arranged my assets in alphabetical order for this to work.) The Temp worksheet can be used for general calculations with the restriction that no other worksheet should link to any cell in the Temp worksheet.
A “Rebalance” worksheet calculates buys and sells when I rebalance my asset allocation portfolio. In general I compare the current allocation of an asset to a target allocation and do buys and sells to rebalance to target values.
First I create a “Target Allocation Table” that shows target allocations for each of the four categories and the assets in each category. I initially set the target values in collaboration with a fee-only Financial Advisor. The values by major category:
29% Domestic Stock ETFs
21% International Stock ETFs
45% Fixed IncomeS
5% Cash
I won’t go into details of this worksheet, but have the following remarks:
1. There will be a variety of account types: As one gets older different financial situations occur, e.g. trust accounts, retirement, death/divorce of spouse, marriage, etc. There needs to be flexibility to handle financial resources that are not mutual funds or ETFs. My situation has accounts:
Trust-A
Trust-B (with its separate tax-ID)
Rollover IRA
Individual (used as a conduit between other accounts and my bank)
Experimental
Credit Union
Life can become more complicated in retirement!
2. I fine-tune allocations between accounts: Although my Rebalance worksheet does an initial calculation of buys and sells, I manually fine-tune the allocations for the following reasons:
a. I want to have sufficient cash in the IRA to fund my MRD from that account.
b. I want to take capital gains in tax deferred accounts, not taxable accounts.
c. In the Trust-B account I want to minimize taxes so I over allocate a muni-bond fund.
d. The Experimental account is exempt from buys and sells of a rebalance operation.
3. I combine two or more assets into a “Combined Asset”. For example I am taking a Minimum Required Distribution (MRD) from a TIAA Traditional account that does not allow me to trade this asset. (There are other options I could have selected, but immediately liquidating the entire asset was not available.) I have solved this by combining the TIAA with my BND ETF and allocate a percentage to the combined quantity that I call “Total Bond Market/Long-Term Fixed Income” Within this combined asset, I assign TIAA’s target allocation to its current allocation, and the BND target allocation to the difference of the target allocation assigned to the Combined Asset and the TIAA current allocation. Another example might be a $10,000 T-Bill that can only be sold in its entirety. Yes, I know this is a forum about mutual funds and ETFs, but stuff happens and we need to adapt.
4. I rebalance based on a calendar event, not a market event or a difference between current and target asset percentages. I have chosen the middle of August and February. I want to avoid any semblance of market timing.
I hope you find this useful.
Sorry I missed your flag or I would have commented earlier in the thread. It is interesting to read how others follow and manage their portfolio(s). I think what is important is that each that has commented has a system that works well for them. With this I thought I'd post my sleeve management system again in hopes it will add to the venues already posted and might help someone find their way along the pathway of investing.
Old_Skeet's Sleeve Management System
Here is a brief description of my sleeve system which I organized to help better manage the investments that were held in five accounts. The accounts consist of a taxable account, a self directed ira account, a 401k account, a profit sharing account and a health savings account plus two bank accounts. With this I came up with four investment areas. They are a cash area which consist of two sleeves … an investment cash sleeve and a demand cash sleeve. The next area is the income area which consists of two sleeves. … a fixed income sleeve and a hybrid income sleeve. Then there is the growth & income area which has more risk associated with it than the income area and it consist of four sleeves … a global equity sleeve, a global hybrid sleeve, a domestic equity sleeve and a domestic hybrid sleeve. An finally there is the growth area, where the most risk in the portfolio is found and it consist of four sleeves … a global sleeve, a large/mid cap sleeve, a small/mid cap sleeve and a specialty sleeve. Each sleeve consists of three to six funds (in most cases) with the size and the weight of each sleeve can easily be adjusted, from time-to-time, by adjusting the number of funds and the amounts held. By using the sleeve system one can get a better picture of their overall investment picture and weightings by sleeve and area. In addition, I have found it beneficial to xray each fund, each sleeve, each investment area, and the portfolio as a whole monthly. Again, weightings can be adjusted form time-to-time as to how I might be reading the markets and wish to weight accordingly. All funds pay their distributions to the cash area of the portfolio with the exception being those in my 401k, profit sharing, and health savings accounts where reinvestment occurs. With the other accounts paying to the cash area builds the cash area of the portfolio to meet the portfolio’s monthly cash disbursement with the residual being left for new investment opportunity. In addition, most all buy/sell trades settle from or to the cash area with some nav exchanges taking place.
Here is how I have my asset allocation broken out in percent ranges, by area. My neutral targets are cash 15%, income 30%, growth & income 35%, and growth 20%. I do an Instant Xray analysis of the portfolio monthly and make asset weighting adjustments as I feel warranted based upon my assessment of the market, my risk tolerance, cash needs, etc. Currently, I am heavy in the cash area at 25%, light in the income area at 20% and neutral in the equity area at 55% with 5% of the 55% being allocated to other assets as classified my Morningstar but included as part of the overall equity allocation.
Cash Area (Weighting Range 5% to 25% with target weighting at 15%)
Demand Cash Sleeve… (Cash Distribution Accrual & Future Investment Accrual)
Investment Cash Sleeve … (Savings & Time Deposits)
Income Area (Weighting Range 20% to 40% with target weighting at 30%)
Fixed Income Sleeve: GIFAX, LALDX, THIFX, LBNDX, NEFZX & TSIAX
Hybrid Income Sleeve: CAPAX, CTFAX, FKINX, ISFAX, JNBAX & PGBAX
Growth & Income Area (Weighting Range 25% to 45% with target weighting at 35%)
Global Equity Sleeve: CWGIX, DEQAX & EADIX
Global Hybrid Sleeve: BAICX, CAIBX & TIBAX
Domestic Equity Sleeve: ANCFX, FDSAX, INUTX, NBHAX, SPQAX & SVAAX
Domestic Hybrid Sleeve: ABALX, AMECX, DDIAX, FRINX, HWIAX & LABFX
Growth Area (Weighting Range 10% to 30% with target weighting at 20%)
Global Sleeve: AJVAX, ANWPX, NEWFX, PGROX, THOAX & THDAX
Large/Mid Cap Sleeve: AGTHX, IACLX, SPECX & VADAX
Small/Mid Cap Sleeve: PCVAX, PMDAX & VNVAX
Specialty Sleeve: LPEFX, PGUAX & TOLLX
Total Number of Mutual Fund Positions = 46
Trailing Note: I have found Dr. Mandell's Newsletter "Mutual Fund Research Newsletter," which you make reference to above, to be both informative and good reading. Notice, I am not too far off from his second quarter target allocations for his moderate allocation portfolio model of 25% cash, 25% bonds, 50% stocks. At this point in time, I have elected to remain cash heavy and utilize special investment positions (spiffs) form time-to-time over reducing my cash allocation and raising my allocation to bonds as he did in his third quarter call. I feel it is better to have some extra dry powder on hand during these most uncertain market conditions and use it from time-to-time in spiffs. Thinking of giving Kathleen Gaffney another go in her EVBAX (of course not the whole wad) as this is an income fund and it does hold about 50% in bonds plus some other income generating securities. To me, it is more of an income generating tactical allocation fund rather than a traditional bond fund. It will probally perform well in an upward moving market and poorly in downward trending market. At this time, just pondering.