I’ve been through most of the possible iterations of portfolio tracking, so I thought I’d share where I ended up, though this will end up being a bit lengthy (you’re forwarned!):
I started by plugging everything into the free Morningstar tracker (linked elsewhere in this thread). It still sends me emails daily, and they get instantly deleted… because it became more than a little cumbersome of a tool to constantly update as I made buys and sells, got dividends or what not. So scratch that one, at least for me. If you don’t make many changes, it’s probably good enough for most.
Then I discovered the Yahoo Finance tool, and used it for about 18 months, diligently entering each transaction, cash in and out, dividends, etc. It actually worked pretty well, had a login to “protect” it (so to speak), and sat out on the interwebs so I could get to it from just about anywhere. Then, Yahoo disbanded work on it and the tracking of actual transactions was shut off. Poof. Strike two. (I’m sure Google has an equivalent… but frankly, Google knows a lot about me as an individual, and I really wanted to keep this information elsewhere – why I ended up at Yahoo in the first place. This will become a significant point of humor as you read on…)
For my self-directed brokerage, eTrade sends me daily emails updating me on the ups and downs (and I also get text msgs for anything I’ve told it to flag, such as +/-2% changes in specific stocks). These also have some news links, which is useful to understanding quickly why something went up or down. Your brokerage probably has something similar. Nice info, but won’t help you track the real cost of investing and your real returns (or losses).
Somewhere in the middle of this, I built an Excel spreadsheet to calculate everything about everything – literally. Every holding, every account, every fund, compared to 1-, 5- and 10-yr S&P 500 returns, or an equivalent index fund for that holding. That sheet was biiiiiig. Lots of calculations, and plenty of places to make a calculation mistake. It was actually really nice when I got done to see that the total net worth was darn close to what my net worth really was according to other sources. Its biggest shortfall was that it was only good at that point in time (I had to update all the prices manually), and wouldn’t track the real IRR/XIRR, or the cost of investing.
(I should also mention here that I’ve been a Quicken user for so long I’ve lost track, so it pretty much also knows my entire financial history, including the investment/retirement parts. But I find Quicken to be extraordinarily lacking for more than basic investment tracking. It will tell you some basic stuff, and has some useful net worth graphing if everything else is also in there, but I am probably the exception in actually having all the data there. I wish it was a better not-just-paying-the-bills financial tool. Now that it’s been bought by, or sold off to, another company, maybe they’ll invest more heavily in that.)
One day before meeting with my financial advisor, I uploaded that Excel sheet to Google and shared the link with him. This became the basis for our next meeting, and I’d already calculated the “how you’re doing” versus “how I’m doing on my own” for him to see. That spreadsheet became what I now use – my “All Holdings” spreadsheet. Everything is in there, including the trade fees, buys and sells and gain/loss calculations, the cash in each account (I have to update that manually now and then), etc.
TL;DR: I ended up in a Google spreadsheet for my self-tracking and daily review. The benefits outweigh the risks (there’s no PII data in there, just ticker symbols and math). At the bottom I have my own watch list, tracking stuff I either am considering, or had considered and decided NO WAY but still track as proof I was right or wrong.
[If anyone’s interested in seeing a sanitized version, let me know. I’m sure it wouldn’t work for everyone, but I bet it would work for most. The only thing it won’t account for is dividends…]
More recently, I discovered <a href="https://www.sigfig.com>SigFig, which offers a mobile app as well. Once you set up an account (free), you can aggregate all your other stuff into a single place for viewing, including 401k, 529 plans, brokerage, etc. They’ll send you weekly emails highlighting the ups and downs across everything, everywhere which is really nice. Even if you do something else, I’d recommend this. They will try to sell you on their automated/robo-portfolio management, but it’s a much softer push than you’re already probably seeing from TMF.
I’m still on the hunt for an “everything” app for PC that aggregates like SigFig does, handles the math/XIRR like my spreadsheet does, shows me the comparisons against index like my Excel sheet did, and has some nice graphs/pie charts/whatever like Quicken does. But that’s probably like trying to find a unicorn… and would probably be more expensive than I’d be willing to pay for anyway.