Looking for personal portfolio tracking software

I have currently maxed out my IRA investments for the year and would like to
save additional money in taxable mutual fund and stock accounts. I am hesitant to do so because I am afraid of the paperwork nightmare that I would
be running into by keeping track of my cost basis of these said investments. That would include any purchases,stock splits,reinvested dividends and etc.
Also, it would be nice if there was an option to show the real time performance of these investments.

Are there any software (preferably freeware if possible) programs available out
there which could help me solve my problem? I am using an old Win98se based
computer, but I also have a Dell laptop which is using Win XP.

Tnx in advance for any help/and or suggestions you can give me.

James

James Saribalis,

There is really no "paperwork nightmare," unless you own twenty different funds. Most fund companies actually track your cost basis for you, so the guesswork is taken out of the equation. I have an accordion file, and I put my statements in there (Dreyfus under "D," Fidelity under "F," etc.). Any paperwork realated to mutual fund ownership is typically well worth it. :)

There's no real-time software for mutual funds because their change in NAV occurs after trading hours, when all of their individual assets are tabulated into the NAV. The newspaper works as well as the internet in that aspect (except for the number of funds tracked in any given newspaper). There are many real-time tickers for stocks, some are free and some cost money. Check with your potential brokerage firm to see if they offer one.

I use MSN Money, free on the web.
Under MSN Money is a tab called Investing. Once inside Investing, I click on the tab called Portfolio and I've created a number of portfolios on a pull-down menu for myself, portfolios that mimmick my Scottrade account (my mad money account), our IRAs, taxable accounts, stocks I'm keeping an eye on and another one for mutual funds I'm watching, etc. It makes it easy to see all of my accounts at one place. And its free, easy to use, anonymous, has real-time prices (well, 15 minute delay), and its password protected - but if someone does get into it, there's no harm that can be done as nothing is linked to me or my real accounts.
You might find it to be worth a look.

Rookie

Rookie,

Does MSN's website track and distribute dividends, etc., and then reformulate the number of shares owned? I know Yahoo's doesn't.

Rookie,
Does MSN's website track and distribute dividends, etc., and then reformulate the number of shares owned? I know Yahoo's doesn't.

Hhhmmm, I have to say "I don't know". Good question, and something I never thought about... but I seriously doubt it accounts for dividends, etc. (I use MSN's 'Basic' version, they also have a deluxe/premium version that I've never tried). Here's an example of how basic this version is; when I had a stock split and the price was cut in half, I had to go into the portfolio and manually double the number of shares I now had, or else it looked as if I lost 50% value in one day (it showed the new price, but not the corresponding 2:1 increase in number of shares). So if it won't accurately track stock splits, I'm sure dividends are outta reach.

And to be honest, I don't use it to keep such a detailed view of my accounts, but more as a quick-look at how the account is doing, up :) or down :(
It's an easy way to have all the accounts listed on one page with the prices/values somewhat automatically updated.

Rookie

Sounds just like the one I use with Yahoo. I was just curious if it was any better.

dingo, i liked using yahoo and msn money especially for their multiple entry stocks. it was a heck of a visual and better (for numerous funds,stocks, etc) than a portfolio manager like principia. after doing it a while and then seeing lesser performance than i expected, i found the same thing in regards to dividends. i have stopped using these services almost entirely. now i have to do it the long way ... arghhhh!

in addition, the estimates are not exact enough. 20 bp one way or another is quite important for me (especially the larger the accounts). dang, if i can beat the market by 20bp over the market returns that makes me a god!!! (little g)

i use yahoo but havent tried investing or anything but i have an adsense

me neither, i see a little bit risky investing.
one needs to be very informed.

I have been using MSN portfolio for a while. It is online. It figures out dividend reinvestments, actually gives you an option to let you do that on your own if you want.

It also has real time quotes, the only one I have found so far which provides that.

All in all, a good deal. Except it is from M$. :-)


As an aside, I have Zecco for trading. It offers 10 free trades a month with a min bal of 2500 (equities, not cash), and $4.50 after that.
Drastically different from 40 free trades per month, and $3.50 which was available till yesterday. But again, just like MSN portfolio, a good deal, and I havent found another one yet which comes close.

I am affiliated with the company( (http://www.macroaxis.com/) ) that provides a free service to mainstream investors to assemble, track (in real time), and optimize portfolios in the context of Modern Portfolio Theory. It is still in beta, but many features are already available and user base is rapidity growing.
Alternatively, if you just want to track your holding in real time, I would suggest Google Finance. They will probably add more analytics to there portfolio module very soon.

I will have to checkout that Google Finance. Sounds like it is worth a look.

Used Yahoo finance before and didn't really like it, now I just use it to track the stocks/funds I'm keeping an eye on. Over the years I've learned to consolidate investment into as fewer accounts as possible, and it really helps :)

Another option would be paid software such as Money or Quicken, where you can track most online accounts in one location. They are usually bundled with Tax softwares every year and you can get them for free or really cheap.

try to google your search it helps

Morningstar basic (the free version) allows you to track portfolios and will allow you to include the dividends and splits (takes a little extra effort, but worth it).

You should open a full-service brokerage account. I think that you will find that it is well worth the price to work with a financial professional, especially considering a financial advisor has far more financial planning capabilities and tools than the average investor. Pay a little extra and let someone else do the work.

I agree with Blankenship. Morningstar allows you (regardless of your brokerage) to customize your preferences with your exact portfoilo. They even send you daily email tracking alerts if you choose. I tell my clients to use it just because it is free and IS THAT user friendly. Much more so than a typical "login" user account for most brokerages.

If you are a do-it-yourselfer, then the premium package is also of significant value. Whatever you do...DO NOT subscribe to fundmojo.com. Fundmojo is just awful.

In addition to the "micro" sense of your accounts that you can get at M*, I'd also suggest a "macro" view from an account aggregator, such as Yodlee. I believe you can do a similar aggregation with other tools, but again, Yodlee is free and user-friendly.

I have a premium membership with M* and I do like aspects of the portfolio analysis tools, but, my biggest dislike is that I couldn't find a way to download the current portfolio data into excel. It's been a while since I tried messing with it, but as I remember, what you can download wasn't a current view of your holdings and their values, day over day change, etc. It was something else like a historical view that was useless to me. I did email them about it and they told me that was all that was available. So I use MarketWatch for that purpose. Another thing about M* is that the data is updated quarterly, so if you compare info in the Xray analysis with data from the fund company directly, which is usually updated monthly, there is usually a bit of disparity. It may not matter to many, especially if your motto is something like "close enough for government work". Just be aware that it may not be particularly accurate.