My Problem: I Want a Pretty, Multi-Colored, all-Inclusive Graph Thingee

[MomTo2Boys]

Okay, you guys, I need psychological hand holding again on another issue.

I am just starting to be able to really picture myself jumping into the PP thing. I'm ready to buy bonds at my Vanguard bond desk, I'm ready to consider how in the world (in the future, when we're back in the States at some point) I could buy gold coins, etc., but when choosing to do those individual things rather than buying the funds/ETFs I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be giving up the ability to track everything prettily and easily (on Vanguard?) via some sort of line graph where I can look one month from now/ six months from now/ one year from now/ five years from now and say to myself Oh, wow! Look at how well this awesome PP thing is working! What utter majestical investment brilliance!

I'm worried that if I choose to, say, buy bonds straight from the bond desk (rather than buying a fund) and buy physical gold and squirrel it away (rather than buying an ETF), I will be depriving my very-visual, needs-positive-reinforcement self of its ability to easily spot, see and track PROGRESS. This does NOT mean that I actually want to, say, buy funds for everything just for the visual ease of it all, it's just that I'm worried that I won't be able to track the status well if I go piecemeal like what it sounds like is the best way to go about things.

How do I go about buying the individual PP pieces...while still keeping a really good, all-in-one-place easy visual on what's up and what's down and how everything is doing, big picture wise? Some sort of funky software that includes graph capabilities or whatever (also: I have a Mac)?

Thank you...

[sophie]

Do you have Microsoft Office or equivalent on your Mac?

What you're looking for is a spreadsheet.  There have been several very nice ones posted, but they seem to be Windows-based - the direct URL linking doesn't work on a Mac, at least not without buying additional software and doing a lot of extra setup.  I edited one to be more Mac friendly, and it's fine for tracking performance & asset proportions.

Could one of the moderators find the thread where spreadsheets were posted, and make it sticky?

[MomTo2Boys]

I do have Microsoft Office loaded on my Mac, which means that I have Excel, which is what I'm suspecting you may be referring to. Is it?

[sophie]

Yes, Excel is the spreadsheet program you need.

Here's that thread I was referring to:

http://gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/ht ... ic.php?t=9

[gizmo_rat]

I think of it as two different issues; how do I hold the assets for peace of mind and how do I track the value for peace of mind. 

If you set up a virtual portfolio on a portfolio tracking service like google finance or yahoo finance and use  VTI, SHY, IAU, and TLT then you get the advantage of up to the minute pricing and historical graphing.

Meanwhile your real holdings are held across multiple brokers, safe deposit boxes and so on.

The only time the value of the two will be different is if the ETFs no longer track the value of the asset they are supposed to, in which case you'll be glad you held the assets directly.

When it comes around to rebalance or add new money in then its appropriate to fire up the spreadsheet, log into your accounts, check the price of gold and so on.

I use Gumby's Numbers spreadsheet for this purpose
http://gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/ht ... ic.php?t=8

[dualstow]

Mom,

I'm mostly on a Mac and I use google spreadsheets. It's free if you want to give it a try. If you use gmail, you already have a google account.
Some members here have provided (and updated) the codes necessary for getting the prices of specific 30-YR treasuries as well as the price of an ounce of gold. The rest is easily displayed via google finance.

[MediumTex]

Could one of the moderators find the thread where spreadsheets were posted, and make it sticky?

I stickied it.

[MachineGhost]

How do I go about buying the individual PP pieces...while still keeping a really good, all-in-one-place easy visual on what's up and what's down and how everything is doing, big picture wise? Some sort of funky software that includes graph capabilities or whatever (also: I have a Mac)?

What you want is online banking support, so I suggest buying Quicken 2012.  It has built in graphs and reports and even an asset allocation tool.

[Coearth]

How do I go about buying the individual PP pieces...while still keeping a really good, all-in-one-place easy visual on what's up and what's down and how everything is doing, big picture wise? Some sort of funky software that includes graph capabilities or whatever (also: I have a Mac)?

I use Android app 'Stock Watcher' on my Android smartphone to keep track of my stock, long bond and gold (XAUSGD=x) portfolio almost daily as a rough gauge of how my permanent portfolio is doing. The data is derived from Yahoo! Finance and usually delayed 15min. It works alright to give in percentage terms how each component is doing and how all 3 components are doing together anytime. There's no graph, but i think the percentage results is enough to keep track of PP. I also keep a spreadsheet with more detailed record of my PP on my computer.

In my rolling 12 months back test of Singapore Permanent Portfolio for last 10 years, I noted that it can take at least 1 to 3 months before positive results start to show on the PP, if any. So I think it will be good to keep a steady mind during 1st 3 months of watching PP, if one finds it necessary to do so. It's better not to look at the portfolio results daily to reduce temptation to tinker with the portfolio  

To keep track of gold in USD, you can use the ticker XAUUSD=x . I made a short post about how to set up the 'Stock Watcher' app here for PP:
http://singapore-permanent-portfolio.bl ... anent.html



Hope this helps.