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For years I’ve used Vanguard’s “Portfolio Watch” feature, which provides portfolio analysis of assets held at Vanguard as well as those held at outside investment firms.
I’ve liked the Vanguard analyzer since, by agreeing to its aggregator feature via Yodlee (now owned by Investnet), it will update on a daily basis all your holdings’ values and analyze them as far as stock/bonds/cash; foreign/domestic; large cap/midcap/smallcap; growth/blend/value; etc. And it likewise analyzes your bond holdings as to credit quality, interest rate sensitivity, etc.
The catch is you have to provide the login credentials for your outside accounts, and as I read the fine print at Schwab, where my outside accounts are held, sharing your login credentials voids their promise to reimburse you for any loss of funds due to unauthorized activity. There may have been some discussion of this here on HD but I also read about this concern on the Bogleheads forum.
So I decided to unlink my Schwab accounts from Vanguard. The fact that there seems to have been a fairly dramatic change in the way Vanguard analyzes portfolios—without any warning or explanation—contributed to my decision.
I’m looking for a new place where I can enter all my brokerage and retirement accounts and get a decent analysis in the manner Vanguard used to provide. For the reasons stated, I don’t want an aggregator which will login to my accounts. Rather, I’m willing to set it up manually, entering each holding and the number of shares. Ideally, the analyzer will update the stock prices each day, but I’ll need to enter any changes in number of shares.
I know many folks use the Morningstar X-ray tool, but as an inveterate cheapskate I’m unwilling to pay $249 a year for that service. Does anyone have a recommendation for a free or very low cost portfolio analyzer they have used and are happy with?
Thanks for any suggestions.
I don’t know of a analyzer but I found this portfolio tracker spreadsheet very useful. Check it out here. Excel/spreadsheet knowledge would be required but you have an example in the sheet itself.
Thanks, Kalpesh. I will take a look at this.
Well, I may have more or less solved my problem. Vanguard also allows you to add “Outside investments you update yourself”. So these aren’t linked via the Yodlee aggregator and thus no security issues and there should be no problem with sharing login credentials so as to void the unauthorized use reimbursement guarantee.
And it looks like Vanguard does update the stock/ETF/fund share prices, so that’s great (although some of them are off just a bit for some reason).
I just spent a good chunk of time manually adding each individual holding from my Schwab accounts to this category at Vanguard. The process was a little wonky at times, but I got it done. One thing I don’t like is I couldn’t keep the separate Schwab accounts showing individually, so as to see the total balance of each, etc. Rather, Vanguard combines all holdings from all accounts into one long list, organized alphabetically by stock symbol.
But another good thing is, as best I can tell, Vanguard continues to include the outside holdings when doing its “Portfolio Watch” analysis. Even though, as I mentioned in my post, there were recent unexplained changes in how Vanguard does the analysis, it’s nevertheless very helpful.
So, all in all, fingers crossed but I think I pretty much accomplished what I wanted to do.
AI like chat GPT or Grok can be helpful. Look at this example, I asked Chat GPT the following:
My friend has 100K invested with 25% in SP 500, 15% in Apple, and 20% in cash, 5% in MSFT, 15% in XOM and 20% VB what are your thoughts?
Here is the answer of this made up portfolio:
Your friend’s portfolio is a bit concentrated and has a mix of strengths and weaknesses. Here’s a breakdown and some thoughts:
Portfolio allocation:
• 25% S&P 500 (broad U.S. large-cap exposure)
• 15% Apple (single stock)
• 5% Microsoft (single stock)
• 15% ExxonMobil (single stock, energy sector)
• 20% Vanguard Small-Cap ETF (VB)
• 20% Cash
Pros:
1. Diversification across sectors:
They have tech (Apple, Microsoft), energy (ExxonMobil), small-cap exposure (VB), and broad-market exposure (S&P 500).
2. Cash buffer:
20% in cash provides flexibility for future opportunities or safety in case of market downturns.
3. Quality companies:
Apple and Microsoft are strong, cash-generating businesses with long-term competitive advantages.
Concerns:
1. Concentration risk:
• 15% in Apple alone is heavy for one stock.
• Apple + Microsoft = 20% in just two tech names.
• ExxonMobil at 15% is another concentrated bet in a cyclical sector (oil).
2. Cash drag:
• 20% in cash is high unless it’s earmarked for a near-term purpose (upcoming expense, planned investment, or risk aversion).
• Over long periods, cash loses purchasing power to inflation.
3. Missing mid-cap and international exposure:
• The portfolio is very U.S.-centric and leans towards large and small caps but lacks mid-cap and international diversification.
Suggestions (if appropriate for your friend’s goals and risk tolerance):
• Consider reducing individual stock exposure (especially Apple and ExxonMobil) and reallocating to:
• A mid-cap fund or international fund to broaden diversification.
• A dividend or value ETF if they want income and less tech concentration.
• Lowering cash closer to 5–10% unless it’s intentionally high for a reason.
• Think about their time horizon and risk tolerance. If this is a long-term investment, they may want to reduce cash and rebalance toward more diversified equity exposure.
If you want, I can show you a couple of model allocations based on common investment styles (balanced, growth, or conservative) using this as a starting point. Just say yes, and I’ll sketch them out.
William, thank you for the post—very interesting.
However, I’m not looking so much for a robo-advisor to make recommendations for my portfolio. Rather, I just want a tool to analyze what I have, along the lines I mentioned in my post.
Yes. I just need your mother’s maiden name and ONLY the last nine digits of your SS number…. Kidding, of course. I’m in search of the same thing.