Track your Investment Portfolio is one of the important things you need to do once you start investing. Investing in your savings is a great way to secure your financial success. In this day and age where various uncertainties threaten the stability of our day-to-day lives, everyone should try finding alternative revenue streams and growing their savings. For many people, investing is a good way to do this.
However, many in Canada find investing to be a daunting activity. After all, it can be tricky to track and monitor where your money goes — especially since many experts advise diversifying your investment portfolio to minimize risk. This is my many choose to put their money in RESP accounts, where it is used in various investment vehicles — such as mutual funds, stocks, GICs, and ETFs. Although it is relatively simple, a RESP can have complicated withdrawal rules — making it hard for others to manage their investment here.
Indeed, all investments have their pros and cons, but you can make it easier for yourself by using the right tools. With that said, we discuss some tools you can use to easily track your investments.
Track your Investment Portfolio with
Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are a reliable tool for anyone who wants to store and organize data. Whether it’s for calculating complex profitability equations or creating a simple to-do list, you can discover a lot of insights from the data you have using spreadsheet programs. This makes it perfect for investment tracking, as custom spreadsheets give you full control over the investment data you want to see and monitor. Through spreadsheets, you can also calculate dividend income, schedule dividend payments, and trace taxes on individual lots. Plus, online spreadsheets (such as the one Google offers) can be automatically updated with investment information from news sites like Yahoo Finance or Finbox.io.
Online Service Providers
These days, you can find various service providers that help you track your investments anywhere in the world, as long as you’re connected online. One such example are client portals, which are set up by an asset management group or financial advisor. These help you monitor your entire financial portfolio — including any investments you might have in different firms. Those who are able to afford the usually steep investment advisory fee can access these powerful tools to make investment tracking easier.
Then, there are also personal wealth management companies such as Personal Capital and Mint. These companies offer online services that not only allow you to track your investments in a well-organized manner, but also offer financial management apps and services for a more holistic service. On their apps and website, you can see an aggregated view of your investments. You also get to analyze financial plans to help you understand your mutual fund expense ratio and generate graphs and charts showing your portfolio holdings. If you’re interested in seeing a breakdown of your assets, these platforms can provide those too.
Computer Software
For investors who aren’t online all day, there is various software that can be used to track your investment portfolio that you can install onto your computer to use anytime. The best thing about these kinds of software is that some have exclusive features that online programs don’t have. Some examples of these programs are Quicken, QuickBooks, and Fund Manager. For a one-time fee, these programs allow you to access various accounting software features, insight and report generators, investment trackers, and so much more to track your investment portfolio.
Today, you can use various tools that can help you find a good level of success in investing. As long as you do your due diligence and take the time and effort to understand the tools you have at hand, you shouldn’t worry about investing your hard-earned money to secure your future.
