1.09.2007

Where are the charts?

A friend and faithful Wylie Money reader asked me- "Where are your charts? Your Graphs? The track record of your hypothetical portfolio as it takes the S&P 500 and thrashes it soundly, beating it into the ground?"

I started on a long post about how there is no free portfolio tracking tool that automatically re-invests dividends and capital gains pay-outs especially from a historical date and I have not found a good tool to allow me to do this manually for the 20 funds I plan to track...

Then I started thinking about my friend and his question and I got bitter and decided that he just wanted charts because his brain has frozen solid and gone numb because of all the snow he has suffered through recently (he lives in Denver).

Then I realized, yea... I need some charts. But it could be a bit tedious to manage so here is my plan:

I will chart the investment of $2500 per fund in each fund with $100 additional contributions on specific days I will pick each month (more about this process later). I am starting with a minimum of $2500 because several of the funds I have picked so far require this much and none of the funds I have picked (or will pick) require more than this- so one could actually follow this plan. Same reasoning behind the subsequent $100 additions.

I will do this one of 2 ways. I will pick about 20 funds total and either:

a) One of you can give me $50,000 and $2000 per month- which is the cost of investing in this entire portfolio and I will invest it and etrade can re-invest the distributions and capital gains!!!!!

or

b) I will set up a hypothetical portfolio- in Morningstar but please post a comment if you know of an easier to use free portfolio tool. And I will try and keep track of reinvesting dividends, etc. manually which will be tedious and make me sad.

or

c) I will just set up a portfolio to track daily NAV (prices) which will give a general sense of earnings and be less tedious.

Final note- until I pick all 20 funds, I will not set this up because going back and trying to get historical info and tracking the funds and picking new ones all at once would require more time spent on this that I am willing to commit.

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