Morningstar X-Ray

Earlier in the summer I spent a lot of time trying to analyze my holdings across all of my accounts (I have 2 401Ks, 3 IRAs and two taxable accounts). I complained that I couldn't find a good tool and a reader recommended the Morningstar tools. Today I signed up for the free trial of the Morningstar X-Ray.

The analysis was a good confirmation that I have balanced portfolio. It also confirmed that I have a higher weighting of mid and small cap value and growth funds than the Wilshire 5000 at least.

For next steps, I'm thinking of buying some GLD and some more bonds -- I only have 9% of my holdings in bonds.

Spending & Planning

I just returned from my international vacation. I'm in the process of piecing together the damage. Not too bad, but of course the Euro/dollar exchange rate makes a simple lunch $30. But considering I spent money on almost nothing excepting dining out, it was a relatively inexpensive South of France vacation.

When I returned, I finally outreached to an independent financial adviser. I think it would be great to have professional help in the strategy/planning/asset allocation phase. I think this advice is tax-deductible as well, which is great. I'm going to do a pre-interview on Tuesday with the woman so she can learn more about me and I can find out her rates. I know the standard protocol is supposed to be interviewing several different experts, but I don't know if I'll actually do that if this woman sounds like someone I can trust. Any help is better than the zero advice I'm getting from my ex-boyfriend who is in theory managing my portfolio for me.

401K Contributions, 1997-2008

So this week I did not make too much progress on possible portfolio consolidation or asset allocation. However, I feel much better about the fact that my portfolio isn't exactly where I want it to be. One of my favorite PF bloggers, Get Rich Slowly, sounds like he is at the exact same stage that I am! It's a good reminder that personal finance is a process, and there's also something else to learn and do. There's never going to be a moment where I am "done."

Anyway, the other big factor that affects long-term performance besides asset allocation (in addition to time) is savings. I recently took a hard look at exactly how much I have been saving in my 401K over time. I've made a handy chart so I can share what I discovered:



I was a bit shocked that in the middle years the % gross salary contributed was not higher, as I even have a withholding for I filled out requested that 10% of my salary be withheld. The decline that begins around 2003 was due to my idea to buy an apartment; I thought I'd need the money for a downpayment (didn't happen). In 2007 I was in grad school and did not work much, so I didn't make any contributions. However, I did open a SEP-IRA for tax purposes and put in about $1,200.

Well, what's done is done. And, at least I did start contributing to my 401K almost as soon as I began working (only a one year delay). I'm planning to max out my contribution for this year, and I made good progress last year as well.

Onward and (hopefully) upward, both in terms of contributions and returns!

Organizing My Portfolio: Part I

Like many people, I have the securities portion of my vast wealth (haha) spread across several different accounts with different institutions. These include the following:

• My current 401K
• An as-of-yet-unrolled-over 401K
• An IRA, SEP-IRA and a securities account at one institution
• A just for fun online brokerage account

For those keeping count that is 6 accounts with 4 institutions.

Most financial planners or finance-types would probably be horrified by this list. I'm less concerned about all of the different accounts and more so about finding out what I own across my portfolio so I can analyze it as a whole. That's an informal goal for this year. My curiosity about my portfolio was piqued in October when it came crashing down by about 50%.

I did this manually in an Excel grid, tallying all of the positions in each account and then analyzing my overall portfolio by type. This is the graph I created based on that info:


These are my own categories which I am sure are slightly unorthodox. As for the balance or lack of balance in my portfolio, analyzing that is my next step.

After reading an article in the Wall Street Journal, I was excited to learn I could possibly get some help with this task. I'm currently trying out some of the interactive portfolio trackers discussed in the story and will post an update soon. I had previously searched for a tool to do this and hadn't come up with much. I used the Markewatch Portfolio Analyzer but could not for the life of me figure out where to find the "analyzer" part of the tool that the site claims gives you a portfolio asset allocation analysis.

While this probably seems like a basic thing to do for most personal finance gurus, for me it is the top of the pyramid. I've got the budgeting, saving, credit card, checking account part of the equation down. Now it's time to take my investing to the next level. I'll share aspects of all of these as I go.