Retirement savings is hard, especially when you're managing different investment accounts. Due to the increased availability of tax-advantaged accounts, the majority of people juggle between various retirement accounts. Some tools that track investments will help you manage all your retirement accounts, and here are the three best tools that can track your investments.
Types of portfolio management software
The three basic types of portfolio management software are manual entry, linked account, and spreadsheet-based tool. Each class has its advantages and disadvantages.
If you are an investor, you can link all your investment accounts with the linked account app, and this is possible because the app is an online tool. You can upload your investment information to the linked account app. The app will show you your investment data. This tool is the most convenient, and it gives a high level of security to your data. Yet, some investors do not want to provide their investment account details. This is the principal disadvantage of the linked account app.
The second tool can track your investments only when you provide your investment information manually. Therefore, this tool will take a lot of time if you want to update your investment data. The advantage of this tool is that it does not require you to provide your login details.
The third type of investment tracking tool involves the use of a spreadsheet. This tool cannot give the kind of analysis that other tracking tools will provide. Still, many people prefer this tool because they can control their investment information effectively with the spreadsheet. If you use Google Sheets, you can pull in your investment data using the Google Finance function.
The three best apps for tracking your investments
Below are the three best investment management apps. Each app works for one of the portfolio management software programs mentioned above.
Personal Capital
Personal Capital is one of the best investment trackers. It is free, and it can link all your accounts, such as IRA, bank accounts, student loans, and mortgages virtually. It can also use Zillow to pull in your real estate value. The website has A+ ratings by the Qualys SSL Labs, and this rating is stronger than the rating of most brokerages.
Once you connect your account to Personal Capital, it will give you a lot of information about your finances. For your investments, this tool will accumulate data from all your accounts into many dashboards. And this shows the exact value of the individual investment and how it changes from the last day of trading.
Personal Capital analyzes the amount charged by each portfolio mutual fund while tracking investment performance. It captures data in charts, graphs, and financial dashboards.
The significant advantage of Personal Capital over other tools is its comprehensive analysis. For example, in addition to its display of each mutual fund fee, it also analyzes each mutual fund. It shows the impact they will have on your portfolio balance over a definite period. Personal Capital helps an investor know if they are right for retirement or not with its retirement planner. The retirement planner considers inflation, pensions, and Social Security benefits. Also, you can add time expenses to your retirement planner.
Lastly, Personal Capital can effectively manage your finances with its cash flow tools that can track your spending by category. You can modify these categories, and you can add new ones.
Morningstar
Morningstar is best for people who prefer to input their account data manually. It is the most flexible investment tracker, and it provides a lot of information about investments and the total portfolio. It takes a lot of time to input the data whenever you want to update your account information.
Immediately after you input your portfolio, Morningstar will track different information such as dividend growth, dividend yield, and portfolio management over time.
The majority of investors use Morningstar together with Personal Capital because of the vast information it provides. Morningstar has a free and a premium account. Investors can track their investment portfolio with a free account. In contrast, the premium account offers more information about portfolios and investments.
Google Sheets
Google Sheets is the best for investors who want to have total control over their financial data. It provides sufficient information that can manage most portfolios. Still, it doesn't provide analysis and data like Personal Capital and Morningstar.
Google Sheets is best because you can use Google Finance to get information about mutual funds, stocks, and ETFs. You can also use the Google Sheets ticker to pull in the security and accompanying price details. You can use Google Sheets or a spreadsheet to rebalance your investment portfolio since it is easier to use than the other tools that require automation.
With the availability of many tax-advantaged accounts, you can have more than one investment account. But how will you manage your investments if you have a 401(k), traditional IRA, Roth IRA, HSAs, and your taxable account? These three tools will help you to manage all your investment accounts without stress.
