Investment Portfolio Tracker

The household picture. Each statement shows one account; the decisions that matter in retirement, how much is in stocks, what to sell and where, depend on all of them together. Enter every holding once, with its account type, and the tracker returns four things:

• Value, cost and gain for each holding and in total.
• The unrealized gain in taxable accounts, the only gain that would be taxed if you sold.
• Your mix against target, with any class more than 5 points off flagged Over or Under, and the dollar trade that restores it.
• How much of each class sits in IRA and Roth accounts, and whether the selling can all happen there.

The defaults are a hypothetical retired couple with $2,441,000 across a brokerage account, a rollover IRA and a Roth IRA. They paid $1,791,000, so the gain is $650,000, or 36.3% on cost, of which $419,000 sits in the taxable account. Stocks have drifted to 64.2% against a 55% target. Reaching the target means selling $387,600 of US stocks and buying international stocks, bonds and cash. Because their IRA and Roth hold $744,000 of US stocks, the whole sale can be made there without a capital gains bill.

Treat the accounts as one portfolio for the mix and as separate tax buckets for the trades. The target applies to the household total; the trades go wherever they cost least.

Long-term capital gains rates depend on taxable income (IRS Topic 409), so a year with low income, such as the gap between retiring and claiming Social Security, can be a good time to realize some gains deliberately at a low or zero rate. The guide to retirement withdrawal order covers how those years fit together with Roth conversions.

Watch one rule when moving between accounts. Selling a fund at a loss in the brokerage account and buying the same fund in an IRA or Roth IRA within 30 days disallows the loss, and the IRA's basis does not absorb it (IRS Rev. Rul. 2008-5). Buy a similar but different fund, or wait 31 days.

Because it decides both what a sale costs you and what your heirs inherit. In a taxable account the gain is value minus basis. A fund bought in the 1990s may be mostly gain; selling it to rebalance hands part of that to the IRS.

Held until death, the same shares generally pass with a basis equal to their fair market value on the date of death (IRS Publication 551), so the gain built up during your life is never taxed. For a household that expects to leave money to children or grandchildren, the oldest, most appreciated taxable shares are often the last thing to sell. The tracker's "Unrealized Gain, Taxable" figure shows how much is at stake. Shares given away during life generally keep your original basis instead; the guide to gifting to children and grandchildren weighs that trade-off.

Keep records. For shares bought before brokers were required to track basis, your own statements may be the only record. Enter the average cost your broker shows and note any lots where you know the figure is missing.

It shows what sits in each tax bucket, which is the starting point for both. Required minimum distributions start at 73, or 75 if born in 1960 or later. Taking the RMD from the overweight class inside the IRA turns a required withdrawal into a rebalance. The RMD calculator projects the amounts year by year.

Roth conversions work best with assets you expect to grow most, converted when prices are down. The tracker's account column shows which holdings are in the traditional IRA and could move. The guide to Roth conversions before RMDs sets out how much to convert each year and the Medicare premium surcharges to watch.

Charitable giving can do rebalancing work too. From 70½, a qualified charitable distribution of up to $111,000 a year goes straight from an IRA to charity and counts toward the RMD; choose to distribute from the overweight fund.

• Live prices. You enter them. The tracker never connects to an account, and nothing leaves your browser.
• Annual returns. Return on cost is a total since purchase, not a yearly rate.
• Taxes on the trades. It shows where the gains are and how much selling can happen in IRAs; it does not compute the tax.
• Income you do not hold as investments. Pensions, annuities and Social Security are not listed, though they affect how much risk the portfolio can carry.
• Fund overlap. Two funds can hold the same companies. Class the holding by what it owns, not what it is called.

The downloadable Excel version adds up to 30 holdings, the same account and asset-class totals, and the same checks. For the target itself, start with the asset allocation worksheet. And be wary of anyone who calls about your portfolio unprompted; the guide to investment scam red flags lists the usual approaches.