Free Portfolio Rebalancing Calculator!

Corey —  December 29, 2009

       Although I generally love everything about Vanguard, I wish they had an easy way to rebalance your portfolio. Since they don’t, I’ve created this free portfolio rebalancing calculator to make it a bit easier.

       All you have to do is enter your total portfolio value, the current amount of each investment, and your target allocation for each investment. Entering investment names and symbols is optional. I’ve pre-entered the investment names and symbols for the Vanguard funds you’ll find in my free portfolio allocation calculator, but you can use this calculator for any portfolio with up to 20 investments. If you need to figure out how many shares to buy or sell, simply divide the result by the current price per share. (This isn’t necessary when using Vanguard’s website. They let you buy in dollar amounts.)

       The calculator will tell you how much to buy or sell of each investment to reach your target asset allocation. If you’re adding cash to the portfolio, simply add the amount you’re going to deposit to your “Total Portfolio Value”. If you’re planning to withdraw cash from the portfolio, simply subtract that amount from your “Total Portfolio Value”. Then enter everything else like normal.

       Any odd cents will be added to or subtracted from the last investment listed on the spreadsheet. You’re responsible for double-checking the calculator’s results. I can’t fix user error, and I can’t guarantee that this calculator is error-free (though I’m fairly sure it works fine). If you have any questions or suggestions, leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to help you. You’ll want to expand it to full screen view or save it as an Excel file to see everything at once.

*Note: Click the ‘Click to Edit’ button to use the calculator with your own numbers.

Corey

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Corey is currently pursuing a Master of Arts degree in religion. While he enjoys learning and writing about Christianity, another one of his new passions is writing about personal finances in order to help others make wise decisions with their money.

8 responses to Free Portfolio Rebalancing Calculator!

  1. Thanks for your portfolio re balancing calculator. I been looking for a long time for a portfolio calculator.
    Just a suggestion for helping people like me that trade with Fidelity. ETF can only be purchased or sold by shares.
    It would be nice if your portfolio rebalancing calculator (Excel) could link to the current price and then calculator the number of shares you need to buy or sell.
    Thanks for sharing this calculator with us.
    Paul
    Ann Arbor Mi

  2. Glad I can help, Paul!

    Your suggestion is good. I’m not sure if ZohoSheets would support that capability but I know that Excel does. It wasn’t something I worried about because of the way Vanguard handles buying and selling shares (you can choose whether you want to use $, %, or shares). I can see how it would be a time saver for you. Not having it only adds a couple extra calculations by hand though. I’m a bit busy right now, but when I have a chance I’ll see if I can add that feature. Thanks for the suggestion!

  3. Thanks for a great calculator. Do you have a version where selling is not on option? I mean I’d like to only buy more :)

  4. Hi, Jussi! You’re welcome. I don’t have other versions. But an easy way to get around it and do what you want is to simply increase the “Total Portfolio Value” amount until everything is a “Buy”.

  5. Dear jussi, I’ve created a rebalancing calculator that avoids “backwards” transactions (selling during contributions, or buying during withdrawals). I think it should do exactly what you want, which is an intelligent way to minimize transaction costs, taxes, and effort. Note that it probably won’t work in Internet Explorer (and this is entirely Internet Explorer’s fault). http://optimalrebalancing.cz.cc

  6. Thanks for sharing, Albert. And your comment wasn’t eaten by a filter. I require all commenters to have their first comment manually approved. Any other comments you post from now on should show up immediately.

  7. The rebalancing calculator has been moved to http://optimalrebalancing.tk

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  1. App, #Rebalance-calculator « Small Trades Journal - September 4, 2012

    […] 1.  Provident Planning, Personal Finance for Life in the Kingdom.  Free portfolio rebalancing calculator, by Paul Williams.  December 29, 2009.  ©2009-2011 Provident Planning Inc.  http://www.providentplan.com/1044/free-portfolio-rebalancing-calculator/ […]