Portfolio Composition and Notes Worksheet

It is helpful for investors to keep track of why they are holding certain investments and how they will be monitored. Writing down the specific reasons provides clarity. It also reduces the influence emotions have on the decision-making process about whether to hold or sell.

The Portfolio Composition and Notes worksheet is designed to help you do this. It separates your portfolio into its different components so your notes can be tailored to each part.

You will notice the fields are blank. This was purposeful because AAII members follow a variety of investing strategies. Allocation strategies and goals also differ. Rather than try to make every member follow a one-size-fits-all approach, we opted for flexibility and the ability to customize.

State what you are investing in, what you will watch out for and the reasons you would part with the investment. The broad basis for sell rules is to part with an investment when the reason you bought it no longer applies [e.g., a value stock’s price-earnings (P/E) ratio becomes expensive or a mutual fund’s objective changes]. It can also be helpful to jot down what information or statistics you wish to monitor.

PDF worksheet available for download.

Excel worksheet available for download.

Example: Young Couple’s Portfolio and Composition Worksheet

Frank and Sue are a young couple with a three-year son. They own both stocks and mutual funds. They view their savings as being designated to cover emergencies and therefore not part of their overall portfolio allocation for the purposes of this exercise.

Here’s how they would fill out the worksheet.

Try the worksheet out and let us know in the comments section how it works for you and what would make it more useful. You can also send us your comments directly. Be sure to download this worksheet and save it your computer. Any information you enter will not be saved on AAII’s servers.