setting up portfolio/subportfolios

[oscarhobson]

What exactly is the Master Portfolio ? I would like to set up all my investments under one portfolio, and then have subportfolios for the different accounts I have. When I'm creating a new portfolio, it asks me if I want to make it a new Top Level Portfolio, or I can make it a subportfolio under the Master Portfolio. Does it matter which way I do it ?

Also, is it possible to have a given investment "belong" to more than one subportfolio ? I'm trying to do something like:

- all
------ 401k
------ taxed
---------- vanguard
---------- schwab
---------- cash

where "cash" would have my savings accounts, CDs etc. However, I have a money market mutual fund at vanguard that I would also like to be included in "cash". I tried copying the investment .dat in the portfolio editor from vanguard to cash, but when I run a Portfolio Value report on the subportfolio "taxed", this investment gets listed and counted twice.

Hope this makes sense what I'm trying to do.
Thanks, Oscar Hobson

[Mark]

Hi Oscar,

The "Master Portfolio" is just the default name of the top level sub-portfolio. You can rename it to be anything you want by right mouse clicking on it in the Portfolio Editor, and choosing "Properties...".

When going through the new portfolio wizard, you want to create a sub-portfolio underneath the Master Portfolio (or whatever sub-portfolio you want). You generally do not want to create more than one top level portfolio file. You just want one portfolio file, with all your sub-portfolios in there.

You can have a given investment belong in more than one sub-portfolio, but it will be included that many times in the overall total when calculating at a higher level sub-portfolio. To do this, just select the investment in the portfolio editor, copy it, and paste it where you want it. I would not suggest doing this in your case, as you will be double counting when reporting at the "Taxed" or higher level sub-portfolio. Instead, you can just leave your vanguard cash in vanguard, and any other miscellaneous cash investments in your cash sub-portfolio (or name it "Other Cash"). If you want a report on all your cash, report on the 'Taxed' sub-portfolio, but turn on the filter to only include "Cash" type investments. If you really want to create another sub-portfolio with only cash investments, do it at the top level, so it isn't in "All". For example:

Code: Select all

Master Portfolio
--All
----401k
----taxed
------vanguard
------schwab
------other cash
--Cash

This way, you can keep a sub-portfolio of "Cash" that isn't included in "All". This probably isn't necessary, and is more work, but if you really wanted to have a sub-portfolio of only cash investments, you can do it this way.