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1. 

   akratic
   

   Master
   Joined: Jul '10
   Posts: 480

   I've tried a lot of different ways to track my finances (Excel, MS Money, Mint.com, creating my own website) but I think the best one is a spreadsheet within Google Docs.

   Google Docs is good because it's free, Google won't lose your data, you can access it from any computer, you can make nice graphs, and you can set things up however you want to.

   A couple of people have asked me how I made the graphs in my journal, so I cleaned up my personal finances spreadsheet and removed all the personal data. You can access that here: ERE Finances

   Fair warning: it's not the most straightforward of spreadsheets. Let me know if you're confused by anything.

   You can use this to make graphs like:

   
   (check out the Graphs sheet/tab on the bottom of the spreadsheet)

   I hope you find this useful! Let me know if you do anything cool with it. (Start by doing File -> Make a Copy)

   Posted 2 years ago #
2. 

   George the original one
   

   Expert
   Joined: Jul '10
   Posts: 1,938

   Nice!

   I've been trying to decide how to best present my investing data without giving out actual account values. What I'll probably do is keep the real numbers in the spreadsheet at home and post percentages via Google docs. It's either that or just post an image of the charts.

   Posted 2 years ago #
3. 

   AlexOliver
   

   Master
   Joined: Aug '10
   Posts: 461

   "Google won't lose your data"

   Ever. Even if you want them to.

   Posted 2 years ago #
4. 

   photoguy
   

   Journeyman
   Joined: Aug '10
   Posts: 202

   Although there are some advantages to using google docs, i don't like the idea of them having my financial information. You could also use openoffice which is free too and does a reasonable job.

   Posted 2 years ago #
5. 

   Marius
   

   Journeyman
   Joined: Jul '10
   Posts: 258

   > "Google won't lose your data"

   Make backups anyway.
   You never know.

   > Real interest: 4%

   I don't dare to count on that. :)
   But it would be nice.

   Nice work! I love this spreadsheet!

   Posted 2 years ago #
6. 

   Debbie M
   

   Apprentice
   Joined: Aug '10
   Posts: 55

   I also like the flexibility of creating your own tools with spreadsheets.

   I love that expense/interest graph.

   Another graph I like includes my actual IRA value and my predicted IRA value assuming 8% and 11% interest. This helps me get a better idea of how much my portfolio is really worth in the long term.

   And now that I'm splitting my investments into ten equal categories, a graph can help me tell when it's time to rebalance.

   I have a pie chart of my assets. I keep trying to get my home equity to be less than half, but I just can't keep up. And I'm trying to have my IRA + 403(b) exceed my pension, which it did for a while, but that's not so easy either!

   Posted 2 years ago #
7. 

   Kevin M
   

   Journeyman
   Joined: Jul '10
   Posts: 211

   I assume your input sheets for "Finances" are -FI and +FI and the net worth is input manually each month? Sorry, I'm a bit of a Google Docs newbie.

   I need to set up something like this to get us motivated.

   Posted 2 years ago #
8. 

   akratic
   

   Master
   Joined: Jul '10
   Posts: 480

   @Marius

   Yeah, 4% may be aggressive, but it keeps me motivated. My real plan is to hit FI @ 4% and then keep going to a more conversative number.

   @Kevin M

   Yeah, things you enter manually:
   - nothing on 'Finances'
   - everything on '-FI' and '+FI' (except columns A and B which are hidden by default)
   - the values for account/month on 'Net Worth'
   - Real Interest and Annual Income on 'Budget', along with the costs and recurrence of the expenses
   - nothing on 'Graphs'

   and sometimes you have to copy and paste columns or rows to get new places to enter data.

   In general if you double click on a cell and it has a formula starting with =, leave it alone, and if it has just a raw number in it, edit it.

   @Debbie M

   Investing and asset allocation graphs are definitely a good idea. I should work on that...

   My spreadsheets are light on investing because I'm not really doing it yet -- which makes my 4% number even more unrealistic.

   Posted 2 years ago #
9. 

   AlexK
   

   Journeyman
   Joined: Jul '10
   Posts: 115

   Why are we hesitant to share the dollar amounts we earn, save, and spend? I have graphs similar to akratic's but mine show earnings too. Usually we can calculate the income based upon years to FI change and monthly spending anyway.

   I don't care if someone's income is mine*10 or mine/10. Around here wealth is measured in assets/expenses, not income. Even a fast food employee could be wealthy by that metric.

   I like akratic's expenses and passive income vs time graph (I assume it's time, there are no x axis labels). I'm going to pretty up my graphs and make a post similar to his journal. Does anyone object to real numbers? We're all anonymous here except Jacob and he pretty much tells all.

   Posted 2 years ago #
10. 

    AlexOliver
    

    Master
    Joined: Aug '10
    Posts: 461

    @AlexK: I don't think anyone would object to you posting your own numbers.

    Posted 2 years ago #
11. 

    photoguy
    

    Journeyman
    Joined: Aug '10
    Posts: 202

    "Why are we hesitant to share the dollar amounts we earn, save, and spend?"

    For most people, I think it's a social custom/taboo not to talk about how much one makes.

    Also, people tend to make all sorts of assumptions once they know how much or how little one makes. Sometimes it easier just to keep them in the dark. I certainly wouldn't want any contractor I'm hiring to know how much I make.

    Posted 2 years ago #
12. 

    il-besa
    

    Journeyman
    Joined: Jul '10
    Posts: 107

    I like to think that I earn much more money that all my friends, and I don't want anyone to prove me wrong.

    I really avoid talking about earnings with people... while I may not care how much someone else is making (that is not true) I don't know how another person can use the information.

    I'm very open talking about any other subject, doh!

    Posted 2 years ago #
13. 

    Marius
    

    Journeyman
    Joined: Jul '10
    Posts: 258

    @AlexK "Why are we hesitant to share the dollar amounts we earn, save, and spend?"

    I suspect that as long as someone supposes your situation is similar to his, it's easier for him to relate to you. When he learns you are significantly richer or poorer, I think you become to him one of "the others" ("the rich" or "the poor") and it will probably be more difficult for him to see you as a person and not as a member of such a group. Result: higher risk of judging, jealousy and low empathy.

    Posted 2 years ago #
14. 

    Jeremy
    

    Apprentice
    Joined: Sep '10
    Posts: 64

    There is also office.live.com, which gives you more functionality than Google Docs (for free), but can also do full editing in a desktop version of Excel (not free)

    I constantly use online office for use across machines

    full disclosure: I work for the evil empire

    Posted 2 years ago #
15. 

    akratic
    

    Master
    Joined: Jul '10
    Posts: 480

    @Jeremy, I was skeptical at first, but that's actually pretty awesome! If only the graphs weren't so ugly...

    I hope office.live.com gets better and better and spurs an arm race with Google Docs.

    Posted 2 years ago #
16. 

    daizy744
    

    Novice
    Joined: Aug '11
    Posts: 3

    Thank you akratic for sharing your spreadsheet. I've been looking for one that's more advanced than my limited mathematical skills can create.

    Posted 1 year ago #
17. 

    C40
    

    Master
    Joined: Feb '11
    Posts: 573

    For those with a Mac (and using Numbers), here is an option. This is what I used for 2011. It's definitely not the greatest or most elegant file, but it might be a place to start or an example worth checking out:

    https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1i8uTRosOlXN2MyMDllZjQtNTgzNy00N2EyLWE3NjktNmJmNWYxM2NiNzc5

    (In the first sheet of the file, there are two lines for each budget category. The first lines are budget values, and the second is actual)

    Posted 1 year ago #

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