Spreadsheets are cool!

I call spreadsheets cool. My wife, when she me hears me say this, calls me a nerd, an old, slightly senile nerd.

I track my investments using a spreadsheet linked to my online self-directed accounts. Why? Because numbers, once moved to a spreadsheet, just beg to do more. Let me give you an example.

Recently I lightened my investments. The market was awfully high and my spreadsheet indicated that rebalancing for increased cash would be in keeping with my goals. Also, my wife agreed that selling was a good idea. I might ignore the spreadsheet but never the wife.

After selling, the market climbed and then it started its decline. My spreadsheet has fields that can be programmed to turn red when the price of a stock falls lower than its recent sale price. So far, only four stocks have triggered the switch in colour. This is not a signal for me to take any action. The increasing number of red rectangles simply alerts me to the falling values.

If the price falls into bear territory, another colour is triggered. Whether I buy more or not is my decision but my spreadsheet alerts me to the stocks-are-on-sale situation. (I've defined a bear market as a price 20 percent less than the stock's highest price in the past 12 months. I'm tempted to move the alert moment to 25% less but for now I'll leave the alter boundary unchanged.)

Almost everyone has Microsoft Excel. It often comes preinstalled on computers. If your version of Excel has expired, I suggest taking a look at LibreOffice shareware. I use it and like it.