Been using KMyMoney to track routine accounts for several years. Currently, have externally managed retirement accounts. Probably best characterized as ‘Mutual Funds’ (i.e., collections of stocks). I’m currently tracking these in Excel, and would prefer to have them included in KMyMoney. Not interested in tracking individual stocks (my financial advisor manages that), rather wish to simply track overall account performance. Tutorials for setting up investments seem to focus on tracking (e.g., buying/selling) of individual stocks. I receive monthly statements reporting activity (change in market value, etc.). Is there a relatively simple recommended method for tracking these accounts?
Hi Mike952
This is the method I’ve been using for several years:
Create an investment account under assets. I also created a brokerage account when the wizard asked.
On the Investments view, create a new security in the investment account you just created of type Mutual Fund, giving it a made-up trading symbol and name, and set the fraction to 1/1. No online source.
On the ledger for your Investment account, create a Buy Shares transaction to buy one of the securities you just set up, with a price per share equal to the value of your fund on the date of the transaction.
When you receive your monthly statement, update the value of your security using Tools => Prices
It works OK for me but I’d be interested if anyone has a different approach
Paul-
I have an account where I originally thought about using your solution but decided that it wouldn’t really help me track additions/withdrawals to the account nor would it allow me to report on taxable events later when working on income tax.
The solution I decided on is more complicated and time consuming but meets all my reporting needs perfectly. I created an account but no securities for the account. I take my monthly statement and enter a month-end summary transaction for each summary item on the statement. I enter any summary deposit or withdrawal totals as a new transaction to the account. I also enter a single transaction for any summary fees or foreign taxes paid that month.
I next create a single summary split transaction with a memo of “Changes in Investment Value”. I enter the following summary splits (if they post on the account statement) to that transaction:
a) A split to Ordinary Dividends category for the monthly total;
b) A split to Net Short-term Capital Gains for the monthly total;
c) A split to Net Long-term Capital Gains for the monthly total;
d) A split to Net Short-term Capital Losses for the monthly total;
e) A split to Net Long-term Capital Losses for the monthly total;
f) A final split for the remaining unallocated amont to my Reserves for Unrealized Gain/Loss category.
This allows me to create custom reports for the categories that correspond perfectly to the year end tax documents that I receive from the broker as well as reporting on the real remaining growth in the account from the reserve for unrealized gain/loss category.
It requires a little more work but is worth it in terms of the information it provides.
Thanks Gents,
Both responses are helpful. I think markhm’s method is more in line with what I’ve been envisioning. I’ll give this a go, and come back with questions, if needed.
Thanks again for your responses.