Adding fund Asset classes

No.

They are the way they are because they are tied to Asset Allocation, and the real-world asset classifications come from Value Line ... the classes you see in Quicken are those available to Quicken users from Value Line.

What a shame. Guess I will need to work with "Types" and maybe "goals" to achieve what I need.

Thanks for replying.

Jeff

The limited available Quicken Asset Classes are apparently tied to Value line and Quicken's value allocation system. But I do not use Value Line and the present Classes are too limited to be of much use for real world value allocations.

Have others figured a way to expand on the very small built in number of Quicken's Asset "classes"? The only way I can see of doing so is by using additional Asset "Types" and/or "Goal" but rather than re-invent the wheel, I thought to ask how other have resolved this problem.

I wish Quicken had an "alternate" asset Class option for those who do not wish to use its present limited set.

Does Money have a better or user definable Asset Class distribution?

Thanks for any hints or help.

Jeff

I have not figured out a better way but share your frustration. For example, do you call Walmart de Mexico an International stock or a Large Cap stock which are the only two choices available.

In case this helps someone else, this is what I decided is the best way to use Quicken, at least for me.

1. It is best to leave the built in Quicken Asset Classes and use them as set up by Q despite their obvious deficiencies and limitations. This way other things like the Asset allocations do not break. I enter my own class choices when I disagree with Q (too many "others").
2. Since there are no "sub-class" capability in Quicken, I plan to use "goal" and "type" for these purposes.
3. In Quicken's Investment "Type" I will use a) in the case of stocks - ST followed by the Morningstar "styleBox" classification (High Yield, Distressed, Hard Asset, Cyclical, Slow Growth, Classic Growth, Aggressive Growth and Speculative Growth). b) For others, I will include items like Mutual Fund, Bond, Market Index, US Treasury, Other, etc.
4. In Quicken's Investment "Goal" I will use Morningstar's "Style Box" which it bases on a grid that includes Size, Growth, Value, Emerging Markets, Global, Fixed Income, REIT, etc.

This leaves the classification into market "sectors" (technology, etc.) unaddressed but that would seem to be too much for Quicken to handle as it is presently structured.

I'm no financial guru so this may not be the best way to deal with it but it is the best I came up with for the short term. Does this sound reasonable as far as producing meaningful reports? Other ideas and suggestions would be very welcome.

Jeff

I suggest some caution in the use of Security Types: certain Quicken types have built in meaning to Quicken.

For example: on the Portfolio tab, there are column choices for "Morningstar Rating", "Morningstar Risk", and "Morningstar Return". Only securities with a Security Type of "Mutual Fund" will display values in those Morningstar colums.

And the key is not the text that makes up the Security Type: the key is the position in the original list of Security Types. You can change the name of "Mutual Fund" to "%%%%" and every security with a type of "%%%%" will still show Morningstar values on the Portfolio tab. But change the Type for a true Mutual Fund to "Stock", or "Bond", or to a new Security Type - one not present in the basic Quicken list of Security Types (even if you named the new type "Mutual Fund" - after renaming the original "Mutual Fund") - and that security will no longer show Morningstar values.

There may be other such limitations on Security Type, but I can't think of them at the moment.

Thank you very much. That is very useful information. I will include that in my thinking and planning.

Question: Where does Q get the data for those Morningstar columns? Do I have to tell Q to download them or do they come from the broker (Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch) when I download transactions?

Thanks for the help.

Jeff

I am reasonably certain they are downloaded by Quicken. And I believe they are downloaded with quotes, news, asset classes, etc.