CAn one have multiple portfolios is Quicken2007?

George Smith wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Isn't a portfolio just a view of your various holdings in various accounts?

Portfolio->Customize

Enter the name you want to assign to this view, then select the account(s), securities and columns you want to include then click OK. The new view will appear in the "View" menu

I'm note sure what you mean here, but as I just wrote, you can set up a view that includes multiple accounts. I have a view called "Retirement" that includes my IRA and both my 401(k) accounts, but does not include my trading account.

Thanks for the response.

This does not help at all. I have 5 separte accounts at T. Rowe Price (5 different mutual funds) that I want to collapase them into just one portfolio (okay, call it an account). What you suggested does not seem to work. When I do the "Customise" bit, I get an "Account List" screen and that does nothing to group the 5 mutual funds into one account. I am still left with a clutter at the top level. What I want at the top level are a bunch of portfolios (or, "accounts") that that are independent of each other (as they have different purposes) whcih may contain the same securities.

I just mean how do I collapse the 5 T. Rowe Price accounts into just one account which contains these 5 mutual funds.

This leads to larger questions. How do I keep my retirement accounts (which include a 401-k and 2 mutual funds in two separte fund companies) as a single "account" and keep all this separte from a much more complicated retirement portfolio that my wfe has (which includes two 403Bs, two separte IRA accounts and one brokerage account)? I do not want to see details all the time ... I just want the overall accounts (or portfolios, or whatever to be visible at the top level.

I am not sure what happens if I create an account and say that it is not an institution and enter securities into it. Will Quicken "update" such accounts? I ended up with the unsightly clutter I have by asking Quicken to contact T. Rowe Price and download the account information. Perhaps that is not the correct thing to do.

I am looking for a replacement to MYM which is (at the age of 16) rather good at giving a picture of one's overall investments and keeping track of them and displaying them in a meaningful way. Perhaps, I should switch to software meant for investors. I am aware of the many packages out there. Perhaps Quicken was a mistake. I am begining to thing that this is just a lot of eye candy that is nothing more a fancy cheque book balancer. (And from the pathetic graphics I have seen so far, even the candy is not quite up to scratch.)

thanks sj

George Smith wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I don't understand what you want to do. First you say:

"I have 5 separte accounts at T. Rowe Price (5 different mutual funds) that I want to collapase them into just one portfolio (okay, call it an account)."

Then you say

"What I want at the top level are a bunch of portfolios (or, "accounts") that that are independent of each other (as they have different purposes) whcih may contain the same securities."

If MYM is better for your needs, then use it.

I think the discussion will bog down unless we can eliminate the term "portfolio"; it just doesn't fit your problem when looked at from a Quicken viewpoint. The basic Quicken unit related to your situation is the Quicken account: you can have as many Quicken accounts as you like, but there is no such thing as a "sub-account" in Quicken, so you can not lump multiple Quicken accounts together and treat them as one account.

While Quicken accounts are normally intended to mirror real-world accounts, it is possible to set up Quicken accounts almost anyway you like ... unless you intend to download to them. If you want to download, you have no choice but to have your Quicken accounts setup as your financial institution expects them.

When it comes to Quicken investment accounts; every one (except a Single Mutual Fund account) can hold multiple securities.

Many financial institutions allow multiple securities in their real-world accounts and will download transactions for the multiple securities to a single Quicken account.

But some financial institutions require each mutual fund to be in a separate real-world account and will only download transactions for one real-world account to one Quicken account; in that case you have no choice, if you want to download: one Quicken account per fund.

In some cases, I believe, the financial institution will offer the option to have one account per fund, or to have all funds in one account: it's up to you to find out from your financial institutions what they require, or allow.

You are right on the mark here. I understand that the word in Quicken is "Account". You also answered that crucial question that I was seeking an answer for. Amazingly, (or deliberately?), the documentation does not answer this simple question -- one cannot group accounts into another account. Quicken does not seem to understand recursion!

You seem to be clairvoyant. This is what I was suspecting all along. It never asked me *how* I would want to set up things when it downloaded the T. Rowe Price data. As we have a bit of stuff in that fund group, the choices seem to be either i) gruesome clutter, ii) hand entry for the TRP type places or iii) a professional investment package.

I do also understand that the a given "Account" can have multiple securites -- as the Vanguard Account I have. I am sure that the brokerage accounts will also work fine.

Touche! Thanks for the reiteration. It is what I suspected.

As I have been entering data by hand all these years, entering the TRP data alone by hand will not be an onerous task. It is something I am sure I can do once a quarter :-)

Now, if you will be so kind to say *how* exactly I can lump the TRP data I already have into one "Account", I would be much obliged. I have a dreadful feeling that I may have to do things again by hand ..... I can set up a new account and say it is not held in a financial institution. In that account I can dump the TRP funds. But, can I read in the data that I already have in Quicken into this new account?

I think that this will be the make or break answer! I am primarily interested in investments and not the least bit interested in stuff like paying my telephone bill.

Thanks for your clear, concise explanations. It confirms my suspicions and mirrors what I have heard from others who have tried and given up on Quicken.

thanks gs

Just to be clear: are you saying you would prefer to manually enter your TRP transactions into a single Quicken account than to download your TRP transactions to multiple Quicken accounts?

Have you asked TRP if you can change your holdings there so that all your funds are in one TRP account, so that one TRP account can download to one Quicken account? I think Vanguard offers that option. And I think Fidelity did too, if I moved all my holdings to a Fidelity "Brokerage" account.

Export each old account to a separate qif file; import each qif file to the new account (using instructions in the following post).

In the future, yes. Five fund data, once a quarter is not much work. With MYM on a 16 year old machine, I did everything, including the monthly brokerage data, by hand. So, it does not bother me much -- and I do prefer not to let too many parties get their hands on my information.

I did once ask TRP about it and they said that each fund has to be treated as a separate account with its own account number. You are right about Vanguard: one account number for any number of funds.

Thanks. I will fetch it and get started.

I will repeat that again - thanks. This certainly helped to clarify the situation.

thanks again gs

Alas! Quicken 2007 does not seem to allow importing QIF files anymore. I did export the files and then deleted the accounts .... need I say more!

So, I assume that this is the end of the road with Quicken for me unless there is a workaround to getting the data from the QIF files.

Is there?

I think the answer is a real financial management software .....

thanks gs

No, do not bother to say more. You did not follow directions and I will not offer you any more help.

Understand. Anyway, the first lines of the file are now

!Account NTRREX TInvst ^ !Type:Invst D3/28' 5 NShrsIn YREAL ESTATE I16.45002 Q303.951 U5,000.00 T5,000.00 ^ D3/28' 5 NXIn PBalancing Cash Adjustment L[TRPriceRealEstate] $0.00 ..... .....

as required, I think.

I created as "Asset" type account called TRREX. Then, I tried to do the import. When I hit 'Next' in the import box, nothing happens.

However, I th "Hierarchical Portfolios Track an unlimited number of portfolios. Portfolios can contain an unlimited number of hierarchical sub-portfolios. Display graphs/reports on any portfolio or sub-portfolio. Sub-portfolios are useful for organizing your investments into specific accounts, and/or for investment advisors tracking investments for multiple clients. For managing your portfolios see the Portfolio Editor. There is also a tutorial on using the Portfolio Editor."

bring tears of joy!

$70 down the tube is not all that bad. Not the first time I've been screwed. Won't be the last.

thanks all the same gs