Skip to main content
Strategies

Tracking and Reviewing

Pomegra Learn

Tracking and Reviewing

You can't improve what you don't measure, but you can destroy returns by measuring too often. This chapter walks you through a practical system: a three-layer tracking stack (broker statements, aggregators, and spreadsheets), the cadences that keep you honest without tempting you to tinker, and the return calculations that actually matter.

Most investors fail at tracking because they conflate the tools with the discipline. They subscribe to an expensive portfolio aggregator, then panic-check it daily and make impulsive changes. Or they avoid tracking entirely because it feels like work. The system in this chapter is designed to be simple, low-friction, and emotionally sustainable for decades.

You'll learn to distinguish between net worth and investable assets, between time-weighted and money-weighted returns, and why your pre-tax return is a useful fiction but your after-tax, after-cost return is the only number that matters. You'll also discover the right cadences for checking: a 5-minute monthly scan to catch errors, and a 30-minute quarterly review to assess whether you're drifting and need to rebalance.

The core philosophy is this: automate everything you can, measure everything you should, and check only as often as discipline requires. A good tracking system takes 10 minutes per month and a couple of hours per year—and gives you the confidence that comes from knowing, precisely, where you stand.

What's in this chapter​

How to read it​

Start with "The Portfolio Tracking Stack" to understand the three-layer model (broker, aggregator, spreadsheet). Then read "Broker Statements vs Aggregators" to see where the data comes from and why you need both.

If you want to build a spreadsheet, skip to "Spreadsheet Tracking Basics" and spend an hour setting one up. It is the most concrete tool in this chapter and will give you a sense of control.

The middle articles—on net worth versus investable assets, time-weighted versus money-weighted returns, and benchmarking—are the theory you need to interpret your numbers correctly. You cannot track what you do not understand.

The final two articles, on monthly and quarterly cadences, tie everything together: they tell you exactly when to check your portfolio and what to do when you check it. Read these last, after you have grasped the concepts above.

If you are building a sophisticated spreadsheet or using specialized tax tools, you may also find value in "After-Tax After-Cost Returns," which explains how to account for fees and taxes in your calculations.

The whole chapter is a progression from "what tools exist" to "how to interpret the data" to "when and how to act." You do not need to master every article to get value from the chapter—but reading the cadence articles (monthly and quarterly) without understanding the earlier concepts will lead you astray. Understand the concepts first, then implement the rituals.