Here is a glimpse at the Google Sheets magic that drives the pie charts in the blog sidebar. At the end of each month, I update the account balances in a dozen cells. The pie charts are dynamically updated and exported with html snippets to the blog. About the only trick to remember is that you have to select the cell labels and cell data you want to graph. If you only select the cell data, you scratch your head for an hour trying to figure out how to add and edit labels.
I added a new pie chart last week to get better visual feedback of our asset allocation. Bonds are only held in a handful of places (401k, 403b, Betterment, TreasuryDirect.gov) so a simple percentage multiplier of those account balances is used to calculate bonds. Cash and my underwater Coinbase experiment are straightforward. Stocks are calculated by taking the total and subtracting bonds and cash.
Hand wave, I have been shooting for 80% stocks, 20% bonds lately. An aggressive allocation for some, perhaps not aggressive enough for others. I only recently added cash to the equation and so 80/15/5 seems fine. Our cash balance is a bit high but way lower than it was a year ago. Mrs. Dress Pockets has done an amazing job of putting her excess cash to work, much of it in the first quarter when the stock market has gone on sale. Almost half the current cash balance will go towards a sexy minivan whenever that can be built. I figure $50k to $75k in cash to cover a year’s worth of expenses is plenty. Again your mileage will vary.
