Personal Capital是一个提供财务管理工具和财富管理服务的网站和应用程序（Android、Apple ）。虽然我们从未向Personal Capital支付过投资建议，但多年来我们一直在使用他们的免费工具。
您不必成为肥猫(be a fat cat)也能从 Personal Capital 的免费工具中受益。事实上，掌握个人财务状况是实现财务独立的第一步。
您已经知道我们是 You Need a Budget 的忠实拥护者，(we’re big fans of You Need a Budget)因为它是预算您已有资金的绝佳工具。但是，在规划长期未来时，我们使用个人资本。
使用个人资本获得的工具
创建免费的个人资本(Personal Capital)账户并添加所有财务账户后，您将看到一个仪表板显示您的财务状况的快速概览。
此外，您还可以访问网站的银行(Banking)、投资(Investment)、规划(Planning)和财富管理(Wealth Management)领域。
个人资本仪表板
个人资本(Personal Capital)仪表板的每个部分都包含快速概览和获取更多详细信息的链接。
净值
个人资本跟踪您所有账户、资产和负债的净资产。选择仪表板上的净值(Net Worth)链接以查看更详细的图表。您可以指定时间段并包括或排除特定帐户。
在图表下方，您将看到净值计算中包含的交易列表。通过选择像Cash、Investment、Credit、Loan或 Mortgage这样的类别向下钻取。(Drill)
预算
与YNAB(YNAB)相比，Personal Capital 的预算工具相形见绌。你可以看到你的钱去哪儿了，但你不能创造目标。我们建议忽略此区域并坚持使用YNAB 进行预算(YNAB for budgeting)。
现金周转
仪表板的现金流量(Cash Flow)小部件显示过去 30 天内您的账户进出多少。
选择现金流(Cash Flow)链接将带您进入更详细的图表。它默认包括来自您所有帐户的数据，除了(except)：
- 贷款或抵押账户
- 交易归类为转移
- 信用卡付款
- 401k 贡献
- 储蓄
- 证券交易
您还可以选择收入(Income)或费用(Expense)来查看按类别和时间段组织的图表。
再一次，YNAB提供了类似的报告，特别是如果您有YNAB 浏览器扩展工具包(Toolkit for YNAB browser extension)。如果您确实想使用 Personal Capital 来跟踪此信息，则需要对您的交易进行分类，以便它们显示在正确的类别中。
投资组合余额
投资组合余额(Portfolio Balance)仪表板小部件显示您的投资账户在过去 90 天内的余额。更多关于这下面。
市场推动者
此仪表板小部件显示您的投资（称为“您指数”）与标准普尔 500 指数(P 500)、美国股票、外国股票和美国债券市场的每日快照。
退休储蓄
退休(Retirement) 储蓄(Savings)小部件告诉您在日历年的剩余时间里每个月需要储蓄多少才能实现您的退休储蓄目标。
更多关于退休储蓄的信息如下。
应急基金
根据Personal Capital的说法，您的应急基金是您在列出的银行账户中的总金额，它不如有一个专门用于应急基金的预算类别有用。同样(Again)，我们建议使用YNAB来跟踪您的应急基金。
债务偿还
债务偿还(Debt Paydown)小部件显示当年偿还贷款的进度。
选择Debt Paydown链接以查看图表中包含的交易列表。
银行工具
银行业务(Banking )菜单有指向现金流(Cash Flow)、预算(Budgeting)、账单(Bills)和开立(Open)账户(Account)的链接。我们已经在上面描述了现金流(Cash Flow)和预算(Budgeting)。账单(Bills)页面显示来自您的关联账户的任何即将到来的账单 。
开户(Open an Account)会打开一个页面，您可以在其中注册Personal Capital Cash，该计划旨在为您提供比传统银行产品更高的利率。
投资工具
个人资本的投资工具是它的亮点。
控股
与市场推动者(Market Movers)部分类似，Holdings显示您的投资与标准普尔 500(P 500)等其他指数的比较。
在持股(Holding)图表下方，您会找到一份标有股票代码的持股清单，以及有关您拥有的股票数量、股价、一日变动和总价值的信息。
天平
如您所料，余额(Balances)显示您选择的时间段内每个投资账户的余额。
表现
业绩(Performance)向您展示了您的每个账户在每个资产类别中的表现。
图表下方是您的账户列表以及每个账户的现金流、收入、费用、随时间变化和余额的信息。
分配
分配(Allocation )显示您的投资是如何跨资产类别分配的。
您可以深入了解每个资产类别，以获取有关您在该类别中的投资类型的更多信息。
如果您投资于指数基金并想了解基金的投资方式，这将特别有用。
美国部门
此部分显示一个条形图，标识您投资的美国行业，如技术、工业和医疗保健。
如果您有 401K 或其他没有股票代码的投资账户，您可以手动指定该账户投资的行业。
规划工具
Personal Capital 的规划工具是其最佳功能之一，尤其是退休规划师。
退休规划师
首先，您要告诉退休计划员(Retirement Planner)您什么时候想退休。然后添加您预期的任何收入事件（如养老金、社会保障(Social Security)或出售房产）和退休期间的支出目标。它将使用蒙特卡罗(Monte Carlo)模拟来预测您成功的机会。
您可以使用不同的假设创建多个场景。如果你想提前退休怎么办？做几年的兼职对你的退休有什么影响？该工具将帮助您想象各种未来。
储蓄计划者
Savings Planner会告诉您您是否有望实现您的储蓄目标。它将您的储蓄分为应税、延税和免税类别。
您还将看到所有投资账户和每个账户类型、去年节省的金额、今年节省的金额以及账户余额的列表。
退休费分析仪
退休费分析器(Retirement Fee Analyzer)显示与您的投资相关的费用信息，前提是Personal Capital(Personal Capital)可以访问该信息。至少，这是查看每个基金的费用比率的简单方法。
投资检查(Investment Checkup)与财富管理(Wealth Management)
最后，投资检查(Investment Checkup)和财富管理(Wealth Management)部分本质上只是为Personal Capital的财务顾问服务做广告。您可以安排与顾问的“免费”电话，但要小心——一旦他们将您确定为潜在的付费客户，Personal Capital将无情地追求您。对于大多数用户来说，坚持使用免费工具并自己管理资金更为明智。
Personal Capital Review – A Great Alternative to YNAB and Mint
Personal Capital is a website and app (Android, Apple) that offers financial management tools and wealth management services. While we’ve never paid for investment advice from Personal Capital, we’ve been using their free tools for several years.
You don’t have to be a fat cat to benefit from Personal Capital’s free tools. In fact, getting a handle on your personal finances is the first step in the journey to financial independence.
You already know we’re big fans of You Need a Budget because it’s a great tool for budgeting the money you already have. However, when it comes to planning for the long-term future, we use Personal Capital.
Tools You Get With Personal Capital
After you’ve created a free Personal Capital account and added all your financial accounts, you’ll see a dashboard displaying a quick overview of your finances.
Additionally, you’ll have access to the Banking, Investment, Planning, and Wealth Management areas of the website.
The Personal Capital Dashboard
Each section of the Personal Capital dashboard contains a quick overview and a link to get more detail.
Net Worth
Personal Capital tracks your net worth across all your accounts, assets, and liabilities. Select the Net Worth link on the dashboard to view a more detailed graph. You can specify a time period and include or exclude particular accounts.
Below the chart, you’ll see a list of transactions included in the net worth calculation. Drill down by selecting a category like Cash, Investment, Credit, Loan, or Mortgage.
Budgeting
Personal Capital’s budgeting tool pales in comparison to YNAB. You can see where your money is going, but you cannot create goals. We recommend ignoring this area and sticking with YNAB for budgeting.
Cash Flow
The dashboard’s Cash Flow widget shows you how much has gone in and come out of your accounts over the past 30 days.
Selecting the Cash Flow link will take you to a more detailed graph. It defaults to including data from all your accounts except:
- Loan or Mortgage accounts
- Transactions categorized as transfers
- Credit card payments
- 401k contributions
- Savings
- Securities trades
You can also select Income or Expense to view graphs organized by category and time period.
Once again, YNAB offers similar reports, especially if you have the Toolkit for YNAB browser extension. If you do want to use Personal Capital to track this information, you’ll need to classify your transactions so they show up in the right categories.
Portfolio Balance
The Portfolio Balance dashboard widget shows you the balance in your investment accounts over the last 90 days. More on this below.
Market Movers
This dashboard widget displays a daily snapshot of your investments (called the “You Index”) vs. the S&P 500, US stock, foreign stock, and US bond markets.
Retirement Savings
The Retirement Savings widget tells you how much you’ll need to save each month for the rest of the calendar year to meet your retirement saving goals.
More on retirement savings below.
Emergency Fund
According to Personal Capital, your emergency fund is the total amount you have in your listed bank accounts, which is not as useful as having a budget category dedicated to your emergency fund. Again, we recommend using YNAB for tracking your emergency fund.
Debt Paydown
The Debt Paydown widget shows progress on paying your loans during the current year.
Select the Debt Paydown link to view a list of transactions included in the graph.
Banking Tools
The Banking menu has links to Cash Flow, Budgeting, Bills, and Open an Account. We’ve described Cash Flow and Budgeting above. The Bills page displays any upcoming bills from your linked accounts.
Open an Account opens a page where you can sign up for Personal Capital Cash, a program that purports to give you higher interest rates than traditional banking products.
Investing Tools
Personal Capital’s investing tools are where it shines.
Holdings
Similar to the Market Movers section, Holdings displays your investments compared to other indices like the S&P 500.
Below the Holding chart, you’ll find a list of your holdings labeled by ticker symbol and info on the number of shares you own, the share price, one-day change, and total value.
Balances
As you would expect, Balances displays the balances of each of your investment accounts over the time period you select.
Performance
Performance shows you how each of your accounts is performing in each asset class.
Below the chart is a list of your accounts and information on each account’s cash flow, income, expense, change over time, and balance.
Allocation
Allocation displays how your investments are allocated across asset classes.
You can drill down into each asset class for more info on what kinds of investments you have in that class.
This is particularly useful if you’re invested in index funds and want to see how the fund is invested.
US Sectors
This section displays a bar graph identifying the US sectors you’re invested in, like technology, industrials, and healthcare.
If you have a 401K or another investment account that doesn’t have a stock ticker, you can manually specify which sectors that account is invested in.
Planning Tools
Personal Capital’s planning tools are among its best features—particularly the retirement planner.
Retirement Planner
First, you tell the Retirement Planner when you want to retire. Then add any income events you anticipate (like a pension, Social Security, or sale of a property) and your spending goals during retirement. It will use a Monte Carlo simulation to predict your chances of success.
You can create multiple scenarios with different assumptions. What if you want to retire early? What effect will having a part-time job for a few years have on your retirement? This tool will help you imagine a variety of futures.
Savings Planner
The Savings Planner tells you if you’re on track to meet your savings goals. It breaks down your savings into taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free categories.
You’ll also see a list of all your investment accounts and each account’s type, amount saved last year, amount saved this year, and the account’s balance.
Retirement Fee Analyzer
The Retirement Fee Analyzer displays information about the fees associated with your investments to the extent that Personal Capital has access to that information. At the very least, it’s an easy way to view the expense ratio for each of your funds.
Investment Checkup & Wealth Management
Lastly, the Investment Checkup and Wealth Management sections are essentially just advertising for Personal Capital’s financial advisor services. You can schedule a “complimentary” call with an advisor, but watch out—once they’ve identified you as a potential paying customer, Personal Capital will pursue you relentlessly. For most users, it’s wiser to stick to the free tools and manage your money yourself.
