Back when I decided to update the landscaping in my yard, I joked with my wife that my main design philosophy was to make everything easier to maintain. From aiming built-in sprinklers to cover the entire yard at the turn of a faucet to curving the edging around the flower beds to make it easy to track with a lawnmower, each choice was made with an eye towards reducing future effort. The end result was a great experience not only when enjoying a lemonade in a lawn chair but also when regularly breaking a sweat.
Following that same design philosophy, I just released a handful of site updates that majorly reduced my maintenance effort while adding some new functionality that I think you’ll enjoy. Here’s the rundown.
The Optimizer is always free
When I recently launched the new Optimizer tool in December, it was split into two versions. The first was the free Optimizer open to everyone, and the second was a special version called Optimizer+ that included some extra functionality for members only.
After some time with the new tool, I quickly learned that the split functionality was a bit of a hassle to update. And on top of that, I’ve always taken pride in offering good data for free and never fully liked the idea of hiding interesting things behind a paywall. Something needed to change.
So starting today, there is no more Optimizer+ and all features are free for everyone in the normal Optimizer. Win-win!
Bookmarks are a member perk
Another example of a feature that is a pain to maintain is the chart bookmarks. For those not familiar, bookmarks are a way to save a portfolio idea for later so that you can quickly reference it without needing to manually enter the asset allocation every time. While I really like that feature, including it in every tool required me to manage double the number of charts and made updating the site take way more time than I cared for.
To strike a better balance between positive functionality and negative maintenance, I removed the bookmark feature from every individual chart and shifted it to a members benefit built into the comprehensive My Portfolio tool. So if you want to save portfolio iterations for study, an inexpensive membership will now enable that extra perk.
Fixed a few bugs
Beyond those two more significant feature changes, I also fixed a few small bugs that popped up recently. Most of them you may not even notice, but one I’ll point out is that I just released a Toolkit update that corrected a problem with the colors of the Annual Returns chart when used in Microsoft OneDrive.
So if you’ve downloaded the Annual Returns Toolkit free sample or purchased the larger My Portfolio Toolkit and wondered what was up with the chart colors, check your email for a new download that should fix everything.
Three more steps towards continuous improvement
While the update list is short and sweet — swapping two features between members-only and free-for-all and fixing a few bugs — I’m already happy with how it reduced my workload and will free up my time for more productive things. If you have any suggestions for new articles, tools, or features, please let me know!
The yard is clean, the sun is out, and I’m ready to tackle something fun.
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