When your portfolio spreadsheet starts pushing back
Spreadsheets are a great way to start tracking your money, and most Singapore investors do. The wall tends to arrive quietly: an XIRR formula that won't recalculate, FX rates that haven't been touched since March, a tab on your phone that's basically unreadable. If that sounds familiar, this page is for you.
The spreadsheet stage
Most SG investors start with a spreadsheet. It's a rite of passage. You learn what XIRR is, you copy SGX REIT tickers in with their `.SI` suffix, you realise IBKR exports are a different shape from Tiger's, and you build a tab for dividends because the holdings tab was getting crowded.
Spreadsheets are wonderful when you have 5 to 10 holdings, no FX to worry about, and you're happy to refresh prices manually on Sunday mornings. The math is yours. The columns are yours. There's nothing magical you can't see, and there's nothing in there you didn't put there.
But there's a moment when the spreadsheet starts asking more from you than it gives back. Usually it's around 30 holdings, two currencies, and the third XIRR formula that won't behave.
Where spreadsheets shine
Total transparency over the math. Every cell is a formula you can click into. No black box, no "trust us", no version of XIRR you didn't choose. For investors who like to know exactly how a number was produced, that's a real feature.
Free, available everywhere, no lock-in. Your data sits in your Google or Microsoft account, syncs to your phone, opens on any laptop you sit down at, and isn't going anywhere if a startup decides to pivot.
Infinitely customisable. No product team can predict every column you might want. If you'd like to track conviction level, the brokerage you bought at, the day you first heard about a stock, and a one-line thesis, a spreadsheet lets you. Most apps don't.
Nothing to learn beyond formulas you already know. SUM, AVERAGE, XIRR, GOOGLEFINANCE. That's a small enough toolkit to be honest about, and it carries you a long way.
If those are what you want, stay with your spreadsheet. We mean that.
Where Merlio takes over
Four things that get easier the moment you stop maintaining the formulas yourself.
XIRR, TWR, and money-weighted returns done correctly
No more debugging the array-formula version that broke when you added a partial sell. Time-weighted return for fair comparison against benchmarks, money-weighted for what you actually earned, and XIRR per holding so you can see which ticker pulled its weight and which one rode along.
Live prices and FX without copy-paste
Live prices for SGX, NYSE, NASDAQ, LSE, ASX, Bursa, HKEX, and crypto, sourced from publicly available market data. Nine currencies converted to SGD automatically with a cached daily FX rate shared across all users. The only thing you do is click Refresh, and even that is optional.
SGX dividends with payable dates
Ex-dates and payable dates sourced from public market data and cross-checked against dividends.sg and the SGX corporate actions feed. So you know the day the cash actually lands, not just when the distribution was declared. A 60-day upcoming-payments strip lays out your next batch of cash flows at a glance.
CPF, property, loans, and household, all in one place
When you outgrow the investments tab and want CPF projections to age 65, mortgage amortisation modelling, and a combined view with your partner, you'd need three more spreadsheets. Merlio does all four in one, with the math reconciled across them.
What it looks like in practice
Three concrete moments from a normal week with Merlio.
Logging a buy. Open the app, search the ticker (SGX REITs, US ETFs, LSE funds, custom Endowus tickers all work the same way), enter units, price, date, and platform. Fifteen seconds. The cost basis updates, FX gets handled if it's not in SGD, and the dividend forecast adjusts the next time prices refresh. You don't paste into a row, you don't drag formulas down.
Checking your dividend month. Open the Dividends tab. The next 60 days appear as a strip with each ticker, ex-date, payable date, units held on the ex-date, and expected SGD landing in your account. Nothing for you to compute. If a payable date shifts because SGX republished the corporate action, the strip updates the next time anyone in the user base hits Refresh.
Asking a question. Open the AI assistant, type "what was my XIRR on REITs last year". Get a number, with a one-paragraph explanation citing your actual transactions, the time window used, and any caveats about closed positions. It's the spreadsheet's "go figure it out" answered for you, except the data is already wired in.
What you'd lose
Total formula transparency. In Merlio you trust our math. We've published the calculation conventions, written 360 unit tests, and we'll show you the formula behind any number on request, but you didn't write it. In a spreadsheet, you did. That's a real difference, and for some people it's the deciding one.
Infinite customisation. If you want a column for your dog's name next to each holding, or a tab that ranks tickers by how confident you felt the day you bought them, a spreadsheet is the right tool. Merlio has a label system and notes, but it's an opinionated app, not a blank canvas.
Zero recurring cost. Sheets and Excel are free forever for personal use. Merlio's free tier exists for basic tracking, but the deeper features (auto snapshots, AI assistant, unlimited holdings) sit behind a S$59 a year plan. If your spreadsheet is doing the job, that's a real cost we're asking you to consider.
If those tradeoffs feel wrong, stay where you are. There's no shame in a great spreadsheet.
Pricing
Three ways to pay. Every plan includes the same 60-day free trial, no credit card required.
S$59 / year
Best ongoing value. Works out to about S$4.92 a month.
Start free trialS$39 first year
Then S$59 a year. Expires 31 Aug 2026.
Start free trialEvery plan includes a 60-day free trial. No credit card required.
Frequently asked questions
Can I import my spreadsheet into Merlio?
Yes. Merlio supports CSV import for IBKR and StocksCafe, plus a generic CSV importer for any broker that exports a standard format. For brokers not yet covered, the fastest path is to copy your current positions into Merlio's add-holding flow once. Most people find it takes about an hour for a 30-position portfolio.
Will I lose my data if I cancel?
No. Your data stays in your account. You can export anytime, and you keep the free tier indefinitely with your history intact. We don't hold your numbers hostage if you decide Merlio isn't for you.
Does Merlio do XIRR per holding?
Yes. XIRR for the whole portfolio and per ticker, plus time-weighted return and money-weighted return so you can pick the right lens for the question you're asking. There's also a Performance Attribution card that ranks your top contributors and detractors.
How does multi-currency work?
You log holdings in their native currency (USD for US stocks, GBP for LSE, HKD for HKEX, and so on). Merlio converts to SGD daily using a shared FX cache covering 9 currencies. No formulas, no copy-paste from x-rates.com, no stale rates from March quietly distorting your net worth.
Does Merlio support custom tickers?
Yes. Endowus, StashAway, and any fund without a public ticker. You add it manually, set the price when you can, and it lives alongside your listed holdings. Useful for SRS funds and anything else not covered by public market feeds.
What about historical performance?
Daily snapshots run automatically once you're on premium. You see net worth and composition trends from the day you start, with monthly drift across categories, geographies, and investment types. Spreadsheets only show today unless you've been disciplined about logging history, and most of us haven't been.
Is my data private?
Yes. Supabase row-level security scopes your data to your user ID on every personal table. It's never shared with other users unless you explicitly invite a partner via household mode, and even then, only the categories you opt in to are visible. Privacy details here.
Can I run Merlio alongside my spreadsheet?
Yes, and many people do during the first month. Use both, decide what's working, then collapse to one. The 60-day trial is deliberately long enough to live with both tools through a full dividend cycle before you choose.
Try Merlio free for 60 days. No credit card. Cancel any time.
If you decide spreadsheets still suit you better, we'll wave you off cheerfully.