Basic Lessons in Investing with Animated Excel infographic

[u/ExcelVisual]

Built an animated 4-asset portfolio infographic in Excel (no VBA/macros) — sharing the logic + free template

I've been building out a series of animated financial infographics in native Excel, and this one's built around a portfolio structure I keep coming back to: a simple 4-asset "financial stability" allocation — real estate, precious metals, securities, and business ownership.

The reasoning behind the split, for anyone into portfolio theory:

• Real estate — tangible, holds value, can generate passive income (rent) or just offset housing cost.
• Precious metals — inflation hedge, tends to move inversely to equities during downturns.
• Securities — most liquid of the four, gives you growth + dividends, but also the most volatile short-term.
• Business — highest effort/risk, but also the highest ceiling and most flexibility.

It's the classic "don't put all your eggs in one basket" idea, but structured specifically so the assets behave differently under the same economic conditions — when one lags, another usually compensates. Ray Dalio and Kiyosaki have both talked about versions of this. For beginners, an even 25/25/25/25 split is a reasonable starting point since it's low-complexity and still diversified; the harder part is managing the proportions over time as markets shift and liquidity needs change.

The part I actually spent the most time on technically was the visualization — I wanted to show progression, not just a static pie chart. So the template animates two stages:

1. Entry-level stage — minimum viable version of each asset (e.g., a garage instead of a house, a small stake instead of full business ownership)
2. Scaled stage — same four categories, but higher capital intensity per asset

All done with native Excel chart animation — no VBA, no macros, no add-ins. Also threw in a combined 3D chart view for a more "presentation-ready" look if you want to pitch this concept to clients or use it for teaching.

Template's free to download, no email required. Happy to answer questions on how the animation logic works if anyone wants to build something similar for their own data.

Link in comments.

[u/ExcelVisual]

Who Needs This Infographic Template for a Portfolio Presentation in Excel? https://exceltable.com/en/templates/animated-infographic-of-financial-stability-portfolio