Quicken, MS Money, or....?

[xtena]

One thing about Quicken...they force you to upgrade every couple of years if you want to use the feature to download info from your bank. After a certain amount of time they cease support for the old version and I've heard the bank downloads just won't work anymore till you pay for a 'new' version of Quicken. I can't swear that's true but I read it somewhere.

I know that's 'business as usual among software companies', and I don't mind upgrading 'mission critical software' like anti-virus and anti-spyware software every year. But in other cases, including my financial software and my operating system, I don't want to pay for a new version just because the company thinks I should (Hear that Microsoft? I don't NEED Vista!!!!!) If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And don't break it on purpose.

Rant aside, I do use the low-end version of Quicken that came with my computer. I simply don't bother to use the download feature...I just key in our transactions every day from our receipts, or when I pay bills online, then I log on to my online bank statement every day and reconcile from that. Since it's only a few transactions a day, it's just as fast to me as using the automated feature. I LOVE being able to reconcile daily. In this regard I find Quicken's checkbook format much easier than Excel. It also has a decent budgeting feature. I don't much like the format of the canned reports in Quicken yet I don't want to take the time to design my own in Excel. So overall I vote for Quicken vs Excel.

[Greebo]

How so?

It's worked fine for me for several years. I am just looking for more automation and information.

Too open ended for me - not enough structure on how to record transactions and the like, and too much work. For this stuff, I need the automation to make it painless enough to keep up with.

[dcompton]

I use Money and have for a long time. I agree they are very similar. I don't like the budget function in Money. I found it a pain to set up, but I also found it unnecessary. You can keep a budget in Excel or on the back of an envelope, and categorize expenses in Money - a report will show you totals for each category that you can easily check against your budget amounts. But you can set it all up in Money and get instant comparisons if you like.

I love the program because I set up projected cash flow for months in advance, usually about six. Paycheck and known expenses, variable ones like utilities on the high side, with a block amount shown out for normal daily expenses. If something changes, I can just change that number say, two months out, and see what I have to do to prepare for it. This "big picture" on the cash flow is very easy with a computer program and makes me feel like I have a handle on the finances. It also makes playing with "scenarios" very easy. If I do this, what happens to X.... sort of thing. Of course, you can do that in Excel too.

And, yes, reconciling checking it easy. I don't download either. Like someone else said, I check the bank online often and just mark the item as "cleared" until the statement actually comes in.

[AmyBoz]

Quicken every day. We can download our stock reports, update our 401k, balance our bank accounts, and do everything with a click of a button. It's been a very helpful tool for us.

[Lady_V]

We have Quicken (premier 2007). I still haven't figured out all the bells and whistles but I do have to say I really like it.