Quicken Deluxe 2016

[steelyman]

After entering transaction data for spending and investing mostly manually for well over 20 years, I have lost the urge to do so in the last couple of years of retirement. I too am using Quicken 2016 and am on the fence about upgrading. I update quotes on line, but everything else is currently done manually. Not much incentive to upgrade, but I could automate updating investment statements and make life a little easier. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like to just quit the detailed monitoring of things financial. I have never found anything earth shattering amiss in all these years of hours of data entry and statement balancing. I guess I will need to do something soon. Or not.

My usage style with Quicken is not too different from what you describe but I don’t do anything that needs specific account information (e.g., institution, acct #, password). That’s just for a feeling of better security.

So I manually enter spending from receipts and investment distributions. There aren’t that many but I’m not one of them there day traders.

 

[PatrickA5]

I also have the 2016 Quicken Deluxe version that expires in April. Anyone find a good deal on 2019 Quicken? Just got an email from Quicken, $59.99 for two years, haven't shopped around yet to know if it's a good deal or not.

https://www.quicken.com/pulse/email...4&utm_campaign=EMPP04FD190307&utm_content=003

Just got this email from Quicken too. That sounds pretty good at $30/year. I'll probably do this since my 2016 Quicken is about to lose some functionality.

 

[Walt34]

Do you get any updates at all or is it completely unsupported? What are you using - the last version that existed or, the program right off the CD with no version updates?

There is one update still available, the only thing I notice from it is that backups don't create a new file name every time, but instead warn that you're about to overwrite the existing backup.

ETA: Oh, and when I reload it for any reason I use the same CD from when I bought it.

 

[Livefree]

Some Quicken Alternatives


https://wallethacks.com/best-quicken-alternatives/

 

[bobandsherry]

I also have the 2016 Quicken Deluxe version that expires in April. Anyone find a good deal on 2019 Quicken? Just got an email from Quicken, $59.99 for two years, haven't shopped around yet to know if it's a good deal or not.

https://www.quicken.com/pulse/email...4&utm_campaign=EMPP04FD190307&utm_content=003

Seems like there's a deal on Quicken every few months. The current deal is 1 yr for $24.99 purchased through NewEgg (note the discount code shown on the page).
(https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832118009&Tpk=N82E16832118009)

 

[bobandsherry]

Some Quicken Alternatives


https://wallethacks.com/best-quicken-alternatives/

Honestly, I've tried 90% of those "alternatives" and found they all come up significantly short of what Quicken offers. And some of those "alternatives" actually cost more than Quicken, for example Tiller @ $4.92/mo ($59/yr - and doesn't do everything that Quicken does) and CountAbout ($39.99/yr), Banktivity ($69.99/yr), MoneyDance $49.99 and EveryDollar for $99.99/yr!

Don't forget that the article clearly states the author makes money by the click-bait referral links in his "honest reviews". Egads, interesting list but I see nothing that is a better deal than Quicken and it's features.

 

[Livefree]

Honestly, I've tried 90% of those "alternatives" and found they all come up significantly short of what Quicken offers. And some of those "alternatives" actually cost more than Quicken, for example Tiller @ $4.92/mo ($59/yr - and doesn't do everything that Quicken does) and CountAbout ($39.99/yr), Banktivity ($69.99/yr), MoneyDance $49.99 and EveryDollar for $99.99/yr!

Don't forget that the article clearly states the author makes money by the click-bait referral links in his "honest reviews". Egads, interesting list but I see nothing that is a better deal than Quicken and it's features.

Personal Capital looks pretty good and it's free, but not sure if it will import Quicken data. In fact not sure any alternatives will, and that could be why were stuck with Quicken.

 

[steelyman]

After I pulled the trigger on my current Quicken license, a 2-yr + 3 free month download offer on Amazon, it was nice to not have to think about it any more.

Data files were converted seamlessly from my former Quicken version (2015?).

 

[bobandsherry]

Personal Capital looks pretty good and it's free, but not sure if it will import Quicken data. In fact not sure any alternatives will, and that could be why were stuck with Quicken.[/IQUOTE]

I had tried Personal Capital, unless they've improved their product in the past year, it comes up well short of the features I use Quicken for. And be prepared for a phone call several times a week until they have an opportunity to sell you on their financial advisory services. I don't consider it stuck with Quicken, it does the job pretty dang good. Saves me lots of times if I was doing it by using a spreadsheet by updating my stocks, checking account and various credit cards. The ability to export data to a spreadsheet is also very useful for further analysis by me. I'm OK dropping $30/yr for the "subscription", I just keep my eye open for special deals to save some additional $$ on that.

 

[camfused]

FYI, Quicken 2017 was the last year that did NOT have the subscription model (which I also loath). I have 2016, and I *might* update it to 2017, to make me one year newer. It is available online at various places for about $22 for Mac (less for Windows).

After that, I guess I will just keep using it until a MacOS or whatever update makes it unusable, then I'll figure something out.

 

[bushpilot]

I liked it better when it was cheaper, but when you can get a deal on the subcription versions of Quicken, it is not too bad. I paid $100 for 2 years of Premier. (I also think they are currently offering one year free if you sign up for their credit card.) The remaining data entry I do after the automated updates is trivial, reconciling is simple, and I get insights into my portfolio. The lifetime planner is a decent planning tool.

So, it is quite worth the price to me.

 

[sdfire]

Another 2016 Q user here. I am also struggling with what to do. I hate subscription models. I also fear that the Quicken market is shrinking and will continue to shrink.

I use Quicken strictly to keep track of basis information for my holdings.
All of my holdings prior to the time that brokerages were required to keep basis information are stored in my Quicken file (actually, virtually all of my investment holdings are in my Quicken file). I don't know what I would do without that information in a usable format. And, with reinvestment of distributions, it would be a huge time investment to try to do everything manually.

My actual use of Quicken is very minimal. I log in to download my brokerage transactions about once per quarter. Then, I look at basis information when I sell something or donate something to charity a few times per year. Is there anything else that would do the same thing for less than Quicken?

My biggest fear is that the younger generation will not need Quicken because brokerages will have all of their basis data and they will have ready access to more user friendly budgeting tools that they can use on their phones. If that happens, Quicken will need to constantly raise prices and ultimately fail. That is what is motivating me to search for a replacement now. But, I haven't found anything that will work.

 

[ejman]

Another 2016 Q user here. I am also struggling with what to do. I hate subscription models. I also fear that the Quicken market is shrinking and will continue to shrink.

I use Quicken strictly to keep track of basis information for my holdings.
All of my holdings prior to the time that brokerages were required to keep basis information are stored in my Quicken file (actually, virtually all of my investment holdings are in my Quicken file). I don't know what I would do without that information in a usable format. And, with reinvestment of distributions, it would be a huge time investment to try to do everything manually.

My actual use of Quicken is very minimal. I log in to download my brokerage transactions about once per quarter. Then, I look at basis information when I sell something or donate something to charity a few times per year. Is there anything else that would do the same thing for less than Quicken?

My biggest fear is that the younger generation will not need Quicken because brokerages will have all of their basis data and they will have ready access to more user friendly budgeting tools that they can use on their phones. If that happens, Quicken will need to constantly raise prices and ultimately fail. That is what is motivating me to search for a replacement now. But, I haven't found anything that will work.

Are you sure that it would be "... with reinvestment of distributions, it would be a huge time investment to try to do everything manually"?


I don't know how many investments you have but I have a dozen or so mutual funds. It takes me at most 30-45 minutes once a quarter to manually enter the distributions in my Quicken 2010. I have two bond mutual funds that have monthly distributions that's about ten minutes a month. Since I'm retired ( have been for 17 years now) I actually kind of enjoy the ritual of watching my money multiply and entering the results Of course, YMMV. As a fun experiment, just try and put in the reinvestment/distributions manually once. It might not be as onerous as you think.

 

[OAG]

FWIW I was a Quicken Fan subsequent to Microsoft Money Deluxe. Was using Quicken for about 10 years (current year versions). Did not like the subscription changes in Quicken (and costs) and as of 1/1/2019 went back to Microsoft Money Plus Deluxe (2004 version). Always manually entered investment data even in current versions of Quicken. But then I also cancelled my Microsoft Office subscription plan this year and am now happily using Libre Office. Subscription plans for Software are not my ideal if there is a "free" method that works.

 

[zinger1457]

Since the April deadline is looming and wondering whether it's worth upgrading I've been working on setting up an excel spreadsheet to monitor my financial accounts. For my needs I'm starting to think that excel will be more than adequate. I am able to export all my accounts (checking, savings, mutual funds, etc.) data into a spreadsheet format. It does take some massaging of the data to get it to look presentable but all the hard work is done up front. Updating the data weekly or monthly should be easy enough, just copy/paste. The benefit in doing this is now I can present the data exactly how I want to see it. Similar to Quicken I have a summary page of all my accounts with totals and just click on any one of those accounts and it links to a separate sheet that has all the account details. On my checking account sheet I have a table that shows year to date totals for categories that I'm interested in (utilities, deposits, etc.). Investment account sheets have the history of all transactions with a chart showing gains/losses over time. Definitely a work in progress.

 

[steelyman]

Mildly related: I didn’t know that Turbo Tax remains a product of Intuit (or so says an ad I just heard on NPR One). I don’t use it but it seems many members do.

 

[GreatLaker]

I still use Q2014, which expired almost 2 years ago. No problem using it. It just does not d/l transactions or update security prices. I always entered all transactions manually anyway. And I only hold 10 securities and don't trade much so not a big deal to enter prices once a week to track portfolio value and investment returns.

My main concern is that some time in the future it will stop working due to some windows update or getting a new PC. And what if my old file format cannot be imported into the newest version?

I have >20 years of data in Quicken and like others have said it's valuable to go back and see when I bought something, what did something cost, or similar queries. Quicken ticked me off when they raised the annual subscription price to the same as a disk cost that would last 3 years. But I may waiver and upgrade to the sub model, simply because as much as I don't like it, it is such a useful program.

 

[sdfire]

Are you sure that it would be "... with reinvestment of distributions, it would be a huge time investment to try to do everything manually"?


I don't know how many investments you have but I have a dozen or so mutual funds. It takes me at most 30-45 minutes once a quarter to manually enter the distributions in my Quicken 2010. I have two bond mutual funds that have monthly distributions that's about ten minutes a month. Since I'm retired ( have been for 17 years now) I actually kind of enjoy the ritual of watching my money multiply and entering the results Of course, YMMV. As a fun experiment, just try and put in the reinvestment/distributions manually once. It might not be as onerous as you think.

That is an interesting idea. How do you deal with no updates to the values of the assets? Also, what happens if (when?) Quicken decides to hang it up because their customer base is dwindling?

I'm certainly not opposed to learning how to do this myself. But, I still worry that this would be a short term fix if Quicken ultimately pulls out of the market.

 

[rk911]

That is an interesting idea. How do you deal with no updates to the values of the assets? Also, what happens if (when?) Quicken decides to hang it up because their customer base is dwindling?

I'm certainly not opposed to learning how to do this myself. But, I still worry that this would be a short term fix if Quicken ultimately pulls out of the market.

i've been a Quicken user for the better part of 3-decades and i also do manual entries for everything (Q2019 subscription). for investments i auto download NAV changes each night based on ticker symbols and manually enter CG and dividends when issued, quarterly for our taxable accounts and yearly for retirement accounts. other than recociliation of accounts i spend maybe 30-min each quarter doing entries. if Intuit ever calls it quits the base program should still work forever. changes in pricing can be done manually.

 

[steelyman]

I think Quicken users who really can’t stand paying for the product will probably let their licenses expire before the company goes out of business. If the latter were to happen, I expect sufficient notice will be given and tools developed to help migrate to a different product.

Because there is such a large user base, I’m not worried about that scenario unfolding soon.

[ADDED] I think the best thing Quicken (the company) can do is invest in development of a Mac version that has all or most of the functionality of the Windows version. It seems their recent focus has been on mobile and Quicken “cloud” (which is not a backup), neither of which interest me.

 

[ejman]

That is an interesting idea. How do you deal with no updates to the values of the assets? Also, what happens if (when?) Quicken decides to hang it up because their customer base is dwindling?

I'm certainly not opposed to learning how to do this myself. But, I still worry that this would be a short term fix if Quicken ultimately pulls out of the market.

The daily closing values of mutual funds are published after market close at a variety of sites ( I use Yahoo.com) I simply enter these values into the Quicken 2010 portfolio view whenever I'm curious to see what my portfolio value is. I Imagine some people may do this daily at one extreme to annually say on December 31 at the other extreme. Again, I have a dozen mutual funds so looking up this info and entering a set of 12 numbers into the Portfolio view is trivial and only takes a few minutes.


I don't see how whatever Quicken does would impact this process as long as Quicken has not put a poison pill in the 2016 program that would kill it after a certain date. My 2010 version continues to work just fine for my purposes. When a hard drive died on my computer I just installed Q from the CD into my new hard drive with no problems at all. In fact, I've grown weary of Windows so I simply installed Quicken into my Linux machine and now as far as I'm concerned both Quicken and Windows can go do whatever they want, I don't care.

 

[ejman]

I still use Q2014, which expired almost 2 years ago. No problem using it. It just does not d/l transactions or update security prices. I always entered all transactions manually anyway. And I only hold 10 securities and don't trade much so not a big deal to enter prices once a week to track portfolio value and investment returns.

My main concern is that some time in the future it will stop working due to some windows update or getting a new PC. And what if my old file format cannot be imported into the newest version?

I have >20 years of data in Quicken and like others have said it's valuable to go back and see when I bought something, what did something cost, or similar queries. Quicken ticked me off when they raised the annual subscription price to the same as a disk cost that would last 3 years. But I may waiver and upgrade to the sub model, simply because as much as I don't like it, it is such a useful program.

I started using Quicken in 1992 and dutifully upgraded to the new edition every three years or so until I got tired of the constant cosmetic changes but basically the same functionality and got off the merry go round with Quicken 2010 - been using it ever since with manual updates of transactions and prices. This is a trivial task with the dozen mutual funds I have and one bank account and two credit cards I just don't have that much activity. I've been FIRED since 2002 and frankly I quite enjoy staying on top of my financial transactions via the manual entry system. You might say I have a much more personal acquaintance with my finances .



As to Windows or Quicken enforcing compatibility shenanigans in the future, as I mentioned in a prior post I use Quicken in my Linux machine so I expect that wont be a problem with Quicken 2010 since Linux does not force any updates that the user does not want to implement.

 

[BeanCounter62]

I started using Quicken in 1991 - 28 years ago (wow)!

I did a few upgrades, but then stayed on the 2001 version until 2016! I switched for the investment uploads.

I am really not liking the annual subscription option, yet haven't seen great reviews for other products to switch to. I use TurboTax, but never transfer from Quicken.

I'll likely attempt the manual updates for awhile before deciding on the subscription (haven't gotten my notice yet, so still happily downloading).

Open to other suggestions as well if there are reasonable alternatives to Quicken.

 

[target2019]

I closed out my 2018 expenses spreadsheets, well into 2019.. This thread shames me. There's just this one day when I know a budget number.
[emoji57]

I took a peak at Quicken products page yesterday, and see Mac/Windows versions. It's online or bust in the future, I'm afraid.

 

[camfused]

For consideration by those of you that are fed up with Quicken: https://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/money-management-template.html If you think about it, Quicken is a lot like a spreadsheet. So, you can do a lot of what Quicken does by using Excel.

Also consider:
https://www.gnucash.org/