quicken vs microsoft money?

[madrone]

I searched for previous threads about this, but didn't come up with much. I'm considering switching from Quicken 04 to Money 06. I'm just looking for a simple way to track expenses and savings. What are the differences between the 06 versions of Quicken and MS Money?

 

[Cut-Throat]

I think there are similar features in each.

But, Bill Gates tried to buy Quicken a few years ago.

What does that tell you?

 

[larry]

I have used MS Money since about 1998 and just upgraded to 2006 a few months ago from MS Money 2002.

I like the portfolio adapatability but do not like the portfolio reports(just personal preference). I do not like the business invoice part. It tries to do all things (jack of all trades, master of none).

Overall, it's an ok program and it does download transactions from most of my financial providers.

I do like the capital gains estimator and lifetime planner. Like any computer program, I probably use 20% of its features to do 80% of what I need done.

It does convert quicken files.

 

[spideyrdpd]

google for a free trial of each one and see which one you like better.
I think if you go to smartmoney.com they do a review of them yearly and list there atributes.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Tried both. Neither one produced accurate enough results to make it worthwhile. Not to say that its the fault of the software, but the input. A lot of banks and brokerages either give incorrect input or the user does. Had both stuff information into tax software that produced incorrect tax returns. Nice I guess to hone in on your budget and returns if you have no idea what they are exactly.

I went the easy route. Put all my money in the same place and just use that companies web site to track my investments and spending, and pour their data into turbotax. Done!

 

[samclem]

Vanguard has announced they will soon be implementing new security procedures (there have been complaints about the weakness of their present password system, epecially from those who access their accounts from public computers). There is some concern that Quicken and/or Money might not be able to access Vangaurd account info after they do the upgrade. I don't know the details on this, but if you have accounts at Vanguard you might want to see how ths plays out before committing to Money or Quicken.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

IIRC the new security will allow you to securely upload a custom image...picture of you, your dog, whatever, and will display that picture when you log in. This is to prevent another web site from pretending to be vanguard and tricking you to give up your username and password. Presumably the fake web site would not have access to your image since only vanguards web site has it and you can recognize it.

I dont remember how they specifically planned to implement this, but I think its prompt you for username and password, then show the image associated with that account and ask you if its the correct image before proceeding.

An automated system should have no problem with this...just enter the username and password and then "yes" to whatever image is displayed.

Which I suppose means that some miscreant could redirect money/quickens login process to their fake web site, capture the username and password and show any photo, to which the software will answer 'yes'...

Which is no worse than it is now.

 

[JB]

IIRC the new security will allow you to securely upload a custom image...picture of you, your dog, whatever, and will display that picture when you log in. This is to prevent another web site from pretending to be vanguard and tricking you to give up your username and password. Presumably the fake web site would not have access to your image since only vanguards web site has it and you can recognize it.

Cool idea. But what happens when everyone starts using Master Blaster's Avatar?

I quickly grew frustrated with quicken. Everytime I'd add an account or update the software I'd have to spend hours getting the automatic download working again. For some accounts it never worked.

 

[samclem]

. . . I dont remember how they specifically planned to implement this, but I think its prompt you for username and password, then show the image associated with that account and ask you if its the correct image before proceeding.

An automated system should have no problem with this...just enter the username and password and then "yes" to whatever image is displayed.

I'm working from memory, but recall there was a discussion that Vanguard might implement a system that would foil keyloggers from stealing passwords. Apparently, this is a problem when folks use a machine that is not their own (or if their machine has been infected with malicious code). After you've typed in your user name and password, the info is kept and made available for others. The proposed fix (again, I don't know if Vangaurd is going to implement it) was to generate a keypad image on the Vangaurd web page when you log in, with the numerals is random positions. You'd use the mouse to pick your password letters/numbers. With no keyboard entries, it would be tougher for bad guys to steal the info (not impossible, I'm sure). The random positions of the numbers on the "keypad" prevents the bad guys from figuring out the password based on the position of the mouse.

If Vanguard goes this route, I'd say Money and Quicken will be out of the "autoaccess" bizz.

 

[GangnamStyle]

I have been using quicken for a little over a year now.

I used to love it until, for some reason, wifey and my various funds stopped updating correctly. Seems her fund/login/pass kept getting associated with my ID#, or vice versa. Even tried installing it on a completely virgin system, still had this issue. Gotta assume there was an update that broke it - regardless of the reason, we can only download one set of transactions now - and for that reason I am starting to hate it.

MS Money better? Who knows... I may find out soon...

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

keypad image on the Vangaurd web page when you log in, with the numerals is random positions

I've used that setup, usually they offer the keypad if you want to be 'super secure' or let you just type the password/pin into a password field. The automated login process that vanguard negotiates with the various providers would probably still work as-is.

Unless you've seen something from vanguard saying that they anticipate problems with their implementation, i'm betting they wouldnt risk hosing their customers over a security 'enhancement' that some 15 year old will work around in a day and a half.

On the other hand, my old bank piled on the worthless security "aids" until the site was no longer usable and I went elsewhere, so I wouldnt bet a lot...

 

[TromboneAl]

There is some concern that Quicken and/or Money might not be able to access Vangaurd account info after they do the upgrade. 

Although you can give Quicken your VG password info, and have it log onto Vanguard and get your data, I don't use it that way.   There is a more secure way that I'm sure will continue to work with the new system.  That is, go to the page on which your accounts are listed, and click on the Download Transactions link.  When you download all your transactions, Quicken will take care of putting things in the right place. It will also know which transactions you've already downloaded.

I hate Quicken, but it does the job.  I've heard that MS Money is just as bad.

 

[Gone4Good]

A related question:

Is it worth upgrading Microsoft Money to a newer version. I have Money 2004 Standard Edition. My main complaint is that it lacks flexibility in building meaningful reports. Is Money '06 enough of an improvement to warrant the price of the upgrade?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I've found the successive iterations of quicken to be less than evolutionary. Mostly they stop fixing bugs and adding new financial institutions to the older versions so that you have to upgrade.

I'd look at the feature sets and see if theres new reporting tools that do what you want before I'd waste my money, but then again, you're probably going to find your 2004 product will stop working properly within a year or two when one of your financial partners changes something and microsoft no longer provides updates to the 2004 version to make it work.

 

[Mwsinron]

I cant tell you if MS Money is better because I have never used Quicken. However we do like using Money. The biggest issue is to make sure you update everything which is basically user error.

 

[Elderdude]

I have been using Money since way back when. I tend to be obsessive in tracking our finances, and Money aids and abets that obsession.  Like Larry, I like the Lifetime Planner although I recently discovered a problem with that part of the software. I have the current Money 06.  The problem has to do with an erroneous assumption about Social Security for a younger spouse.  Microsoft is aware of the problem but only offered a suggestion for me to offset the bogus entry with another bogus entry.

For a more complete discription you can see the post on the Best of Boards - "Social Security Spousal Benefits."

http://early-retirement.org/forums/index.php?topic=8338.0

 

[Leonidas]

I searched for previous threads about this, but didn't come up with much. I'm considering switching from Quicken 04 to Money 06. I'm just looking for a simple way to track expenses and savings. What are the differences between the 06 versions of Quicken and MS Money?

I used Quicken since before Windows and bought just about every upgrade that came out - until last year when I switched to Money 2004 (bought it cheap at Half-Priced Books). For me to switch, willingly, to anything that Microsoft makes is like switching from Christianity to worshipping the devil. But, while I really liked Quicken's features I got tired of their games of forcing people to upgrade by dropping support and functionality on versions that were just a couple of years old. Plus, umpteen years worth of transactions were starting to trash themselves because the database file got corrupted.

I went from Quicken '04 to Money '04 and while I considered upgrading to the '06 version I have hesitated because of some negative comments from other users I have read elsewhere.

Maybe it's because I was so used to Quicken, but I found Money a little more complicated to use when it came to setting up accounts. I had to delete my first couple of attempts until I got comfortable with how to set them up the right way. But the learning curve wasn't that difficult. Quicken's planning and budgeting is simpler to use, but I think Money gives me more capabilities and options to use. I still find functions just about every time I use the program.

If you're going to use it just for tracking expenses and savings, I don't think you'll find much difference between the two once you get past the differences in how to set up the accounts. I think the real differences come when you start doing planning and forecasting.

 

[wallygator69]

Hi,

I think Al and I had a back and forth on this subject and using it with Bank of America. You can download all of the data from your BOA free to Quicken. You can do it from Quicken but I think it costs you $10.00 a month.

I was running my personal and business finances with Quicken, prinitng my own checks. I was spending about 5 hours a month total.

I spent about 5 hours learning how to use it and setting it up with automatic bill pays, Electornic Bill pays etc. I'm down to 10 Minutes once a week. Maybe 20 when I do payroll...

The check books virtually automatically reconcile.

I assume you can do it through other banks but It really is convenient..

Good Luck,

Wally

 

[TromboneAl]

Right, I used to pay $10/month for Quickenbillpay. I now use the free service that my bank provides. I handle bill payments from a web site but download bank data to Quicken. That works great.