Personal finance software for Mac?

[jon-nyc]

I've always been a DIY guy, so I have custom spreadsheets to track spending, investments, etc.

I'm considering giving a software program a go. I've heard Quicken sucks on the Mac. Any suggestions on what to use?

My primary concern is budget/expense tracking, reports on spending, etc. - I won't use it for investments (love my custom spreadsheet too much!)

 

[audreyh1]

Quicken is fine on a Mac. We've been using it since the 90s. I have all my transaction history since then still intact.

Every few years I have to reset the file containing the historical stock quotes (as it seems to have a limit), but this has little material affect in the operation of the program and I have previous year's copies archived with the older data if i really need it. You don't lose any transaction data when you do this, only older quotes from days where there were no transactions.

 

[braumeister]

I'm a Mac user and have been very happy with Moneydance, which runs on any platform (Mac, Windows, Linux).

 

[H2ODude]

I have a history of Quicken going back to mid 90's. Converted ALL home computers to Mac 6 years ago. Concluded that Q files were not convertible to Q for Mac (IIRC Q pretty much abandoned it's upgrading of Mac version, lot of dissatisfaction). Hence I continue to run Q for Windows using VM Fusion on the Mac. I tried to switch to IBank but it was too much effort to learn and set up.

Since retired and consolidated all investments into Fidelity, I don't use Q for portfolio tacking. Just use Q for daily upkeep of checking and credit card and following cash flow in retirement. Would like to avoid need for VM Fusion and Windows but I'm too lazy to move to something new.

 

[arky]

I have been using Quicken on a Mac laptop for nine years now and have been very happy with the product. I only use it for tracking income and expenses and reports of various expenses. I have been planning on upgrading to a new Mac this spring and I have read a lot of tales of woe concerning converting old Quicken data files. Did a trial download of Moneydance and it appears to be a comparable product (it read in my Quicken qif file with no problems), so if I can't convert my Quicken data file to the new Mac, I will probably switch to Moneydance.

 

[Katsmeow]

YNAB works as it uses adobe air.

 

[M Paquette]

I'm using iBank 4.

I had been using Quicken 2006 for Mac, but the various timebombed features (particularly downloading data for reconciliation) were stopping, and as of 2011 there were no viable alternatives available. (Quicken Essentials could import all the data, but couldn't track stock or fund activity to the point where I could comply with the US tax code. And at this point I had serious doubts about how long Quicken's support would last.) The final straw was when Apple dropped support for the old PPC emulator software, which meant that the 6 year old software wouldn't function on newer Macs.

I tested a bunch of alternatives, where my criteria were:
1) decent electronic 'checkbook'
2) be able to display my balance in various accounts (no, seriously. There was one piece of software that couldn't even do this.)
3) Track buy and sell prices for mutual funds and stocks, to the point where I could use the information for my US tax returns.
4) Import my existing data from Quicken directly or through an exchange format Quicken could generate.

iBank 4 won. It was able to import all my historical data exported from Quicken 2006 in QFX format, for a dozen accounts going back 18 years. Yes, I had to spend a couple of hours doing fixups afterward, mostly changing stock sales from 'Sell' to 'Sell to Close' so all my old data related to employee stock options would produce the right result. It's different from Quicken, and feels slightly less polished, but it gets the job done. Oh, and unlike Quicken it is actually supported...

 

[jon-nyc]

On the investment side, while its my intention to stick with my spreadsheet, I'm still curious about functionality.

WHat about bonds? Can it price them? If not, can you enter an arbitrary investment and put in your own prices? I have an old private equity investment, ibonds, individual issue TIPs, and private placement stock that I track along with my stocks, etfs, and mutual funds.


I'd love to hear from Quicken/iBank/MoneyDance, and YNAB users re the above... THanks!

 

[braumeister]

WHat about bonds? Can it price them? If not, can you enter an arbitrary investment and put in your own prices? I have an old private equity investment, ibonds, individual issue TIPs, and private placement stock that I track along with my stocks, etfs, and mutual funds.

I use Moneydance for my investments as well as my banking. It will download stock/fund prices from Yahoo when you launch it daily, or whenever you tell it to.

For individual bonds you own, you can just update the price as often as you like. I'm basically a buy and hold guy, so I typically update my bond prices twice a year, just for the hell of it.

It seems to do a good job of handling things like adjusted basis from reinvested dividends etc.

If you're interested, just download a trial copy and play with it.

 

[truenorth418]

Every few years I have to reset the file containing the historical stock quotes (as it seems to have a limit), ...

How do you do this? I have a Mac but I segmented the hard drive and run Windows on the smaller partition primarily because the Windows version of Quicken is supposed to be superior and better supported. However, the Quicken files grow in size pretty quickly and crowd everything else out. I think I would like to delete some of the old pricing data if it frees up space on the drive.