Should I be using Quicken?

[pb4uski]

So OP, how are your leaning?

 

[RunningBum]

I'm leaning toward keeping my current system or maybe going back to the more detailed budget spreadsheet I was using a few years ago if I really want to track categories. I feel like it'd be more work for me to adapt to Quicken without a lot of gain.

I decided to try Mint with a couple of accounts, and so far I'm not too thrilled with the interface nor having to go in and classify a lot of things. It seems to be more that I have to find things rather than have it tell me what I have to do. But if it went the other way I'd probably not like it wanting me to do things I'm not going to use it for. Not sure how much Mint is like Quicken, but I'm guessing the basics aren't too different. Maybe I'll get more comfortable with using it and it'll get better.

As far as my investments go, I like my current spreadsheet and going through Quicken just to have a different way to feed my spreadsheet doesn't seem worthwhile, especially since it seems like I can't do analysis on the after tax numbers like I want to. Vanguard already has tools for total return and asset allocation for what I can't do myself.

Again, I really appreciate all of the input and feedback, and responses to my questions. Hopefully others considering Quicken will find it useful and people should feel free to use this thread to ask their own questions, if they want to.

 

[Ronnieboy]

I just bought Quicken at Costco for $20 off when I was picking up my copy of TT. I am not so hot with using excel and didn't really like Mint, so I was hoping that by getting quicken I could actually get a budget going and feel better in control of our money. Now I just need to get it loaded and do whatever I need to do.


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[Texas Proud]

Yea, I downloaded Mint and also thought that it was not 'easy' right out of the box....


I just do not care to track that much.... it will not change DWs spending habits and that is where I need the most help... so I only keep the main categories that she does not spend (even if the costs are hers) such as house, car/boat, insurance, taxes, vacation and a couple of others... the rest is in 'all other'....

OHHH, I do not keep track of my 'income' except for balancing the checkbook....

 

[RunningBum]

Dumped Mint already. I added my VG account. It needed an authentication code, which they texted to me. I like that for security. Logged back in again and they sent another auth code to update the info. OK, that's fine too, not sure I really want to deal with that every time I login to do something on Mint, but I can ignore it if I don't care to update the info for that session.

Periodically over the next couple days I gets texts with a new code, even though I'm not logged into Mint. Apparently it tried to keep the info current in the background. I really don't want to be bugged by texts at random times during the day. I deleted the VG info from my Mint account. Thought about it for a minute, realized I wasn't going to use Mint, so I pulled the rest of my accounts too. Didn't immediately see a way to delete my Mint account completely, but if I get nagged again somehow I'll figure it out.

 

[Turn_the_Page]

I used Quicken for years, until I got a free version of Microsoft Money. I continue to use MM, although it's now a 'dead' 'product. It'll do most anything Quicken will do.

Download here. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20738

I don't know if the download/install will work if you don't have an old copy of MM (either on the PC or on a CD).

The link says online access doesn't work, but I routinely do portfolio updates using it and the stock/fund prices update.

Anyway, if you're interested, it might be an option.

I keep the checking, savings, asset accounts (vehicles, home), home loan in MM. Also investment accounts, but this is just one line for each holding. So I can run budgeting reports, net worth, tax reports etc.

I use Google Sheets instead of Excel, as it allows me to check these at work also. Here the most important is a spreadsheet for all the investment accounts for annual return, ER, etc. It also does AA calcs across all the accounts.

 

[zinger1457]

It was time to update my 2013 Quicken before it expires in April. Amazon has the Quicken 2016 Deluxe on sale for $30 so went for it. Well worth the $10/year cost IMO. The upgrade went smooth and fast, the interface looks very similar to 2013 but haven't dug very deep into it yet.

 

[Done]

@Turn_the_Page Interesting, I loved Microsoft Money and only moved to Quicken when Money died. Does this sunset edition also import your banking transactions, or how do you keep that updated? Are you manually entering data (ugh) or downloading a transaction file for each account?


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