I'm done with Quicken! - What else?

I used Quicken for almost 20 years, I always purchased a few year old version on Ebay. I recently migrated to a Mac and looked at Quicken for Mac and really couldn't justify the cost so A-shoppng we will go. I found CheckBook. It may be just what you want if your a Mac user. Simple check register like set up. It has some Q type options but I have never looked into them.
Good Luck
 
Bflotomny said:
I used Quicken for almost 20 years, I always purchased a few year old version on Ebay. I recently migrated to a Mac and looked at Quicken for Mac and really couldn't justify the cost so A-shoppng we will go. I found CheckBook. It may be just what you want if your a Mac user. Simple check register like set up. It has some Q type options but I have never looked into them.
Good Luck
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The main thing I would want is to keep my history. I don't know how much it's worth, but from time to time, DW and I will go back and look for the price of what we bought or who we bought it from. Other than that, I just use it as a check register (all manual entry) and a way to summarize my finances. Simple and since we have a pretty uncomplicated life, not too difficult to handle manually (hour a week?).
 
I used MSMoney for years but when it was no longer available I just used my USAA account. I enter future transactions as a manual entry and back that out when the scheduled one shows up. The only problem is you can only enter transactions that will happen in the next 12 months. I can review my goals, budget, and planner in the app. It also auto updates my investment accounts on a daily basis. That's close enough for me
 
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I would probably stick with Quicken even if they go to an annual subscription model -- assuming of course they don't jack up the effective long-term price too much. However, if they also go full cloud and expect all my detailed data including transactions to go into their cloud, I will probably bow out.
 
I used to use Quicken religiously many years ago. But saw the light, and trying to have an all in one program for all my finances wasn't the way to go, at least for me.

Instead I use several different things to provide the info what Quicken did.

checkbook - old fashioned paper register that comes with checkbook.
checkbook balancing - spreadsheet for balancing against monthly statement and register
budget - program that only does budgeting. No checkbook, no subscription.
investment summaries - most of investments are in Vanguard, so use their summary.
 
There was only one short mention of AceMoney above, and I’d like to hear more feedback from someone who migrated from Quicken. I’ve been a Quicken user since it ran on MS-DOS but I’m feeling the pain of upgrades etc., like many others.
 
A lot of us do not use a canned program like Quicken, but instead just use Excel or one of the Excel-like freebies, such as Open Office (which I use), or Libre office. We did a poll on that once, and IIRC spreadsheets were a popular option.

I actually bought Quicken back in 2010 because so many forum members that I respect use it. I tried and tried to like it, and absolutely HATED it. So I uninstalled it, threw the disk in a drawer, and went back to Open Office.

Personally I much prefer being able to do what I want to do, in the way I want to do it, and if you are like that then you might love a spreadsheet approach. :)
 
bUU said:
I haven't found anything that delivers all the features of quicken that i rely on.
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Agree with that. I've looked and nothing comes close to offering the features and functions that I want and use in Quicken. And I've looked at all the options currently available including Money Dance, Personal Capital, etc.
 
Just remember the old sayings "out of the pan and into the fire" and "I'd rather deal with the devil I know than the one I don't". Look around and you'll find people encountering issues with alternative programs. Quicken has very large user base so much more visible.
 
One of the most valuable features of Quicken to me are the Retirement Planner to see if I am staying on track and the projected cash balances that I use for cash management and I don't think AceMoney of some of the others mentioned other than MS Money provide that functionality.

I'll probably stay with Quicken even if they go subscription as long as they don't overprice it or require that I keep my data in their cloud.
 
I also have a love-hate relationship with Quicken and wish there was something "better" out there.

Have looked at MoneyDance a couple of times but have never had the time to fully evaluate it. Looks OK so that might be one of the better options for monthly income/expense management, which is my main need.

For investments, I found an absolutely awesome program called FundManager (https://www.fundmanagersoftware.com). Everything about it works the way you'd expect, and so far it's been nothing but flawless. Blows Quicken out of the water when it comes to managing your investments. I can do things with FM that I never in my wildest dreams thought I could do with Quicken, like get ACCURATE period-to-date (monthly, yearly, custom, etc) return data, lots of charts, graphs, asset allocation reports and more. It reminds me how we "used" to develop software (I'm an old IT guy) - fast, accurate, elegant, not "bloatware". Can't say enough good about it..
 
Jerry1 said:
Been using Quicken for a really long time. Looks like at least since 1994. What frustrates me about it is the need to be connected to the internet for it to work. I figured out a way around that and will never upgrade again.
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What version of Quicken or features are you using that requires it to be connected to the Internet to work? My experience is that once it's installed and registered I can use Quicken (make manual entries, etc.) without an Internet connection.
 
I got into the password dance with quicken a few days ago. Unfortunately my quicken H&B 2016 seemed to think it should still connect to intuit - so it kept taking me to that site. I finally manually logged onto quicken.com (no intuit in the url - so *not* quicken.intuit.com). Selected investment portfolio in the drop down - created a new password... and voila - I'm able to one step update again in quicken.

It was painful, frustrating, and I was pretty ready to get rid of quicken. Unfortunately, I have so many things in quicken (20 years of transaction history, my QLP budgeting, etc) that I'm reluctant to switch. The 20 years of history has been useful to pull up records as needed on old home repair projects, figuring out how old an appliance is when deciding repair vs replace, etc...

I really hope the subscription model does not come to pass. I was told last year that it was coming, like it or not... and the annual subscription is going to be similar to the old purchase price (which lasted for a few years.) That's a big price bump over time. I avoid subscription software whenever possible just out of principle.
 
rodi said:
I avoid subscription software whenever possible just out of principle.
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+1000

For photo and image manipulation, I still use the 1997 version of Paint Shop Pro. That is what I use to make my many avatars, for example, and to fiddle with other images that I use here.

In those days, when you bought software, you owned it. So, I actually own the copy that I bought back in 1997 or maybe 1996, whenever it was brand new and the latest and greatest. IIRC it cost me around $30-$35 or so, so I have got my money's worth out of it over the past 20 years. I really like it and as you might imagine, I am quite accustomed to it by now.

I would be very happy to pay good money for a non-subscription upgrade, but it doesn't exist and I'm not paying for a subscription. Besides, what I have is good enough for what I do.
 
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ERD50 said:
Heck, I just use the back of an old envelope. I don't write enough checks to bother with the check register.

On the back of an envelope, I have a round # current balance, add in the routine monthly, automated deposit from my brokerage account, subtract mortgage and HI payments.

When Credit Cards are settled, I enter those amounts, plus any actual checks of significant amount (rare), or other transfers. A few entries every month is all I need to know I've got sufficient balance in the checking account. Not even worth a spreadsheet.

-ERD50
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What is a check?

Haven't seen one in years...
 
IIRC Quicken was spun off (sold) by Intuit. So the new owners need to bump revenue to pay for the purchase. Which is why the subscription model.

Intuit is moving the Quickbooks to a subscription model too (my suspicion). Lots of folks having trouble on the newest QB release. Auto upgrade to password protection and such. Which is going to suck since our business has used QB for over 25 years
 
I'd love to get off Quicken - but it seems all the other products require your financial institutions to support Direct Connect or you have to do the downloads yourself. Most of my credit cards and banks don't. With Quicken, they all get downloaded via Express Web Connect. Not sure I want to go back to having to import all the transactions myself.

Anyone else running into this issue? If so - what did you do? Stick with Quicken? Do the downloads yourself? Something else?
 
W2R said:
Personally I much prefer being able to do what I want to do, in the way I want to do it, and if you are like that then you might love a spreadsheet approach. :)
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+1

I use Google Sheets.
 
zinger1457 said:
What version of Quicken or features are you using that requires it to be connected to the Internet to work? My experience is that once it's installed and registered I can use Quicken (make manual entries, etc.) without an Internet connection.
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2016 R 12

I forget what it was doing and how I worked around it, but when I first installed it, I couldn't access my file unless I logged into Quicken. Now it works like I want and you are correct that I can work with it without a connection (tested it with internet unplugged). It may have been as simple as an original (default) setting, but at the time it was very frustrating.

Now I'm in leave it alone mode and I will not upgrade again.
 
KM said:
I'd love to get off Quicken - but it seems all the other products require your financial institutions to support Direct Connect or you have to do the downloads yourself. Most of my credit cards and banks don't. With Quicken, they all get downloaded via Express Web Connect. Not sure I want to go back to having to import all the transactions myself.

Anyone else running into this issue? If so - what did you do? Stick with Quicken? Do the downloads yourself? Something else?
Click to expand...

I use YNAB. I know you can do a direct download where you don't have to do it yourself. But, I don't know the ins and outs because I do it myself. This is painless mostly because the vast majority of our spending is on American Express. For everywhere else, I just enter the transactions as I spend the money. I then go online and just check. So, I will go to my bank and see if what I have entered agrees with what the bank has. If it doesn't then I add in what the bank has that I don't have (if it is correct, of course).

This takes next to no time because I don't have a lot of bank transactions. If I did have a lot I could just click to download.

With Amex I click to download myself. I just drag the downloaded file to YNAB and it is imported. I just prefer to do it this way to keep control of downloads with me. Again, none of this takes much time at all.
 
I did try Ace Money a few years ago. It seemed to have trouble with getting all the old Quicken transactions imported, particularly transfers were double counted. Seemed it would take a lot of accounting to clean it up. Not something I wanted to do though I am.an accountant.

It was a bit clunky but not as ambitious as Quicken. Ultimately I went back to Quicken. I do not like it, but I have 24 years of data there. I do not use it to track investments. Just expenses.

I have a lot of credit card activity so I need to be able to download. Otherwise I would stop updating quicken and go rural.

Back in the day, I used Moneycoints from Parsons Technology. That was good simple clear and I think MSMoney bought it and killed it.
 
KM said:
I'd love to get off Quicken - but it seems all the other products require your financial institutions to support Direct Connect or you have to do the downloads yourself. Most of my credit cards and banks don't. With Quicken, they all get downloaded via Express Web Connect. Not sure I want to go back to having to import all the transactions myself.

Anyone else running into this issue? If so - what did you do? Stick with Quicken? Do the downloads yourself? Something else?
Click to expand...

I prefer to import and do most transactions that way. The reason- I don't like entering my password via Quicken.

Holdouts - American Express and Fidelity. I really wish Fidelity would support something other than direct connect.
 
My Quicken (2015) magically decided to start working again!?!? Based on the suggestions I have now tried Countabout and MoneyDance. Both programs, after connecting to my bank and loading Quicken backups had much different and wrong current balances. The errors were several 1k$ in both so I thought it'd be obvious, nevertheless I searched both looking for error sources but couldn't find it.

I guess I'll continue slogging along with Quicken. At least until it breaks again!
 
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