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01-03-2008, 04:32 PM
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#1
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Lake Livingston, Tx
Posts: 4,204
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Money or Quicken
I have been using Money for about a year but it popped up and said I had to buy a copy as the copy that came with this computer would no longer download from my banks.
Money works, but I thought about giving Quicken a try. Anyone have experience with either or both?
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01-03-2008, 04:38 PM
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#2
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 10,252
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I used Quicken for years and years, then when a new computer came with MSMoney, I used that for years and years. Last year I help my mom with her investments and used her Quicken. Based on those experiences, I prefer MSMoney. I had been using 2002 MSMoney, but downloaded the free trial of the latest version last summer. I liked it well enough to buy it.
You can also download a free trial of Quicken to try it out yourself as well.
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01-03-2008, 05:14 PM
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#3
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 582
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I tried Quicken for a few months and really wanted it to work, but I absolutely hated it. Probably because our finances aren't that complicated and I have my paper-and-pencil system just the way I want it. I couldn't get Quicken to work the way I wanted and found the whole experience extremely frustrating. After three months of trying to like it, I gave up.
It does have a money-back guarantee, though, so no harm in trying.
__________________
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01-03-2008, 05:49 PM
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#4
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Losing my whump
Posts: 22,708
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Quicken will do the same thing to you eventually. Both introduce enough planned obsolescence to require an upgrade on a regular basis.
__________________
Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. Just another form of "buy low, sell high" for those who have trouble with things. This rule is not universal. Do not buy a 1973 Pinto because everyone else is afraid of it.
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01-03-2008, 06:45 PM
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#5
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: North-Central Illinois
Posts: 3,228
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WM
I tried Quicken for a few months and really wanted it to work, but I absolutely hated it. Probably because our finances aren't that complicated and I have my paper-and-pencil system just the way I want it. I couldn't get Quicken to work the way I wanted and found the whole experience extremely frustrating. After three months of trying to like it, I gave up.
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Same here.....I tried Quicken, as well as Money. I didn't really care for either....probably because I didn't want to waste invest my time to thoroughly learn either. I've used a 'paper & pencil' system for years, and am quite happy with it. Also, like WM, my finances aren't all that complicated. I have considered trying one of them again, but I probably won't....again!
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01-03-2008, 06:48 PM
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#6
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 481
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We must have bought our computers at the same time, as I just went through the same thing. I bought the new version of Money.
I have used Quicken in the past. Didn't really prefer one over the other - just felt it would be easier to stick with Money.
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01-03-2008, 06:54 PM
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#7
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 11,327
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I never could keep up with Quicken to the degree required to keep acurate track of individual transactions. I ended up periodically updating my holdings and used Quicken's auto update feature to keep track of market changes. Based on a recent thread here I dumped all our holdings into an Open Office spreadsheet and a Google spreadsheet and use the auto update feature from Yahoo and Google (respectively) to keep them updated with current market data. It is easier than Quicken and gives me a better presentation. I use the total return YTD feature multiplied by the funds' weights in the total portfolio to keep track of return. It may not be the holy grail of internal ROI but it is good enough for me.
__________________
Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre -- Albert Camus
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01-03-2008, 06:59 PM
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#8
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: North-Central Illinois
Posts: 3,228
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Quote:
Originally Posted by donheff
Based on a recent thread here I dumped all our holdings into an Open Office spreadsheet and a Google spreadsheet and use the auto update feature from Yahoo and Google (respectively) to keep them updated with current market data. It is easier than Quicken and gives me a better presentation.
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Heck, I might consider trading in my 'paper & pencil' system for that! Sounds easy enough.
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01-03-2008, 07:01 PM
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#9
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Rio Grande Valley
Posts: 38,139
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Gosh, I don't know how I could have survived without Quicken! I have used it since 1994.
I don't have any trouble "keeping up" as almost all the data entry is downloaded and automatically categorized. And daily quotes import shows you instant net worth. It's super easy to generate reports, monitor budgets, etc.
Of course, there is a bunch of initial set up todo to customize it to your needs before it runs in this glorious automated state. But that was so long ago for us, and we have been reaping the benefits for many, many years.
Never tried Money.
Audrey
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01-03-2008, 07:05 PM
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#10
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 4,764
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We use Quicken. It works. However Im not totally sold on how good it is. I would like to try Money someday and compare.
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01-03-2008, 07:11 PM
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#11
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 1,396
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Neither. I use Excel.
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01-03-2008, 07:25 PM
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#12
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Oahu
Posts: 26,860
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rustic23
Money works, but I thought about giving Quicken a try. Anyone have experience with either or both?
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Of all the financial discussion boards I visit, this question probably pops up even more frequently than active vs managed or indexed vs slice & dice.
We became Quicken hostages back in the early 1990s when Money was a distant joke of a competitor.
Quicken will treat you no better than Money and will use the same tactics to an even more exquisite degree of frustration. It's such a personal experience that it's worth trying both before you give up and build your own spreadsheet decide.
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01-03-2008, 11:49 PM
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#13
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Los Angeles area
Posts: 1,708
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After a very light dose of Money and Quicken, I settled on Excel spreadsheets many years ago.
Much more flexible, no upgrade demands, etc.
__________________
learn, work, save, invest, fire
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01-04-2008, 01:24 AM
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#14
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Florida
Posts: 854
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I use Excel as well. Easy to adapt to quirks in my thinking and categorizing.
__________________
I would not have anyone adopt my mode of living...but I would have each one be very careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his father's or his mother's or his neighbor's instead. Thoreau, Walden
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01-04-2008, 04:17 AM
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#15
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Central, Ohio, USA
Posts: 2,635
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Been using Money since the first Public Beta - it was provided free from Microsoft at the time. Since then I have updated each year and now on version 16. Works fine however, I also use Excel to track lots of CD's and post the total balances in Money.
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Vietnam Veteran, CW4 USA, Retired 1979
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01-04-2008, 09:19 AM
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#16
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 47,500
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I have tried both Money and Quicken several times but never got anywhere with them because they seem so rigid to me.
Like several others here, I use Excel. Excel may require more effort to input values, but it is worth it to me to gain more flexibility. I can do anything I need to do in Excel.
__________________
Already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lost in its unshored, harbourless immensities. - - H. Melville, 1851.
Happily retired since 2009, at age 61. Best years of my life by far!
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01-04-2008, 09:28 AM
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#17
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,483
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I got Quicken 2007, and it worked for about 6 months, then I got all sorts of errors. After spending an inordinate amount of time with technical support, the error still exists, and no patch appears to fix it.
I'm trying Money for 2008. If that doesn't work, I might do Excel. To me, Excel is cumbersome.........
__________________
Consult with your own advisor or representative. My thoughts should not be construed as investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results (love that one).......:)
This Thread is USELESS without pics.........:)
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01-04-2008, 09:49 AM
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#18
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Losing my whump
Posts: 22,708
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Both products were essentially useless to me. My bank (DCU) chose to not offer a direct quicken download, so I had to download files and then import them, which was a pain in the butt. Ameritrade did offer a direct download but marked any distributions from mutual funds that werent reinvested as zero dollar transactions. After bringing that to their attention a dozen times over 2 years, and whining about it to the SEC and the IRS, they wrote me a nice letter saying that they dont anywhere claim that their electronic downloads are accurate, and that I should consult the paper documents they distribute instead.
I had to redo a years taxes once I found out a few months later that my nifty ameritrade -> quicken -> turbotax setup wasnt accounting for all of the fund dividends.
That was enough for me. Now I put everything at vanguard (except for some cd's and a visa card at penfed) and let them feed it to the online version of turbotax after careful review...
__________________
Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. Just another form of "buy low, sell high" for those who have trouble with things. This rule is not universal. Do not buy a 1973 Pinto because everyone else is afraid of it.
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01-04-2008, 10:29 AM
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#19
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,228
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I used quicken religiously up until the year 2000 when a Y2K bug in their Mac version of the software prevented me from uploading most of my old quicken data. I decided that rather than having spotty data I would just give up.
I'm reading this thread and considering going back to one of these programs because I finally have realized that getting everything categorized accurately is not important... if automated categorization and download can get me 90% of the way with no effort, that sounds good to me. But this time I think it would have to be a web-based program... I want a mashup of my existing data at my financial institutions... I don't want to be responsibible for maintaining a shadow copy of that data as Quicken and Money require.
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01-04-2008, 10:30 AM
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#20
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Los Angeles area
Posts: 329
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Neither, I use GnuCash: Free Accounting Software | GnuCash
I use it just for budgeting and tracking expenses. For investments I have a separate spreadsheet.
However, it's not the most smooth, bug-free experience.
I'm willing to put up with occasional crashes and charts that aren't as professional-looking as money/quicken. On the plus side, it's free and does the job well enough for me, plus it runs on Linux which is my preferred platform. (haven't tried the Windows or Mac versions.)
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