Quicken Upgrade Strategy

[TromboneAl]

My Quicken 2006 is about to "expire." I could get a 2008 for about $30 or a 2009 for $65. Looking at reviews, there are no significant improvements in 2009, and a lot of bugs in that newest version (there are a lot of bugs in 2006 as well).

Also, there are rumors that 2009 will be the last Quicken version.

Thoughts?

[OAG]

MS Money is not even going to publish a 2009 version - guess that means not much changed.

I know people that are using Quicken back about 5 version that say it is fine.

[ziggy29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OAG I know people that are using Quicken back about 5 version that say it is fine.

You can do that if you don't use any of the online services in Quicken. They force obsolescence with a very consumer-unfriendly policy of intentionally breaking online services for versions more than three back.

Now I can understand desupporting old versions, but intentionally breaking them is, IMO, rather scummy.

Having said that, I suspect that at *some* point, Quicken's future is mostly going to be web-based and on an annual subscription basis. I could be wrong, but it feels like that's the way things may be headed. I'd still assume if they did this that the newest full software release prior to such a change would be supported for a full three years.

[harley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl Also, there are rumors that 2009 will be the last Quicken version.

You think they are going to stop putting out computer-based copies of the software and go only to web-based? I suspect there would be a huge number of people (myself included) who wouldn't buy into that business model, and it would cost them big-time.

I agree that breaking the online features after 3 years is a crappy thing to do. I'm thinking seriously of just going to standard spreadsheet tracking for my budget and investments. More work, but at least I wouldn't be paying someone to rip me off or data mine my information.

[ejman]

I'm still using Q 2004 which works fine as long as you manually update things. This was a good incentive for me to simplify my portfolio... And it seems the simpler I get it the better it works.

[yakers]

Quicken 2006 (Mac version) works fine for me but I do not use the electronic interface with my bank. IMHO Intuit makes the best programs but has the worst customer support I know of. Just used Turbotax and like that product but would move away from that & Quicken if there was a *good* cheap/free option like Neo Office is for a Word replacement.

[SC]

My experience is that Quicken 2008 has many more bugs than Quicken 2000, and Quicken 2000 has many more bugs than Quicken 3.0. I'd roll back except Quicken 3.0 broke at Y2K and Quicken 2000 didn't handle something I needed, possibly mutual fund share class conversions.

When I began using Quicken 2008, I came across so many bugs that I started making a list in order to report them. After a dozen serious bugs in a half hour I threw away the list because it was obvious they didn't care about the quality of their product. (Actually, I did report four of them, and their off-shore tech support suggested I manually re-enter the last ten years of transactions to see if that didn't fix the problem. Ha! The bugs were confirmed by others in the forum, but never fixed.)

The only thing keeping Intuit alive is the lack of any serious competition in the personal finance market.

My advice is to use the earliest version that meets your needs, or to avoid Intuit products altogether.

[ejman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SC The only thing keeping Intuit alive is the lack of any serious competition in the personal finance market. My advice is to use the earliest version that meets your needs, or to avoid Intuit products altogether.

Sad to have to agree after years of using Quicken but the earlier the better as long as it meets your needs (as mentioned above I stoped with the 2004 version) My brother, who has the 2008 version agrees that it's exceptionally buggy.

[Nords]

My problem is figuring out how to break up 17 years of data (over 130,000 transactions). I suppose I could export one file containing the final eight years (or whatever arbitrary date I choose) but I'm concerned about how I'd find/correct errors.

I'm hoping that 64-bit multi-core processors, gigabytes of RAM, and solid-state drives will enable the software to keep up...

[ejman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords My problem is figuring out how to break up 17 years of data (over 130,000 transactions). I suppose I could export one file containing the final eight years (or whatever arbitrary date I choose) but I'm concerned about how I'd find/correct errors. I'm hoping that 64-bit multi-core processors, gigabytes of RAM, and solid-state drives will enable the software to keep up...

That's about what I have (started using Quicken in 1992). The problem with exporting data to Excel for example is that it only has 65536 rows so if you set it up as one transaction per row... Am sure there are workarounds (or use a database program) but I think I'll just keep pluging along with my old Q 2004 version.

[OAG]

I don't see why people keep years and years of data. The same people that complain when the old folks pass on and they have to clean out all the old bills from 10, 20, 30 years ago. I know some have to keep tabs on the purchase price, dividends reinvested, for stock and/or MF but that seems to be a relatively small part of the data. Eventually the OLD computer is going to die and maybe the new one will run the OLD program (but maybe not). Alternatively, maybe it is a good idea to purchase current versions of these programs (Quicken and MS Money; although I think MS has thrown the towel in on Money and if AL is proved correct Q may end this year). Seems prudent to come up with a current way to glean the needed Stock/MF, other needed investment information into something more survivable. IMO all that old date, except as indicated, is useless and valueless - who cares what you paid for the old bedroom set?

[jimnjana]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ejman That's about what I have (started using Quicken in 1992). The problem with exporting data to Excel for example is that it only has 65536 rows so if you set it up as one transaction per row... Am sure there are workarounds (or use a database program) but I think I'll just keep pluging along with my old Q 2004 version.

you could import transactions into open or microsoft offices database vs a spreadsheet. The database limit is much larger than spreadsheet.

Jim

[ziggy29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OAG I don't see why people keep years and years of data. The same people that complain when the old folks pass on and they have to clean out all the old bills from 10, 20, 30 years ago. I know some have to keep tabs on the purchase price, dividends reinvested, for stock and/or MF but that seems to be a relatively small part of the data.

The problem is that some financial programs expect you to keep all of the history in order to maintain the right current balance -- if you wipe out five years of ancient transactions, it will change your current balance. I suppose you could get around that periodically by creating a new account every (say) three years, carry the balance forward and eventually delete the old account.

[ejman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OAG I don't see why people keep years and years of data. The same people that complain when the old folks pass on and they have to clean out all the old bills from 10, 20, 30 years ago. I know some have to keep tabs on the purchase price, dividends reinvested, for stock and/or MF but that seems to be a relatively small part of the data. Eventually the OLD computer is going to die and maybe the new one will run the OLD program (but maybe not). Alternatively, maybe it is a good idea to purchase current versions of these programs (Quicken and MS Money; although I think MS has thrown the towel in on Money and if AL is proved correct Q may end this year). Seems prudent to come up with a current way to glean the needed Stock/MF, other needed investment information into something more survivable. IMO all that old date, except as indicated, is useless and valueless - who cares what you paid for the old bedroom set?

Well, I suppose a comprehensive financial record is just as valueless as old photograps, Grandma's birth certificate from the old country, old furniture, old wife...

But then again, I'm the type who hangs on to my old LP's (and actually continue to buy them), hell I even hang on to the old wife

[OAG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ejman Well, I suppose a comprehensive financial record is just as valueless as old photograps, Grandma's birth certificate from the old country, old furniture, old wife... But then again, I'm the type who hangs on to my old LP's (and actually continue to buy them), hell I even hang on to the old wife

You have changed the subject. I fully expected that to happen however. We were talking about financial data - I think jpegs and pdf files IMHO fall into another category. Your old furniture and wife I would not touch although equating people to furniture seems kind of, as my grand kids would say, weird.

[TromboneAl]

Quote:

I don't see why people keep years and years of data.

I understand your point. Here are some not-that-compelling reasons:

1. It's nice to be able to look back, as with this net worth graph:

NetWorthGraph.jpg

Or this monthly spending graph (excluding college expenses):

Spending.jpg

2. If you stay with the same app, it doesn't cost you anything to hold on to the old data. (If I were to switch to a new app, I'd still want my data going back a few years, and that, plus setting up all the accounts, would be a big hassle.)

3. I've used very old Quicken data to answer things like "Is that vacuum cleaner still under warranty?" "When was it that we went skiing at that place?"

[Animorph]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl 3. I've used very old Quicken data to answer things like "Is that vacuum cleaner still under warranty?" "When was it that we went skiing at that place?"

I do the same thing a lot. One of my artificial "memories" I'd be lost without.

[walkinwood]

I just upgraded from 2006 to the latest 2009. I got an offer from Quicken for $20 off, so it cost me $39.99.

The migration was very smooth considering I also changed computers at the same time. I had to back up the old one, make it accessible from the new computer, and point quicken to it. The rest was done by Q.

imho, Q is worth $40 every 3 years.

[pie2008]

I only upgrade Quicken every 3 years -- am now using 2009 Premier, Release 4. It works very smoothly, the couple of glitches I had with Release 1 have been corrected. This software came with a couple of extra programs that I didn't really want, but now plan to use -- Quicken Willmaker 2009, and Quicken HomeInventory.

I have many, many accounts, and Quicken efficiently and correctly allows me to download information and keep my accounts current and accurate. As others have said, I use Quicken to access information regarding warranties. I especially love their retirement planner and tweak our information often to make sure our plan will carry us for the rest of our lives. I buy very little software, but this once-every-three-years software is definitely worth it to me.

[Gromit33]

My problem is not the cost of Quicken but the bank fees to download to Quicken. BB&T charges $6.95/month and this is more than the software costs! I tried three "free" budget programs and the bank still charges a fee. Can't see what my $84/year bank fee plus Quicken would actually get me over doing it in a spreadsheet.