I've noticed that I should be doing a little bit better budgeting our money. Although, we are pretty good saving money, I know that some our expenses can be curbed and used to maximize our savings and/or contributed to Roth IRA. I'd been thinking of buying Quicken to keep track of the money, but I get conflicting opinions about the software. Anyone using Quicken? How much should I pay for the software? Your input is greatly appreciated.
NEED ADVICE ON QUICKEN
May 16th, 2008 at 08:05 pm
May 16th, 2008 at 08:56 pm
I have Quicken 2008 personal plus, but so far haven't had the time to enter all my expenses each day (there's a pile of store receipts next to my chair as it type). I also need to get the past seven years of stock transactions up to date before I can use if for my tax returns.
I tend not to use the automatic update features (eg. bank transactions via internet) as my credit union isn't one of the supported institutions. In fact the internet connectivity has been more of a hindrance than a help - these days you have to register Quicken online to get started, which makes it a pain if your PC dies and you want to reinstall Quicken on a new PC.
If you buy it, don't get the subscription version (unless you really want to update the valuation of your stock portfolio automatically. I don't use this feature as my stock holding values are available online from my brokers.) As to price, I've paid as little as $10 for a special offer on a subscription version from a magazine (but didn't renew it after the one year expired), but recently paid full price (minus a $20 cash back rebate) for the 2008 version. You can probably buy a used copy from eBay very cheap, but I don't know how that would work out with installation and registration if someone else had previously installed it. You might get lucky and pick one up that was an unwanted gift and never used.
Anyhow, I'd better stop reading blogs and start typing some of those receipts into Quicken...
ps. If you do get your spending and income details up to date in Quicken it's really good for doing budgets, reviewing expenses, and helping you fill in your tax returns.
May 17th, 2008 at 04:12 am
May 17th, 2008 at 05:09 am
I managed to find Quicken Deluxe 2002 for sale online, still sealed in its original box, for less than $20 including shipping. I'm very happy with the older version. The only problem I had was it kept trying to register itself online although the registration link for the 2002 version doesn't work anymore. There is a fix right on the Intuit website that tells you how to get rid of the registration message on the older versions.
Also, with an older version you might have trouble downloading info automatically from your banks. Something about file formats. I don't use that feature anyway, so it doesn't bother me.
Regardless of what year's version you get, I'd try to get the Deluxe rather than Basic or New User version. It has some nice features like Savings Goals that you might really like.