Additionally, I use the one-step-update to download all my transactions accross bank, credit, and brokerage which really saves time. If you’re like me and travel for business it’s really nice to be able to code a CC transaction as “reimburseable” when you fill out expense reports.

You’re right however in that most of Quicken is too complicated and bloated.

I have to say that I am intrigued by YouNeedABudget (www.youneedabudget.com) since it’s set up to allow a person to live off of the previous month’s finances (Rule #1), however, until the program incorporates account tracking and the ability to reconcile, I probably won’t be using it until then. However, for those who feel they just need a simple budget then that is a good program.

The other one tracks debts each month(balance, total charges including interest, and payment for each) and savings balances (including retirement acct.). Easy-peasy.

I may be missing out on some features, but my finances are pretty stable and in good order so it’s not really a problem.

One benefit to using Money for me is after you have used it a while, you can get a history of your spending. When my wife and I started a budget, it was easy for me to know how much I should budget each month for gasoline with just a click or two in Money. It was much harder for her since she had to look through her checkbook (and archived checkbook registers) to try to guess how much she spends on gas, especially difficult since her checkbook doesn’t support categories and sub-categories. I will say that for budgeting we don’t use Money since she still doesn’t use Money, and we had to come up with something very customized, so we use OpenOffice Calc for the budget.

In any case, you should use what you will use, because it doesn’t help to have powerful software if you find it too difficult to use.

MS Money does allow you to set up spending areas you want to watch closely. I do this with my groceries and dining out. Therefore, I am able to see what I budgeted for those categories and how much I have left as soon as opening up MS Money. Also on the front page you can show your budget and see what categories are out of budget at first glance.

Also, their customer service was miserable. Their software had an error in it that could have caused me to bounce a check but it took them weeks to admit that and fit it plus they insisted on charging me $2 a minute every time I called for support. No thanks!

I’d much rather rely on a spreadsheet that contains what I need and nothing more. At least I know that one works.

Just depends on how you see things, for me a software like Quicken is so much better then spreadsheets and such.

1) Stock values – At the top of one worksheet, I list all the stocks and mutual funds I have and how many shares I have. Any time I feel like it, I can input the prices for that day and see my new total.

At the bottom of the worksheet, I keep a history of all the stock prices for the days I’ve checked. I set up the bottom row to do the math from the figures at the top of the page, and I can insert a row above it and just type in the date and all the numbers I see.

Then I have a chart showing this history.

2. Stock trading – I keep track of when I buy and sell stock, how much I traded, and what the prices were. This comes in handy when I’m ready to sell some but not all of a stock–I can try to sell in the same quantities I bought, which makes taxes much easier.

3. Savings – I have a thing sort of like a cash flow page that shows, on the top, where my money is and, at the bottom, what it’s for. I have one column for the current day, and at the beginning of each month, I insert another column and record the numbers for that month. I add notes on where the money went like if I paid my six-month car insurance bill that month. This sheet helps me simulate the envelope savings system–each line in the what-it’s-for section (saving for next car, current car expenses, etc.) is like an envelope showing me what’s left. The difference is that sometimes some of the numbers go negative for a little while if things don’t go according to plan.

This way I don’t have to have a separate savings account or whatever for each line item in the budget. I keep track of it here instead of by account.

4. Net worth – This page has all my assets on it. I don’t have any debts except for my mortgage, so I just subtract that amount from the value of my house and enter the difference as the value of my asset. Again, I add a new column each month so I can track change, and I have a chart.

5. Future net worth – I have a page where I record my net worth each year and calculate long-term estimates, because I’m a geek like that.

6. Early retirement progress – I have a whole page just for retirement savings because that is my next big goal. And I have a chart that compares my spending to a percentage of my investments so I can watch the two lines approach each other (very slowly), in Your Money or Your Life style. In addition to actual spending, I plot a running average of my spending, for a smoother, easier to compare line.

7. Retirement – I have separate sheets for social security, my pension plan, and my IRA to keep track of things.

8. Diversification – I separate my assets into various sectors and keep track of my goals for each sector and my current standing. I also have a pie chart here.

9. Borrowing – I keep track of things I have lent to people. I tend to forget that otherwise, whereas I don’t forget about things I am borrowing from people, so I don’t write that down.

10. Flexible spending – I keep track of my flexible spending plan at work so I know how much I’ve spent compared to what is available.

11. Bonds – I keep track of savings bond values each month.

**

I have it so that whenever I look up or calculate the current value of something, I only enter it in one place and all the other places update automatically.

Each year, I copy the document to a new one and delete all but six months of the history (except on pages where I’m keeping annual histories) and re-organize it so it doesn’t get unwieldy (spring cleaning, if you will). I keep the old ones in case I want to refer back to them.

I’m old fashioned: I don’t do banking online, so I just need a system for keeping the books. I’ve always had a second-hand Mac with whatever version of Quicken came with it. I started with Quicken in 1995. The next computer, 1998, had a version that wasn’t Y2K-friendly, so in 2000 we added the newest version. We got a PC in 2004 with a version of Quicken that was, as Trent so aptly put it, a sledgehammer for my peanut-sized financial system. I was disgusted, so we kept the Mac going. Unfortunately it died a few months later. In 2005 my daughter gave me her old Apple, which dated to 2001, and I’ve been using Quicken on that machine ever since.

Now that I’ve read “Getting Things Done” and “Your Money or Your Life,” I’ve totally revamped my Quicken categories. I have wondered if there’s a different program that would suit me better in my new state of enlightenment. :D I look forward to checking out all the great suggestions posted above.

“I am using the program rather than letting it use me.”

QFT.

So I developed a response to this which works for me. I make it work as my electronic file cabinet. I store my records there and when I need info I access it using my own plan of operation.

And finally, I rarely upgrade. Every four or five years, sometimes six, I buy one, but for the most part I ignore the constant sales pitches and upgrades because I am using the program rather than letting it use me.

I like the Quickbook idea. I have never used it, but I know a lot of companies use it or packages based off of it. If you are in accounting or thinking about going into accounting using and really learning quickbooks would be a nice skill to put on a resume.