Owing to the millions of expert readers who peruse this space I hereby offer a query: Which is better Microsoft Money or Intuit Quicken?
I'm considering an upgrade to current banking software, and my version of MS Money is so old I don't mind starting over.
I've spent the afternoon perusing the respective products on Amazon and all I can really tell is that all reviewers of Money are upset about Money just like all reviewers of Quicken are upset about Quicken. Both products appear overzealous about trying to do too many foofy things that I don't care about.
Here is what I care about:
- I want to aggregate and manage at a glance multiple accounts.
- I want to keep tabs on very small scale investment accounts.
- I want to budget and generate reports suitable for general and tax purposes.
- I want something relatively intuitive to use.
- I DO NOT want software that installs irritating tray icons that slow down my system and offers me services I cannot turn off. I'm typically looking at YOU Microsoft.
- I DO NOT want to be overanalyzed by a fancy program and told every 3 seconds a bill is due, a budget is compromised, a star is born.
- I don't want freeware, a spreadsheet, or the kind of program that I have to constantly tinker with. All the Linux types I know swear this is never an issue for anything they run, which doesn't quite explain why they keep a special computer just for their Linux stuff (usually at a wife's insistence) which never seems to be working right.
- Ideally said software would accurately predict stocks and the end times, but I'll settle for 1-7.
Both products seem to meet my desires. They both do online banking and blah blah blah. I'm slightly intimidated to unleash either beast on my computer and finances though. Surely someone out there has the answer?
2 comments:
I've been a Quicken user for several years now and am quite happy with it. I am using the Deluxe 2007 edition currently and as far as I can tell, this version meets all your requirements listed above. I use it for everything except #8, but I believe the Deluxe edition will give you what you need. When I went to Vista, I did have a little problem. I gave MS Money a try for a month just to see what it was like. I don't think it is near as intuitive as Quicken. I went ahead and downloaded the latest updates for the 2007 version and then it began to work fine with Vista. I have since taken MS Money off and now only use Quicken. I don't know if this helps or not, but I thought I would offer it up. Shoot me an email if you have any more specific questions.
Chad Nusbaum
If you trust the company, I've heard a lot of good things about Mint.com as an alternative shiny web 2.0 app to do similar things. Personally I'm hesitant to put all my financial info out there like that, but then again we don't have much privacy these days anyway.
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