![]() Whereas Money and Quicken would let me be sloppier. The strict double-entry accounting paradigm has helped me clean up and make my data better. There was a bit of a learning curve at first, but now I really like it. Then I migrated all of my data (over 20 years' worth) to GnuCash. I used Quicken for several years until I got fed up with it. Then I migrated all of my data to Quicken. I used MS Money for many years until they discontinued it. I don't try to break out things too finely such as dishwashing or clothes detergent versus food, that I always buy at my grocery store.įor the past couple of years I've used it to track my expenses, income, investments, and more significant assets. I pretty much do all my grocery shopping at one store and almost always buy gas at the same gas station. I'm pretty loyal to a small set of local vendors. I use Excel pattern matching to match against the name of my grocery store, vehicle mechanic, telephone and internet bills, propane vendor, electric utility bills, trash pickup, and so forth. ![]() I attach each of these as tabs in a Google sheets document. Everything I purchased during the year will be reflected on one or the other (I do very few cash transactions any more). I have my paycheck direct deposited to it and pay my credit card bill from the bank checking account.Īt the end of the year, I export a csv of my credit card transactions (Fidelity Rewards) and my bank checking account transactions. O I have one bank checking account I use for some transactions I can't put on the one credit card (or would cost extra to do so). O I have exactly one credit card and I charge almost everything on it I'm happy to pay what amounts to one dinner per year for a quality software product that I use every week. With the subscription model, the software has become much less buggy than in the past and new features are continually added. With the automated downloads from bank accounts, credit card companies, and investment accounts, updating everything is a breeze and I can easily create reports to see my entire financial picture. I use Quicken Premier (annual subscription). I spend 30 minutes to 45 minutes in the typical week (in one setting) downloading transactions and updating a few non-downloadable items, plus reviewing the reports I’ve created.Īnother long-time Quicken user here agreeing with all of this. I prefer Quicken for the investment reporting that I need.Įmphasizing the first item, its usefulness on an ongoing basis depends to a large degree on how much time you put in on the initial customizing. Both are fine for income and expense tracking - I could work with either for that. I've helped a friend with Mint, so that is the only real comparison I can make. There is no need to manually enter recurring bills or income items. By occasionally accessing their user forum, you will quickly know whether glitches require attention or can be waited out.ĥ)Reporting is pretty decent and somewhat customizable.Ħ)Account reconciliation can be done automatically.ħ)Quicken allows for extensive automation of routine tasks. Worst case there are several things you can do, but none are time consuming. ![]() The most typical glitch arises when an account download fails. In fact, I don't view them to be significant anymore. There is a trade-off here that is worth some thought - it all depends on what your needs are.Ĥ)Glitches are not that frequent for me compared to 10 years ago. If you create minutely detailed spending categories, you will spend more time categorizing. Done properly, it can be a tremendous time saver.ģ)You can be as granular or high-level as suits your needs when tracking expenses and income. If I spent more time using Quicken than alternatives, I wouldn't use it. Quicken saves me far more time than it requires of me, but I would not be willing to use it if I had to input transactions manually. How much depends on you, type and number of accounts.Ģ)If you connect for automatic transaction download, you will drastically minimize the time required. A few comments on Quicken, from a long-time user:ġ)There will be some time commitment needed for setup and initial learning.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |