Is anyone here using a software for personal finance?

[question everything]

I have been using Quicken (for the Mac) for ages. When I started using it, in 1992, I marveled that it was as if someone got into my head and designed exactly what I wanted. It was really intuitive. I kept upgrading and moved from a print manual to an online one which was still fine. I could still search what I wanted and read the concise demonstrations.

But now I had to upgrade to 2018 and it is terrible. Two major examples: no memorizing functions for the quickfill list. Like paying for my water bill, where all the fields are there, except the amount and, of course, the date (and check number as needed). It remembers everything, including the $18 that we paid for two hamburgers and fries at Five Guys.

On the register, it has only one field and everything automatically is posted with the minus sign, meaning an expense. Yesterday I wanted to enter the Social Security deposit and had to manually delete the minus sign.

Their help functions is useless, when one wants to search for a term. They sent me to YouTube and the "introductions" is 10 min long and I stopped after two.

So I went in search of alternatives.

Quicken Alternatives – Is There Anything Better?

https://investorjunkie.com/34932/quicken-alternatives/

Also

8 Best Quicken Alternatives: Options When You’re Tired of Sync and Support Issues

https://wallethacks.com/best-quicken-alternatives/

They both recommend Personal Capital, and YNAB - You need a budget

Seems that the first concentrates on investment, while the second on budget and... I use both. So am not sure.

Seems that the first is free, so I may give it a try.

Will appreciate any comments.

[pangaia]

1. I used QuickBooks for many years for home and my business.

When I retired I got Quicken. IT SUCKS !!!! Designed by some fucking moron living in his mother's basement.

I think it is the same guy who designed G-Mail. And maybe even the windshield washer in my new Honda HRV !!

[enough]

2. I second this. I still keep an ancient eMac around just so I can continue

to use the OLD Quicken for home and small business use. The current Quicken is a totally different animal and, as you say, it sucks.

Would love to get some suggestions.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

3. I use the spreadsheet program in LibreOffice.

Which means that I made up my own 1) budget spreadsheet which I update whenever me or my wife spends money (except cash), 2) net worth spreadsheet which includes all bank and mutual fun accounts and which I manually update on a quarterly basis, 3) tax spreadsheet where I track all the tax withholding I do and all of the dividends and capital gains I take in order to make sure I'm withholding enough - again manually updated quarterly, or whenever I realize a capital gain (which isn't often).

Because these are all custom spreadsheets, I can't just export the data to tax forms or other forms, but I prefer to do it manually. Of course, my taxes are as simple as they get and I do them myself (with another spreadsheet that i create every year). If I had someone else doing my taxes, I would probably have to standardize on some financial software product.

[question everything]

4. Thank you. Yes, I, too, keep several spreadsheet.

One is called PIncome tax - was 2017 and now 2018. Has all the info that i feed TurboTax. Before we retired, I had there the income and the deductions for tax and for 401K and for medical insurance.

And have another one which lists the investments - check weekly.

And then there is a budget which is really my projected expenses for the month.

Then there is another one for drugs and medical expenses which, starting this year will not need.

I suppose I can keep separate sheets for the different accounts - credit cards - adding expenses, subtracting payments.

Like you, I do not export any info from financial information.

I may give it a try. Won't take much to expand what I already have.


I may give it a try.

[lastlib]

5. Have never found one that does everything I want to do, so....

I've pretty much built my own in Excel and Access. Quirky, clunky, time-consuming, but does exactly what I want.

[silverweb]

6. I'm looking for a replacement, too.

When I loaded the Quicken 2015 installation disk in my new computer, it put me through all kinds of ID verification, then wouldn't let me sign in. I had already transferred the data files and deleted the program from the old computer. After failing installation on the new computer, I tried to reinstall it back on the old one, but it wouldn't let me log in there, either. My data files are now inaccessible unless I can convert or export them to another program.

After all this happened, I learned about Quicken's new subscription requirement to make their programs usable, and it seems to be retroactive to prior editions. That's an absolute no-go for me.

None of the programs in the article you reference, which is the same one I was using as a guide, allow importation and conversion of Quicken data files. I will not link to banks or anyone else. I will not use their "cloud" to store my data.

All I want is a stand-alone program similar to Quicken for tracking income and expenses. I want to use it off-line, without any requirement for data links or a paid subscription. Why is this so freaking hard anymore?

[question everything]

7. This is really bad. You may need to contact Quicken help to at least access the data

When I purchased the 2017 at the beginning of the year, the person who was very helpful told me "not to worry" about subscription. Yet, some weeks later, when I looked at the confirmation email, it did say subscription.

At some point I am going to send a letter, registered, to the president of Quicken notifying him that I will not subscribe. Will alert my credit card issuer, will close the account if I will have to.

I followed the advice, above, and kept all the old files on an old laptop and, yes, I do update it, essentially entering data twice.

Hope you can get help.

[silverweb]

8. Thanks.

I'm writing to Quicken, too, and telling them that I'll never ever use their products again.

In the meantime, I did find a free program that is actually very similar to Quicken. I'm glad that it's only February because I can set it up from January 1st based on bank statements. The cash account is another story, but that's okay.

The new program is called GnuCash and so far, I'm pretty happy with it. I tried a couple of others, including ones that aren't free, but I like this one best. If you're still hunting for another program, you might want to check it out.

On edit: GnuCash does allow importation of Quicken files and some others, but when I tried it, I got a pop-up that said my files were "corrupted" and couldn't be imported.

C'est la vie. My tax return arrived already, so I'll just start over with this year.

[question everything]

9. Sounds great! Am going to try it

The new Quicken is really a mess. For example, for the last month, or so, when you open it, you get a pop-up offering an upgrade to download. I think that it is free. But just glancing at it it appears that all the upgrade is for Canada. You have only two choices: download or "remind me later." And when you select the latter, there is another pop-up and again you select remind me later. And you get it every time you open the program.

Many have complained and nothing can be done.

At least, they post all the complaints and "merge them." And I am getting emails whenever there is an addition to the complaints.

They clearly do not care for their customers. If I were in business school researching a case, I would write about how Quicken went from a successful even beloved trusted company to a despised one.

[silverweb]

10. I was getting those popups, too.

SO annoying!

Intuit sold Quicken in 2016. Quicken is just Quicken now, but the designers of the program went with Intuit, which handles Turbotax, Quickbooks, and a couple of others. I hope Quicken's greed does the company in.

Anyway, good luck with GnuCash or whatever you decide to go with!

[question everything]

11. Finally decided to download it and it is quite confusing

For example, decided to start building my checking account.

The first transaction for the year was deposit of my pension check. This normally is a split transaction:

Line 1: pension
Line 2: deduction of federal tax
Line 3: deduction of state tax

But the account does not have separate entry for payee and a separate one for categories. As a matter of fact, I did not find a list of categories.

It is supposed to be double entry and this example is a classic one.

Will try it again tomorrow with a clearer head.

[silverweb]

12. I had some trouble for a while, too.

I had to reconstruct my old chart of accounts from memory as best I could and as I make new entries, I add to that and make corrections.

You can always modify and rearrange things to suit the way you like them. The program is pretty customizable.

Double entry is confusing if you're not used to it, but I finally got the hang of it.

I think.

[question everything]

13. Finally found AceMoney

Have been using it for free for almost a month and now paid for it.

I don't mind paying; I think that one often gets what one pays for. This program is good for everyday banking but is short on investment. So I will deal with this part separately.

Interesting, I found another article about Quicken alternatives but all of them are online programs, tied to the Cloud. One does not download it.

There is no way I am going to put all my finances on the Internet regardless on how secure it is. Has not happened recently, but we used to have episodes when we could not connect to the Internet and then, what? And never mind hacking.

http://www.mechcad.net/

https://wallethacks.com/best-quicken-alternatives/

[silverweb]

14. I won't use the cloud, either.

For the same reasons as you.

So AceMoney is more user friendly than GnuCash? I'll have to take another look at it.

I've gotten pretty used to GnuCash, but I still confuse myself sometimes with the double entry. Then, when the balance is off, it drives me crazy until I find the error and fix it.

[question everything]

15. What is nice about AceMoney is that it is not constrictive

For example, I have my own categories and I can just type them, they will be added, even memorized.

Yesterday I tried several of these online programs, just to try and most of them did not have a Pension category, for example and when I tried to add - i could not follow their directions.

I had to admit it but compared to these fancy ones, Quicken actually looked good. Still AceMoney is easier.

[silverweb]

16. Yes, I loved Quicken.

Used it for years. I also used Quickbooks when I was self-employed and liked that, as well. It's the new stand-alone Quicken company that was sold off by Intuit that I can't stand.

Thanks for your input. I will definitely take another look at AceMoney.