Any good recommendations for financial software like Quicken?

[amigo30]

I've been keeping my budgets and investments and things on some home-made spreadsheets that work just fine for budgeting and bills etc.

What they don't do well is track my spending and my tax deductions. Since I use a debit card/credit card for almost all my purchases, I've been thinking about using something like Quicken or Microsoft Money for next year.

The Amazon.com reviews for Quicken are horrible though. Does anyone know of any good alternatives?

[jefesq]

the reviews are wrong. quicken owns>*

[Anthony Gring]

I'm a plumbing contractor. I not only do the plumbing work but also do the invoicing, bookeeping, estimates, etc. I've used QuickBooks for at least 10 years. I update versions every 3 years or so. It's quite simple to use. It also beats showing up at my CPA's office with a large box of reciepts at tax time. If you don't run a business, Quicken would work great for you. Highly recomended IMHO. Good luck!

[rattles]

Look into Microsoft Money. It's a good program.

[amigo30]

I used to use Quicken years ago, it seemed solid back then. Any idea why so many were bashing it now?

I don't mind spending the few bucks to try it out, but I hate the idea of dumping all the hours into it to get it set up, just to bail on it.

[dkaplowitz]

Quicken's not bad (last version I've used was 2005 though). There are some weird quirks/annoyances about it. But for what you mentioned, it sounds like a good fit. Is there a trial you can try? If you can do trials, it might be worth comparing it to M$ Money.

[slipbeer]

My finances are medium complicated and I've never had any issues with Quicken other than there is never enough money left at the end of a month and for some odd reason my net worth dropped like a rock over the last few months.

I've been using it since it came out and upgrade every 3 or 4 years. I'm on 2008 now.

[Scooter]

I used Quicken for years and then got a free copy of MS Money when I bought a new PC a few years back. There's not a lot of difference between them once you get used to the program. They both have quirks and they both do the job well enough. I've stuck with MS Money.