<p>I’m biting the bullet and am wanting to get all of our financials organized into one place so that at any given point we can look at it and get an idea of what our assets are. Up until now, any time I want to do this, I have just pulled out the most recent statements of any given account, tallied them all up, etc. for a big picture.</p>
<p>For instance, I’d like to be able to plug in our stock options and at any point, depending on what the stock is running on that day, get quick picture of the value. Would also like a place to plug in what we think our house could get on the market (and we all know how that is unsteady at this time), what we owe on our mortgage, and (hopefully) have the capability of a program that automatically decreases the mortgage every month as payments are made (I always pay more on the principal). Would also like something that keeps track of when CDs are due (I always forget and have to pull out the file and look up each one individually). Also, something to keep track of what I transfer between accounts (suchy as when I withdraw from a 529 to put into checking to pay for college tuition). Basically I want a program that helps me keep everything organized.</p>
<p>I’m trying to get organized so that I’m sending out as few checks a month as possible by utilizing electronic fund transfers, payments on-line, etc., but a couple of our utilities don’t have that service available yet. </p>
<p>I don’t need anything that does our taxes because we do use an accountant for that, and since I’m pretty organized with my paperwork, it takes him minimal time to do it. </p>
<p>I have Microsoft Excel 2007 on my computer, and have also heard from people who swear by Quicken. I opened Excel, and it totally intimidated me. Perhaps I just need someone to set everything up, then I can input data monthly.</p>
<p>As you can tell, I’m totally clueless on what I’m talking about. What have people used and found helpful?</p>
<p>Well, because I can use it, Quicken is idiot-proof. I don’t have a background in finance or banking, yet I ran some complicated business and personal financials on an early version.
I don’t think it will automatically compute everything on your wish list, but it may be worth your time to look at descriptions and reviews on line to see if the functions suit your needs.</p>
<p>Ah, it seems that you havn’t completely integrated in the 21st century. Don’t worry, not many of us have.</p>
<p>I use AmeriTrade to manage my stocks, and any online services I can possibly use for all the bills and even the small things like purchases I tend to do online. It seems that the only mortar and brick shopping I do is for groceries.</p>
<p>I use QuickBooks to handle all my accounting.</p>
<p>For personal finances, quicken is fine. A lot of online banking services now even allow you to download information from your banks website onto your quicken. Quickbooks is great for business accounting if your business is under a certain financial ceiling but for personal, I think you will do fine with Quicken.</p>
<p>teriwitt,
Quicken allows you to maintain multiple “accounts,” which may be actual bank accounts or “accounts” you set up to manage other assets. And it is easy to set up and understand.
Good luck!</p>
<p>I’ve been using it for 12 plus years. I don’t take advantage of all the features as investments are tracked separately (my dad, though, has ALL of this set up within his Quicken program). It’s simple and super easy to set up and use. I worked in the accounting area for MANY years and while the Quicken/QuickBooks products do have a few drawbacks in my opinion, the ease of use overrides any accountant complaints.</p>
<p>Excel is a great program, but using it for personal finance would be a nightmare. Quicken is the way to go. It’s easier to learn than Quickbooks and will handle everything you’ve asked for quite well.</p>
<p>an update - picked up Quicken, and have spent many, many hours over the past couple of days inputting data. Some hours were spent correcting mistakes, but that’s how I get to know what it’s capable of. Probably have a couple of more things to add in, but I have the bulk of it in.</p>
<p>Does anyone use the check printing feature you can buy separately?</p>
<p>I have used the check printing for business purposes (bought the appropriate checks for use in my printer and processed through QuickBooks-Quicken should be just as user friendly). VERY slick and really as simple as it should be. I really don’t write that many checks for personal finances any more to justify the cost of purchasing them. I use on line banking for most bill paying, pay through my credit card for consolidation (which is paid off EVERY month and always has been), debit card for local purchases plus my bank provides me with free checks.</p>
<p>I have MANY years of Quicken activity that I can access and review. UGHH. I can quickly pull up my mortgage payment from 16 years ago! I can tell how much we spent of gas in 1991. Pretty scary stuff.</p>
<p>One more thing vulture reminded me of. Teriwtt, be sure to do some kind of backup of the quicken files. I use an external usb drive to back up and then keep that tucked away somewhere safe. If your computer crashes you don’t want to be without a backup of that information. Up to you but I find the external drive the easiest way…just have to remember to do the backup. I do it about once a week.</p>
<p>ebeeeee - last night I saved it all to my thumb drive! Boy did that feel good. Spent some time today purging some old paper stuff, running it through the shredder, and creating the process to take care of some more bills on line. I like the idea of having everything so handy on the computer… if I want to be out of town for a longer length of time, then I don’t worry about what bills are stacking up for me at home, and I know where ALL the money is (and how much I have to spend!). </p>
<p>I’m still a bit hesitant to go completely paperless… which is unlike me because I do not take kindly to wasting paper (thankfully we live in an area that does a pretty good job with offering recycling resources). Today I set up my first paperless account for our gasoline card (however, I don’t know why we still have one since I’m all for using the major credit cards and getting points). However, we keep them for the girls to use in emergencies, so the account doesn’t get used much.</p>
<p>Any of you Mac users? I’m searching for personal finance software for my Mac. On line I find mixed reviews of Quicken for Macs. I’ve downloaded trials of Liquidledger, Moneywell & MoneyDance - anyone use any of these or have other suggestions? Thanks</p>
<p>I just created my own excel spread sheet. There are a few fields where I input variables such as stock prices, expected growth rates, etc. The rest gets computed automatically. I’ve thought about using a commercial package that would upload daily prices on mutual funds, stocks, etc. but I’m too lazy. </p>
<p>I also created a college savings tool that seems to work nicely, also in excel. It allows me to input expected savings amounts, expected growth rates, expected tuition costs for both kids and model out various scenarios. Excel has an FV macro that makes that easy.</p>
<p>I use MS Money that came free with the computer. I find it very easy to balance my checkbook now, which used to be such a hassle.</p>
<p>I used to use Quicken where I tracked every category of spending, etc. Decided that life was too short…I use the “miscellaneous expense” category alot.</p>
I don’t have a background in finance or banking, yet I ran some complicated business and personal financials on an early version.