What program to use for personal finance?

Non-investing personal finance issues including insurance, credit, real estate, taxes, employment and legal issues such as trusts and wills.
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Jacinda Myrtie
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What program to use for personal finance?

Post by Jacinda Myrtie »

What programs or websites do your people used for any personal finance activities. I mean do you people used Quickbooks to track down your expenses? How do you budget. Any programs you think is great? I want to start tracking my expenses and budget better. Any other programs suggestions relating with personal finance is greatly appreciate.
pochax
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Post by pochax »

Mint.com is what i use.
Gekko
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Post by Gekko »

AutomaticBillPaysExpensesBudgetTEMPLATE2009B.xls

http://www.mediafire.com/?zvyxndzyut4
KCJayhawker
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Post by KCJayhawker »

Custom built Excel Spreadsheet with account registers that automatically pull into a summary spreadsheet by spending category. I also have a budget in the same summary format with an automatic variance file. I felt I had more control with Excel getting what I wanted vs. fitting it into a program that didn't exactly put it out like I wanted.
Chuck
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Post by Chuck »

I'm between Mint and Quicken Online. Both are free and automatically download everything. Mint is a little easier to use, but Quicken does cash flow forecasting, which is nice.

Really, it's no different than using a spreadsheet, but the online services just do a lot more for me, so I just log on for 5 minutes every few days, make sure all the transactions are categorized correctly, and see if there are any problems (surprise transactions, or something over budget, etc.)

They're both free, so there's no risk to trying.
mfen
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Post by mfen »

Pencil, paper and a check register. For the business - check register and credit card statement. I don't like to over-science budgeting it seems tedious.

For investment activities the brokerage sites provide lots of analytical tools that I review occasionally.
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Post by Ron »

OP is a spammer.
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runthetrails
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Post by runthetrails »

I track my portfolio performance with one of Gummy's spreadsheets.

I rebalance my portfolio with a home-grown spreadsheet. I use ranges and check fairly often.

I budget with a home-grown spreadsheet which tracks what Mary Hunt calls a Freedom Account (I hate that name. )
mptfan
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Post by mptfan »

I do not budget. I use homemade spreadsheets created using Excel to keep track of my account balances and net worth. If I continue to save, and if I do not incur debt, then it does not matter to me how much I spend, or in what categories my spending would fall.
vietBH
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Post by vietBH »

I use Quicken for tracking investments and capital gains reporting. I don't do budget because I don't want to spend that much time tracking that much details :)

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Post by LadyGeek »

Quicken 2007 for personal finance. A spreadsheet for budgeting.
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tetractys
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Post by tetractys »

Quicken 2007 for tracking accounts. Spreadsheets linked to Quicken for retirement account returns and allocation. A few moments ago I believed I had no budget, but on further thought I realize I set up bills on an online billpayer, and then enter them in Quicken to see what the future holds about a month out.

Best regards, Tet
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Toons
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Post by Toons »

Ive Been Using Quicken since 1993 to track every expenditure .Highly recommend it
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Judsen
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Post by Judsen »

I used quicken about 5 years and liked it. Then I got a new computer 5 years ago so I have used MSMoney for 5 years.
I don't like change so I don't do upgrades. To me "New and improved" means New and un proven.
Either product is/was usable and takes getting used to.
I tend to broadbrush categories and am not persnickity with regard to details.
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Post by abuss368 »

I have been using Quicken for about 10 years. I enter all financial transactions excluding budgeting. However, I am considering using it for only investments at this point. It can really consume a lot of time entering all transactions. Not sure where the value is to that. And as Mr. Bogle so often says, we can better use of time on more important things in life: family, friends, career, etc!!

One thing about Intuit's Quicken. They put a new version out every year saying that it new and improved. Realistically it is probably just to generate sales. In addition, they usually stop providing the free investment quote service after a couple fo years and ask you to upgrade (not that you have to).
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Peter Foley
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Post by Peter Foley »

I'm using the MS Money 2002 version. I tracked all spending for about 10 years, finally stopping at the end of 2007. Our spending patterns do not change much from year to year so I see little need to add more data. I continue to use the program to track investments - primarily a handy reference to all buy and sell transactions. I update prices manually about once a quarter.

I do my financial management (retirement planning and AA rebalancing) with an Excel spreadsheet.
TRC
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Post by TRC »

mptfan wrote:I do not budget. I use homemade spreadsheets created using Excel to keep track of my account balances and net worth. If I continue to save, and if I do not incur debt, then it does not matter to me how much I spend, or in what categories my spending would fall.
Well said. To me, tracking every little thing I spend my money on seems like a waste of time. For some people I know it's kind of a hobby, but I just don't see the need to do it. We pay ourselves first (401K, 403B, Taxable Investments), pay extra on our mortgage each month, and we carry no other debt. Whatever is left over is available for spending.
DualCitizen
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Post by DualCitizen »

Excel.
Last edited by DualCitizen on Wed Aug 05, 2020 5:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
acegolfer
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Post by acegolfer »

I used MS Money till 2008 and then converted to Quicken 2009. Even with some minor inconveniences, I like it.

I also use mint.com and google spreadsheet to cross check with quicken.
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CABob
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Post by CABob »

I have used Microsoft Money for personal banking for a number of years. Since Money is going away I will probably convert to Quicken. For investments I use my own Excel spreadsheets.
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empb
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Post by empb »

Moneydance. Used Money for a while. Quicken is obnoxious.
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Post by Chuck »

DualCitizen wrote:Excel.

I don't understand how people can stand those programs like Mint or Quicken.
It just works and you don't have to do anything. I like that. I just log in and say "Oops, I spent too much on restaurants again."
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Ducks
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Post by Ducks »

I use quicken for tracking expenses, and an excel spreadsheet for rebalancing portfolio.

I haven't done a very good job about keeping up with it this year. I need to get back at it. I have 3 months of receipts to deal with. hate it when that happens. :/
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MWCA
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Post by MWCA »

We use Quicken just to track expenses. We do it every 3 months. Good to know what you are spending heading into retirement.
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Post by Ron »

OP is a spammer.
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Babakhani
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Post by Babakhani »

it's a waste of time.
all the banks have online bill pay.
vanguard does the investing analysis.
I take 20% out of my income for investment, pay my bills, and the rest i put in my debit account for spending. i just keep track of the debit account to make sure weekly to make sure it last a month. everybody has a rough idea of what they spend and what they can spend. why pay attention to the little details?

keep it simple
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stevewolfe
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Post by stevewolfe »

I agree with this. We spent about 6 years tracking a budget in Quicken - it was a waste of time. I don't know how many times my wife and I argued over spending $16.05 more on entertainment this month than we budgeted (and it wasn't even a good movie!) - all the while we were saving on track and never missed a pay ourselves payment. So about 5 or 6 years ago we jettisoned Quicken - I won't miss it as I didn't really care for it even while we used it.

Now we use a custom Open Office Calc set of spreadsheets to keep track of our investments, etc and the habits we learned from budgeting - that didn't require Quicken, BTW, are "baked in" and we don't vary too far from what we used to painfully track with Quicken.
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Post by Chuck »

stevewolfe wrote:We spent about 6 years tracking a budget in Quicken - it was a waste of time. I don't know how many times my wife and I argued over spending $16.05 more on entertainment this month than we budgeted (and it wasn't even a good movie!) -
I don't think this is Quicken's fault. My wife and I go over budget on something every month, and we say "oops, I didn't realize X" and then we share a beer. We're a team and we do the budget thing together.
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Post by modal »

I use Excel, but I don't spend a lot of time with it. A spreadsheet allows me to get a quick run down of my account balances and also to write loose budgets.
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R-Man
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Post by R-Man »

I've been using Quicken to track detail investment (basis, etc) and a homemade spreadsheet to track cashflow, AA, net worth. No budgeting other than keeping up with checking account balance more or less. Keep $1000-1500 cushion in checking in case something unusual turns up. No need for detail on spending categories for me.
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Gekko
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Post by Gekko »

take a look at my expenses spreadsheet template i posted above. it's not intended for you to tediously log each transaction and every penny - it's intended for you to ONE-TIME enter in your estimated monthly/annual expenses so you can see where and how your money is going out the door from a global 30,000 foot view.

your feedback is appreciated.
Vinny72
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Post by Vinny72 »

I am a long time user of Quicken. I tried MS Money for a few years, but did not like the format or appearance quite as much. I use Quicken Premier 2008 to track my spending trends and net worth over time. I really like Quicken, it is easy to use, has nice customizable graphs/reports, and makes a sweet cash register sound with every entry 8). I used to upgrade Quicken every year, but was not impressed enough with the 2009 version to upgrade. The new version should be out in October. The Mac version is scheduled to be out in Feb 2010, but they have had several delays I understand.

I use excel for AA, average ER, and current net worth (I like to include my pension cash out value and treasury direct bonds).

Wells Fargo tracks debit card transactions and has some graphing and monthly spending reports. It is not quite as detailed or fun to use as Quicken, but it is free and effortless.
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Post by MWCA »

Babakhani wrote:it's a waste of time.
all the banks have online bill pay.
vanguard does the investing analysis.
I take 20% out of my income for investment, pay my bills, and the rest i put in my debit account for spending. i just keep track of the debit account to make sure weekly to make sure it last a month. everybody has a rough idea of what they spend and what they can spend. why pay attention to the little details?

keep it simple
Why keep it simple? My credit card will pay me over 600 in rebates this year by simply using it. Its important for us to go into retirement knowing where each dollar goes. Your keeping it simple method is probably costing you money :)
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Post by SpringMan »

Ron wrote:OP is a spammer.
Site Admin Alex agreed in an older thread. Real sounding questions but no consistency, chapter 7, gave up house, lives in the UK, etc.
Best Wishes, SpringMan
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Post by Chuck »

It's an interesting discussion for the rest of us.
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Post by Alex Frakt »

Note: the original poster is a spambot. We have disabled the account, but the discussion is interesting so we'll keep the thread open.
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Taz
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Post by Taz »

Alex Frakt wrote:Note: the original poster is a spambot. We have disabled the account, but the discussion is interesting so we'll keep the thread open.
You mean like in Austin Powers? Oh wait. They were fembots.
:D
I use MS Money to download statements & then categorize transactions - some detailed, others pretty general. I do like it's ability to provide capital gains/loss info from specific lots. I do not use it to initiate transactions.
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Babakhani
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Post by Babakhani »

MWCA wrote:
Babakhani wrote:it's a waste of time.
all the banks have online bill pay.
vanguard does the investing analysis.
I take 20% out of my income for investment, pay my bills, and the rest i put in my debit account for spending. i just keep track of the debit account to make sure weekly to make sure it last a month. everybody has a rough idea of what they spend and what they can spend. why pay attention to the little details?

keep it simple
Why keep it simple? My credit card will pay me over 600 in rebates this year by simply using it. Its important for us to go into retirement knowing where each dollar goes. Your keeping it simple method is probably costing you money :)
That is one way to keep it simple as well. Put it all on a credit card with whatever perks you get with it -- as long as you pay off the whole thing at the end of the month. My point in being simple is that too much time is wasted in the minutia. I know that for example i can spend 400$ on entertainment per month. Why do i need a spreadsheet or a software to keep track 18.50$ movies when I can ballpark $20 into my head. It's not very hard. It gets to the point that you get a feel for it such as I spend more than usual last week on entertainment so i will take it easy this week.
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