Is Quicken 2017 worth it? Please help

[Cramerica]

Is quicken 2017 worth it if I would mainly be using it to automatically track my investment returns?

I know there have been threads on past versions but I was hoping for an updated critique. It seems many former quicken customers have jumped ship. Please help

[TomatoTomahto]

I use it and like it. I use it to track credit cards and investments, mostly.

It is worth it for me.

[Cramerica]

Is the automatic download feature from fidelity as good as it sounds?

[TomatoTomahto]

Is the automatic download feature from fidelity as good as it sounds?

Is there something special about the Fidelity download? I "one button" download from Fidelity, Vanguard, credit cards, etc. The exceptions are PenFed and RegalBank (a local bank) that require logging in "manually."

Unless I'm missing something (always a possibility ), Fidelity works just as well as the others.

[DetroitRick]

It is definitely worth it for me. I am currently on Premier 2016, but it's pretty much the same functionality as 2017, with a modernized appearance.

I find value in investment tracking, as well as the rest of my financial picture (banks, credit cards, mortgage, budgeting). Using Quicken, I'm not tied into to any one brokerage platform and find the transaction downloads to be relatively trouble-free on Quicken. Investment reporting is reasonably good, including rate of return (at various levels of aggregation), portfolio value and cost, general history and some level of customized reports. The Morningstar X-ray feature (added with the 2015 version, I believe) has also proven useful for me. Data export is readily available if you need that functionality - easy to get data into Excel, etc.

Bottom line, it gives me deep portfolio insights with relatively little time or effort. I suppose there will be a learning curve for the first-time Quicken user, but nothing too bad. I've had a love/hate relationship with Quicken in the past, going back to around 1997 - but now it's mainly love. With the usual caveat - newer owners now (post Intuit sale). The only thing I worry about it the declining user base, whatever uncertainty that might bring.

There is currently a 3-year upgrade cycle in the U.S., in order to maintain download capability. Fine by me. The switch to a Canadian annual subscription model suggests the possibility of that change here at some point. Also fine by me, but worthy of consideration if that would bother you.

Edit: My comments are predicated on my use only in the Windows world. Quicken for Android, should you want Android access as well, is a very mixed bag depending on who you talk to. This will likely be a concern for the Quicken development folks going forward as they compete with other packages more tuned into the Android environment.

[NYCguy]

It is excellent. It is a very sophisticated tool, yet simple to use.

I use it to track investments, real estate and bills as well as bank account and credit card activity.

It provides significant insight into my financial planning.

[Vanguard Fan 1367]

As of today Quicken is still a very reasonably priced piece of software and does not do the monthly subscription similar to Office 360? I have 2015 or 6 and haven't used it much. I did use it some about a year or so ago to try to do some budgeting and liked it but I seem to be able to do what I want without it.

[marcopolo]

I have been a quicken user for quite some time. 2017 work very nicely. I have found it a little less buggy than 2014, i have upgraded every 3yrs when their online updates stop working for the older version. I find it very useful to track both spending and investments.

[c078342]

Was a Quicken user since, what, the '90's, but have ceased using it over the last few years. Didn't like the forced upgrade every few years. It never seemed to interface well with Vanguard. Other than downloads, It doesn't do anything that a knowledgeable Excel user cannot create (a) spreadsheet(s) to do. Be it account monitoring or investment tracking. And I'm not sure a download cannot be executed by a web query. I'm a retired aerospace engineer who used Excel daily, either for engineering work or later for project management. But, Quicken is most definitely a good tool for many.

[LadyGeek]

This thread is now in the Personal Finance (Not Investing) forum (Quicken).

I jumped ship a few months ago to Moneydance and haven't looked back. OK, maybe a little as I needed to do a few workarounds. OTOH, the user interface is much more intuitive. The reports are also better. If I was starting from scratch, I'd go with MoneyDance.

My overview is here: Re: Quicken's future direction - a cause for concern

The 20% discount code should still be working: Moneydance - Notes | Facebook

[Toons]

I use it and like it. I use it to track credit cards and investments, mostly.

It is worth it for me.

Ditto

[radiowave]

Bought Quicken recently on sale promotion, had it many years ago for a small business. I was mainly interested in consolidating reporting of my accounts . . . rather disappointed in the new version. Yes, you can link your accounts and get some very basic reports. Decided to stick to my Excel spreadsheet and look up accounts on a 1-2 month basis as it gives me a lot more information that I need to make decisions.

[WoodSpinner]

Was a Quicken user since, what, the '90's, but have ceased using it over the last few years. Didn't like the forced upgrade every few years. It never seemed to interface well with Vanguard. Other than downloads, It doesn't do anything that a knowledgeable Excel user cannot create (a) spreadsheet(s) to do. Be it account monitoring or investment tracking. And I'm not sure a download cannot be executed by a web query. I'm a retired aerospace engineer who used Excel daily, either for engineering work or later for project management. But, Quicken is most definitely a good tool for many.

Unfortunately in all of the issues I have had with Quicken and Vanguard , it is Vanguard who is the culprit. Sigh- wish they would get their act together!!!

Overall very happy with Quicken.

[kpeercy]

I have nearly 15 years of transactions in Quicken, so it's become a necessity for me.

[oncorhynchus]

IMHO, no, Quicken 2017 isn't worth it. I don't trust the current Quicken ownership.

I've used Quicken since the DOS days, and currently run Quicken 2016. It works just fine for me. However, since the current owners announced plans to migrate to a subscription model, with threats of holding my financial data hostage, I've refused to upgrade to the 2017 version (despite the bombardment of ads). I've also refused to update my current version because I do not trust the current Quicken ownership to not slip in changes to my current version.

I will wait, watching to see what the future brings for Quicken. I may move over to Moneydance if I'm not happy with future Quicken versions by the time my current software sunsets. Alternatively, I can perform manual account reconciliations just like back in the 1980s, and my investments are simple enough that I can manually update prices in only a few minutes each day.

o

[cody69]

I have used Quicken for many years and have found it really useful for tracking and monitoring investments across a number of providers... IRAs and 401Ks belonging to DW and myself. Like others have mentioned, I purchase every three or so years when the current version I'm using expires and a new version is necessary to continue to download investment activity.

I'm in accumulation phase... don't know how necessary it will be in retirement once investments are consolidated with one provider (Vanguard!).

My wrinkle is I'm a Mac user, and run some middleware software to simulate Windows environment so Quicken (for Windows) runs on the Mac. It isn't perfect, but for me, is a better option than needing to keep a PC in the house just for tracking investments.

[bloom2708]

I would look at Personal Capital and Mint before paying for Quicken 2017. I also prefer cloud based. I can access from my phone, table, laptop, work.

[nedsaid]

Yes, I think Quicken 2017 is worth the fee. I have been a user since 1995. It has been very useful to calculate my investment returns which has been the basis for posts that I have made. The program itself hasn't changed much for years, mostly they have tinkered with the way the program displays information.

[pretzelfisch]

does quicken still try to make every credit card payment a monthly minimum payment? Since we pay off or bill every month this feature drove me nuts and away from using it.

[TomatoTomahto]

does quicken still try to make every credit card payment a monthly minimum payment? Since we pay off or bill every month this feature drove me nuts and away from using it.

I set my credit card payment (balance in full) at the bank, not from Quicken. Setting autopay, imo, should be a bank setting. Works fine for me.

[gasdoc]

How is Quicken 2017 for MAC?

Gasdoc

[NYCguy]

I
My wrinkle is I'm a Mac user, and run some middleware software to simulate Windows environment so Quicken (for Windows) runs on the Mac. It isn't perfect, but for me, is a better option than needing to keep a PC in the house just for tracking investments.

I am using a Mac too. I use VMFusion on the Mac to run a virtual machine running Windows 10 and then run Quicken. It sounds more complicated than it is.

Everything including Quicken runs perfectly.

[Cramerica]

So I went ahead and bought quicken 2017 home and business. Maybe it's because I'm a new user and there's a learning curve, but the automatic download feature is annoying for my fidelity 401k and cash management accounts. It seems this is mainly due to them only pulling 90 days of history. You can override that and pull more, but then the software doesn't reconcile the data because it already put in placeholders.

My solo 401k seems to have downloaded the right transactions but the investment return is definitely lower than reality.

[delrey]

I've been using Quicken for a while now, since 2010. I would say it's the best on the market for what it does and offers is more than just managing balances but that said I've been very frustrated with their lack of innovation around debt management, projections and reporting. Its one thing to be on top of your spending but I want more look ahead features. Sorry if this comes off as a bit of a rant but just about ever credit card company offers balance transfer and some level of percentage bonus period, try throwing something like that into quicken as a plan and your head will spin a few rotations. you would think Liability accounts include loans, credit cards and but try a projection report, which is not a report you can customize to any great extent is will only include liability account not loans. i want the big picture. Quicken will tell you you can export the data into excel. thanks quicken! And one last thing, while automatic downloads are very convenient, some sites or services are problematic, I can't put blame all on Quicken for that, i'm sure support so many institutions access controls is challenging and unique to some, but that fact they work sometimes then fails and have to disable and re-enable is a PITA.....

anyway....

all that said it does serve a purposed and what it does do I value enough to reluctantly renew every year. I think as an existing user there is a 20% discount so for the $45 it's well worth it! I don't like the idea of cloud i've tried just about all of them out there and have not found one that is as full featured as Quicken. like others I host a copy on a Windows vm so I can access it from anywhere, secured and protected. then again I'm in IT but that's just flexibility I choose.

[tetractys]

I'm still using Quicken 2007 for Mac, and it's working fine. I don't expect that to last forever. It looks like 2017 is getting to the point of being workable for me. My question is, is 2017 worth switching to yet? I'll probably keep using 2007 until that becomes unworkable, and then make the switch to 2017, or whatever the latest version is at the critical time. There's a lot going on in the software programs world, so it seems relaxing on the board for a decisive wave is a good strategy. -- Tet