Personal Budgeting/Finance

» Shelley Elmblad - Responses from Win Free Quicken Contest

Drawing is Closed. Thank you.
This thread includes responses from entrants in the Win Free Quicken Deluxe 2007 Drawing. Please do not post your response to this forum as it will not qualify. Read the contest rules to enter, and enjoy reading what people like about Quicken or what features they would use as the responses are posted here.

If you do not want to enter the contest but want to post something about Quicken personal finance software - or any other personal finance issue - in this discussion forum, just create a new post.

» Shelley Elmblad - Anne - Comparing Apples and Oranges?

In response to Responses from Win Free Quicken Contest posted by yooperz:

Anne says:

I was just comparing Quicken to Microsoft Money at Best Buy yesterday, and ended up purchasing neither. Only because I'm not clear on what I really need. Primarily, with Quicken, I need help budgeting so the charts on where my money goes (restaurants) will be very helpful. I also need something to tell me how much to contribute monthly to my 401k monthly, and what that will yield at an average % return over 20 years.
Filling out my yearly tax forms for me is a huge plus, too. Also, it needs to be easy for me to enter my spending items so I don't get
behind. For example, on the Weight Watchers plan tracking site, it
takes FOREVER to load and sometimes I just don't do it because of that.

» Shelley Elmblad - Kevin - asks the eternal question, "What is a budget?"

In response to Responses from Win Free Quicken Contest posted by yooperz:

Tax planning...budgeting (what is a budget), all the like.

» Shelley Elmblad - Tracy - Money Juggler Extraordinaire!

In response to Responses from Win Free Quicken Contest posted by yooperz:

I'm interested in the free quicken software! I currently use no financial software. (I have used Turbo Tax, though.) Although I have no previous skill or talent or experience in handling finances, I have found myself in charge of not only my family's finances and budget, but my own company's as well! I currently juggle 5 different bank accounts. Currently, my husband and I have needed to take a drastic measure with the only retirement plan we had in order to prevent car repossessions and/or eviction from our apartment. Perhaps if I had used software like Quicken, I would have been able to better control my finances and we wouldn't be starting all over now! Quicken could help me balance my accounts, set up a budget, and prepare me for tax time...this year will be scary as it is my first year being self-employed. I'm sure I am missing key features from the review, but those mentioned seem most appropriate for me!

Thanks for considering my entry!

» Shelley Elmblad - Nathan - He's on Quicken Auto-Pilot!

In response to Responses from Win Free Quicken Contest posted by yooperz:

Currently we use Quicken 2002 for the Mac. We have been thinking about upgrading, but even the 2002 version was such a leap ahead of where we were that we are just now getting to the point were we could really use some of the new features. The main features that we like about the current version is that it acts as our electronic checkbook register. Prior to Quicken, I had a terrible time keeping a balanced checkbook and several months had $50-100 in overdraft charges.

One of our wealth building strategies is to set everything we can on auto-pilot. Some money goes out automatically to the kids 529 accounts, to our Roth IRA, to our Savings Account (for savings and for property taxes and home owners) and to life insurance. In Quicken we are able to setup these automatic investments as well as account for bills that we pay automatically online such as our Mortgage.

Balancing our register when we get our bank statements is also easy with Quicken.

Some things that we haven't done, but would like to use are more of the budgeting features, investment tracking and dynamic links to bank information.

» Shelley Elmblad - Ryan Get Reconciled to Using Quicken

In response to Responses from Win Free Quicken Contest posted by yooperz:
I have used Quicken intermittently for 5 years. After multiple false starts I am finally really into it.
My favorite features-
1) Automatic downloading of my checking, and credit card accounts.
My USAA CC is updated daily, allowing me to spot problems, strange names, and keep ontop of our cc spending.
2) Ease of reconciliation- I have NEVER been able to reconcile my
checkbook-- I just cannot sit still that long.
3) The ability to keep up with scheduled payments and see what has been paid monthly and what is left for the month.