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How do you manage/track your finances?

A

archcommus

Diamond Member
Microsoft Money has officially been discontinued. From what I read Quicken ain't too great and is likely to be killed off in the coming years as well (even though they're trying to grab up Money customers right now). That leaves me unsure of where to turn. The nice thing about services like Mint and Quicken Online is they pull in all your data for you. This is great because I don't want to reconcile transactions by hand. However, I cannot rely on an aggregation service as my primary financial management. For one, Mint doesn't even allow manual entering of transacations. So how am I supposed to track a check that I write that someone doesn't cash for two weeks? And second, I would really like to hold a copy of my own data on my PC. All in all, I'm looking to store my own data, run my own reports, but have something that can sync with the banks, and maybe even allow mobile viewing. Basically, everything MS Money used to do.

So what do you do? My choices seem limited.
 
A lo of people here swear by Mint.com, but I don't like that they don't have a standalone desktop software. 🙁
 
Can I ask why you can't use MS Money? Even if its discontinued, it doesn't mean the software won't stop working on your computer? Or is there something else to it?
 
So how am I supposed to track a check that I write that someone doesn't cash for two weeks?

That's enough to make a body weep. 🙁
 
ummm i just use my checkbook. if something doesnt match my online bank statement i just go through each item to see what it is ORRR i just deduct my total from the statement total and figure out what the difference is. i usually know what i bought that was whatever that amount is. simple!
 
Originally posted by: allisolm
So how am I supposed to track a check that I write that someone doesn't cash for two weeks?

That's enough to make a body weep. 🙁
Click to expand...

😀 As if ANY method is going to actually do that...until the check clears the OP's bank.

I'm another excel user for maintaining my checking account, but as BO asked, just because MS is no longer supporting Money, does that mean it no longer functions?

I have MS Money 97, but have never used it. Excel is just too dammed easy.
 
Originally posted by: allisolm
So how am I supposed to track a check that I write that someone doesn't cash for two weeks?

That's enough to make a body weep. 🙁
Click to expand...

what if it was a rent check that you paid to someone and they waited a whole month to cash it along with the next month's rent check you paid them?
 
Originally posted by: Gothgar
Originally posted by: allisolm
So how am I supposed to track a check that I write that someone doesn't cash for two weeks?

That's enough to make a body weep. 🙁
Click to expand...

what if it was a rent check that you paid to someone and they waited a whole month to cash it along with the next month's rent check you paid them?
Click to expand...

Oh shit...not this again...how about this:

Once you write the check, deduct the money from your account and do NOT spend it even if the check hasn't been cashed yet?

It really doesn't matter if they take 2 months to cash the check...just treat that amount like it's already been deducted from your account.

Checking accounts 101
 
Originally posted by: BoomerD
Originally posted by: Gothgar
Originally posted by: allisolm
So how am I supposed to track a check that I write that someone doesn't cash for two weeks?

That's enough to make a body weep. 🙁
Click to expand...

what if it was a rent check that you paid to someone and they waited a whole month to cash it along with the next month's rent check you paid them?
Click to expand...

Oh shit...not this again...how about this:

Once you write the check, deduct the money from your account and do NOT spend it even if the check hasn't been cashed yet?

It really doesn't matter if they take 2 months to cash the check...just treat that amount like it's already been deducted from your account.

Checking accounts 101
Click to expand...

but but.... you checked your account online and it showed that you had extra money!!!

Everyone knows it is messed up to wait that long to cash a check
 
Originally posted by: Barack Obama
Can I ask why you can't use MS Money? Even if its discontinued, it doesn't mean the software won't stop working on your computer? Or is there something else to it?
Click to expand...


"Although Microsoft will stop selling the product at the end of June, it plans to support it through January 2011.

After that point, people can continue to use the product, but they will no longer be able to get automated data feeds from their banks, credit card companies and other financial service providers. "
Click to expand...

Taken from here
 
Quicken + excel. I use quicken for most stuff but I have an accrual account that I put the same amount of $ into monthly for bills whose amounts vary by month/season which I have to track in excel. Its for like utility bills, home/auto repairs, etc. I really wish quicken let you do this inside of it but its pretty gimped. I have thought about getting a full fledged accounting program for home use. I think you can get a single user Peachtree version for ~$100.
 
Originally posted by: minendo
Excel
Click to expand...
Problem with Excel is lack of features. No syncing with banks, no mobile viewing. Sure this can work great, but this is 2009 and I have the internet and a phone with internet. I should be able to have a pretty simple feature like auto-reconciling with the banks, like Money's been doing for years, and mobile viewing, like iPhone users can do with Quicken Online.

Originally posted by: Barack Obama
Can I ask why you can't use MS Money? Even if its discontinued, it doesn't mean the software won't stop working on your computer? Or is there something else to it?
Click to expand...

As Special K pointed out, MS will continue to support Money through January 2011. As a standalone product, yes I could continue to use it indefinitely. The problem is that eventually online syncing will cease, and that's one of its best features. Also, even now, I can't auto-sync with Citizens Bank unless I pay some stupid monthly fee for special login information, so I'd like to move away from that to something like Mint where it will sync for free.

Originally posted by: allisolm
So how am I supposed to track a check that I write that someone doesn't cash for two weeks?

That's enough to make a body weep. 🙁
Click to expand...

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Originally posted by: Gothgar
Originally posted by: allisolm
So how am I supposed to track a check that I write that someone doesn't cash for two weeks?

That's enough to make a body weep. 🙁
Click to expand...

what if it was a rent check that you paid to someone and they waited a whole month to cash it along with the next month's rent check you paid them?
Click to expand...

Oh shit...not this again...how about this:

Once you write the check, deduct the money from your account and do NOT spend it even if the check hasn't been cashed yet?

It really doesn't matter if they take 2 months to cash the check...just treat that amount like it's already been deducted from your account.

Checking accounts 101
Click to expand...

Umm...you guys are missing the point here. I agree with you, to track a check that hasn't been cashed yet you simply mark it as deducted the moment you write it. That was my point...services like Mint do NOT allow this. No manual entering of transactions, which is a major downfall.
 
Originally posted by: archcommus
Microsoft Money has officially been discontinued. From what I read Quicken ain't too great and is likely to be killed off in the coming years as well (even though they're trying to grab up Money customers right now). That leaves me unsure of where to turn. The nice thing about services like Mint and Quicken Online is they pull in all your data for you. This is great because I don't want to reconcile transactions by hand. However, I cannot rely on an aggregation service as my primary financial management. For one, Mint doesn't even allow manual entering of transacations. So how am I supposed to track a check that I write that someone doesn't cash for two weeks? And second, I would really like to hold a copy of my own data on my PC. All in all, I'm looking to store my own data, run my own reports, but have something that can sync with the banks, and maybe even allow mobile viewing. Basically, everything MS Money used to do.

So what do you do? My choices seem limited.
Click to expand...

I use a highly customized version of this Excel template: Text

The template is fine as is, but as you use it you'll probably end up making customizations. For example I like to track taxes in detail, and I like to have a summary section at the top of the sheet that tracks gross income, taxable income, taxes, post tax income, post-tax deductions (health, dental), take home income, total expenses (minus taxes & amounts auto-deducted from my paycheck), net income, etc. That gives me an overview of what's going on each month.

I also added a couple rows to track cash, so i know how much cash I should have, and project how much cash I'll have at the end of each month.

I prefer this to mint.com because I can customize it as much as I want. If you aren't familiar with Excel you might not be as inclined to use something like this.
 
Some people are too stupid for checking accounts. The bank should require you to pass a financial quiz before granting you an account. That would get rid of all the "two rent check" morons.
 
I tried using Quicken for a while, but there are so many issues with duplicate transactions it is worthless. It tends to show an debit from one account and a credit to another as a two transactions, which completely screws your category reporting. And yeah, their support sucks. As a result I just don't keep track of it anymore.
 
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