I just ran into another problem with Q2010. When in Quicken and I click on the "Investing" Bar on the left panel expecting it will display the Investment Portfolio (as it does in previous versions of Quicken), all it does it expand or collapse the accounts under Investing. It does not take me to the Portfolio Screen as it in other versions. How do I get that action back - where I click on "Investing" and it displays the Portfolio Screen?
Thanks Charlie
Click on the "Investing" tab at the top, then click "View" and finally "Portflio".
Yes, the ability to open the Portfolio view from "Investing" in the account bar has been removed. :-( I don't know why. It was just another quick way to get there.....
Regards,
Margaret
Yes, thanks for the replies - just one more step in the wrong direction :)
Charlie
Hi, Margaret.
The quickest way to get there is to just add a "Portfolio" button to the Tool Bar. Then it's always just one click away. ; quick way to get there.....
Actually I do have a Portfolio button on the toolbar, but it was nice to be able to click "Investments" in the Account bar if I happened to be over there with the mouse. :-)
BTW, RC, I noticed that you are using Deluxe and are happy with its investment features? I'm wondering if I really need Premier. I thought of downgrading to Deluxe this year before I bought 2010, but I didn't when I read on the box that Premier provides more tax info. Not sure what that means.
Can you and/or others elaborate on just what features Premier has that Deluxe doesn't?
Thanks and Regards,
Margaret
I agree this is a nuisance. But if you right-click on the Investing bar, the top choice is "portfolio".
I upgraded to Premier for the first time this year after many years of using Deluxe. After a couple of weeks of using Q2010 Premier, I think I wasted the extra $30. I thought that the extra investment features advertised would be useful as recently I have been spending more time analyzing my investment portfolio than I had previously. So far, I haven't found any additional useful features over what I was used to in Q2008 Deluxe.
According to the Quicken website, the extra features in Premier are:
Other than the Morningstar ratings, I think I was able to do all of this other stuff easily in the old Deluxe version.
I don't use Quicken for the tax info. At tax time, I let TTax download all of my investment tax information from the mutual fund website.
I hope this helps.
John
Hi, Margaret.
When I first started with Quicken and TurboTax in about 1990, I got the most sophisticated versions because my tax situation was pretty complex (Schedule C, limited partnerships, REITs, municipal bonds...and other things). But after several years - and a few Quicken editions - my financial life became less complicated. And I read the back of the Quicken box a little more carefully. Most of the premium features I was paying for were things that I didn't need anyhow. Much of the "tax advice" was simply copy'n'pasted from IRS publications, which by then were freely available on the Internet. (The little movies that started appearing on the annual CD-ROMs were cute - but not worth the added cost.) The various planning wizards were superfluous to me: I was already retired; my only child had finished college; and my finances were pretty much down to a few stocks and some CDs - which Quicken STILL doesn't know how to handle in ANY version.
Then I realized that Quicken Basic had ALL the actual functionality that was in the more expensive versions. And so did TurboTax Basic. After all, can you imagine the uproar if it turned out that TurboTax miscalculated your tax if you didn't buy the most expensive version?! The premium versions added bells and whistles, but the most basic versions had everything that was really needed for actually keeping track of all my finances and reporting my taxes.
So I switched to the Basic versions of both Quicken and TurboTax - and have never regretted it. Then Intuit abandoned the Basic version - or maybe just renamed it - and Deluxe became the baseline version, so that's what I use now.
It might be helpful (to you, Margaret, not to me) if you make a list of the Premium features that YOU use that are not in the Deluxe versions. Study the list and make up your own mind as to what those features are worth - to YOU.
To me, this is not a large matter anyhow. I just paid $40 plus sales tax for Quicken 2010 Deluxe. I don't have TurboTax for the 2009 year yet, of course, but last year I paid $50 plus tax for 2008 Deluxe. That's less than $100 for a year's worth of both home bookkeeping and tax programs that fit me very well. In my tax-only CPA practice before 1990, my minimum fee for an income tax return was $250. I consider the Quicken/TurboTax combination a bargain. Even if I had to pay 50% more to get the Premium Editions, it still would be a bargain!
Obviously, I'm not an unbiased appraiser of these values. You will have to decide how much weight to give my opinion in making your own decision.
RC
Thanks, RC.
It's very difficult to tell exactly what Premier has that Deluxe doesn't, and I suppose that's the way Intuit wants it. I suspect I really don't use those additional investment features, but you're right. Quicken is indeed a bargain, even with my faithful yearly upgrades. :-) I do love Quicken, but I was just curious about the feature comparison between Deluxe and Premier.
As far as TurboTax goes, I gave that up some years ago and now use TaxAct, which I find easier to use, considering I like to manually edit forms more than TurboTax wanted me to! During the many years I did use TurboTax, I too purchased only the Deluxe version after a year of not using the premium version's bloat.
The last few years I've beta-tested TurboTax, although I skipped this past year. To each his/her own, but I find TaxAct to be much more straightforward (and a lot more cost effective)! The lesser cost is a boon, considering I prefer TaxAct to TurboTax. (I do like It's Deductible and am really bummed it's no longer possible to use it as a standalone app. I'm not bummed enough that I'll use TurboTax, though.)
Anyway, thanks again, and best regards,
Margaret
I use Tax Act for several years now and have found it meets mine, family members, and the seniors returns I do, quite nicely. I don't charge, enjoy getting that pie etc, and can only remember once in about 5 years when presented with a rather complicated return, and there I told party to try HRBlock which they did. Next year I did their return reviewing what HRB did the prior year and everyone was happy. I didn't understand your "standalone app" comment though. I take it Deductible is some kind of software that has passed the "you can take it test". Kind of reminds me of the year (like 45+ years ago when reviewing old returns I uncovered claiming Doctor expenses for our dog. He was a Vet.. Hopefully the statue of limitations has passed.
"It's Deductible" still allows all users to input charitable contributions during the year, but to get the actual deductible figures, users must import "It's Deductible" data into (purchased) TurboTax. In the past, we could simply run a report -- after paying for "It's Deductible," that is.
TaxAct now has a limited charitable deduction calculator, but its database is largely limited to clothing and household items -- no tech stuff, etc.
AFAIK, statute of limitations is null and void if the IRS can prove fraud. So unless you're still deducting dog expenses, you're probably OK. ;-)
Regards,
Margaret
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