Upgrade or not (qH&B 2006- ?)

I'm running H&B 2006 also. I'm waiting until 2009 comes out (should be in August or so) before I decide.

At that time, my options are: 2009 from Intuit OR either 2007, 2008 purchased on eBay.

Lastly, remember that all version of 2006 are expected to lose external connectivity in April 2009 (or thereabouts).

db

jo:

I find that Express Web Connect (IF and WHEN it works) is a major improvement introduced in Q2007. The IF and WHEN are huge caveats. I have about 24 accounts that DO work with EWC, 8 accounts that do not. Decent .750 average, but it SHOULD be 1.000 ideally

Bob

2007 somewhere if the conscensus was that 2008 was still too buggy. Am I setting myself up for torture by even considering an upgrade to any new version or have they finally patched 2008 so that it functions reasonably well.

Thanks,

jo

Well, I'm not sure that I'm qualified to answer ... since I don't run either -- But I'll answer anyway.

From what I saw on the Intuit sponsored Quicken forum (before I discontinued my association with it), it appeared that the majority of the complaints about Q fell into 2 categories:

1) Express Web Connect, 2) Newbies who don't understand how/what the program is doing ... and think that it should work THEIR way.

(I'm purposefully excluding the complaints about Quicken.com, since that's not an integral part of the program).

The complaints about EWC don't particularly concern me, since only 1 of my FI's is "WebConnnect" and I only have 5-10 transactions with the FI per month ... so doing the manual Web update isn't onerous. I believe that John Pollard's estimation that the EWC problems lie in the authentication area are sound.

On the second point, I'm FAR from being a newby.

Lastly, my primary financial website is Fidelity.com (although I do periodically glance at Q.com). So the Q.Com issues don't particularly concern me either.

db

I'm not generally into recommending products. But I can't see where you should have a concern.

Quicken comes with a 60 day money back guarentee: if you don't like it ... send it back.

I recently upgraded from Q2005 Deluxe to Q2008 Premier ("premier because it came free with the beta test, not because I thought I necessarily needed it). I have no meaningful complaints about Q2008 ... but that's just one person's opinion.

One of the problems with your question is that no one else can tell what characteristics of Quicken are important to you (and even if you try to tell us what's important to you, there's a good likelihood you'll miss things that are important).

The bottom line with your question is that no one can tell you what you will like.

In my opinion, your best bet it to "try it out". If you don't like it: return it and get your money back.

jo:

If you have a Chase credit card, you SHOULD be using Direct Connect. Express Web Connect is "enhanced" Web Connect. IOW, you can set up a Web Connect to update with One Step Update. Doesn't work perfectly, many glitches with EWC. Direct Connect is MUCH preferable, but not all Financial Institutions offer that.

Bob

Bob and Dan,

Excuse my ignorance but what is Express Web Connect? I download from Chase Visa/Master Card using the "Intuit Quicken Web Connect QFX" download type. Is that the same or is Express a new form?

Are you saying that I might have trouble downloading from Chase with Version 7 or 8 because of this? What kind of problems do you run into? Is there a way to download into Quicken without this feature?

Thanks, jo

Out of curiousity what kinds of things are newbies expecting

Trying to catalog the errors that some have blamed on Q (instead of their own ignorance) would be exhausting ... but here's a couple of my favorites:

1) "Lost" transactions -- Cause: the user sorted the register so the new transactions were no longer at the bottom 2) Wanting a single amount to be reflected as BOTH an asset and as an expense -- (i.e., accounting nonsense) 3) Not understanding the difference between an Income/Expense report vs. a Cash flow 4) Not understanding that there's only 4 kinds of registers (Income, Expense, Asset, Liability) and wanting a single account to be more than 1 (i.e., more nonsense) 5) Insisting that new transactions should be at the top of the register (as if that's the way one's paper register works) 6) Screwing up one's back-up methodology (particularly when appending the date to the name of a backup file), so that the file(s) names get longer and longer and longer -- (indicating that the user is using the backup file rather than the primary ... and then backing up the backup ... and then repeating the mistake, and repeating, etc.)

There's probably more, but those came to my head quickly.

db

p.s. there's a caveat that I'm compelled to add to John Pollard's response above (which I agree with for the most part). Any installation of a newer version (year) of Q will un-install prior versions. Your data will be backed up by Q before the un-install, but the software will be gone. SO, if you decide to revert to a prior version, you'll need to reinstall that older version and then -- possibly -- re-input any transactions that were input in the interim. Quicken is NOT file compatible on a version to version (year to year) basis. You might be able to re-download them (to the extend that they're associated with a downloadable FI), but the intervening transaction(s) will NOT be in the pre-uninstall backup file.

Hi, Dan.

That's a pretty good list of newbie expectations. ;^{

Thanks for posting it.

RC

This is the default, but it can be over-ridden. It's been a while since I did it, but I think you just hold down the CTRL key when clicking the first button in the install process and Quicken will not attempt to uninstall other versions.

too unusual or even perfectly. It beats anything I could do manually by far. Out of curiousity what kinds of things are newbies expecting out it? There *are* some flaws ( or weird behavior), which I think I'll address separately, but I've gotten so used to them that I just overlook them. I can imagine my sister having a fit as a newbie with a few things if I could get her to use Quicken. She prefers to look at the bottom line on her brokerage statement and thinks she knows where she stands financially :{ jo

I was intrigued by your last statement "She prefers to look at the bottom line on her brokerage statement and thinks she knows where she stands financially :{ "

For those of us who are less knowledgeable, can you explain - if it is feasible to do - how you use Q to better know where one stands financially?

Thanks.

Jeff

It's somewhat improbable that one's ENTIRE financial life is at the brokerage.

The mortgage/rent payments, employee income, 401(k), credit cards, CASH, utilities, groceries, medical, insurance, etc would all be missing from the brokerage statement ...

Yet Q can, readily, summarize all of the above (and MORE) in a single report.

db

Good points.

Jeff

jo:

If your sister is wealthy with no debt, AND that wealth is concentrated in one brokerage firm, that's not so crazy.

Bob

I'm using Smith Barney, Fidelity, Wachovia, and Chase. Never use Q.com.

I'm far from a newbie either, so don't expect Quicken to do anything too unusual or even perfectly. It beats anything I could do manually by far. Out of curiousity what kinds of things are newbies expecting out it? There *are* some flaws ( or weird behavior), which I think I'll address separately, but I've gotten so used to them that I just overlook them. I can imagine my sister having a fit as a newbie with a few things if I could get her to use Quicken. She prefers to look at the bottom line on her brokerage statement and thinks she knows where she stands financially :{ jo

jo,

It does sound like your sister is not wealthy enough to ignore the details, or have someone else to attend to them for her. Quicken is pretty formidable and intimidating to the casual user, especially the way you seem to ride herd on your finances ;-) Your sister is fortunate to have you available as a resource should she ever choose to be more proactive. I wish both of you the best.

Bob P.S. I'm a piker compared to you :-)

"jo" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@26g2000hsk.googlegroups.com... Bob,

She isn't "wealthy" but in better shape then many because of an inheritance. What I feel is that she has no hard numbers on how individual investments are doing, nor does she have anything more than a gut feelings about if her spending is on track with either her subjective, conservative budget, or how it stacks up against her income, which is not consistent and largely comes from the investments. Yes, i know it could all be derived from the statements but it would take a lot of work to really get specific on performance, income and expenses just from the brokerage statement. There's something much more meaningful (IMHO) to seeing some of theQuicken reports that show you exactly what you spend (and on what), what you earn, and what kind of real return you're getting from the investments. I'm not saying she throws away money, but I think she has her head in the sand where it comes to planning for the future. As she gets older (already 61), she's going to have to depend more and more on the investment income, or prepare to work more (she has always hated anything but part time work), because she will have nothing but Social Security to live on, and that will be a low rate because of her work history. If it weren't for the inheritance, I don't know how she would manage, but I'm concerned that she is too casual (and too conservative) about this nest egg (I'm not excluding myself from problems with this, bTW, but we are talking about her).

I know that when I see a quicken report telling me how much I really spent on tabloid magazines, or "junk food"( snacks from convenience stores), or Medical, it had a much bigger impact than just looking at a big number on my brokerage or bank statement. It can be very deceptive to the brain to see that your net worth increased a couple grand from month to month. When you dig for the details, you often find that that couple of grand represents a very small yield on a few large holdings. If nothing else it gives you pause to think when you can see Quicken's 1-3-5 year returns for each security, or how much your spending exceeded your income, and where you frittered money away. The impact of detailed analysis is much more than when looking only at the bottom line.

Just my $.02

jo:

Oops, I should have used a less ambiguous term. I meant "piker" in the sense of:

"When someone fails to meet the expectations (go out, drink, party nothing expected on a weekend apart from sleep) fails to last an interval of time.

A lazy worker who only worries about his sick time, paid time off, vacations, and any other paid holiday. He worries more about taking time off than making money or working hard."

I'm sorry to hear about your disability. I commend you on making your income go as far as possible. I don't imagine I would be as disciplined.

I do have an idea for you. I've just opened a savings account at Alliant Credit Union in Chicago for some of my idle cash. Their regular savings account is paying 3.93%; APR of 4.00%. If you are keeping money in a money market fund earning less than that, you may want to consider checking out Alliant.

Actually, I *AM* glad I got you started, it opened my eyes to how helpful Quicken can be.

Bob

"jo" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@p25g2000hsf.googlegroups.com... Bob,

What does "piker" mean? I looked it up online and came up with both stingy and tightwad! If that's what you meant, I'm a piker too in selective areas. I keep much more detailed spending records than anyone I know, and I don't spend money on certain common categories, like travel, entertainment, clothes, hairdressers, but I don't NOT spend on something I really want or need. Spending is actually a problem for me... always has been. My stepmother once told me that there would never be enough money in my "hands" to satisfy my insecurities, and she's right. But I have some real world situations now that make me very glad I was so tentative about spending and started investing decades ago. I'm on disability.. have been for 20 years... and next year when I turn 65, the company disability policy terminates and I'll be left with just SSDI and whatever my portfolio can produce. Unfortunately the disabiity policy didn't have a cost of living factor, so the $1400/mo I got in 1986 is the same amount I get now, and the minimum I'll have to replace. Between SSDI and the private amount, I was doing fine in the early years, but by now, my out of pocket medical expenses have risen dramatically (medigap premiums are pretty bad already and I don't see them improving). I also think there's a good liklihood that I'm going to have to start hiring people to help me with the house, although I hate the idea, stubborn creature that I am . So, all I see for me in the future is increased outgo and decreased income, especially in the current economic climate, and it's made me cautious about spending. Not so cautious that it stopped me from retrofitting central A/C into my tiny row house with no ducts, and not so cautious that I won't replace my dinosaur of a computer (just a baby at 7 years old) in the near future, but just slow to make some financial decisions. It has both positive and negative aspects. I drag my feet often when I should just make up my mind, but I am in much better shape than most single women my age and health are. I bless my former company every day for even having an LTD policy in the 1980's. I had no idea I would need it.

I nudge my sister periodically, but can only do so much when I'm guilty of the some of the same procrastination she is. I didn't know what to do with the inheritance so stuck it in a money market fund. That was fine until recently when rates became so terrible. The broker who handles the account was my father's, and more than willing to help me "do something" with it (my words, not hers) if I could just give her my goals. There were so many health distractions in the last

6+ months that I just couldn't focus on it so I haven't done anything yet. So big sister doesn't have all the answers, by a long shot! I'm good at collecting my data but not so good at taking steps to make a master plan. Little sister doesn't do either, but she does think that I know everything about financial issues and i can't seem to persuade her otherwise.

How do you use Quicken? Does its reports change your spending habits? I was pleased to see that I've reduced my convenience store spending this year by about $100 already just because I no longer get coffee and cookies there. It's a small but satisfying triumph. My 3 cats, on the other hand, are costing me a fortune to feed because they are so picky. I think I almost spend more on cat food and litter per month than I do on groceries for myself! It's these tidbits of fascinating minutia that Quicken alerts me to. Aren't you glad you got me started?

jo

On Jun 8, 10:32 pm, "Bob Wang" wrote: