I’ve been using Money for several years, primarily as a check register but even at that it’s easy and thorough. I used to be more diligent about entering every receipt myself but now it just downloads most everything from the banks’ websites.
The problem with any software is that they add a ton of bells and whistles that most people don’t use to justify their existence.
I use Microsoft Money and I probably use 5% of the features.
Eg, I set up the accounts (a pain), I enter my transactions and I run a reports (also a pain to set up). I do not use the charts, I do not use the advice, and I don’t do any account management via signons and passwords. I’ve mimiced my paper records (which were too difficult to keep up with with a manual calculator).
If you’ve never used such software, I would suggest buying a sprial notebook and write down all expenses for a month before setting the software up.
My categories (that I’ve used for 20 years) are:
food & entertainment
car (gas, parking, everything)
appearance (exercise, clothes, medical)
miscellaneous
books & records
hobby (this needed it’s own category)
phone
financial expenses (finance charges, account fees, work expenses)
trips and gifts
Housing (Rent, Utilities, Insurance, Taxes, Furniture)–I used to use several categories, now I don’t.
Income taxes
Social Security
Medicare (These I had as one category and now split them out to match the paycheck stubs).
I found the myriad of choices in the software to be far too much.
I have used Money for years – works perfectly for my needs – I don’t even scratch the surface though on its capabilities.
A sheet of paper and a calculator?
I’ve been using Money for several years, primarily as a check register but even at that it’s easy and thorough. I used to be more diligent about entering every receipt myself but now it just downloads most everything from the banks’ websites.
The problem with any software is that they add a ton of bells and whistles that most people don’t use to justify their existence.
I use Microsoft Money and I probably use 5% of the features.
Eg, I set up the accounts (a pain), I enter my transactions and I run a reports (also a pain to set up). I do not use the charts, I do not use the advice, and I don’t do any account management via signons and passwords. I’ve mimiced my paper records (which were too difficult to keep up with with a manual calculator).
If you’ve never used such software, I would suggest buying a sprial notebook and write down all expenses for a month before setting the software up.
My categories (that I’ve used for 20 years) are:
food & entertainment
car (gas, parking, everything)
appearance (exercise, clothes, medical)
miscellaneous
books & records
hobby (this needed it’s own category)
phone
financial expenses (finance charges, account fees, work expenses)
trips and gifts
Housing (Rent, Utilities, Insurance, Taxes, Furniture)–I used to use several categories, now I don’t.
Income taxes
Social Security
Medicare (These I had as one category and now split them out to match the paycheck stubs).
I found the myriad of choices in the software to be far too much.