Quickbooks or Alternative for Personal Finance Tracking

[Southernmiss]

What do you use for personal finance/family finance tracking? We have used Quicken for over 25 years with a one time purchase version.

I am replacing a 10 year old laptop and will need a new something. Quicken has been easy to use and meets our needs of check register, financial record keeping and allowing us to itemize some things for taxes.

I hate that all computer programs have gone to annual subscriptions.

I also would hate to loose all of our data from so many years.

Any suggestions of other products or is an annual subscription of Quicken still my best option?

 

[disneychrista]

For personal finances I just use excel.

 

[Travel60]

First, back up your Quicken. If you are used to Quicken and it serves your purposes, sign up. I think Microsoft has a similar product - maybe Microsoft Money. Have not used it and it's probably subscription also.

 

[EACarlson]

I use Wave for my side business tracking. It would work for family finances but it's not nearly as user friendly as Quicken. I've tried Mint before and that worked fairly well. Both of those options are free.

 

[lovesmurfs]

First, back up your Quicken. If you are used to Quicken and it serves your purposes, sign up. I think Microsoft has a similar product - maybe Microsoft Money. Have not used it and it's probably subscription also.

It's no longer published by Microsoft, nor supported. Just my semi-regular rant that I truly miss Microsoft Money. It was great, easy to use, and provided information in the format I could apply and use in my life.

I've tried Quicken (I try every three years or so), but it just doesn't take for me. I do use Mint when I'm looking for my investments and account information all in one place. I've also tried You Need a Budget. Also didn't take.

I do use the Ramsey EveryDollar -- just as an easy way to monitor money coming and going.

 

[_19disnA]

I also use Excel. If you don't run a business or have any other types of complications, Excel (or any of the various free versions you can find) is very flexible and lets you make it as simple or complicated as you want. You can add/remove individual line items for income or expenses and easily apply formulas to project out your balance for a certain horizon (such as a calendar year).

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

I have been using Quicken for probably 15 years. I as well hate the annual subscription model they have now but just suck it up. It works easy. I could likely do excel as I don't import from my banks/credit cards. But it's just what I'm used to and not worth the hassle of figuring something else out.

 

[stevelle]

I got so used to Quicken when it came on a Mac I bought back in the day. When I finally had to replace it about ten years ago I switched to Moneydance. It was very similar to Quicken and works great for me.