Everyone knows computers are great at calculations, so why not put your computer to work calculating your own precious pennies? Did you know the average person spends 2.2 hours per month balancing their checkbook and 4.9 hours per week monitoring their investments? Who wouldn’t want to shorten the time spent and improve the accuracy of the results, as well?
There are two great products on the market today vying for your business in the personal finance area. Quicken by Intuit and Microsoft Money have been in a competitive race for years. Computer users appreciate a personal finance program for its excellent management of the tasks they do most often – banking, bill paying, and compiling reports. Both money management packages focus on obvious areas of personal finances from banking to loans and insurance.
In the unhappy and stressful financial atmosphere of 2002, the major difficulties facing Americas are dealing with their time crunch, a volatile stock market, and the constantly changing and complicated tax laws. Both Quicken 2002 and Money 2002 have stepped up to the plate to address these timely problems while continuing to offer help in balancing check books, keeping up with investments, and planning retirement.
Speaking of calculating, it could take a detailed spreadsheet to keep up with the comparative pluses and minuses of both programs. Through the years, Quicken and Money have been fiercely competitive. With each yearly version, they respond to the strength of their rival or correct any omission or weakness in their own program. Picking one program over the other could be difficult for a first time user.
Quicken 2002 Deluxe
Let’s look first at Quicken. If the latest release, Quicken 2002 Deluxe, is to be your introduction to Quicken products, this is a great place to start.
For Quicken Newbies
As a new user, you will soon learn to appreciate Quicken for its excellent management of tasks you do most often – banking, bill paying, and compiling reports. This Deluxe version of Intuit’s money management software focuses on key areas of your personal finances: banking, investing, taxes, planning, loans, insurance, as well as spending and saving. The ease with which Quicken manages and reconciles your bank and credit card accounts makes this software worth the investment. As a new user, you would be wise to allot adequate time to learn Quicken’s procedures. The learning curve of Quicken 2002 is the easiest yet, but it requires a substantial amount of time. For best results, each section should be mastered to maximize the benefits of the program.
For Quicken Veterans
If you are a long-time Quicken user (and there are a lot of them because Quicken has been around for seventeen years), what are the new features that should tempt you to upgrade to this latest version? “What’s new in Quicken 2002?” is easily answered with two words: power and ease of use. The latest version of Quicken has a redesigned setup as well as a new investment budget and great tax features. Users will enjoy the new automatic categorization for first time-entered transactions. Quicken is well known for its Internet connectivity to over 1,700 banks, brokerage, and credit card companies. This version offers an automatic reconciliation of your online and register balances. The new automatic reconciliation can be a time saver. If you are online and your register balances match, Quicken will automatically reconcile the account. The Portfolio Analyzer provides comprehensive and investment analysis and helps with tax decisions before selling investments. The one-click Scorecard offers step-by-step evaluations of stocks by four leading investing experts. Another new feature, the Paycheck Snapshot, has a wizard for entering your paycheck, including gross salary, tax withholdings, and contributions, which the program projects to your tax liability.
When it comes to tax areas, users will appreciate an improved capital gains estimator, tax planner, and tax category audit, along with a tax withholding estimator. Quicken 2002 integrates seamlessly with Turbo Tax and will move a year’s financial data straight into the tax software. Because Quicken’s data ties into Intuit's TurboTax, the best tax program on the market, Quicken holds a distinct edge over Money in this area. Money works with Kiplinger Tax Cut, a less impressive program.
Quicken claims to leverage the Internet better than any other product to help organize, consolidate, and manage personal finances. This close interaction with the Internet allows you to download your banking activity directly into Quicken and significantly cuts down on data entry time. All the pieces of your financial plan are summarized on a single screen. Activity lists provide a more organized access to Quicken features and easier navigation.
If you are one of the fifteen million active Quicken users and are considering an upgrade to Quicken 2002, upgrading is easy. In our testing, all data automatically transferred to the 2002 version without hassle. One caution, be sure to check out the system requirements; they may have changed since you last purchased a version of Quicken.
Quicken 2002 is available in five different versions: Basic ($29.95); Deluxe ($59.95 with a $20 rebate for previous Quicken users); Home & Business ($79.95 with a $20 rebate for previous Quicken users); Suite ($99.95 with a $20 rebate for all purchasers); and Home & Business Suite ($139.95 with a $20 rebate for all purchasers). The Deluxe version is also available for Macs running OS 9 or later, although it's specially designed for OS X.
Quicken 2002 remains the solid program of early versions for banking, bill paying, managing portfolios, planning, and reporting. If you are one of the millions of people who already use Quicken, there may be little reason to upgrade to Quicken 2002 if you are using a relatively new version. You will have to decide if you are willing to pay an additional $59.95 (less a $20 rebate) for these bells and whistles. Experienced users who want the latest in powerful tax and investment tools will want to give Quicken 2002 a long, hard look. Certainly if you are looking for excellent investment tracking and tax tools with reconciliation and automatic-categorization features, Quicken 2002 could be just what you need.
The Decision
Both Quicken and Money are great programs and very comparable. You can now understand the continued rivalry between the two. With software so similar, it may be tough to decide which one best suits your needs. Money seems preferable to new users. It is also the favorite tool of users who want to create and follow a budget to closely manage their finances. After they have done their homework, newbies wanting to experience a personal financial software program might want go with Money. This latest version, Money 2002 with all its new features, will be an excellent starting tool.
Experienced Quicken users who love to have the very latest in power and investment tools will find Quicken 2002 very accommodating. Veteran Quicken users addicted to the program’s excellent investment tracking and tax tools along with its Turbo Tax integration couldn’t get any better than the 2002 Deluxe version.
I doubt if Quicken 2002 will convert many Money users. And likewise. Experienced Quicken users, particularly those who are managing their investment portfolios and working with TurboTax, will find little reason to switch to Money. My feeling is that current users of both programs will probably avoid switching horses in midstream. I even doubt if many Quicken or Money users will upgrade to a newer “horse.” Whichever program you decide upon, saddle up. Personal finance software has never been a better bet.
You are only half done. Check out my review of Quicken's latest and greatest rival, Money 2002.
