Financial Planning

In this article I would like to conduct a personal finance software review of the Quicken product offerings designed for personal use. There are several personal finance software products on the market that do wonderful jobs of helping families manage their finances, but I am most familiar with Quicken as I have been a user of its products for over eight years. I have been completely satisfied with the features Quicken provides and would like to review and compare the benefits that its product offerings deliver.

Quicken Starter Edition

Formerly known as Quicken Basic, the Quicken Starter Edition is an excellent solution for individuals who will be using personal finance software for the first time. The three main features the Quicken Starter Edition delivers are: (1) balancing of your checkbook electronically, (2) tracking how you spend your money by being able to categorize purchases, and (3) monitoring and updating all your investment and banking accounts in one place. It basically provides a “one-stop shop” for all of your personal finance concerns.

Quicken Deluxe

Although the Quicken Starter Edition is a fantastic product, I believe the average family considering a personal finance software product should start with Quicken Deluxe. The reason is that, in addition to offering all of the features of the Quicken Starter Edition, Quicken Deluxe provides the capability to download banking and investment account transactions automatically. This makes reconciling your checking account, as well as your other accounts, extremely simple. In addition, Quicken Deluxe allows you to create savings goals and track their progress, store statements and records electronically, and plan for a new home, a baby, or retirement. For most families, this is the best place to start.

Quicken Premier

For those families who manage their own investments and require additional tools to monitor and measure their progress, Quicken Premier is the perfect solution. Quicken Premier offers all of the wonderful features from Quicken Deluxe plus several others, including: (1) generating various investment performance reports, (2) analyzing and optimizing your portfolio with special tools, (3) generating Schedule A, B, and D tax reports, and (4) setting investment alerts to notify you when certain conditions are in place. A truly remarkable tool for the do-it-yourself investor!

Quicken Home & Business

The three software solutions above are all excellent choices, but if you own your own business, none of these will be sufficient for the additional monitoring and record keeping required of you. Enter Quicken Home and Business. Though not as powerful a solution as Intuit’s QuickBooks products, it is the perfect choice if you have a small business with no payroll requirements, or especially for a part time business. In addition to providing all of the wonderful features of Quicken Premier, Quicken Home and Business allows: (1) tracking and categorizing of both business and personal expenses, (2) creating customized estimates and invoices, (3) generating profit and loss reports, (4) tracking vehicle mileage and other Schedule C items, and (5) monitoring upcoming bills and unpaid invoices. If you are considering a small part-time business, this solution is perfect to get you started.

In conclusion, Quicken offers a wonderful lineup of products that are designed to meet the varying needs that different families require. This personal finance software review has aimed to provide you with a basic overview of each product to help you decide which solution would be most appropriate for your family. Hopefully this discussion convinces you of the incredible value personal finance software delivers to its users. I can only speak from personal experience.

Personal Finance Tips for You includes twenty-four topics covering an array of areas. The author states in the introduction “it is important to know as much as you can about managing your personal finances in these economic times.” Some of the areas covered are credit card traps, keeping on track to pay your bills, handling your checkbook, the price of gas, identity theft, catching up on retirement planning, what to do if you receive a lay off notice from your job, checking your credit report and talking about finances if you are planning to get married. These are just a few of the topics. There are many more.

The first topic covered is Don’t Get Caught Up in The Credit Card Trap, Stop Yourself Before That Happens. This is a very important chapter for everyone to read because it is so easy for this to happen in tough economic times. The author offers several excellent tips to help anyone who has this problem. It is clearly explained why it is so important for you to pay down the credit card debt.

Another important topic covered is How Do I Keep On Track to Pay My Bills on Time. The author gives the reader some tips on creating a budget and keeping track of your income and expenditures.

How do you survive the high cost of gas? We all know, not long ago the price of gas kept soaring. The author gives us many tips on how to save money by doing some simple things like consolidating trips just to name one of the pointers. There are many tips mentioned that I never thought of myself.

How do you establish your credit if you are young and just starting out on a job? Nocita Carter tells you exactly how to go about doing this.

Do you think you can save any money by just saving your change? This is one of the tips made by the author. I can personally vouch for this one because each day when I purchase an item, I take the change and add it to an old coffee can. After a few months, it gets quite full. I am always surprised by the amount of money I saved from my loose change.

I could go on and on with each chapter because there are so many good points in this book but I think you get the message and would get more out of Personal Finance Tips for You if you purchase it and read it yourself.

There are several aspects of this book that I really liked. It is written in language that is very easy to understand. It is not like some of the other books on finance that require you to have a dictionary by your side as you read. The book is very organized. Each chapter starts with an introduction to explain the topic. Once that is done, the author lists several tips to help the reader accomplish these tasks. Nocita Carter has written this book in a manner that makes the reader feel like they have a personal finance expert right there beside them. Personal Finance Tips For You is recommended for any age. It will be a valuable tool for younger people who are starting their first job. On the other hand, one is never too old to find something they did not know in this book. After reading this book, I learned quite a few tips to help me with my finances. You will find this an excellent resource guide to keep by your side at all times.

Bad credit and bills can come upon you quickly. As a teen just entering the “Real World,” they can get behind quickly if not given the proper tools. They will spend years of their life behind before they ever got started. This type of tragedy can be prevented early. With some simple steps you can help your young teen prepare them for the “Real World,” and be on their way to success.

Now is the time to teach budgeting to your teens. When I was in school I was given a course on budgeting, shopping, and tricks to survival. My father used to rave about how this course changed my perspective on money and life.

With budgets of schools decreasing this type of class was no longer offered, but in today’s society it is so incredibly important for our teens to not fall victim to poor spending habits.

Teaching our kids now will make them independent and less likely to have to rely on others for money in later years. It is these lessons that have kept my credit good over the years and the honor of buying my own home at 22 years old.

It doesn’t take much to show them and to give them the direction they need to succeed. With these tips you are sure to aid your teens in becoming successful adults.

Some things to work on are:

Grocery shopping and how to shop for food the right way. This will prevent them from needing fast food and eating out a lot. Cooking simple and easy meals they can freeze or reheat later on. This will keep their foods stocked and they can learn to stretch food out over many meals. Simple budgeting and checkbook balancing. You can get a teen a checking account and work with them on keeping this balanced and teaching them good habits from the beginning. Organization of their bills, needs, wants, and money coming in. Something as simple as writing out a plan they can follow can go a long way.

As a parent this accomplishes a few things in my life. I am teaching my child to be responsible with her money and situation, as well as by her taking on some of these rolls to learn I am free to do a few other items. This saves me time as they are learning to contribute to society.

Give your teens the best gift you can give by teaching them simple budgeting skills, money savings tips, and cooking tips.

If you look at your bank account and wonder where all the money went, or swore you paid a bill and now you are told you are past due, you may have a budget problem or no budget at all.

This is not something that is taught in our traditional public education system. Young people are not usually armed with the knowledge of how to budget effectively unless their parents taught them.

There are numerous books, videos, and software out there for your reference on budgeting but it can be quite simple actually. Unless you are a chronic, habitual spender, then you might need to think about Spender’s Anonymous.

1. Write down all your incoming cash flow and all your bills.

2. Keep a check register. Today we all swipe our debit cards and think nothing of it. It isn’t as easy to have your register handy when you use plastic instead of a checkbook.

But if you keep track of your purchases from home once a day or a couple times a week, you will then know what you are spending your money on and you can make some changes if you need to.

3. Categorize. Have a category for food, fuel, bills, entertainment, etc. This will help you realize how much of each check is going towards what you need. If you have some leftover you can move it to another category that needs some more or you can save the extra cash.

4. Think twice when making purchases. When you think you just have to have something, take a deep breath and really ask yourself if you need this, want to spend money on it, or if there is something more important you can put your money towards.

Once you have effectively thought and answered these questions, you will be able to make a better purchase decision.

5. Don’t borrow money. Don’t apply for credit cards because of the rewards or you want to blow money you don’t have. Spend cash for everything and you’ll not end up in so much debt that you can’t see over it!

Perhaps having one credit card with a small balance would be smart for emergencies, but then don’t carry it in your wallet. Keep it at home.

6. Start saving something now. Anything will do and when you have a chunk, you can then put it into something that will earn a better return. Most people think they have to have thousands of dollars to invest or to save but that is simply not the case.

You can pay for a financial professional to help you with your investment portfolio. That in and of itself is a good investment!

7. Find ways to cut back. If you only use half your cell phone minutes most months, reduce your plan. If you don’t watch TV, get rid of your cable. Dial up internet service is good if you rarely get on your computer and is cheaper than faster connections. Go to local farmers markets and buy your produce.

8. Shop at thrift stores and yard sales to find things that would be nice to have but you can live without it being brand spanking new.

9. Children grow out of clothes so quickly, shop at the thrift stores till they are grown.

10. Speaking of children, do they really need an iPhone, an iPod, a Playstation, a Wii, an Xbox, and a Gameboy? Kids can entertain themselves pretty good and it is cheaper!