Rating: 
Summary: Nice Budgeting
Review: I like that Money 2004 will "grab" all of my transactions from my checking and credit card accounts. No more typing in every transaction!! It's good to know the shortcut keys too: Ctrl+M to mark transaction as cleared. I can also classify (in addition to categorize) my spendings as I'm learning to follow the "60% solution" budget. (http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Savinganddebt/Learntobudget/P36153.asp)
Bad thing is the undo doesn't work well. I keep having to load my backup file whenever I realize I made a mistake.
Rating:
Summary: Tax Estimating Feature
Review: I plan to purchase Money 2004 Deluxe in spite of other reviewers' remarks that the improvements are not worth its cost. Costco sells it for $16.99 (list price of $46.99 less $30.00 rebate). I am paying quarterly estimated federal income tax, and estimating it correctly is an important feature of the software. I am assuming, of course, that the 2004 version reflects recent changes in the federal income tax laws, such as the lower tax rate on dividends and capital gains, although I did not find that mentioned on the Microsoft website. I am quite satisfied with the 2003 version, and I expect the same from the 2004 version. One of my gripes is the formatting of printed reports. Quicken would adjust the font size to fit within the margins of a page. Money does not do that. So you end up with reports that do not fill between the margins, or that require two pages side by side, or that truncate entries in some columns. Tedious trial and error is required to find the best font size for a specific printout.
Rating: 
Summary: Pocket PC ? - Don't buy!
Review: I purchased Money 2004 for use with my Pocket PC. I have had nothing but trouble with it. It will not Sync properly and gives bad data.
Rating: 
Summary: No Need to upgrade from Money 2003
Review: I start using Money since 98. I was pretty happy since then. Last month, we upgraded to Money 2004 from Money 2003. After using it about 1 month, I would say it is disappointed. Even with the $40 rebate, I still don't see the reason to upgrade it from 2003. The "New" and "Improved" features are just too small in the whole application. I can't "feel" it when I am using it. Save your rebate postage and the money and wait the next version; if you plan to upgrade it.
Rating: 
Summary: I have never been a fan of Microsoft Money....But
Review: I think they did a very good job of branching out into the real world with this product. The credit reporting feature and the ease of setting up a savings account with ING was definitely novel.I like their portfolio management features overall. The unfortunate part is that the extras really do a great job of selling the product, not to mention the rebate. So is it marketing or quality? You decide why you might keep it.
Rating:
Summary: Money is still the best product
Review: I used to be a big Quicken fan, but switched to Money a long time ago. The connectivity and richness of the interface just can't be beat. The auto statement download features make it worth the money. I bought the 2004 version to replace my 2003 version, but the only draw back is that there isn't much to justify the cost. It is more of an incremental upgrade. But what I would recommend is replacing every 2 years, or hold out for a very substantial rebate offer.
Rating:
Summary: Supports both US and Canadian financial institutions
Review: I used to be a Quicken user unitl i had a need to access and sychronize against both US and Canadian banks/brokerages. This was the main reason I switched to MS Money. I still think Quicken was the better product but it is useless to me now that I have accounts in more than one country.
Rating:
Summary: Save your cash and buy Money 2003 Standard
Review: I was new to the personal finance software area when I bought Money 2003 Standard. I love that product! In general it is extremely easy to use and really powerful. I track everything in there. I downloaded the trial version of Money 2004 Deluxe and was completely unable to find any new features except the Credit Report thing that really isn't integral to Money, its just a way for Experian to get more customers. I noticed that in 2004 Microsoft stripped Money Standard to be much more bare--just personal finance tracking. No tracking of Investments! Now only Money Deluxe and up support it. If I were you, I would highly recommend saving some cash and buying Money 2003 Standard. With 2003 Standard, you can track your finances, your investments, you assets (e.g., your home), your liabilities (e.g., your mortgage) and do essentially everything that 2004 Deluxe can do. You will get all the same features at less than half the price!
Rating: 
Summary: Could not read my 2003 file!
Review: I'm sorely disappointed in this new version of Money, because it can't even open my 2003 money file. There's no indication as to why. It just ignores my old file and start a new, blank file without alerting me. (Luckily it didn't corrupt the old file, so I was able to roll back to Money 2003 easily.) In terms of interface, it looks and behaves pretty much like Money 2003, so I think this is just a minor update.
Rating:
Summary: Money 2004 vs. Quicken 2004
Review: I've been a user of Quicken 2001 and this year decided to upgrade. After reading all of the negative reviews on here, I decided to first try MSN Money 2004. It works great, but I wasn't as comfortable with the way things are presented, so decided to also try Quicken 2004 Deluxe. Here are a few thoughts on the two programs: 1. Presentation-wise, I like Quicken better. On the view pages, boxes are lined up with each other, while Money just positions them as there is room. I also like Quicken's graphs and charts a little more, and the fact that Quicken's options allow you to see your net worth on the first page, while Money just shows account values on the first page so you have to click to another screen to see your net worth). 2. On investments, I think Money gives you a lot more information, including information about your best and worst performing investments, etc. 3. I think Money also has a bunch more features than Quicken might, and you get a lot of free options like MSN bill pay, free subscription to Money Magazine, etc. All said, I think either program is a decent choice. After using Quicken for 3 years, I think I'm just a little more partial to Quicken just because it's more what I'm used to. Otherwise, Money I think gives you more bang for the buck. Just to let you all know, I haven't had any bug issues with either program. Not sure if the other posters screwed things up on their own or just got early versions of the software that were buggy, but things have been smooth with respect to both programs. I also haven't experienced a bombardment of advertisements as some users are reporting.
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