Rating: 
Summary: BEWARE: Microsoft Money 2004 Online Services Policy
Review: ...Basically, Online services are now a "SUBSCRIPTION" service and will self destruct (ie stop working) after a period of time and FORCE you to upgrade to a new version. Thanks, but NO Thanks Microsoft. What a way to force users to upgrade to Quicken or some other competitior. Won't be long until your copy of Windows will stop booting 2 years after you installed it. "Online services valid two or three years from first use. Online bill pay, downloading transactions from your financial institution, downloading stock quotes, and the ability to synchronize with MSN® Money Plus or MSN Money expire two years from first use of Microsoft Money Standard or September 1, 2006, whichever is earlier. Online bill pay, downloading transactions from your financial institution, downloading stock quotes, and the ability to synchronize with MSN® Money Plus or MSN Money expire three years from first use of Microsoft Money 2004 Premium or September 1, 2007, whichever is earlier."
Rating: 
Summary: What a deal!
Review: 2004 Standard Moneys for under 20 bucks! booya! -Gnome
Rating:
Summary: What a deal!
Review: 2004 Standard Moneys for under 20 bucks! booya! -Gnome
Rating: 
Summary: We Are Microsoft, We Know What Is Good for You
Review: As with many other Microsoft software products, it appears that some software who hasn't used the program decides that some feature or interface that has been around forever long is now passe or that a new and different feature is just the thing that everybody wants (Bob, Clippy, etc.). Microsoft Money is a prime example of a strange new interface. Some things I like, but I am doing extra work to get results.
In Quicken, budgets could be entered in a spreadsheet format so you could see budget categories on the left and months across the top with totals for each month and each category AND you could decide exactly what the budget should be. Does Microsoft follow this simple and effective approach... Nooooo? You mark an item as recurring and it automatically with no "should-this-be-part-of-your-budget" question. Theoretically this seems like no big deal, but it doesn't work right. I spent most of a Sunday afternoon trying to stop paychecks from appearing twice. It isn't just items appearing twice, it's my monthly parking that simply refuses to show up even though I've done exactly the same steps as my paycheck. I guess I'll stay with it, but I will be trying Quicken.
Rating:
Summary: Microsoft Money is a waste of my money
Review: At $20 (after rebate) this is way overpriced. For all practical purposes, this is a glorified spreadsheet. All the extra things are merely annoyances or little gotcha's that you have to fork over even more $$ to microsoft to use. If this is an improvement over previous versions, I'm glad this is the first one I've used. I couldn't even use it to edit a simple budget after I'd entered only one(!) scheduled deposit. Overall, annoying and worthless. I'll buy quicken next time.
Rating:
Summary: Great as a free demo, not worth that much otherwise
Review: Go to the Money 2004 site and READ the FAQ. Basically, if you convert from Quicken or an older version you can never go export your data back out. No version of Quicken can read Money 2004 and no older version of Money can read 2004. Also this version has a subscription service which you need to renew in order to keep it going. A last it is fully integrated with .net, which I don't find a good thing. Even when you turn off all the features to make sure your financial data does not get sent anyway, the product still finds a way of bombarding you with the latest and greatest financial news, at least the way MSN sees it. Stick to you're old tried and true, or you'll find yourself up late reinputting all your last months transaction. It's 3:53 am now...
Rating:
Summary: You'll be sorry!
Review: Go to the Money 2004 site and READ the FAQ. Basically, if you convert from Quicken or an older version you can never go export your data back out. No version of Quicken can read Money 2004 and no older version of Money can read 2004. Also this version has a subscription service which you need to renew in order to keep it going. A last it is fully integrated with .net, which I don't find a good thing. Even when you turn off all the features to make sure your financial data does not get sent anyway, the product still finds a way of bombarding you with the latest and greatest financial news, at least the way MSN sees it. Stick to you're old tried and true, or you'll find yourself up late reinputting all your last months transaction. It's 3:53 am now...
Rating:
Summary: Great as a free demo, not worth that much otherwise
Review: I downloaded the free trial of Money from Microsoft's website and decided to give it a try. The trial runs for 2 months and it allows you to do pretty much the same things as in the full versions.
My first impressions are mixed. On one side, the interface is very slick and it sure looks like a good tool for managing everything. On the other side, my Excel files do the same thing for free, lacking only cool graphics and buttons.
While updating accounts seemed to work pretty fast, what it updates is a mess. I spent most my time working with my Brokerage account, since that was my main interest. For once, while the stocks were imported correctly, the tools were showing me bad stocks as leaders that make me the most money. Follow that and you'll either become a Warren Buffet or file for bankruptcy ... Second, the info was really not personalized. I was being sent to the MSN Money site for further information or for plotting the stock shares evolution ... Well, how can I say this: MSN Money, same info I was being sent to, is actually free. I go there anyway, to update my Excel files.
Some of the other features were not of big interest either. The only that were, required additional payments (GainKeeper, for Schedule D, etc).
Overall, I am not impressed and will not buy this software. I think everything it has can be done in Excel and while it may take you a while, at least you'll know what you do.
Rating:
Summary: The worst software I ever saw...
Review: I find this software is a good tool to help me track spending and investments, though it does have some annoying flaws. The first is the forecasting that it does on accounts is worthless, it takes an asset account that receives a nominal increase monthly and projects a two month increase far in excess of what the historical trends, and common sense, would suggest. It does this as well with credit accounts, for instance I had a credit account with $700 with a 6 month no interest period, over a 5 month period, with monthy payments and no interest, it was paid down to $35, the forecast tool took this information and predicted in two months the account would be at - $5,000. Other annoying things, the prompt on the home page that I should enter the monthly interest on my AMEX card, the advertisements and notices that my money would do better in accounts held by advertisers, the difficulty enterering the actual price paid on fractional share purchases, and the difficulty in handling the mortgage payment transactions when part of the monthly payment goes to a escrow account to pay taxes and home insurance. That said, the product is a good tool for househiold budgeting and financial record keeping.
Rating: 
Summary: A good tool with flaws
Review: I find this software is a good tool to help me track spending and investments, though it does have some annoying flaws. The first is the forecasting that it does on accounts is worthless, it takes an asset account that receives a nominal increase monthly and projects a two month increase far in excess of what the historical trends, and common sense, would suggest. It does this as well with credit accounts, for instance I had a credit account with $700 with a 6 month no interest period, over a 5 month period, with monthy payments and no interest, it was paid down to $35, the forecast tool took this information and predicted in two months the account would be at - $5,000. Other annoying things, the prompt on the home page that I should enter the monthly interest on my AMEX card, the advertisements and notices that my money would do better in accounts held by advertisers, the difficulty enterering the actual price paid on fractional share purchases, and the difficulty in handling the mortgage payment transactions when part of the monthly payment goes to a escrow account to pay taxes and home insurance. That said, the product is a good tool for househiold budgeting and financial record keeping.
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