First off, let me say that I have been an avid user and sometimes even an evangelist for Microsoft Money. For the past five years I have downloaded and categorized every expenditure. It's empowering to see where money is going and to set (and keep!) a budget.
Over these last years I have upgraded Microsoft Money three times. Each time I am filled with anticipation of how much better the new Money will be. I read on the box about all the 'enhancements' and I'm sold. However, once installed, the new version is barely distinguishable from the old version. So, I decided that this year I would not be upgrading. I would continue to use the old version.
Well, it seems Microsoft thought otherwise. The main feature that makes MM so indispensable is that it aggregates and displays all of your bank account transactions automatically (can you imagine entering these manually in excel?). It turns out that this part of the software expires after 2 years. So if you want to continue banking bliss with MM you are forced to upgrade whether or not you believe the new version is that much more magical than the one you have.
My version expires today and I'm not upgrading! Microsoft uses a company called Yodlee to accomplish the automatic downloading of all your bank accounts. It turns out that Yodlee offers the same service direct to the consumer! There is no software to install rather everything is done online via Yodlee's website. In fact, Yodlee actually was able to link to ALL of my accounts while there were still a couple that MM could not incorporate.
After using Yodlee for a few days, I will say this: It definitely lacks some the extras that MM has. But I never made use of those extras anyways. I was only interested in downloading and categorizing all of my expenses across all of my accounts. Yodlee does all this, does it better than Microsoft Money, and perhaps the sweetest thing is Yodlee does it all for FREE!
Microsoft Money has been invaluable to me at tax time. Since all my expenses were categorized, my total spending for the year in any area was only a mouse click away. If Yodlee were not able to analyze your spending in this way then that would have been the deal killer for me. Fortunately, Yodlee can show you your total spending in any category across every account for custom time periods. You can even make your own categories and sub-categories.
Suffice it to say that Yodlee is a viable alternative to Microsoft Money.
Over these last years I have upgraded Microsoft Money three times. Each time I am filled with anticipation of how much better the new Money will be. I read on the box about all the 'enhancements' and I'm sold. However, once installed, the new version is barely distinguishable from the old version. So, I decided that this year I would not be upgrading. I would continue to use the old version.
Well, it seems Microsoft thought otherwise. The main feature that makes MM so indispensable is that it aggregates and displays all of your bank account transactions automatically (can you imagine entering these manually in excel?). It turns out that this part of the software expires after 2 years. So if you want to continue banking bliss with MM you are forced to upgrade whether or not you believe the new version is that much more magical than the one you have.
My version expires today and I'm not upgrading! Microsoft uses a company called Yodlee to accomplish the automatic downloading of all your bank accounts. It turns out that Yodlee offers the same service direct to the consumer! There is no software to install rather everything is done online via Yodlee's website. In fact, Yodlee actually was able to link to ALL of my accounts while there were still a couple that MM could not incorporate.
After using Yodlee for a few days, I will say this: It definitely lacks some the extras that MM has. But I never made use of those extras anyways. I was only interested in downloading and categorizing all of my expenses across all of my accounts. Yodlee does all this, does it better than Microsoft Money, and perhaps the sweetest thing is Yodlee does it all for FREE!
Microsoft Money has been invaluable to me at tax time. Since all my expenses were categorized, my total spending for the year in any area was only a mouse click away. If Yodlee were not able to analyze your spending in this way then that would have been the deal killer for me. Fortunately, Yodlee can show you your total spending in any category across every account for custom time periods. You can even make your own categories and sub-categories.
Suffice it to say that Yodlee is a viable alternative to Microsoft Money.
2 comments:
this proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt- you are a NERD!!
Yes, yes, it is true. Zut Alors!
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