Comments on: Goodbye Quicken!

Question: Goodbye Quicken!

Slarty Bartfast — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:20:58 -0800

Recently converted from Quicken to Mint.com and am finding it a bit disorienting...

1. How do I keep track of checks before they clear?

2. What do I do with my monthly statements now?

I've always used Quicken like an electronic checkbook register: enter my withdrawals and deposits as I made them and reconciled with my statement at the end of the month. Obviously, this is much more labor-intensive than it should be in the internet age and that's why I'm switching. That and the fact that Quicken on the Mac is *awful.* I think I just need to get used to account balances being a couple days behind what I've actually spent, and make sure I leave a comfortable financial cushion, but I am wondering how others have made this transition.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:20:56 -0800

This might not answer your question, but I asked about Mac-based financial software here, which suggests alternatives to Mint.com.

By: sexymofo

sexymofo — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:23:28 -0800

1. You don't.

2. Throw them away.

Mint is nothing like Quicken, for the most part. Think of Mint as a dashboard to your financial information but not anything like accounting/bookkeeping software such as Quicken.

By: The Bellman

The Bellman — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:10:24 -0800

Not to derail, maybe I should ask my own AskMe, but I checked out Mint because of this question. It looks amazingly great, especially as I have accounts at a number of different banks that I'd love to aggregate, but is there any reason to trust these people? Handing over bank account log-ins and passwords to be stored on their servers seems like financial suicide. Isn't that essentially thing one on the list of things you don't do: "Never give anyone your login and password!"?

By: emilyd22222

emilyd22222 — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:11:03 -0800

Rudder might suit your needs better, I think.

By: special-k

special-k — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:33:39 -0800

By: The Bellman

The Bellman — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:40:30 -0800

Thanks special-k!

By: smackfu

smackfu — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:56:14 -0800

Obviously, this is much more labor-intensive than it should be in the internet age and that's why I'm switching.

Quicken shouldn't really be that labor-intensive. All the data just downloads, and you accept it, and then at the end-of-the-month, those transactions are pre-cleared.

That's hard to believe that mint has no way to track checks though. Or even just debit card transactions that haven't posted yet. That could cause serious overdraft problems on a checking account.

By: Slarty Bartfast

Slarty Bartfast — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:05:21 -0800

Rudder might suit your needs better, I think.

I'm not seeing where Rudder says you can manually enter transactions.

Mint is nothing like Quicken, for the most part. Think of Mint as a dashboard to your financial information but not anything like accounting/bookkeeping software such as Quicken.

I guess my question comes down to, does one really need bookkeeping software such as Quicken?

By: Slarty Bartfast

Slarty Bartfast — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:08:02 -0800

Quicken shouldn't really be that labor-intensive. All the data just downloads, and you accept it, and then at the end-of-the-month, those transactions are pre-cleared.

No it shouldn't, but it has always been so buggy for me (I'm using the shitty Mac version) that I have to go through everything manually and it doesn't connect to several of my retirement accounts.

By: Chris4d

Chris4d — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:17:39 -0800

There's currently no way to track checks before they clear. I keep enough of a buffer that I don't worry about it, but I bet a lot of people would like this feature.

Since Mint pulls your info directly from the banks, there's no sense in checking Mint against your monthly statements. I keep my paper statements on file just in case (in case of what, I don't know), but I don't even bother reading them anymore.

Mint is a work in progress; there are a number of reporting and tracking features that I would like to see that simply aren't available (at least, not yet). The great thing about a free web service, though, is how easily they can be modified and enhanced over time. Since I started using mint, they added the ability to track personal assets like cars and homes, and the investing tab is a lot less buggy than it used to be. Will the mint guys code your favorite pony wish? Maybe; send them some feedback so they know what you want. I think it's a pretty solid service for what it does, and it can only get better.