Damn, I've been using MS Money for about 10 years now. It always worked for me :(

I read an excellent article about Microsoft's marketing people taking control of Money's feature set... right around version 2004. I will never go higher than '03. if I must, I'll keep one XP machine to run it.

Too bad I freakin' loathe Intuit and Quicken...

If you buy a new computer after January 31, 2011, you won't be able to install your the existing, fully paid-up copy of Money THAT YOU OWN on it.

Bye-bye, Money! Bye-bye, past years' data!

I am really disappointed over this decision. I have been using MS Money since 1999. I have upgraded faithfully each year and I have tried Quicken each year as well but always uninstall it after a week because MS Money's stability, features, and wider bank relationships are better. I truly hope Microsoft eventually makes a return, or some other more competitive product to Quicken comes on the market.

It's a REALLY old version. It works on XP but I never tried to put it on my laptop with Vista.

But now, I use Mint.com.

For those who need it done right.

Still using MSMoney 2004 here, basically just an automated checkbook and bill reminder for us. I've been looking for an alternative for a while; thanks for the tips!

Does anyone else find suspicious or depressing MS' claim that there's no demand for integrated solutions? To get your financial picture from a bank website is extremely short-sighted, and I refuse to give all my data to a hosted platform (Mint et al).

[www.mechcad.net]

I had the same problem someone else mentioned, previous backups not importing into older/newer versions of the software. I have the free version that comes with my laptop, Money 06. I never really used the online features, I always import the transactions from my bank into the software. I use it as an electronic checkbook, really, and a spreadsheet for budgets. According to MS, it will work like that forever till it is incompatible with an OS. I'm fine with that.

For those of you looking at freeware alternatives I would like to recommend "GNUcash". Once you learn how to use it (rather simple) it's a breeze to use. I never used M$ money, and was an avid quicken user till about 2 years ago. Now I go to "GNUcash" and I like how portable it is.

Link to it below:

[portableapps.com]

I love it and glad I left quicken.

Also, if there is something it doesn't do, you can always go to the web site and make the suggestion. They might actually listen to you better than MS!

Now I know, and they're going away forever. Now what, Mr.RussTheConsumerist, now what?!

(Actually, I have the clunkiest, most ridic. Open Office workbook you could imagine going. Everything in there from my "what if" to "if I make this from scratch, will I save money?" sheets. I'm a dork. With a kickass budget.)

It may be as legit as anything ... but the site design is too poor for me to trust it.

(I.e., CMD-A selects all in EVERY SINGLE PROGRAM, except Quicken, where it brings up a list of accounts. So, so annoying, there are no words.)

I still refer back to our MS Money records on my old PC, and find it tremendously accessible, and would have used a Mac version in a heartbeat, if one were offered.

"CAN PEOPLE PLEASE STOP VISITING THE BAKED IN RAT THREAD SO THAT ITS PIC DISAPPEARS FROM THE BANNERS ABOVE? KTHXBAI."

Heh, I didn't even notice that article until you complained that people keep visiting it...

*click*

D'oh! Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

I've been using Mint lately, but the fact that it only pulls information from your online accounts (and only if the account info is available online - our car loan isn't) and won't let you enter transactions directly is a drawback. Not to mention the fact that in Mint, I can't look a month (or three, or six) ahead and see when bills' due dates are coming up.

Our copy of MS Money says it won't "expire" until September, 2010, so by then we should have time to find a suitable replacement.

While individual banks may be offering "a lot of these services," I have yet to see a bank's site that integrates with another bank. Is it really that uncommon to have accounts at different banks?

I tried Quicken (on the Mac) for about a week and was very disappointed by their synchronization methods. For many banks, their electronic download method goes like this:
1. Click a link in Quicken
2. Wait for that bank's page to load in your web browser.
3. Log in manually.
4. Navigate to your account.
5. Find the export link.
6. Download the transactions manually.
7. Import them into Quicken.
8. Go back to step 4 for other accounts at the bank.
9. Go back to step 1 for other banks.

Here's how it worked in Money:
1. Click the update icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
2. Click the Update Now button.
3. Wait for transactions to download.
4. Click OK on the status dialog.
5. DONE!

Seconded! Ugh.

Money isn't perfect, but it has really helped me keep up with my bills. Because I don't receive many paper bills by mail anymore, and because I pay almost all of them online, it really helps to have a piece of software that reminds me what's due when. Do any of the online services like mint or moneydance do that?

I've used MS Money for YEARS. I love it. It integrates perfectly with my bank(s) and helps me stay on budget.

It makes me sad.

Also, on a side note...

CAN PEOPLE PLEASE STOP VISITING THE BAKED IN RAT THREAD SO THAT ITS PIC DISAPPEARS FROM THE BANNERS ABOVE? KTHXBAI.

Thats all.

While, yes, it's a great start and a decent alternative for those on *nix who can't get Quicken working, it's still got a long ways to go.

I never really used all of Money's other features, and I use multiple computers at home and the office, so a web-app/cloud solution seems like a no-brainer.

But they will probably leave the servers going for a while to provide a semblance of service for the program. They just won't have updates and new features and such coming out in the future.

Like all Microsoft stuff, you just hope it dies soon and goes away :D

I bought Quicken Cash Manager 2k9 a few months ago after looking at a few alternatives and it's made an incredible difference in our personal finances by just showing us all stupid spending we were doing. Within 3 days, it had paid for itself.

I had looked at MSM oney but couldn't find anything about a Canadian version while hunting around.

Yes. Money is great. Nice and light and works flawlessly.

For my small business work, I use Gnucash[2]. It requires more knowledge than Moneydance.

[1] -- [www.moneydance.com]
[2] -- [www.gnucash.org]

I use Money but I have to say that it has the most bizarre system of opening a database if you're doing a fresh install. It also seems that every new version of Money was progressively worse than the previous one. I lost my Money '99 CD and was forced to buy Money 2004. They should have stayed with the fast / lean '99 engine.

You had me at foibles.

I refuse to use Web-only solutions. Not only do I loathe the possibility of data theft or, say, Mint deciding they'd like to sell users' transactions to corporate interests, but I don't feel my data should be kept outside my home or my handheld. The data stays with me.

Quicken is not an acceptable alternative to me. Their software is buggy as hell (and that says a lot when you're comparing to Microsoft), and their support is just about the absolute worst among software companies. Intuit's also the company, if anyone remembers, that got caught rewriting hard drive boot sectors so they could try to catch you installing pirate software.

I'm hoping GNUCash comes out with a stellar new 2.4 release or that some of the other software companies/teams step up to fill the void. I'll just have to ride this one till the wheels fall off.

I made the mistake of using this a few years back. I would upgrade each year and then one year the new version refused to read my data even from backups. Wasted more $ calling microsoft tech support who told me my file and all backups were corrupt. So I ended up having to run the old version on one computer and the new version on another.
That was one of the many issues I've had that convinced me to switch to open source software.

Maybe some enterprising soul will hack a way to get the stock price updates into the software. Assuming, of course, that MS makes that somehow possible.