Software for keeping track of savings and investments

LannieDuck

Thank you, I really appreciate the advice. I think I'll have a look at MS Money, and compare it to some spreadsheet templates.

Hooloovoo

I use Gnucash. I used MS Money for years but I had to find a replacement when I switched to Linux full time. I don't use Windows at all now.

Gnucash isn't quite as user friendly as MS Money was, but it's still a very capable piece of software. Better still, it's open source, free, and still in current development.

But if Quicken was too detailed for you, then I don't think any of these suggested finance packages are going to be any good for you. They are all designed for tracking individual transactions. Although I suppose if you ignored the default income and expense accounts and just used a few very broad categories it might work well for you.

Totton

Hooloovoo wrote: »

I use Gnucash. I used MS Money for years but I had to find a replacement when I switched to Linux full time. I don't use Windows at all now.

Might be worth taking a look at Moneydance as it works across Linux, Windows and Mac, it gets some decent reviews. http://moneydance.com/

Best Wishes,
Mickey

Hooloovoo

Totton wrote: »

Might be worth taking a look at Moneydance as it works across Linux, Windows and Mac, it gets some decent reviews. http://moneydance.com/

Best Wishes,
Mickey

Any particular reason you quoted me?

As I said I use Linux all the time now, so whether something also works on Windows and Mac is of no importance.

Not to mention the fact that in any case Gnucash also works on Windows and Mac, as well as BSD and Solaris.

I see Moneydance is not free. Why would I want to switch from a perfectly good piece of open source free software to something commercial and proprietary? If they choose to stop developing Moneydance will they give me the source code so I can continue using it on newer hardware and operating systems?

TL;DR - Thanks but no thanks.

ermine

Hooloovoo wrote: »

If they choose to stop developing [...(insert proprietary software name here)...] will they give me the source code so I can continue using it on newer hardware and operating systems?
.

I've started looking at Gnucash after having nursed a copy of Quicken98 over more than 10 years. So the open source issue will hopefully mean Gnucash remains serviceable on some platform for a while. With the amount of work that goes into entering the data on a finance package that strategic issue is a very big deal, and GC is the only solution that solves that.

Trouble is the graphical reporting in GnuCash is so revoltingly, stupendously, plug-ugly. I managed to make it work and import stuff, but any graphical reporting really is truly revolting, it shows its Linux heritage, we're back to the 1980s with no rounding, shading, 3D or even basic logic.

The net worth graph, f'rinstance, shows assets, liabilities and networth as blue, red and green bars respectively, all on the positive y axis (time going along the X axis). It's so much more obvious when liabilities go below 0 and assets go above 0. Quicken solved that more than 10 years ago.

But you can't argue with the price of GC, and for a way to enter transactions display current and forecast balances GnuCash works very well. I've never managed to make Excel work for me well enough to stay on top of multiple accounts and tranfers between accounts without ending up with an error-prone mess that is worse than not having anything at all.

Hooloovoo

ermine wrote: »

Trouble is the graphical reporting in GnuCash is so revoltingly, stupendously, plug-ugly. I managed to make it work and import stuff, but any graphical reporting really is truly revolting, it shows its Linux heritage, we're back to the 1980s with no rounding, shading, 3D or even basic logic.

It's true, the basic gnuplot output isn't very pretty. I've never really used it myself so it doesn't bother me. But ... you have the source code. You could always develop the reporting to make it prettier if it doesn't work to your satisfaction.

But you can't argue with the price of GC, and for a way to enter transactions display current and forecast balances GnuCash works very well.

I agree. It handles all my scheduled transactions easily and makes it dead simple to assign different expense accounts. It does everything I need.

I've never tried the business side of it, but I believe it is also accomplished in producing invoices and other business related tasks.

Vortigern

Microsoft Money 2002 still works for me. Share and UT prices still update online, on demand, without any additional software.

buffman

I have used Quicken for the last 10+ years. Nothing comes even close. MS Money, I found, too basic. Sadly, like MS Money, Quicken is no longer supported in the UK. However the last version (XG) works perfectly on a Windows 7 machine. See if you can get an old copy.

evenasus

buffman wrote: »

I have used Quicken for the last 10+ years. Nothing comes even close. MS Money, I found, too basic. Sadly, like MS Money, Quicken is no longer supported in the UK. However the last version (XG) works perfectly on a Windows 7 machine. See if you can get an old copy.

The OP said that they originally used Quicken but found it too detailed.

I have to agree with you though buffman. I couldn't manage without Quicken.

I've used it for the last 18 years and can trace financial transactions back to 1994.

Hooloovoo

evenasus wrote: »

I've used it for the last 18 years and can trace financial transactions back to 1994.

My earliest transaction goes back to 1987