Software : Microsoft Money Premium 2004

Rating: - Helps Me
Helps me to balance my books and keep on top of my finances. Thanks to MM2004 I have a complete picture of my finances.

---

Rating: - microsoft money
Microsoft Money Deluxe 2004
I had the earlier version of money and it did very well. This version is very problematic. It is full of bells and whistles which override your entries. Finally, it eliminated all the content from my money file, costing me 10 months of entries and work.

---

Rating: - The Utlimate Spyware/Adware Combo
This is the worst software purchase I have made in the past 2 years! The password protection -- Passport vs. standard -- is extremely confusing. The fact that the software talks with Microsoft gives me the creepy feeling that it's collecting data on me. I do not like the idea of an institution like Microsoft having complete access to my monetary data. This idea of remote access is rubbish. In my entire life I have never ever needed to check how my investments were doing while in the middle of a busy day. Not only does it have all my information, it also has a nice little banner that cheerfully asks me to Upgrade Today to Microsoft Money 2005. I paid for this software, and I'd appreciate that, if Microsoft wants real estate on my desktop it should pay for it!! The amazing thing is that, while it uploads my most materially important information to MSN.com and forces an advertisement in my face, the anti-adware/spyware softwares do not even detect this hellish piece of trash. I'm seriously considering going back to Money 99.

---

Rating: - having problems converting Quicken files
I'm a longtime Quicken user, but because of the sunset on Quicken 2001 I decided to take a look at Money 2004. Money converted my Quicken files, but ALL of my accounts (bank, IRA, mutual fund, brokerage) had errors.

Money outputs a word file saying there were problems, but gives no details. The file only says "Your Quicken file contained invalid transaction types". It does not list out what transactions had problems. Other accounts have the wrong balances and no explanation at all. Some transactions are missing for no apparent reason.

OK, so I resigned myself to stepping through each account to try and find the problem transactions. I found the problem in one of my mutual fund accounts: Money defaults to average cost basis for mutual funds, and I had used FIFO in Quicken. It was a challenge to find a way to correct this. Just reentering the transaction doesn't work. Even though the program allows you to select the lots to be sold, it still calculates the account basis using average costs. After much searching, I found that going into the security detail page and changing the tax lot accounting there would correct the problem. Not an obvious place to find a solution to a transaction problem.

Now, when I change my "home view" to "Investing", the program crashes. There's probably some way to tiptoe around to make the program happy, but I don't really want to invest the time. Luckily I had a backup I could restore.

Money 2004 has many nice features, but I need a stable product.


Note that Money 2004 Deluxe has a sunset in Sept 2007. Money 2004 Standard has a sunset in Sept 2006.

---

Rating: - it won't run on xp
I installed the product. and it won't run on my XP professional!!!
don't waste your money.