Ten years ago today I started using Quicken. Big deal right? It used to be bundled with PCs and new Performas (Apple’s really disappointing consumer-friendly Macs). At PowerComputing it was bundled with every computer they sold amongst many other useful pieces of software, namely Now Up-to-Date which I still use (iCal may be free, but it’s far from impressive which is a story for another day).
I had already begun tracking my debts back at the beginning of 1995, mainly to pass the time of being underemployed. There’s only so much you can do with an Excel spreadsheet though. I also can’t recall why I had an aversion to Quicken during my year as a temp with Apple neither. Whatever it may have been, it was pushed aside since I just bought a car. It was the most expensive thing in my life I had ever borrowed money for then. Despite having a permanent job with PowerComputing, I still was nervous about paying off the loan successfully. Quicken appeared to be the remedy for what Excel couldn’t do and keeping track of the break down on where my money was going on this car (gas, maintenance, interest, etc.). Too bad I didn’t really seriously reconcile my checking account until 2000. The only downside I find with the software is it being bound to the calendar year (there may be a way to change this, but it doesn’t matter now) so I couldn’t analyze any complete, comparitive data until 1998. Still, I give it a piece of the credit in assisting me with paying off my car, paying off my Sallie Mae loan, finding out how much of an albatross my credit cards were and putting me on track to buying a house. I also got Somara into the partial habit of using it in 1999 while were dating since she shared my earlier problems of not knowing where the money exactly went.
Maybe Quicken just caters to my “typical American” obsession with numbers, projections and pretty, 3-D graphs. It does make me feel good when I see the red square showing my current value always on the rise every month despite being worth negative money (home ownership does that).
Sadly, it is no longer included with the new iMac and Minis Apple announced last week. Not sure why and now that the Y2K idiocy is well past us, I can’t find a compelling reason to pay for anything higher than the 2005 version I already received with my Mini. If you’re not using something electronic to help keep track of the money situation though, I have to recommend Quicken. I don’t recommend its online stuff in which it communicates to your financial institution to withdraw money, etc. Some things are best left in the “Dark Ages.” And until my friends Jeremy and Adam publish something better because I recall them muttering about how much they dislike Quicken, I have to give the product my personal endorsement.