Financial Management and Personal Finance Software

I have been using Microsoft Money for a long time.  I think the first version of Microsoft Money I started using was version 3.0.  Back in the days, I had a choice of Quicken or Money on the Windows platform.  Since I was buying it to help me manage money, I chose the cheaper of the two.

I was taught by my mom to have good records of my money so that I won’t over-spend.  She used to use pen and paper to keep track of family spendings. It was a lot of labour just to write down the numbers, perform the calculation using a calculator and balance everything.  Even though she was used to it, I don’t think I would have the patience.  Nonetheless, I got into the habit of really watching my personal finance after I got into having credit card debt once.

As much as I have used it for years, Microsoft Money was a poor piece of software in a lot of ways. The last version I upgraded to was Money 2006 and they were still using Windows 95 style dialog boxes for file saving.  It lacked some shortcut keys for editing the entries and made mouse clicking a compulsory exercise in using the software. Also charting and the reporting were primitive.  Since I started using an iMac, I was thinking about finding an alternative to Microsoft Money as I do not like running a VM in my iMac just for Microsoft Money.  I used to boot up my netbook so that I can use Microsoft Money, but I found it becoming a hassle and it was almost breaking my habit. So on  with the exploration for new software.

I wasn’t going to use the web based financial applications as I still don’t have enough confidence to trust some company in the cloud to store and secure my financial information.  So I looked at a few different personal financial software that runs on OSX.  I ended up picking Jumsoft Money for a few reasons:

1. Very easy migration, importing the QIF exports from Microsoft Money was a breeze.  I had no problems seeing how “transfer” transactions from one account to another are linked and if there are duplicates, it was very easily identified and be removed in seconds.
2. Having a running balance is critical for me to see and project my financial health especially for future credit card payments.
3. Categories and subcategories are available to help me manage income and expenses.
4. Color coding entries help identify recurring or specific entries without any effort.
5. Filtering of all transaction by keyword helps finding information super quick.

I am sure there are other software which is just as good as Jumsoft Money.  But there is this coupon code ‘APPLE’ you can use during check out at the Jumsoft web site to get 50% off from Jumsoft money.  Essentially I only have to pay $20 for it and that made the deal!  Thanks Giancarlo Gomez for the coupon code :)

Oh, there is also the iPhone version of Jumsoft Money that you can download and it is free!  Though a bit slow to run, it did allow me to carry my financial information with me.  Also while you are at it, you may want to get some free goodies from Jumsoft as well.

Here are some Jumsoft Money tutorial videos from http://apptorial.com/ if you are curious.

For more Money tutorial videos, you can visit http://apptorial.com/?s=money&x=0&y=0

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