Free Quicken Software

I am so excited for this Free Software from Quicken. I am not sure, has it been out there all along and I didn't know it? Either way, I stumbled upon it a few days ago and am already so very happy with it.

Quicken Software is pretty well known, or at least it was by me, but I never wanted to spend the money on it ( ahhh...yes, I am frugal...we all know that by now )

So, when I saw they had free access, I thought, well, I'll give it a try. And, I am VERY pleased. I am going to have to highly recommend it to any of my readers who are taking part in bank offers with me, as this is a great way to keep all your records straight.

Here are some of their features:

• Automatically downloads all your bank accounts and credit cards and Paypal, etc
• Categorizes your transactions
• Access from computer or cell phone
• Security Safeguards
• Bill Reminders to your cell and email accounts automatically

I am looking around my account right now and you also have a Transactions tab. This is where all your transactions from your accounts will show in one spot. No need to log into multiple accounts.

You also have a tab for Tracking your spending. What this means, from what I can tell thus far ( I am still in the process of linking all my accounts ), is it will show me how much I spend on Groceries, how much for my Electric Bills, Gas, etc, etc. It pulls in the details from my banks and credit cards to track it.

Finally, it has a tab for a Budget! I have always done this in excel before, but I am going to set up my 2009 Budget in Quicken this year. This way I will have one consolidated view of my Budget and my spending in one spot. And, with alot less work than what I have been doing on my own.

Interested in trying this free software, too? Click here.

And, don't forget, 2009 is right around the corner. I cannot advise enough how important it is to sit down and put a budget together and track your spending. As you can tell from my Week In Review each Sunday, I track all my earnings and savings. BUT, I also track all our spending, too and compare this to our budget. Without this view of what goes in and out of our household financially, we would never know if we were on track for our goals or where we stand when we need to make large life decisions.

For example, buying a home, automobiles, vacations, remodeling and any other large purchases that may spring up on us during the year could not be decided in the best interest of our family if we didn't have a budget. Without knowing where we stand and how we spend, we would have no idea what decision was the right one to make.

When we bought this house 5 years ago, the bankers told us we could afford a house over double of what this cost us. Seriously, they wanted us to spend hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars MORE than what we had decided our budget could withstand. I actually laughed in their face ( probably not very nice ) when they told me the number.

Of course we could afford that number ( especially if we would have taken out one of those nice loans they were offering back then...look what happened to the housing market thanks to all those ) BUT, hmmm...how would we eat, ever take a vacation, afford a car, cloth ourselves, etc when we had this huge house payment weighing on us? How would be furnish our home? And, frankly, we didn't want to pay PMI!

No, because we had a budget and knew how much our food cost us, our gas, our vacations, our clothing and entertainment, our donations, etc, etc...we KNEW the number they quoted us would NOT work for us! I truly believe knowledge is power. And, when it comes to your family and the finances that keep you fed and clothed, make sure you have the power! Know your budget and your spending!

Please...BUDGET, BUDGET, BUDGET for 2009! Whether you use this Quicken tool or put together a budget yourself in excel, just make the effort to do this for your family!