biervoormij Posted November 25, 2023 Share Posted November 25, 2023 I have been using the program quicken for over 30 years. In the past each time I bought a new computer I would buy the latest version of quicken and load my past data in the new version. I think it is time to upgrade my computer but looking at quicken they have gone to a subscription type of service where I would have pay a fee each year to keep using quicken. Do you use something that keeps track of all your financial accounts in one place and would you recommend it? I am thinking it might be best to convert to using a spreadsheet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post proton Posted November 25, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted November 25, 2023 My wife does that! 1 1 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Morch Posted November 25, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted November 25, 2023 I don't, really. Easier that way. One of the nicer things living in Thailand is that the margins are wider, less worries. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post biervoormij Posted November 25, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 25, 2023 3 minutes ago, proton said: My wife does that! I don't have that program but have heard that the subscription fee is much higher than what quicken charges but a wife has many more features that quicken can't support. 1 1 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Rigsby Posted November 25, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted November 25, 2023 I only use this for personal use and it does exactly what I want, plus it's free. https://moneymanagerex.org/ 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BritManToo Posted November 25, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted November 25, 2023 I'm paid a pension every month, then i spend it. No need to track anything. 2 7 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post foreverlomsak Posted November 25, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted November 25, 2023 Excel Spreadsheet, designed specifically for my needs (future only 10 years, history is not retained longer than 6 months), containing 5 Thai bank accounts and 2 UK, fluctuation in exchange rates, elements to calculate account interest, also UK and Thai (if it happens) tax predictions. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bignok Posted November 25, 2023 Share Posted November 25, 2023 Sickbuffalo.inc Expensive But free farm girl Upgrade yearly for new girl 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jaideedave Posted November 25, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted November 25, 2023 14 minutes ago, BritManToo said: I'm paid a pension every month, then i spend it. No need to track anything. Same here BMT..Like you my pension gets transferred here every month and I use it all.My nest egg is separate from that. I'm fortunate enough to have no debts so its smooth sailing. BTW..are you mending okay since the H&R incident? 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Stocky Posted November 25, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted November 25, 2023 MS Money Sunset edition 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinyara Posted November 25, 2023 Share Posted November 25, 2023 Whatever format/categories Quicken presents the financial information you provide it with, just set up your own spreadsheet to do the same. You do the hard work providing the information, not the dedicated financial program. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post KhunLA Posted November 25, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted November 25, 2023 No need to track anything ... it arrives in my bank, after a few months, I withdrawal it, spend it, or try to. At end of the year, what ever is left, actually about 40% of it, goes in the wife's retirement/oops fund. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Rimmer Posted November 25, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted November 25, 2023 43 minutes ago, foreverlomsak said: Excel Spreadsheet, designed specifically for my needs (future only 10 years, history is not retained longer than 6 months), containing 5 Thai bank accounts and 2 UK, fluctuation in exchange rates, elements to calculate account interest, also UK and Thai (if it happens) tax predictions. I also use Excel, all encompassed inside one work book. We used it for monthly management accounts when I was running multiple operations in SEA and later when I ran my own business, no big numbers to crunch now, it is easy to set up, easy to use and very flexible, back up copy kept on a thumb drive. I think it is the best there is. 1 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneMoreFarang Posted November 25, 2023 Share Posted November 25, 2023 Excel 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rimmer Posted November 25, 2023 Share Posted November 25, 2023 My Excel top sheet looks like this and links through to other pages where necessary and automatically puts cumulative totals per years. Really easy to set up 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Lacessit Posted November 25, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted November 25, 2023 LibreOffice, free spreadsheet software with any Linux operating system. Just as good as Excel for my purposes. I record my incomes as I get them. I calculate my expenditures at the end of each month. Total at end of the financial year.. Every financial year, I total up my various assets, which change as I move in and out of investments. I have no liabilities. At my current rate of expenditure, I will be down to just pension income at age 105. 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biervoormij Posted November 25, 2023 Author Share Posted November 25, 2023 Thanks everyone for all the feedback it has been very helpful. I will start working on exporting some of my data to spreadsheets. I think I will delete most of it but think I should keep the cost-basis on my investment accounts. I will also try the program that @Rigsby was so kind to share. Thanks @Rimmer for an example of how to track my spending. @Lacessit hope you make it to that age where you are only living on a pension. 105 would be impressive. I don't get a pension so the idea of spending all my money in one month would be one great month but the next month I would have to join the flying from a condo group. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Lister Posted November 25, 2023 Share Posted November 25, 2023 1 minute ago, biervoormij said: Thanks everyone for all the feedback it has been very helpful. I will start working on exporting some of my data to spreadsheets. I think I will delete most of it but think I should keep the cost-basis on my investment accounts. I will also try the program that @Rigsby was so kind to share. Thanks @Rimmer for an example of how to track my spending. @Lacessit hope you make it to that age where you are only living on a pension. 105 would be impressive. I don't get a pension so the idea of spending all my money in one month would be one great month but the next month I would have to join the flying from a condo group. FWIW I also use spreadsheets to track monthly expenditure and to help me budget but I don't do it at the Macro level like Rimmer, instead I track things at the transaction level, eg Cash withdrawal, debit card purchase, etc and then add some detail as needed, that way, the balance on my spreadsheet equals my account balances. I think trying to track micro level details such as how much I spent at Big C, how much for a meal etc is too laborious and after a while you'll probably drop it, unless you're really dedicated. I think you have to go back to the purpose as to why you need the spreadsheet, in my case it's to A) make sure I don't overspend in the course of a month and B)make sure the different pots of money I have total an amount that grows every month and isn't reducing. Knowing how much you spend at Lotus, on telephone and food at villa isn't that useful, except perhaps as a one of exercise from time to time, it's the bigger picture that's important. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyExpat57 Posted November 25, 2023 Share Posted November 25, 2023 I use a combination of Excel spreadsheet and Outlook Calendar. Outlook is set up to remind me of income tax which I pay quarterly, property taxes semi-annually, and other such reminders. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukrules Posted November 25, 2023 Share Posted November 25, 2023 My brain 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonlover Posted November 25, 2023 Share Posted November 25, 2023 (edited) 4 hours ago, Stocky said: MS Money Sunset edition I'm still using the original MS Money, bought on CD in the UK in 2001. It runs perfectly well on Windows 11. Edited November 25, 2023 by Moonlover 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briley Posted November 25, 2023 Share Posted November 25, 2023 Stay with Quicken - only problem in Windows 10 is that the window opens blank, you have to change the window size to see all the details. Quicken works in multiple currencies, nothing else I tried does that satisfactorily. If Microsoft finally breaks quicken it will work on a Virtual machine - there are at least 2 that are free and you can install WinXP and everything works fine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisP24 Posted November 26, 2023 Share Posted November 26, 2023 18 hours ago, Lacessit said: LibreOffice, free spreadsheet software with any Linux operating system. Just as good as Excel for my purposes. I record my incomes as I get them. I calculate my expenditures at the end of each month. Total at end of the financial year.. Every financial year, I total up my various assets, which change as I move in and out of investments. I have no liabilities. At my current rate of expenditure, I will be down to just pension income at age 105. I tried software many, many years ago and found it too tedious, it was Andrew Tobias' Manage Your Money back in the 1990s. Excel is much more flexible, you can lay out your own spreadsheets in the way that best aligns with how you mentally view your finances. And then later I migrated to Libre Office, which as Lacessit states is a free office suite that includes a spreadsheet that's functionally equivalent (and cross-compatible with) Excel. It also includes counterparts to the other MS Office software. It works fine with Windows. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammieuk1 Posted November 26, 2023 Share Posted November 26, 2023 A small calculator but down to fingers this year 🤔 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
couchpotato Posted November 26, 2023 Share Posted November 26, 2023 Just curious why people want to track every cent/baht they spend. Seems counter productive having a program/spreadsheet to do this, but each to their own I guess. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longball53098 Posted November 26, 2023 Share Posted November 26, 2023 I have used this software "Home Bookkeeping" for about 10 years now. Has always worked for me. https://www.keepsoft.com/hbk/windows_hbk_about.php 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Lacessit Posted November 26, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted November 26, 2023 11 minutes ago, couchpotato said: Just curious why people want to track every cent/baht they spend. Seems counter productive having a program/spreadsheet to do this, but each to their own I guess. IME people who keep track of what they are doing stay solvent all their lives. It's the ones who live from paycheck to paycheck who end up dead broke. Fussbudgets like me arrive at airports a couple of hours early, to allow for contingencies. We check the oil level and tire pressures on our vehicles every week. We're the ones who are unstressed. We are never at an airport counter pleading to be let on a flight when boarding has closed, or stranded by the roadside. 1 2 1 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lopburi3 Posted November 26, 2023 Share Posted November 26, 2023 (edited) Was also a Quicken user after Microsoft ended Money but have lost access with new computer/Win 11 and do not want subscription system so moved to below about 6 months ago and it seems to work well - can off line load data file from banks and works with all currencies. https://moneydance.com/ Note: a prime reason for using this software is that it works fine with dark mode in Windows (old eyes can actually read it). Edited November 26, 2023 by lopburi3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaiyaTH Posted November 26, 2023 Share Posted November 26, 2023 (edited) One earns too little if needing to track personal expenses IMHO. You simply know what you earn or average earn and then you can set a budget that should pay all bills, goes to investing / saving, and the rest is history. Sleeping alone already costs us 1/3rd of life in total, why on earth would one waste time on this. If feeling the need to track things, it should be time, people would be shocked. Edited November 26, 2023 by ChaiyaTH 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post foreverlomsak Posted November 26, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted November 26, 2023 16 hours ago, Mike Lister said: FWIW I also use spreadsheets to track monthly expenditure and to help me budget but I don't do it at the Macro level like Rimmer, instead I track things at the transaction level, eg Cash withdrawal, debit card purchase, etc and then add some detail as needed, that way, the balance on my spreadsheet equals my account balances. I think trying to track micro level details such as how much I spent at Big C, how much for a meal etc is too laborious and after a while you'll probably drop it, unless you're really dedicated. I think you have to go back to the purpose as to why you need the spreadsheet, in my case it's to A) make sure I don't overspend in the course of a month and B)make sure the different pots of money I have total an amount that grows every month and isn't reducing. Knowing how much you spend at Lotus, on telephone and food at villa isn't that useful, except perhaps as a one of exercise from time to time, it's the bigger picture that's important. Agree, I use mine for future predictions of bank balances i.e. income vs expenditure (using a monthly average and estimates of "special" expenditure like new car, etc.) to try to ensure I never go broke in the long term, it is so easy to say it's only an extra drop from the ocean. It was really important while I was not on a pension, now I know what I'm going to get each month, so budgeting is easier, underspend what you get and it goes towards inflation proofing your savings, and yes I'm one of the UK "frozen" pensioners. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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