MS Money for the chop
Microsoft has announced that, after 17 years, it will stop selling its Money personal finance software at the end of June. I’ve always quite liked MS Money. It has its flaws, but it did the job reasonably well for our home accounts and investments, and I never saw anything else worth changing to (unlike small-business accounting, where I strongly recommend Xero).
When I opened my first proper bank account on starting university, the bank manager himself sat down with me to talk about managing my money. I don’t think that happens these days! The bank manager gave me a book in which I could record my income, expenses and bank balance, so I wouldn’t lose track of how much money I had and what I spent it on. It was a habit I never lost, and I still have all those accounts books. In 1996, MS Money came bundled with a home PC package and so I went electronic. Should someone ask what we spent at the supermarket in June 1998, or our expenditure in bars and restaurants last year, or the return on my investment in Telecom, I have the data!
Some day, someone will find these records and earn a PhD by analysing the minutiae of our family’s lifestyle as evidenced by what we earned, saved and spent. So now I need Rod Drury to bring out the personal finance edition of Xero, with investment functionality, please. Posterity demands it!
Disclosure: Isambard Investments owns Xero shares. My family trust owns Microsoft shares.
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June 12th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
I’m glad I chose Quicken many years ago!
June 16th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
I stopped using it once I decided I enjoyed the clubbing scene. The constant reminders of how much I was spending at particular bars compared to food shopping was a little bit too much to handle!
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:34 am
and my sanity demands it too!