Posted: 20 Oct 2010 03:03 AM PDT

By Matt Krantz, USA TODAY

Using a computer to track your money and investments used to mean just choosing software and getting started. It's not that simple anymore.

Intuit's Quicken software is still dominant. But Microsoft has discontinued support for its Money personal financial software. Meanwhile, smaller companies are trying to chip off pieces of Quicken's personal financial software business with competing products.

For the first time in years, you might wonder if you can bypass using personal software altogether and instead use a third-party financial tracking website or just use your bank's or brokerage's site. Here's the irony: Financial tools such as Quicken are easier to use, but trying to choose which product is best for you is increasingly complex. "There are more choices, not only from Mint.com and Quicken, that are growing increasingly more powerful each year plus more options from banks and brokerages and a number of other Web applications," says Aaron Patzer, who manages Mint and Quicken for Intuit.

You'll find help here. USA TODAY analyzes the four major ways you can use your computer to monitor spending and investments. You'll discover the advantages and disadvantages of each method so you can spend less time choosing technology and more time getting your finances on track.

Solution No. 1: Quicken

If you want power and control in tracking your money, Quicken is the gold standard.

The latest version of the software, Quicken 2011, received a face-lift that makes the app look and behave like an easy-to-use website. But under the hood, the software gives users, especially investors, sophisticated tools that let them view their data in just about any way.

The upside: Quicken is an annually upgraded product backed by Intuit, the leading maker of business software for consumers and small businesses.

Quicken lets you create detailed budgets in minutes, as well as download all your bank and brokerage data and even see the ups and downs of your cash flow and portfolio.

For investors, Quicken is tough to beat, because it can track how much you've paid for stocks even if you've invested in the same security several times.

All your data are stored on your personal hard drive, so you can make copies yourself. And if you switch brokerage firms, you don't have to worry about losing your historical data.

The downside: Quicken is an app, and you must pay for it.

The Deluxe version costs $60. Quicken 2011 runs on computers running Windows, but the version for Apple's Mac isn't nearly as powerful.

The online capabilities of the software, including stock quotes, expire every three years, so that forces you to update every three years.

Also, Quicken 2011 doesn't connect with any smartphones.

Solution No. 2: Other personal finance software

Microsoft dropped out of the personal financial software game, but that doesn't mean the competition is gone. Several viable rivals to Quicken exist.

The upside: Quicken's rivals focus on areas that irk some Quicken users. Moneydance, for instance, is designed to work equally well on computers running Windows as well as Macs and Linux. The software is also a bit less expensive at $50, and the part of the software that pulls online data doesn't expire. And like with Quicken, your data are stored on your hard drive so you can make copies and have access any time.

The downside: Many of the alternatives to Quicken are much less polished than Quicken or have fewer features. Moneydance's asset allocation tool, which helps investors measure how their investments are diversified, is much less powerful than Quicken's. Another rival's software, iBank, works only on Macs and not on computers running the more popular Windows operating system. These software programs aren't free either: Moneydance costs $50, and iBank, $60.

Solution No. 3: Third-party websites

E-mail, photos and diaries are going online, so too is personal finance tracking. Personal finance websites, such as Mint.com and Yodlee MoneyCenter, are changing how many track their money. Rather than downloading your financial information to your computer, these sites pull data and store them on their own computers and make them available online. Some sites, including Wikinvest, provide websites that help you track just your investment portfolio.

The upside: All you need to check on your finances is a device with a Web browser. These sites are designed to be as simple as typing in your user names and passwords from your bank and brokerage accounts. In most cases, you can be up and running, tracking all your accounts, in just a few minutes. You can also tap your financial information from anywhere, either on a friend's computer or from your smartphone. Best of all, these sites are free.

The downside: The first big hurdle is security. You'll need to enter your user names and passwords from all your financial accounts to get the most value. The providers all say they have security safeguards in place.

In addition, because information sits on the providers' site, if that website goes down or your Internet connection is severed, you can't access it. These sites also lack a way for longtime users of financial software to import past transactions from software such as Quicken.

There's also no guarantee you can always get your information. There have been cases of smaller rivals that have discontinued their websites, leaving users stranded.

Solution No. 4: Bank and brokerage websites

Seeing the advances in personal financial software and websites, banks and brokerages are beefing up their own sites so people won't switch.

The upside: If you want the least amount of work, bank and brokerage sites are tough to beat. All your information is already culled and imported. Some brokerages, such as Vanguard, will even let you track your portfolios at other financial institutions. Also, thanks to new IRS rules that kick in in 2011, these sites are required to track your cost basis on new investments, which is one of the biggest reasons why people use personal financial software and sites in the first place. These sites are free.

The downside: Unless you have all your money with one firm, the utility of these sites can be limited. The brokerage sites, for instance, can't help you create a budget with your checking account.

But the biggest drawback is that your institution controls your data, not you. If you switch banks or move to a brokerage with lower commissions, you could lose data on many historical transactions.

What's the bottom line? If you're worried about security and want tight control over your historical financial data, Quicken and other personal financial software apps are good choices. Quicken is the best-known app and is tough to beat, especially for Windows users.

If you're looking to just keep a quick tab on all your financial accounts, including while traveling with your smartphone, online sites might be best.

And if you want little hassle, and want only the very basics, then your bank or brokerage websites may be just fine.

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Personal finance chat with Jason Lilly - Boston Globe

Posted: 18 Oct 2010 06:47 AM PDT

Jason R. Lilly, vice president and director of portfolio management at Rockland Trust., will take your questions about bonds - or anything else money-related - at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5.

This chat was coordinated by the Financial Planning Association of Massachusetts. For more info, visit www.fpama.org.

About Jason Lilly

Jason Lilly is the vice president and director of portfolio management, where he is responsible for managing client portfolios, performing securities research, and setting investment policy. Prior to joining Rockland Trust, he was a financial planner with the Vanguard Group, where he created and developed comprehensive financial plans for high net worth clients.

Lilly holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Massachusetts and a Masters of Business Administration degree from Arizona State University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder and has also received his designation as a Certified Financial Planner™.

Lilly belongs to the Boston Security Analysts Society, is a board member on the Planned Giving Council of Cape Cod and co-chair of Philanthropy Day on Cape Cod, the largest Philanthropic event on Cape Cod. He is producer and host of Finance Matter$, a local access program about financial topics that impact our daily lives.

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Personal Finance: The ethics of dropping a mortgage - Philadelphia Daily News

Posted: 17 Oct 2010 12:00 AM PDT

Posted on Sun, Oct. 17, 2010

Americans have taken a sharp slap in the face from the housing crisis, financial crisis, and jobs crisis. Now, some wonder if the residue of those harsh realities is an ethical crisis.

For the first time in the nation's history, bankers say, people are walking away from mortgages they can otherwise afford to pay. The phenomenon known as strategic default was once unthinkable. It represents a calculated decision to hand over the keys to a home without making good on a loan, reasoning that it makes no sense to keep paying the monthly mortgage when the home is worth thousands of dollars less than the obligation.

Jeff Horton, a 33-year-old Orlando technology manager, is among those who recently decided to take the step. He told his lender he was done making payments on the condo he bought in 2005 and the home he bought in 2007 because he wanted to move from Florida and could not sell or rent the properties at a price nearly high enough to cover his payments.

"Life is too short," said Horton, who has about $400,000 in mortgages with Bank of America Corp. - about twice what he thinks he would get if he could sell the properties. He says the bank has refused to refinance the mortgages or adjust original terms.

From dream to trap

Strategic default is a symptom of a housing market that suddenly turned from "American dream" to financial trap. With the Norman Rockwell-like images of homeownership decimated by a 30 percent plunge in prices, some fear America is also losing its grip on another idyllic notion: that people will live by the slogan "my word is my bond."

Morgan Stanley recently estimated that about 18 percent of defaults will be strategic. In a recent Pew Research Center survey, 36 percent of Americans said that walking away was acceptable, at least under certain circumstances; 59 percent said the practice was unacceptable.

The saying "my word is my bond" was first posted in the London Stock Exchange in the late 1920s to convey living up to promises. Now, after the worst financial disaster since that period, people such as Horton say they have no such image of Wall Street or large banks as trustworthy institutions, and that has allayed guilt about walking away from mortgages.

"I felt guilty at first," Horton said. "It all stopped when I saw them take $90 million in executive bonuses. They take bailout money and do nothing for the little guy. They wouldn't do anything for me."

Seeing little choice

Most people walking away from homes see little choice, said John Maddux, chief executive officer of UWalkAway, a website providing advice on the strategic-default process. "They bought the house thinking of it as an investment in their future," he said. "For some, it was to be their retirement; for others, it was seen as forced savings, and now it's bleeding them dry."

Overburdened with mortgages, people conclude they will not be able to send their children to college, save anything for retirement, or move to a place where they can find a job. But as they go through the soul-searching and guilt connected with walking away, Maddux noted, they often point to a sense of betrayal.

He said he frequently hears: "I don't feel bad for the banks. They let this happen. Banks made the mistake of giving a loan to anyone if they had a pulse. Their loose lending standard led to a bubble, and the regulators should have controlled this."

Banking expert E. Philip Davis sympathizes with that point of view, but he also points out the implication of walking away from a commitment.

Said Davis, a former banker who is now a Baptist minister in the United Kingdom and teaches finance courses: "It makes them as bad as the bankers."

Gail MarksJarvis is a personal-finance columnist for the Chicago Tribune. E-mail her at gmarksjarvis@tribune.com.

Personal Finance

Saturday, October 23, 2010

“Need personal finance software? We help you choose - USA Today” plus 2 more

“Need personal finance software? We help you choose - USA Today” plus 2 more

About Jason Lilly

From dream to trap

Seeing little choice

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