When MS Money discontinued the "What If" scenario, they lost me to Quicken. (It worked a lot like you'd do it on paper - start with a current balance, then play around with what to pay down - but better. I think.) Quicken's version doesn't even come close.

I got the surprise message yesterday when I was entering some data. After clicking around their website a bit, it's really just the online features that are going away - the software will still work. For me, that only affects updating the prices for my meager stock portfolio.

Maybe some enterprising soul will hack a way to get the stock price updates into the software. Assuming, of course, that MS makes that somehow possible.

wait a second, if they discontinue it, it mostly works via the web, so what happens to us poor idiots who bought this application?

I still use MS Money, and love to look at the pie charts and graphs. I will miss it. :(

I would highly recommend GNUCash for anybody looking for a free alternative.

I was at an event yesterday with the founder of Intuit. He seemed quite pleased with the news.

@Sunny Yeung: I've been using that off and on for a while now, not as a replacement for Money but just to toy around with and see what it can do for a small business. I love the software, but it needs a LOT of improvement to be a Money stand-in for personal finances. I'm eager to see what 2.4 will look like. They don't have any Windows binaries for the 2.3 test.

One small thing people should be aware of is they're no longer going to even allow you to install the software, much less access your data after January 2011. I recommend converting to mint, Quicken.com or Moneydance ASAP

I made the mistake of using this a few years back. I would upgrade each year and then one year the new version refused to read my data even from backups. Wasted more $ calling microsoft tech support who told me my file and all backups were corrupt. So I ended up having to run the old version on one computer and the new version on another.
That was one of the many issues I've had that convinced me to switch to open source software.

Oh, c'mon Phil, it wasn't just MS Money that made you the bitter crank you are today.
You have to give Vista some credit too.

Mint.com

@chiieddy:
I use mint and its responsible for my depression caused by seeing how much money i was wasting.

I'm pretty upset about this. Sure, the software itself will work until, well, whenever they decide that they will stop supporting it and some bug wipes the system out. I don't NEED the online data options, but it is kinda nice being able to have my investments update automatically. The whole line about "banks offer online account services already" is bullshit. They're essentially telling millions of Americans who have been financially empowered by using their software to keep a much stricter watch over their finances instead to just "check your account online daily" and make sure you don't overspend.

I refuse to use Web-only solutions. Not only do I loathe the possibility of data theft or, say, Mint deciding they'd like to sell users' transactions to corporate interests, but I don't feel my data should be kept outside my home or my handheld. The data stays with me.

Quicken is not an acceptable alternative to me. Their software is buggy as hell (and that says a lot when you're comparing to Microsoft), and their support is just about the absolute worst among software companies. Intuit's also the company, if anyone remembers, that got caught rewriting hard drive boot sectors so they could try to catch you installing pirate software.

I'm hoping GNUCash comes out with a stellar new 2.4 release or that some of the other software companies/teams step up to fill the void. I'll just have to ride this one till the wheels fall off.

This is too bad. I'm a Quicken user but I've resolved never to give Intuit any money ever again. Now this means they have no real competition.

You had me at foibles.

Oh expletive, I just upgraded.

@undefined:

I use Money but I have to say that it has the most bizarre system of opening a database if you're doing a fresh install. It also seems that every new version of Money was progressively worse than the previous one. I lost my Money '99 CD and was forced to buy Money 2004. They should have stayed with the fast / lean '99 engine.

This is fairly disappointing. I actually never used the online features of Money, although I know I'm a bit of a Luddite in that sense. I'm sure it would be easier to sync up online with my banks, but I always liked manually entering transactions and balancing my accounts, since it forced me to really take a look at what I was spending. For what I used it for, though, the software was great.

I use Moneydance[1] for my personal finances. It is very easy to use. It removes the need to really understand more than basic accounting.

For my small business work, I use Gnucash[2]. It requires more knowledge than Moneydance.

[1] -- [www.moneydance.com]
[2] -- [www.gnucash.org]

My heart belongs to YouNeedABudget ([www.youneedabudget.com]). It is the only budgeting system I have used that really truly gets me to budget and save effectively. Not mint, mvelopes, wesabe, quicken or msnmoney. Sadly there is not an online component yet, though I read it is in the works for the next release.

@Sunny Yeung: I found GNUCash to be incredibly frustrating, especially when it came to online banking. After trying several options, Moneydance was my favorite.

@James Sumners: Amen to Moneydance. It's not perfect, but it's flexible and supports online banking way better than GNUCash.

@courtarro:

Yes. Money is great. Nice and light and works flawlessly.

I've been using MS Money 2003 forever, mostly because my primary financial institution isn't supported by Mint or Quicken Online.

I bought Quicken Cash Manager 2k9 a few months ago after looking at a few alternatives and it's made an incredible difference in our personal finances by just showing us all stupid spending we were doing. Within 3 days, it had paid for itself.

I had looked at MSM oney but couldn't find anything about a Canadian version while hunting around.

I am using an old version of Money that came with my laptop from about 5 years ago. I really don't do much with the online aspects of it. For the most part, I download my monthly statements from the banks and then resolve all the transactions to get my balance. As longs as it keeps working this way, I won't complain.

I've been using Money 2002 since my first Dell PC from back in the day. The OEM disc installs fine on any Win OS since. I don't use any online features, because I like keeping my own numbers instead of syncing with my bank's. I never upgraded because, well, my version was free. That and the more recent versions got too flashy and nearly forcibly pushed the online features on you and made the software nearly impractical to use without them. I'll keep using 2002, and I also use Mint, so this is a non-issue for me!

@sanjsrik: You're right about one thing... anyone who buys a Microsoft product is an idiot :)

But they will probably leave the servers going for a while to provide a semblance of service for the program. They just won't have updates and new features and such coming out in the future.

Like all Microsoft stuff, you just hope it dies soon and goes away :D

Meh, I stopped using MS money a few years ago when my bank's web-app started to become a better solution. I didn't see the point in keeping everything synchronized with a desktop app when I could pay bills, transfer funds, and view my transactions & balances through a web browser.

I never really used all of Money's other features, and I use multiple computers at home and the office, so a web-app/cloud solution seems like a no-brainer.

@Sunny Yeung: I am an avid Linux and other FOSS user. Places where the FOSS alternatives can compete are networking applications and security. But there are some areas where FOSS doesn't even come close to competing with commercial software, and this is one of them. GNUCash can do the basics, but it's not particularly intuitive how everything works, setting up online connections to banks is either difficult or impossible, and lacks a lot of features that Quicken an MS Money have had for a while now.

While, yes, it's a great start and a decent alternative for those on *nix who can't get Quicken working, it's still got a long ways to go.

@courtarro: Indeed. What you and hellinmyeyes said. It just too frustrating to be usable. Needs improvement, to be sure.

Also, on a side note...

CAN PEOPLE PLEASE STOP VISITING THE BAKED IN RAT THREAD SO THAT ITS PIC DISAPPEARS FROM THE BANNERS ABOVE? KTHXBAI.

Thats all.

@labeled: It's still there, it's just called "Try Cash Flow Scenarios". Click on it, and you can what if until the cows come home.

@hellinmyeyes: Diitttttto.

I've used MS Money for YEARS. I love it. It integrates perfectly with my bank(s) and helps me stay on budget.

It makes me sad.

Money isn't perfect, but it has really helped me keep up with my bills. Because I don't receive many paper bills by mail anymore, and because I pay almost all of them online, it really helps to have a piece of software that reminds me what's due when. Do any of the online services like mint or moneydance do that?

@MostlyHarmless: "CAN PEOPLE PLEASE STOP VISITING THE BAKED IN RAT THREAD SO THAT ITS PIC DISAPPEARS FROM THE BANNERS ABOVE? KTHXBAI."

Seconded! Ugh.

@mmmsoap: I suggest people take a look at KMyMoney. Gnucash is an excellent program for those who want solid double-entry accounting; for example, I use it to keep the books for my small business. However, many people prefer simplicity, and KMyMoney is closer to the lines of Quicken/MS Money.

"Banks are offering a lot of these services directly, and it's unclear where the demand is for a single, integrated experience when a lot of financial institutions and investment firms allow you to do this already,"

While individual banks may be offering "a lot of these services," I have yet to see a bank's site that integrates with another bank. Is it really that uncommon to have accounts at different banks?

I tried Quicken (on the Mac) for about a week and was very disappointed by their synchronization methods. For many banks, their electronic download method goes like this:
1. Click a link in Quicken
2. Wait for that bank's page to load in your web browser.
3. Log in manually.
4. Navigate to your account.
5. Find the export link.
6. Download the transactions manually.
7. Import them into Quicken.
8. Go back to step 4 for other accounts at the bank.
9. Go back to step 1 for other banks.

Here's how it worked in Money:
1. Click the update icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
2. Click the Update Now button.
3. Wait for transactions to download.
4. Click OK on the status dialog.
5. DONE!

Add me to the ranks of the disappointed. Between my wife and me, we've got a checking account, savings account, a handful of credit cards, car loan, IRA, and a 401k, and it's nice to have all those synced into one spot, along with a bill schedule.

I've been using Mint lately, but the fact that it only pulls information from your online accounts (and only if the account info is available online - our car loan isn't) and won't let you enter transactions directly is a drawback. Not to mention the fact that in Mint, I can't look a month (or three, or six) ahead and see when bills' due dates are coming up.

Our copy of MS Money says it won't "expire" until September, 2010, so by then we should have time to find a suitable replacement.

Proprietary software is like this. You use it for years, have all your data in it, the company discontinues it, and you're stuck.

@MostlyHarmless:

"CAN PEOPLE PLEASE STOP VISITING THE BAKED IN RAT THREAD SO THAT ITS PIC DISAPPEARS FROM THE BANNERS ABOVE? KTHXBAI."

Heh, I didn't even notice that article until you complained that people keep visiting it...

*click*

D'oh! Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

@chrylis: For a moment, I read that as "KY Money"

This is a shame -- MS Money has been incredibly useful for us over the years, and when my switch to a Mac laptop forced me to use Quicken, I really felt the loss of the robust features and intelligent design.

(I.e., CMD-A selects all in EVERY SINGLE PROGRAM, except Quicken, where it brings up a list of accounts. So, so annoying, there are no words.)

I still refer back to our MS Money records on my old PC, and find it tremendously accessible, and would have used a Mac version in a heartbeat, if one were offered.

Meh, nobody will miss it. Quicken will always remain supreme leader.

MS Money has always been a good product that delivered what it said it would. Always liked it, but since free, web-accessible alternatives exist, I've switched over. My bank effectively offers the same thing.

@shortcake: THis page screams a scam website from the design. Not necessarily that it is a scam ... but the site is designed like every other scam site online with a ton of copy, a bunch of phony sounding quotes, everything on one page, irrelevent videos, email scam signups.

It may be as legit as anything ... but the site design is too poor for me to trust it.

@RussTheConsumerist: :: sigh :: It must've gotten phased out & phased back in after I'd bailed.

Now I know, and they're going away forever. Now what, Mr.RussTheConsumerist, now what?!

(Actually, I have the clunkiest, most ridic. Open Office workbook you could imagine going. Everything in there from my "what if" to "if I make this from scratch, will I save money?" sheets. I'm a dork. With a kickass budget.)

@Sunny Yeung: Gnucash is more of a replacement for Peachtree or any other double entry accounting software.
Money or Quicken users with no actual accounting experience get lost really quick.

@Sunny Yeung: I've been using GNUCash for a couple of years. While it doesn't do everything as well as some would like, it works good enough for many people.

Also, if there is something it doesn't do, you can always go to the web site and make the suggestion. They might actually listen to you better than MS!

@James Sumners: For a small business, have you tried Nolapro? Looks like it might work. I haven't tried it, but I just recently installed it to take a look.