Software Review of:
Microsoft Money 
2000 Deluxe 

Of course, money management is a lot more involved than the advice mentioned above. For this reason, some folks hire a financial counselor. However, there are two excellent personal financial computer programs that may be all you need: Intuit’s Quicken and Microsoft’s Money 2000. In this review I will focus on Microsoft Money 2000 Deluxe (hereafter referred to as "MSMoney"). 

As with most Windows programs these days, MSMoney installed like a dream, taking only a few minutes. Configuring it to your financial needs takes quite a bit longer — depending on how much information you want to feed it. I suspect Warren Buffet would need at least a week! Most of us mortals will only need about 30-45 minutes. And only because Microsoft wants to steal you away from Intuit’s Quicken, MSMoney includes a Converter Wizard that seamlessly converts files from Quicken and even offers a money-back guarantee if it doesn’t work to your satisfaction. 

The program features a handy-dandy setup assistant to guide you through the setup. It never chastises you for being fiscally challenged or economically stupid. You will definitely not need a BS in accounting to make MSMoney work for you. I suspect that most people will use the program to track their checkbooks. This is especially useful for tax purposes at the end of the year. Regardless of when you purchase MSMoney, you backtrack and start from the beginning of the year so that the entire year’s checkbook entries are included. You can even categorize entries as income and expenses, with sub-categories such as salary, car payments, taxes, etc. Of course, since many pay mostly by credit card, you can set up a similar account for those. 

MSMoney is more than a mere checkbook and credit card accounting program, however. Its banking feaure, Money Express, serves as a banking tool (more than 600 banking institutions will work with it). The interesting thing is that, if you have an Internet connection and browser, you can pay your bills through the desktop without even opening MSMoney! Its Web Express will even show your upcoming bills and Money Express automatically receives quotes in the background. When you pay bills they are automatically categorized as to the areas you have chosen. However, Quicken provides better and more reports than MSMoney. 

It is so easy to sort of float through life without any financial plan whatsoever. Well, MSMoney provides a Lifetime Planner that puts all your financial responsibilities on the table so that you can know how much money you will need and when (for home purchase, college, projected retirement needs, etc.). While no one can tell the future, this program can give you a good handle on it, barring catastrophic unforeseen events. Actually, MSMoney may be superior to Quicken in this area, for it lets you come up with a unified financial plan better than Intiut’s offering. Perhaps the only downside of MSMoney is that, while it provides a suite of possible financial case scenarios, the list cannot be customized. Still, the list is fairly comprehensive. 

Interested in investing? Who isn’t these days? Baby Boomers are running scared that Social Security will be gone or severely diminished by the time they retire. And even if it is still intact, Social Security was never designed to do what its name implies. Without wise investments to supplement it, people of retirement age will not be financially secure and will need additional income. MSMoney really shines in this area. It lets you track your investments regarding 52-week highs and lows and amounts vested and features a Portfolio Review which keeps you up to date on how your investments are doing. If you need to buy or sell your investments on-the-fly, Money Central lets you do so since it serves as an online money manager. It also features a tax planner that provides a capital gains estimator and deduction finder. However, it should be noted that if tax planning is what you’re after, you’d be well advised to stay with Intuit’s Quicken and Turbo Tax, as they lead the market in the tax arena. 

Given the almost wholesale move to the Internet, you might want to know how well MSMoney integrates with the world-wide web. Like Quicken, MSMoney does the Web (with its Web Express), the main difference is that it is more streamlined (less buttons) and seems to have been born there. Since Bill Gates is pretty much betting the farm on the Internet, this is no surprise. There are many links to the Internet throughout Web Express and it is sometimes difficult to tell whether you are operating from your hard drive or from the Internet. New content links are dropped here and there to let you interact with the Internet in an integrated sense as you go through the various financial centers in the program. It also posts any transactions you’ve made so that your accounts are kept up-to-date. Last year Quicken gave away their web access manager, Quicken Web Access, but Microsoft was not so generous. Well, Microsoft has awakened and smelled the coffee. This year theirs is on the house, too. There’s nothing like competition to keep prices low and quality high (viva la free enterprise). 

All in all, MSMoney is certainly worth a try, even for dyed-in-the-wool Quicken enthusiasts. The bottom line is that it is really good and, if you shop around, really inexpensive! The best price I’ve found on Microsoft Money 2000 Deluxe is around $45. However, when you purchase the product, look inside the box and you’ll find a $20 mail-in rebate; that cuts the price to $25. Take your wife out to eat this evening and you’ll probably spend at least that much. Get MS Money and you may be able to take her out to eat a lot more often!