Arranged Delirium

Now that school is over, I’m embarking on my annual quest to find something other than Quicken for managing my finances. Quicken for Macintosh has been notoriously ignored for years, and even there new offering is so limited on features that it’s unusable for anything other than simple tasks - and all the other available applications can do the same simple things for much less money.

At one point, I got so desperate, I actually purchased a copy of Quicken Essentials to see if it would work as a quick solution - even without the features I was looking for. It crashed repeatedly. My machine has only crashed twice in three years - I couldn’t even get Quicken to run on it. I got a refund - Intuit’s software (for Macs) simply isn’t worth buying.

So, what I am looking for is a software application that will let my track expenditures, manage loans, run reports, construct and maintain a budget, handle all my accounts with direct online connections (I don’t want to deal with paper receipts), and also let me track my minimal portfolio (including buys and sells). In the end, there were several possibilities and I’ll cover them here in brief detail:

MoneyWell - This application is quite good and I thought we had a winner right out of the gate! But, unfortunately it doesn’t have all the field needed to track my investments; although that is planned for the next version. Sadness. Thats a deal-breaker for me; but if I wasn’t keeping track of a portfolio, this would be my pick.

OK, I’ve decided I can live w/o portfolio tracking, since I do that online anyway. But, MoneyWell doesn’t handle my loans very effectively (by not calculating ongoing interest/principal, etc.) so it’s a no go.

Money - This is a nice collection of apps (also having iPhone and iPad versions). Truthfully, it works very well, although with some interface and terminology quirks. Reading the quick-start guide addressed all these. The biggest problem for me was also importing investment transactions within the app - I don’t want to have to go through the extra step of logging into a web site and downloading, then importing, a statement.

I really want to work with this because of the convenience of syncing with my tablet or iPod, but I really need direct downloads of bank data.

YNAB - Stands for You Need a Budget. It looks very promising, and seems to handle basic account structures well.

This app requires the Adobe Air platform to run. I’m not going there. I appreciate the capabilities that certain tools (like MS Silverlight and Adobe Air) provide for running apps over the Internet. But, please - I want a program to work with my finances on my own computer.

MyMoney - It’s a fine piece of software. And truthfully, it seems to do everything that I want it to do. However, the interface is problematic for me. I can do everything I want to do with the software, but not easily or quickly. I had to hunt too much to find how to perform common actions. This is natural with new software, but this program would force me to invest too much time in getting setup, and too much recurrent time in maintaining my finances.

I tried it again, but I just can’t get by the interface. This is likely my issue though - so I think it’s worth giving it a try if you are looking for something new.

Moneydance - this application has been updated since I tested it last with notable performance improvements. It does everything that I need it to do. There’s not a lot of eye-candy here, but then again there isn’t any in Quicken 2007 either. For $39 it seems to do all that Quicken does, more reliably and with regular updates. I’ll be working with this one for a bit…

iBank - This seems to be the favorite among most Mac users. It syncs with your iPhone, which is handy. I also like the ease of scheduling transactions, even if the interface leaves a bit to be desired. It’s a tie with Moneydance in terms of features and ease of use. Both require some learning, but neither would be huge time-sinks.

My recommendations come down to Moneydance and iBank. Your final choice would likely be a matter of personal preference - iBank is more Mac-like, and Moneydance has a more traditional feel. If you have a simpler financial life and can live without the investment-tracking, I think MoneyWell might be the way to go though. (BTW, this list isn’t exhaustive - there are other options, particularly at the low-end of functionality - but these we’re the most full-featured in my research.)

We have a winner! I’m going with Moneydance. A full-featured demo let me get everything set up and, with the exception of some challenging investment tracking, it does everything I want to do. I also appreciated the ability to customize the home screen to make it quite easy to get the immediate information I need. Nice. It’s also only $39, and well worth paying for. The documentation is excruciatingly basic, but the forums are well monitored and you can find the information you need to get set up right there.

One of the most frustrating and frequent technical dilemmas I face regularly involves printing. Any kind of printing. Images, syllabi, assignment sheets, reimbursement forms - you name it, I’ve got problems printing it. Laser or inkjet, I’ve got problems with it.

Now, something that concerns me, is that I’m actually (believe it or not) fairly technically inclined. So, I can find my way out of most of these problems (although admittedly it annoys me greatly since its typically 5 minutes before class). But I’ve had a number of students complaining of their own printing issues as well, so I offer up this decent article from MacWorld that does a nice job of sorting through some common printing problems. My own issues tend to come from driver problems which Apple has tended to address via system software updates, but I think I’ve probably faced each of the examples in the article at least once.

BTW, I also have difficulty photocopying…

Although I’ve been slow to report it, Apple also released several updates to their product line this week while the Technorati were also caught up in the release of Windows 7. Specifically, they refreshed the iMac, Mini, and Macbooks. They also introduced the new Magic Mouse. Of particular note is the 27” screen on the larger iMacs (the low end is now 21.5”) and the power/price point of the Macbook. $999 is very good for what you get.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve abandoned broadcast television via cable or dish for distribution via Internet. I’m doing this primarily through streaming Netflix and AppleTV. But because of Hulu contributors, their fight with Boxee, and their archaic position that folks shouldn’t watch TV on their TV’s, it’s somewhat difficult to access a limited number of shows.

The solution? A $69 cable from Kanex - simply display your web content on your TV. This had been a bit difficult with Apple’s implementation of the MiniDisplayPort - there were adaptors to HDMI and audio but you needed separate cabling. This resolves all that and puts it into one tandem cable. Not as convenient as simply viewing Hulu content via Boxee, but it does the trick…

As I await the introduction of the Apple tablet I’ve been reading a bit about some of the rumors. This article lists a few common perceptions and the subsequent comments make for interesting reading about how folks might use the product. I never cease to be amazed at how so many make the common fallacy of assuming that everyone will use a tool in exactly the same way…