Thursday, March 15, 2007

The Benefits of Personal Financial Software

I am a big fan of personal financial software, such as Quicken or Microsoft Money. Such software can make it a breeze to get your financial life in order. Here are 5 great things you can easily do using personal financial software:


  1. Get a complete financial picture - if you have multiple investment accounts, brokerage accounts, 401(k), 529 and so forth, getting a complete picture of your investment portolio can be a challenge. By using software such as Quicken, optimizing your portfolio as a single unit becomes a simple matter, and asset allocation becomes much easier to do.
  2. Create a budget - Financial software can help you to develop a budget and make sure that you stick to it, by letting you know if you deviate from your plan.
  3. Make Sure Your Retirement Plan is on Track - an excellent feature of Quicken is its retirement planning functionality. The software not only tells you if you are saving enough for your golden years, but can tell you how long you can expect your assets to last, and even show you the results graphically.
  4. Track Your Spending - how much do you spend on groceries? utilities? dining out? Quicken can tell you. AND show you a picture. Would you like to compare last month's spending on gasoline to your spending in any previous month? Easy as pie.
  5. Track Your Net Worth - consolidating your assets and liabilities from multiple accounts to figure out your net worth has never been easier.

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