Microsoft Money 2006 Premium [OLD VERSION]

by Microsoft

Product Features

• Money connects to thousands of banks and updates balances automatically, letting you easily stay on top of your finances.
• Work toward long-term goals like buying a house, budgeting for college, or saving for a vacation by first reducing debt.
• Improved automated price quotes keep your portfolio calculations up to date.
• A suite of tools that help you plan and optimize investments and long-term savings.
• Money 2006 Premium also provides a wealth of financial services, at no extra cost, and tax help that make managing your money easier.

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0009KLGOK
• Item model number: S66-00016
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 21, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,204 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #16 in Software > Personal Finance > Investment Tools

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The ultimate personal finance solution, Microsoft Money 2006 Premium offers everything included in Money 2006 Deluxe, plus additional investment and tax tools designed to make optimizing your finances effortless and effective. Quickly view all of your bank, credit card and investment accounts in a single location with a single password, and take advantage of free services included with Money 2006 Premium, including educational software to teach your kids about finances. Staying on top of your financial future has never been easier.

With all the benefits and capabilities of Money 2006 Deluxe, plus sophisticated investment tracking and optimization tools Money 2006 Premium gives you everything you need to effectively manage your finances quickly and easily. Plus, Money automatically connects to your bank so you'll always have the latest information.

Easy money management

See where your money goes Automatically track spending in categories you want to watch closely—like dining out, entertainment or clothing. Easy to understand charts show you exactly where your money is going. New! Manage bills easily Money 2006 Premium allows you to pay multiple bills from multiple accounts all at once, making payment even easier. Schedule payments in advance and quickly view upcoming bills. It’s a great way to get organized. Budget your way Create a personalized budget. Money 2006 Premium helps you create a budget and then stick to it. Automatic spending "thermometers" alert you when you are getting close to budget limits making it easy for you to stay on track. Get the perspective you want Money 2006 Premium lets you decide how you want to view your finances—from the big picture down to the details. Flexible views make it easy to get a big picture view of your accounts or a more detailed perspective. Getting started is easy Whether you are upgrading, switching from Quicken, or using Money for the first time, getting started is a breeze. Money can automatically download your account information, update your existing Money file, or convert Quicken information so you can start managing your finances easily.

An easy-to-use, real-time solution to all your financial management needs

Maximize tax savings

Organize Taxes Money 2006 Premium makes preparing and filing taxes easy with expert tips from tax professionals. Tools like Tax Estimator and Deduction Finder help identify savings and make exporting data to tax preparation software simple. Understand your credit The Money 2006 Premium Credit Center provides access to credit scores, percentile rankings and helps assess credit risk levels. And a free credit report and one-year credit monitoring from Experian. Maximize tax savings Money 2006 Premium has all of the great tax organizing tools of Money 2006 Deluxe, plus integrated GainsKeeper investment tools to help you make the most of your investments. Capital Gains Optimizer helps you minimize capital gains taxes and Trade Decision Tools help you make the best trading choices.

Cruise through your taxes with money-saving ease.

Planning and investment

Stay on top of investments Money 2006 Premium automatically updates investment information on stocks and exchange traded funds, and more. Access to MSN Money includes the popular Portfolio Manager. Follow investments, download brokerage statements and get financial and stock news as it happens. Optimize your portfolio Make the most of your investments with the integrated GainsKeeper investment tools. Use the Capital Gains Optimizer to minimize capital gains taxes and consult the Trade Decision Tools to help you make the best trading choices. Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) Now Money 2006 Premium lets you view and track Exchange Traded Funds, a popular and growing investment category. Create a realistic debt reduction plan Work toward buying a house, budgeting for college or saving for a vacation by first reducing debt. The Money 2006 Premium Debt Reduction Planner helps you create a practical plan taking into account your income, current debt and when the debt needs to be paid off. Focus on long-term goals Are you ready for retirement? Money 2006 Premium can help. The Money 2006 Premium Lifetime Planner and Financial Events Modeler put your financial goals in perspective and give you the information you need to accurately plan ahead.
	Your financial future takes shape before your eyes
	Get a handy, dashboard view of your investments

Product Description

Microsoft Money 2006 Premium helps you plan and achieve long-term financial goals, optimize investments, and make tax-smart investment decisions. All in one place. Track spending, schedule bills, and manage all your accounts together—checking, savings, investments, and credit cards. Staying on top of your financial future has never been easier.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How to enjoy Microsoft Money, April 20, 2006

By 

David Arnstein (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microsoft Money 2006 Premium [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

Here is what you must do to have a good experience with this product:

1. Never use Microsoft Passport.

Passport is a universal password that can be used to sign on to multiple bank accounts, brokerages, merchants, and God knows what else. It is a security disaster. Avoid it!

Your installation of Microsoft Money will be a bit awkward if you want to avoid Passport. Some users believe that Money won't install unless you get a Passport. This is false, at least for Money 2006 and earlier versions. You just have to be careful (and resolute!) while you install. See also item 6. below.

2. Never store your financial data online with Microsoft

MS Money allows you to keep all your financial data stored on Microsoft's computers, as well as on your home computer. This allows you to access your MS Money data when you are away from your computer. For the unlucky user, it leads to virtually insoluble computer nightmares. Apparently, the local and remote copies of your data can get out of sync. It becomes difficult or impossible to overcome data corruption on Microsoft's computers. You fix up your local data, and it gets scrambled again when you connect to Microsoft's computers.

If you observe 1. above, you will not have to worry about 2.

3. Never use Yodlee to download account information from financial institutions

Yodlee (spit) is a company/method for downloading your account information from banks, credit card issuers, brokerages, etc. The way it works is that it impersonates a web browser and surfs your bank's (or brokerage's or ...) web site in order to suck in your account details.

The problem is that your bank's web site is designed for browsing by humans, not software. Small design changes to your bank's web site can cause Yodlee to scramble the data. Frustrating for you.

Many (but not all) financial institutions will download your account transactions directly into MS Money without the use of Yodlee. Yodlee gives you access to a larger collection of financial institutions. But it is not worth it.

If you observe 1. above, then you will not have to worry about Yodlee.

4. Keep several backup Money files

Microsoft Money stores all of your financial data in a single disk file on your computer. This is convenient for you. Money also allows you to store several backup copies of this disk file. I suggest that you configure Money to store 4 (depending on how paranoid you are) backup copies. What this means (for example) is that if you work with Money one time on each of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, then you will get a total of 5 copies of the file that holds your financial data. The oldest (backup) copy will reflect the state of your MS Money data from Monday. The newest (not a backup) will reflect the state of your MS Money data from Friday.

Why do this? Because like all Microsoft products, Money will occasionally scramble up your data. If you are not able to unscramble (there is a "repair" feature that you can try) then your only hope is to revert to an older copy of your data, and kiss your most recent updates goodbye.

You might not discover the corruption right away. That's why I suggest keeping multiple backups.

5. Back up your computer disk

This suggestion is not specific to Microsoft Money. But I feel obliged to mention this anyway. The more you use MS Money, the more you have to lose if your computer malfunctions. You can lose disk data due to a worn out disk drive, or an electronic failure in the computer itself. Your computer can suffer from fire, flooding, or theft. Your data can disappear from simple mistakes by users, or by the children of users!

So you have to back up your disk data. Most home computer users don't bother. But this bears repeating: the more you use an accounting program like Microsoft Money, the more you need to back up. Get to it!

6. Purchase the normal, CD-ROM version of Money, rather than the downloaded (electronic only) version.

WARNING: unconfirmed by my personal experience. Amazon.com sells this software product in a box containing a CD-ROM and some sketchy paper documentation. You can also download the software directly from Microsoft. But I have been told that the direct purchase from Microsoft requires the use of Passport. As I state in 1. above, I believe that Passport is a bad idea. So it is probably wise to purchase the physical, CD-ROM version from Amazon.com.

7. Find a community of knowledgable users

Like all mass market software, the technical support available for this product is useless. You should find a discussion forum for users of Microsoft Money. This is where you will go for help with problems that you cannot solve by yourself. I suggest that you read through the forum posts even when you don't have a Money problem. Look for major problems that might affect you. Forewarned, you might be able to avoid such problems.

Personally, I use the usenet news group microsoft.public.money. It can be found through microsoft.com or groups.google.com. Generally speaking, the intelligence level in this ng is solidly mediocre. That's in the nature of the Microsoft user community. If you find a better forum, please write an Amazon.com "review" of your own and share it.

Good luck with Microsoft Money!

77 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No Improvement Over Money 2004, August 6, 2005

By 

Electronic Gadgetphile (St. Paul, MN) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Microsoft Money 2006 Premium [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

Purchased Microsoft Money 2006 Premium as an upgrade to my Money 2004. Did the same with Money 2005 last year but could not get it to run effectively (without crashing) so I uninstalled it and went back to Money 2004. Figured that Microsoft probably made a bunch of changes in the two years since Money 2004 so I took the leap to Money 2006. It migrated my data fine and runs without crashing but I am still in search of new functionality. I don't download account data from banks so if functional improvements were made in this area I am oblivious to them. I do know that the screen jumps when entering transactions in the portfolio summary - maybe something that can be patched by Microsoft before it is offered as a "feature" in Money 2007. Bottom line - if have Money 2004 or 2005 you may want to save your money as the features and functionality in Money 2006 are essentially the same.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Stay away!! A total waste of time and money, March 10, 2006

By 

Daniel Taggart "-Sebastien" (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microsoft Money 2006 Premium [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

I am a long time Money user, all the way back to '99. I've always preferred it over Quicken because I found it more intuitive, powerful, and easier to use all at the same time.

I have noticed that over the various incarnations of the software, more and more links back to Microsoft and other advertisting "partners" (read: embedded spam) have been popping up (and under) in the program.

With 2006, however, they didn't just massively increase the number of advertisements and links, but they now REQUIRE that you use the Money online services (i.e. sign up for a "Passport" account) to connect to online institutions.

American Express provides my monthly statement data for download. Why should I be forced to sign up for a Passport account when, in previous versions, Money just connected directly to the financial institution?

The big problem with being forced to sign up is right in their privacy policy:

"...if you choose to use some of the Internet-based services, you may submit sign-in credentials and/or financial data, consisting of some or all of the content of your Money file."

Are you KIDDING ME!? Now that just sucks. By signing up with Passport, I'm allowing Microsoft access to ALL my PRIVATE financial data.

Now you might think that an upstanding, honest, and honorable corporation like Microsoft would take every effort to keep the data private, right? Let's take a look at the next paragraph of the privacy policy:

"Except as otherwise described in this Privacy Statement, personal information you provide to Microsoft via the Microsoft Money 2006 product will not be shared outside of Microsoft and its controlled subsidiaries and affiliates without your permission."

Do you have any idea how many "subsidiaries and affiliates" Microsoft has? That's just a horrible, insecure, evil and counter-productive thing to do.

Privacy concerns aside, the other major problem with the new 2006 version is the interface. In a clear effort to merge the "online" part of the program with the "personal" part, they converted everything to web pages, and you basically browse your own computer for your personal data, and then seamelessly browse the online pages for advertising.

Now many of my right-click features, window position saves, and other minor little features are gone, and it makes the program feel "kludgy" and slow.

So, with no new or improved features I can find to dissuade me; the addition of a clunky, slow, all-web based interface; and the threat of even further reduced privacy; I'm throwing my copy of 2006 in the trash, and going back to 2004.