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Update: The giveaway has ended and the winners will be announced shortly.

Note: This is a long article containing an in-depth review of the new version of Quicken. If you are just interested in the giveaway of Quicken 2010 Deluxe, scroll to the bottom of this article.

It took me a long time to warm up to Intuit Quicken. When I first saw the software in the early or mid 1990s, I wasn’t very interested. That’s not the software’s fault; at that time I most likely did not see the need for tracking money I did not have. When I finally realized I needed to build some control of my personal financial situation, I first looked for free solutions.

After several months of spending less than I was earning and tracking my progress using freeware, I evaluated Microsoft Money alongside Quicken. Money looked nice and ran smooth while Quicken was clunky and unattractive, so I stuck with Money for a few years. After some time, I came to realize that Money’s features for dealing with investments were not as comprehensive as I would like, and for some reason it interpreted the downloaded data from my 401(k) incorrectly. I decided to give Quicken another shot.

While Quicken wasn’t perfect, it worked better with the transaction data I downloaded from the banks and offered configurable reports. So I stuck with it, and I still use a desktop version of Quicken almost every day. I receive questions about why I haven’t switched to popular Web 2.0 applications like Quicken Online (review here) or Mint.com (review here). These websites offer interesting features, particularly those powered by community aggregate information, but they lack some of the basic investing functionality that I get from the desktop version of Quicken.

Quicken 2010 review, first impressions

QUICKEN 2010 HOME & BUSINESS WINDOWS CD DIRECTI received Quicken 2010 Home and Business in the mail yesterday and gave it a test drive tonight.

The upgrade from Quicken 2009, including downloading updates to the software online, took about ten minutes. Tens of thousands of transaction records needed to be converted to the new version, and this took the bulk of the time for the upgrade.

After the upgrade was complete, the software brought me to Quicken.com to register. Although I am already registered at Intuit, I was required to provide my information again before using all of the software’s functionality. Although required, the registration process was quick.

I was impressed with the new version’s look and feel. The interface is redesigned to be cleaner, and switching from one page to another within the software seems to move faster. One of my biggest complaints about Quicken has been its sluggish display but this seems to be greatly improved.

Quicken 2010 opens to a new main screen with three horizontal sections. The top includes a pie chart describing your spending within categories and the middle of the screen lists your anticipated expenses.

The focus here is on your cash flow: how much is left in your spending accounts at the end of the month. Here is the top half of my screen. Click on the thumbnail to view the image full-size (and note the exceptionally large tax expense thanks to quarterly estimated payments).

Quicken 2010

The bottom section of this screen is new. According to Quicken, it would take 5 minutes to begin tracking spending goals. I began creating spending goals, which seem to form a softer style of a budget. Unfortunately, because I use sub-categories, Quicken’s “average monthly spending” in categories like “Auto,” “Dining,” and “Entertainment” were inaccurate. As a result, the “suggested monthly goals” were not appropriate. I solved this by choosing my own categories, such as “Auto:Fuel” rather than “Auto.”

After assigning several categories to watch, here are my results so far for October. [click to continue…]

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I have ten passes for free federal and free state tax filing using TurboTax Online Premier to share with Consumerism Commentary readers. Each prize is valued over $100. If you are interested in being included in the drawing, it’s very simple to enter.

To enter for the giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. If you subscribe to the Consumerism Commentary RSS feed, say so in the comment. You will receive a second entry in the giveaway, theoretically doubling your chances to win. It’s not too late to subscribe. (If you’re curious about RSS feeds, see this information.)

For yet another chance to win, tripling your odds, follow me on Twitter and leave a comment here to let me know you have done so. If you are already tracking my Twitter updates, just say so in the comment. If you then “tweet” this post, you will receive a fourth entry in this contest.

Prices to electronic tax filing are sure to increase very soon, but you can increase your odds of filing for free by participating in this giveaway. And it’s quite easy to quadruple your chances by increasing your participation without much effort.

Of course, if you want only one entry in the giveaway, you are free to leave a comment here saying whatever you wish.

As the winners are selected, one every weekday if I remember, they will be listed here. Once you’ve won one, you won’t be eligible to win another. But if your name isn’t selected, you will still be in the running for future drawings.

  1. Jay (@marketfolly)
  2. Chris (@chrishas35)
  3. Erica Douglass (@ericabiz)
  4. Crabhands
  5. CJ
  6. Nate (@NateDesmond)
  7. Rev_Mother (@Rev_Mother)
  8. David
  9. ALLY in WA
  10. Revanche

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Earlier this month, I announced a giveaway of five USB flash drives containing TaxCut software. As of last night, the giveaway has ended. I’ve selected the five winners using the random integer generator found at random.org. Here are the results:

random integers

The random numbers correspond to the comment numbers on the original giveaway announcement. I have sent emails to notify the winners and request mailing addresses. I’ll have the drives in the mail as soon as possible.

I plan on announcing a new giveaway tomorrow, so if you like free stuff, stay tuned.

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Yesterday, I received five USB flash drives containing the TaxCut software, and I intend on giving each one of these away to Consumerism Commentary readers. Last year, I didn’t receive these flash drives until April 11, a little too late for tax filing purposes. Also, last year’s drives were only 256 MB. The drives I received yesterday have four times the capacity. Even if you’ve already filed your taxes or are using other software, you can still win one of these 1 GB flash drives and erase the data. You can then put music, photos, or any other kinds of computer files on these USB drives.

I’ve never used TaxCut before, so I can’t vouch for the software’s quality. Over the last few years I’ve been using TaxAct, and before that, TurboTaxOnline. TaxCut is a popular product, and I’d suggest reading the CNET Review for pros and cons.

If you’re interested in being selected to win a USB flash drive containing TaxCut Premium Federal + State + e-file, leave a comment below on this post. The comment could be an interesting anecdote about your own tax situation or someone else’s, it could be a joke, or it could be anything else. There are two catches. I’ll only send a drive to a United States address, and you’ll need to include a real email address so I can contact you if you win.

This probably goes without saying, but we’ll only take one submission per person and IP address.

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