Should I update to newer program?

bocaskaran

Ive been using Quicken since 2011 (Quicken Essentials). In 2016, I updated to Quicken 2015. I have no problems using it. I only use for household and some small investments. I do everything manually which works fine for me. I don't need check writing, payment reminders, or budgeting. There isn't that much and most things are on auto payment systems. I am in my early 70's and am wondering if I should update to a newer version.

The Keeper

You and I are in the same boat. I am 85 and have been using Quicken for about 20 years. I also do everything manually and don't write checks using Quicken since I pay all my bills online through my credit union. I don't need payment reminders because I receive only Social Security and retirement deposit once a month. As a result, I pay my bills once a month after both checks are deposited. I don't need Quicken budgeting because I have an Excel spreadsheet listing what needs to be paid each month and I pay the first of the month even if the bill is due on the 15th of the month. I have been criticized by some for not using Quicken the way it was designed but I do what works for me.

I haven't found another program that is better than Quicken so I am willing to pay the annual subscription price even though I use just a few of the Quicken features. If you can afford it, I would stay with Quicken and sign up for the annual subscription.

smayer97

Given that you have no need for any of the online features of Quicken, you can also choose to pay the subscription once and stop the subscription renewal (via your QUicken.com account), then only pay a new renewal if/when you want to get an updated version of Quicken.

The caveat is that when your subscription expires, Quicken takes up about 25% of your screen for reminders and Quicken ads (based on typical 14-15 in screen).

See here: https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7720791/quicken-inc-should-eliminate-or-minimize-the-large-popup-with-expiration-107-legacy-votes/p1

jacobs

I also do my transactions manually for a number of reasons. (I do some downloading in a test file because I participate in beta testing.) For the things I use Quicken for, I feel the current Quicken Mac is leaps and bounds improved over Quicken 2015. Reports are significantly better. I don't heavily use the budget features, but it has a budget where 2015 does not. QuickFill rules for manual data entry  is a huge improvement, and much more like (and even better than) Quicken 2007. Launch speed is faster. Searching which includes closed accounts was a big improvement for me. The new investing Dashboards and asset allocation features are a big improvement in monitoring my investment portfolio. I could go on if I rummaged around my brain, looked back at some of the other new features which have been added over the years, or fired up my old copy of Quicken 2015 and tried to use it a bit.

My overall point is simply that with 6+ more years of development, the program is better than it was, and includes many more (but still not all) features from Quicken 2007. I used Quicken 2015 for a but in parallel with my old Quicken 2007; I wasn't willing to switch from Quicken 2007 because there were too many holes, weaknesses, annoyances for me to make the switch. By the time it got to be late 2019, I found the program had improved enough for me to make the transition, and I was happy I did.

It's possible your usage of Quicken is such that the things I have found improved won't make much difference to you. We all use Quicken quite differently. So all I can do is share my opinion and experience that the 2022 version of the program is much improved over the version you have from 6 years ago. 

One more thought about whether to upgrade or not. If you decide Quicken 2015 continues to meet your needs well enough, you can keep using it — but recognize that won't be the case forever. As we've seen, Apple is continually modernizing the operating system, and software developers like Quicken are constantly updating their programs to keep up and maintain compatibility. There will be a point at which a macOS update breaks Quicken 2015 such that it won't run at all, or will fail in some ways. You might say you'll just stay on your older macOS — and that, too, will work for a time but not forever. At some point, your hard drive will die or your Mac won't power on, and you'll need to replace your computer. A new computer will only run a more modern macOS, and your old Quicken might not run on the newer macOS. That's a lot of "if's", so you can just decide to cross those bridges if/when you need to. But ask yourself if you think you'll be better-prepared to handle changes now or years from now. As our mental acuity slips with age, for most people it becomes harder to make big changes. So you might be happier getting current now, and dealing with small incremental updates in the years ahead, then having to deal with a crisis when your Mac dies and you need to replace the computer, learn a new macOS and an new Quicken, and upgrade your Quicken data.