RIP Quicken

ldevillon

I've been a Quicken user for over 30 years. Always been satisfied. But now, I'm informed that my iMac OS Monterey will no longer be supported. I can't upgrade my OS any further due to the limitations of the IMac. And no, I'm not going to go out and buy a new computer to accommodate Quicken. Plus several weeks ago my Fidelity, Goldman Sacs accounts, etc will no longer allow connection. Other accounts give errors. So why did I pay $80 to renew a few months ago?

Goodby Quicken. It's been great (until recently)

jacobs

@ldevillon It is nothing new that Macs have a useful life of about 10-11 years before they cannot get operating system upgrades, security upgrade, and software upgrades. Some people are able to happily continue using Macs for additional years because the hardware is still functioning well. But once the security upgrades end, software issues start creeping in. One day, your bank tells you your browser is out of date and can't be used. Then your insurance company can't process your payment online because of the out-of-date browser. Then your music streaming service or Netflix tells you you can't connect because your software is too old. Then your brokerage company won't let you connect. And somewhere in there, some of your installed software, like Quicken, can't be updated to the latest version. For better or worse, this is how computer technology works, with hardware driving software updates and software driving hardware updates. It's been this way for decades. And Quicken is not an outlier.

By the way, you can continue to use your current Quicken Mac on Monterey for some time; you just can't update to newer versions of Quicken when they are released. At some point, you will likely lose online services due to security and other changes with back-end servers, but you could still use Quicken manually if you wish.

Connectivity to specific financial institutions is a separate matter, and is clearly one of Quicken's weaknesses. The financial services industry unfortunately doesn't have rock-solid interoperability standards, and a small player like Quicken is at the mercy of financial institutions to enable their software to connect and function. At any given time, there are dozens of financial institutions (out of more than 10,000) with one sort of connectivity problem or another. They (almost) all get resolved eventually, but it can take weeks or months, particularly when financial institutions view Quicken connectivity as a relatively low priority.

As always, the bottom line for every Quicken user is whether it delivers enough value to justify the subscription price. For most users, the answer is yes: sometimes a resounding yes, sometimes a frustrated or resigned yes, due to connectivity problems or other software limitations. And sometimes the answer becomes a no. For each of us, it's different because we use different features in Quicken and have different financial institutions with different track records. If you can find other satisfactory ways to manage your personal finances without Quicken — whether it's a personally-created spreadsheet or a financial institution's website or another software product — then you walk away. If you find, as many have, that Quicken is still the best tool for you, despite its flaws and limitations, then you carry on with it.

But eventually you'll still need a new Mac, because too much of what you use it for will cease to work well due to old software even though the hardware may still function.

Best wishes!