Financial Management Software

I’m a pretty low-tech kinda girl, and I use the old steady Excel spreadsheet function to manage my finances.  I’ve been looking into other software options, and have come up with some criteria that I need in good financial management software.

Firstly – I need something that doesn’t drastically change the method I already use.  A spreadsheet is nice and simple, and I can just make a copy of it when I want to manipulate numbers, or tweak formulas.

Secondly – I want something that isn’t expensive, and doesn’t have yearly user fees.  I hate paying user fees.  This particularly annoys me, because as I’m getting my business up and running smoothly, I’m noticing all of these monthly and annual costs.  They really add up.

Thirdly – I need something that does my taxes.  I like doing my taxes – only because taxes are the biggest financial investment I will make in my lifetime.  I heard that somewhere (don’t know where – too bad I can’t give them the credit).  It’s true – every year I pay over 20% of my income in taxes – that’s over $12,000!  That’s more than I will make in mortgage payments in a  year, and more than I can contribute to my RRSPs, which maxes out at 12% of your income.  Taxes are a huge investment – so I think it’s the most important thing to do well.

Fourthly – I don’t want to have to do a whole bunch of data entry.  I don’t itemize every purchase I make by category now – nor will I ever.

Fifthly – I want a financial management software program that has some valuable calculators.  The older versions of Excel have what’s called an Amortization calculator that figures out the payments, interest, and period of an amortized loan.  By playing around with it, you can clearly see what a difference it makes when you make a few extra mortgage payments a year.

Lastly – I ask myself if my expectations are just too high – or if I’m just looking for what I already have – but more willpower to use it properly?