Are Quicken 2007 & Money 2007 Worth It?

USA Today’s financial markets reporter Matt Kranz today wrote about personal finance software. The question was:

Intuit (INTU) and Microsoft (MSFT) have released new versions of Quicken and Money personal finance software. Are they worth trying?

And here’s part of the answer:

Overall, personal finance software is a great idea for most investors. Many of the things that scared people off before, mainly the need to type in every transaction, is essentially gone, since both Quicken and Money can download transactions from your banks, brokerages and credit card companies. If you’re a serious control freak, you’ll want to get the top-of-the line versions of Money or Quicken, called Premium and Premier respectively. They contain all the investing features you want.

But if you’re just hoping to track your checking and savings accounts, you may consider the stripped-down versions: Quicken Basic and Money Essentials. They’re less expensive and will get the job done.

What if you already own Quicken or Money 2006? Should you upgrade to 2007? Probably not in the case of Money. Money 2007 is virtually indistinguishable from Money 2006. Quicken users, though, might consider an upgrade. Quicken 2007 finally upgrades the product’s dated look and feel. It also adds a great new “home page” that helps you examine how much money you’re likely to save in the month.

The bottom line? If you’re serious about saving money, personal finance can help you get a bird’s eye picture of all your accounts in one place and track your spending and investments. If you don’t use it already, you should give it a try.