MSN Money Plus service ended

As mentioned in my earlier posting (The end of MSN Money Plus), the MSN Money plus service has now terminated. The service ended yesterday on the 28th June.

There is still the MSN Money service, which appears support accounts, so this could be a replacement - see https://moneycentral.msn.com/my/default.asp?SSL=1 (You'll need to use a Microsoft Passport to login).

In MSN Explorer, the service has also been updated to be identical to the MSN Money experience on Internet Explorer. Moneycentral provided the following information to enable the servce to work:

To verify that you have the latest version of MSN Explorer:

• In MSN Explorer, click Help and Settings
• Click About MSN
• Click the More Info button
• Scroll to the top of the page and verify that you have at least version 9.20.0029.3000

What-ifs and lifetime events modeller

I've recently rediscovered the "what if" scenario tool in MS Money. I've known about it for a while, but never really had the need to use them.

I've added a couple of articles to the site to show what they do:

• Article 410: Cash flow scenarios or "What-ifs"
• Article 411: Lifetime events modeler

I had cause to use the tools today, to try out some scenarios which may affect me in the next months and a couple in the next few years. It's quite illuminating. The cash flow what-if scenario tool is of more immediate use to me, as I use the cash flow extensively in my day to day use of Microsoft Money.

The lifetime events modeller is the longer term planning tool for Money. It's a little more difficult to place oneself in the longer term view - as it can only be a rough guide to the future. I use that tool mainly for making sure the future looks bright, and I'll have enough money for University fees in the future for my son.

Both of these tools are found easily in the program (see the articles). They're definitely something you need to keep in the back of your mind when using the program for planning purposes.

Recent site updates (FAQ Articles)

Since I last wrote to this site with the latest FAQ article, I've added a few more. These are as follows:

• Exporting and Importing a loan account (FAQ Article 402)
• Running Microsoft Money in Vista (FAQ Article 403)
• Changing sounds in Microsoft Money (FAQ Article 404)
• Microsoft Money Processes and Executables (FAQ Article 407)

With the imminent release of MSMoney 2007, I'll be creating a couple of new articles relating to that product shortly, when I can get my hands on a release copy.

Top of the flops - Microsoft Money in position 5?

Mary Jane Foley writes

If antitrust fears hadn't put the kibosh on Microsoft's plans to buy Intuit back in 1995, Microsoft might have been able to buy Quicken and turn its online banking product into a market leader. Instead, the Redmondians had to plod along with Microsoft Money, which seems to garner more wrath than praise from its users.

I'd agree with the appearance that Microsoft Money gets more wrath than praise, especially in the newsgroups - after all, they're for peer to peer support, so it would, wouldn't it.

Quicken and MS Money are still the two major personal finance products, and Money does have a good market share (and in the UK, MS Money is the only product that is currently sold).

So, I'm not sure there is enough evidence it should be in her list - I'm not sure why she calls it a flop - Microsoft keep producing the versions, and people keep buying them.