personal finance

{Pardon my 5-star immodesty. I am the author of this book and Amazon requires me to rate my book when I submit this review.)

Financial counselors agree that keeping good, accurate records is the first step toward financial security. In order to make sound financial decisions, you must be conscientious of your spending habits and know how much income you really have. How can you save for a down payment on a house if you don't know how much you are capable of saving? How can you tell if your investments are doing well if you don't track them carefully?

This book makes it very, very easy to track your finances with Quicken. After you have read it and started using the techniques described here, you will know what your net worth is, how much you spend in different areas, what your investments (if you have any) are worth, and how much in taxes you will owe next year. You will know how to generate reports and graphs that describe in clear terms what your spending habits are, plan for retirement, compare mortgages and loans, and analyze different types of investments.

This book is for people who want to get up to speed with Quicken in a hurry -- people who want to explore Quicken's many excellent features without spending a lot of time doing it. In this book, I don't describe how to use Quicken -- I explain how Quicken serve your and your financial goals.

Here are the topics (taken from the table of contents) that are covered in the book:

The Big Picture

What You See: A Quicken Window

What You See: An Account Register

Toolbar Table

The Basics: Starting Quicken

The Basics: Entering a Transaction in a Register

The Basics: Moving Around in Account Registers

The Basics: Moving from Window to Window

The Basics: Backing Up Your Quicken Data

The Basics: Opening an Account Register

The Basics: Using QuickEntry to Enter Transactions

The Basics: Closing Quicken

The Basics: Getting the Help You Need

What You Can Do: Find Out Where You Spend Your Money

What You Can Do: Write and Print Checks Electronically

What You Can Do: Instantly Update Your Portfolio on the Internet

What You Can Do: Get a Jump-Start on Your Taxes

Part I: Introducing Quicken

Examining the Tasks You Can Do in Quicken

Finding Your Way in Quicken

Setting Up a Checking, Savings, or Credit Card Account

Part II: Recording Your Financial Activity

Creating and Managing Your Categories and Subcategories

Entering Transactions in Checking and Savings Account Registers

Entering Transactions in Credit Card Registers

Finding @md and Fixing @md Lost Transactions

Getting Help from the Quicken Calculator

Handling a Cash Account

Moving Records from One Account or File to Another

Printing an Account Register

Printing Checks

Setting Up and Managing Category Groups

Setting Up and Managing Classes

Splitting a Transaction between Different Categories

Transferring Money Between Accounts

Voiding and Deleting Transactions

WebEntry: Taking Quicken on the Road

Part III: Reconciling a Bank or Other Kind of Account

All about Reconciling

Balancing a Checking or Savings Account

Balancing a Credit Card Account

Recognizing and Fixing Reconciliation Problems

Part IV: Making Your Time with Quicken More Productive

Being Alerted to Financial Events

Being Reminded to Do Things

Customizing the My Finances Window

Deciding What You See When You Start Quicken

Deciding Which Accounts to See on the Account List

Keeping Track of Addresses in the Financial Address Book

Making QuickFill Work Your Way

Recording a Paycheck Deposit Automatically

Scheduling Transactions So That You Don't Forget to Make Them

Part V: Techniques for Measuring Your Financial Success

Easy Answers from an EasyAnswer Report or Graph Getting a Ready-Made Report from Quicken

Graphing Your Finances

Making Your Own Customized Reports

Memorizing a Report or Graph So That You Can Use It Later

Printing Reports and Graphs

Part VI: Quicken for Investors

Comparing Investments and Indices

Entering Investment Transactions

Exploring Quicken.com (and Other Investment Web Sites)

Portfolio and Security Detail View for Examining Your Investments

Setting Up an Investment Account

Setting Up a Security

Updating the Market Value of Securities

Part VII: Planning Your Financial Future with Quicken

Budgeting with Quicken

Devising a Plan to Reduce Your Debt

Forecasting Your Future Cash Flow

Planning for Your Retirement

Saving for a Child's College Education

Saving Toward a Goal

Part VIII: Banking Online with Quicken

Applying for and Getting Ready to Use the Services

Connecting Quicken to the Internet

Getting Accurate, Up-to-Date Account Information

One Step Update: Going Online

Paying the Bills Online

Transferring Money Between Accounts

Part IX: Getting the Housekeeping Done

Archive Files: Closing Out the Year

Creating a New Data File

Deleting Accounts

Emergency Records Organizer: Keeping Your Vital Information

Moving Quicken Data to a New Computer

Protecting Your Financial Records with Passwords

Renaming, Copying, and Deleting Quicken Files

Restoring Data from Backed Up Files

Part X: Quicken as a Financial Analysis Tool

Calculating the Future Value of an Investment

Calculating the Price of a Loan or Mortgage

Forecasting Your Future Financial Position

Getting Home-Buying Advice

Investigating Whether to Refinance a Mortgage

Part XI: Getting Tax Help from Quicken

Estimating Capital Gains Taxes

Finding Ways to Lower Your Tax Bill

Qucken.com and Other Tax Resources on the Internet

Tagging Tax Categories So That You Can Generate Tax Reports

Tax Link Assistant: Assigning Categories to Lines on Income Tax Forms

Tax Planner: Estimating How Much in Taxes You Will Owe

Visiting Your Tax Center

Part XII: Tracking Loans, Liabilities, and Assets

Inventorying Your Possessions

Keeping Track of Assets

Tracking an Amortized Car or Home Loan

Tracking a Liability

Glossary of Financial Terms