David Michaels, then VP of Engineering at, received a patent for the encryption system he set up ( US Patent 8,566,952).Īlthough I don’t use Mint or Personal Capital right now, I would be comfortable with using them. See How do and similar websites avoid storing passwords in plain text? on Quora. They encrypt your passwords and make them secure with special hardware and procedures. You have to give them the passwords to your online banking, credit cards, and investment accounts. Mint and Personal Capital on the other hand are always online. There is no mobile app for Microsoft Money. Microsoft Money and Quicken keep your data local on the installed computer, which can be a plus or a minus depending on how you see it. If you upgrade every three years it’s pretty minimal, and it works out of the box. You need some add-on workarounds to make downloading transactions and security prices work. Other people have the same history with Quicken.Īfter Microsoft discontinued development, Microsoft Money became a free download for everyone. I started using it when it was Money ’98. History is a big reason why I use Microsoft Money. I’m only looking at its financial tracking tools, not its investment advice or portfolio management service. Second, Personal Capital also offers investment consultation and portfolio management service. My comments are based on the desktop, web, and mobile financial management applications as they are implemented today, not their theoretical capabilities. In many ways a web interface looks better. With the way computer applications are written these days, you can do pretty much the same with a native interface or a web interface. So here it is, for Andrew, and everybody else.įirst of all I want to say desktop versus web or mobile isn’t the critical factor. He asked me why I use a desktop application such as Microsoft Money or Quicken as opposed to a new generation web and mobile tool such as Mint or Personal Capital. Reader Andrew read my series on looking for alternatives to Microsoft Money (I ended up staying with Microsoft Money after all).

Microsoft money 2005 to quicken