Equity Finance » Investments

Personal Finance Software Review of Quicken Product Offerings

admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 08:14:05 +0000

In this article I would like to conduct a personal finance software review of the Quicken product offerings designed for personal use. There are several personal finance software products on the market that do wonderful jobs of helping families manage their finances, but I am most familiar with Quicken as I have been a user of its products for over eight years. I have been completely satisfied with the features Quicken provides and would like to review and compare the benefits that its product offerings deliver.

Quicken Starter Edition

Formerly known as Quicken Basic, the Quicken Starter Edition is an excellent solution for individuals who will be using personal finance software for the first time. The three main features the Quicken Starter Edition delivers are: (1) balancing of your checkbook electronically, (2) tracking how you spend your money by being able to categorize purchases, and (3) monitoring and updating all your investment and banking accounts in one place. It basically provides a “one-stop shop” for all of your personal finance concerns.

Quicken Deluxe

Although the Quicken Starter Edition is a fantastic product, I believe the average family considering a personal finance software product should start with Quicken Deluxe. The reason is that, in addition to offering all of the features of the Quicken Starter Edition, Quicken Deluxe provides the capability to download banking and investment account transactions automatically. This makes reconciling your checking account, as well as your other accounts, extremely simple. In addition, Quicken Deluxe allows you to create savings goals and track their progress, store statements and records electronically, and plan for a new home, a baby, or retirement. For most families, this is the best place to start.

Quicken Premier

For those families who manage their own investments and require additional tools to monitor and measure their progress, Quicken Premier is the perfect solution. Quicken Premier offers all of the wonderful features from Quicken Deluxe plus several others, including: (1) generating various investment performance reports, (2) analyzing and optimizing your portfolio with special tools, (3) generating Schedule A, B, and D tax reports, and (4) setting investment alerts to notify you when certain conditions are in place. A truly remarkable tool for the do-it-yourself investor!

Quicken Home & Business

The three software solutions above are all excellent choices, but if you own your own business, none of these will be sufficient for the additional monitoring and record keeping required of you. Enter Quicken Home and Business. Though not as powerful a solution as Intuit’s QuickBooks products, it is the perfect choice if you have a small business with no payroll requirements, or especially for a part time business. In addition to providing all of the wonderful features of Quicken Premier, Quicken Home and Business allows: (1) tracking and categorizing of both business and personal expenses, (2) creating customized estimates and invoices, (3) generating profit and loss reports, (4) tracking vehicle mileage and other Schedule C items, and (5) monitoring upcoming bills and unpaid invoices. If you are considering a small part-time business, this solution is perfect to get you started.

In conclusion, Quicken offers a wonderful lineup of products that are designed to meet the varying needs that different families require. This personal finance software review has aimed to provide you with a basic overview of each product to help you decide which solution would be most appropriate for your family. Hopefully this discussion convinces you of the incredible value personal finance software delivers to its users. I can only speak from personal experience.

By: Charles Hebert

About the Author:

Charles Hebert shares his views on personal finances from his website, Smart Money Advocate, which advocates simple strategies for achieving financial success.

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Islamic Finance

admin — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:55:07 +0000

Islamic finance is a centuries-old practice that is incessantly marking its significance in not only the Eastern but also the Western states. So what exactly is this practice that has captivated the interest of millions across the globe and is gaining continuous recognition? Islamic finance is the process through which the financial conglomerates in the Muslim world inclusive of their banks and further loan giving financial organizations raise their capital in agreement to the Islamic rules and regulations that are called as the “Shari’ah”. The various categories of investments that are permissible under the Shri’ah are included in this field.

This industry is showing an impressive and a steady growth rate of above fifteen percent with global worth of almost

Saving Money From Income – Are You a Saver Or Spender?

admin — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:52:44 +0000

It certainly looks all doom and gloom at the moment doesn’t it?

Open any newspaper or tune into the news on TV and if you are anything like me, you get punch drunk with all the articles on how bad the stock market or property market is etc etc.

It may seem perverse then to write an article on savings!

However, as ever, this is an immensely important subject that affects our clients’ future security. As we view a Doctor or Dentist’s financial affairs over at least 15/20 years, we can clearly see the effect this has on their overall position.

Quite often the savings and investments they made in the early years were fairly modest, but have now built up very nicely thank you over time. This helps massively towards their ‘Financial Independence Day’- the time they can choose to stop working.

Because the service we offer to our clients includes being able to look ahead at how their lives will look in, say, 15 years time (by using cash flow forecasts), we can show how much they need to save/invest NOW so that they do not run out of money in the future.

So, looking at the big picture, are we Brits serious savers?

Well, we certainly used to be. It took some time to recover from the war, but by the mid 1950s, we started to make real progress.

Here is the average UK savings ratio for 1960-1989:

60’s – 5.65%

70’s – 7.95%

80’s – 8.65%

The peak came in the difficult winter of 1979, when the savings ratio hit an all-time high of 14.1%, or to put it another way, one in seven pounds.

Now let’s look at how well we saved in the Nineties:

1990 – 1994 – 10%

1995 – 1999 – 8.28%

Yes, we saved hard during the recession of the early Nineties, but our savings habit started to slip when the housing market took off from the mid 90s onwards. However, things have certainly taken a turn for the worse recently, as the final table shows:

The UK average savings ratio, 2000-2008:

2000 – 2003 – 5.35%

2004 – 2008 – 4.30%

So, a declining trend, and the situation gets even worse.

In the first quarter of this year, the savings ratio collapsed to 1.1%. This is £1 for every £90 earned after tax, and takes us to a 49 year low.

In the past, a squeeze on our disposable incomes would have made us look to cut back and save more. Sadly, after a twelve-year housing and credit boom, it appears that we’ve almost forgotten how to save.

Of course, the purpose of having a bit of a financial cushion was to help when the bad times came. Well, the bad times are here, and for some people it looks like the cushion that has been there in the past is no longer available.

Perhaps the more you earn the more leeway you will have. However it is our experience that the more you earn the more you spend! (It’s important to focus on how much income you’re left with at the end of the month, not necessarily how large the income is).

So, ask yourself – are YOU saving enough?

Key Considerations:

It does pay to save. If you are serious about optimizing your finances to secure your future, do look at what you can afford to save and invest.

Once this is decided make sure that this money is targeted at fulfilling your goals in life.

ACTION POINT

Ensure you have an up to date expenditure template to identify where your money is spent, and compare this to your income now and in the future by analyzing your cash flow forecast (CFF).

This is VITAL.

If you do not have a CFF, ask your adviser to build you one, and if they cannot do this find a planner who can.

Do you have the scope to save/save more? If you have – do it!

It will bring Financial Independence Day nearer!

By: Ray Prince

Equity Method Accounting Makes a Big Difference

admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:28:33 +0000

Equity method accounting is used when an investing company owns stocks of another affiliate company. There are several different ways of accounting for this ownership, but this method is perhaps the most popular.

Equity method accounting factors in the increase or decease in profits of the invested company. These differences are usually unrealized and not actually obtained by the investing company. The increase or decease is, of course, calculated on the percentage of stocks owned and does not account for dividends paid. For example, if an investor owns 100 shares of an affiliate’s stock. And if that stock increases 10%, only those 100 shares will reflect the 10% increase. The investing company will then record that increase as profit on their ledger.

Before going further, it is important to note that if a parent company owns over 50% of a subsidiary company, equity method accounting is not allowed. Consolidated companies are required to combine the financial figures into one statement for the group of entities.

This information, found through equity method accounting, can be very helpful to a company. If understood correctly, the profits or losses of affiliate companies can help forecast the total equity of the company. This total equity can show trends of upward or downward value of the investing company.

If this information is wrongly considered, the effects can leave the company high and dry. Dry, in this case, meaning out of money. If the profits found with the equity method are considered physical liquid assets, the company’s operating capital will be wildly off the mark. This is why it is very important to understand that equity method accounting determines value of investments, but rarely shows finances that can be readily used.

Equity method accounting highly increases the appearance of financial standing. Including all investment gains as profit really boosts the income side of the balance sheet. A major advantage to padding this stat is the likelihood of getting loans, raising capital, or getting investors.

Just think, as a loan officer, if a company showed records of $100,000 in profits instead of $75,000. That makes a big impact on whether or not to give a loan and how much to loan out. This scenario works the same for the decision of an outside investor or joint venture opportunity.

Other factors exist as to whether or not an investing company uses equity method accounting or not. There are tax requirements for the amount of investment in the affiliate company. If the investor has significant influence or not and the percent of ownership plays a role in using this method of accounting as well.

By: Joe Coffee