Consumer Updates

Both Intuit and Microsoft recently updated their personal finance software, Quicken and Money respectively.

Intuit dropped their Quicken Basic and added Quicken Starter, which retails for the same $29.99. Starter includes tools for bill paying, account balancing, and tracking spending, but lacks the saving planning and investment management bells and whistles of its big brothers, Quicken Deluxe, Premier, and Home and Business versions. Those same big brothers got a few new gadgets, too, like support for PayPal transactions (has eBay taken over the world yet?) and streamlined budgeting.

Intuit also announced an online-only version of Quicken is in the works for 2008, presumably thanks to the success of the online version of Intuit's business line, Quickbooks, but nothing solid about the likely subscription fee.

Microsoft, ever eager to beat the competition to the punch, released the 2008 versions of Microsoft Money a week prior to the new Quicken release.

For more information on the new versions, check out their websites.

Quicken

Microsoft Money