Managing Your Personal Finances with Quicken

Book excerpt: It used to be that to begin working with Quicken, you had to hand-enter all sorts of information--a process so laborious that many people eschewed personal finance software altogether. Not so today: With Quicken 2004's Express Account Setup, all you have to do is select your bank (from a list of more than 2,000), supply your account IDs and PINs, and the software does the rest! All you really need, then, to start wrangling your finances immediately is this pint-sized project-based guide to the software! Rather than cover every last Quicken feature and option, veteran author Tom Negrino selects the quickest, easiest route to accomplishing a given objective-from setting up accounts and entering transactions to writing and printing checks, scheduling automatic bill payment, and securing loans-and presents it through full-page-width screen shots and simple step-by-step instructions. Throughout, you'll learn by doing as you complete the book's projects. By the end of the day, you will have mastered not just Quicken but your finances as well!