Why I still use MS Money
N G
MS Money may have been officially discontinued nearly twenty years ago, but for many of us, it remains an irreplaceable tool. In this article, I’m sharing my personal journey with MS Money — a story of false starts, rediscovery, and ultimately, long-term loyalty. Alongside my experience, I’ll also be gathering and sharing the stories of others who continue to rely on this classic software.
## My Journey with MS Money
I probably tried using Money for the first time around 2000, when I was in my twenties. It was hard to get past the annoyance of opening it up constantly, keeping all my receipts for purchases and ATM withdrawals, and logging them manually. This habit didn’t stick, and I gave up within a month.
Things changed in 2004, when I changed jobs and finally had a 401(k) for the first time. By then, I also had my first credit card and began to appreciate the ease of downloading and importing transactions. Fortunately, most places I shopped at accepted credit cards, so carrying cash became less necessary.
Through MS Money, I began learning some basic accounting concepts, such as balancing my accounts. The rush of matching my records to my bank balances — down to the penny — fueled my enjoyment of maintaining clear visibility over my cash flow. I was hooked.
In 2007, I started to get the hang of Linux and became a passable user. Around that time, I also began to wonder how much longer MS Money would last. Since it seemed like the software was nearing its end of life, I started exploring alternatives like Quicken and Moneydance. Quicken just wasn’t for me. I don't remember all the details, but the killer features in Money for me were always the **Financial Planner** and the **Reports** functions.
Moneydance, while cross-platform and pretty good overall, didn’t replicate the Financial Planner feature. (I don't know what Moneydance is like in 2025, but by now, it doesn't matter.)
I probably lost a couple of years to Moneydance after MS Money Sunset was released, since I figured MS Money wouldn’t last forever.
Then the **Pocketsense** scripts came out — and they were good enough to bring me back. When **MSMoneyQuotes** was released in 2014 by Dan Gaier, I knew I was back to stay.
Wine still wasn’t good enough yet — and neither was I — so I ran a Windows XP virtual machine until 2020, when my experiments with Wine finally became fruitful. As my confidence with Wine and Linux grew, I became convinced I could continue using MS Money indefinitely.
## Why I’m Still Using MS Money Today
I feel like the visibility MS Money provides over my finances is unmatched for the price — or really, unmatched at all. At a glance, I can tell you how much we spend in any category per month or per year, whether we’re spending more or less than we earn in a particular month, and because I monitor our credit cards so closely, I can spot fraudulent transactions almost immediately.
In retirement it’s common for people to consult a financial advisor before making big purchases, but I don’t feel that dependency. I have the data I need at my fingertips. I’m convinced that without a tool like MS Money, I could easily still be living paycheck to paycheck as I was in my younger days — despite my best intentions — as is common for many people.
MS Money gave me the confidence and visibility I needed to take control of my finances. Even though the software itself is frozen in time, the value it brings me continues to grow.
Share Your Story
For those of you still using MS Money today — and have fond memories of it — I’d love to hear from you. I'm gathering stories from fellow users about why they stuck with it, how they make it work in 2025, and what keeps it relevant for them even after all these years.
Feel free to share your experience, your favorite features, the hacks or workarounds you use, or simply what MS Money has meant to you.
N G
Microsoft Money was officially discontinued more than a decade ago, but for many of us, it remains an irreplaceable tool for managing personal finances. Whether you’re a long-time user or someone who drifted away, it’s worth taking another look at why MS Money still deserves a spot in your financial toolkit — even in 2025.
In this article, you’ll hear from passionate MS Money users — including myself — about why we still use it, how we keep it running on modern systems like Linux and macOS, and why no modern app has truly replaced it.
Why MS Money Stood Out Then — and Still Does Today
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Clean, intuitive design: Unlike clunky alternatives of the time.
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Powerful and flexible reporting: Easily customize reports by category, time period, or account.
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Built-in financial planning tools: Budgeting, forecasting, investment tracking — far ahead of its time.
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Local data storage: No forced cloud sync or vendor lock-in.
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Free to use today: Thanks to Microsoft’s final "Sunset" release and community-built tools.
Even now, MS Money strikes a unique balance between simplicity, power, and user ownership that few modern apps can match.
By Nathan Giard
I probably tried using Money for the first time around 2000, when I was in my twenties. It was hard to get past the annoyance of opening it up constantly, keeping all my receipts for purchases and ATM withdrawals, and logging them manually. This habit didn’t stick, and I gave up within a month.
Things changed in 2004, when I changed jobs and finally had a 401(k) for the first time. By then, I also had my first credit card and began to appreciate the ease of downloading and importing transactions. Fortunately, most places I shopped at accepted credit cards, so carrying cash became less necessary.
Through MS Money, I began learning some basic accounting concepts, such as balancing my accounts. The rush of matching my records to my bank balances — down to the penny — fueled my enjoyment of maintaining clear visibility over my cash flow. I was hooked.
In 2007, I started getting into Linux. Around that time, I also began to wonder how much longer MS Money would last. Since it seemed like the software was nearing its end of life, I started exploring alternatives like Quicken and Moneydance. Quicken just wasn’t for me. I don't remember all the details, but the killer features in Money for me were always the Financial Planner and the Reports functions.
Moneydance, while cross-platform and pretty good overall, didn’t replicate the Financial Planner feature. (I don't know what Moneydance is like in 2025, but by now, it doesn't matter.)
I probably lost a couple of years to Moneydance after MS Money Sunset was released, since I figured MS Money wouldn’t last forever.
Then the Pocketsense scripts came out — and they were good enough to bring me back. When MSMoneyQuotes was released in 2014 by Dan Gaier, I knew I was back to stay.
Wine still wasn’t good enough yet — and neither was I — so I ran a Windows XP virtual machine until 2020, when my experiments with Wine finally became fruitful. As my confidence with Wine and Linux grew, I became convinced I could continue using MS Money indefinitely.
Today, thanks to my msmoneysetup project, it’s easier than ever for Linux and macOS users to install and run MS Money without fighting with Wine manually — no extra tools or packages needed.
MS Money gave me the confidence and visibility I needed to take control of my finances. Even though the software itself is frozen in time, the value it brings me continues to grow.
How Others Are Still Using MS Money Today Bill's Story: Bringing MS Money to the Mac
"I discovered Money in the early 1990s and have remained loyal ever since. Particularly for those of us who don’t want our financial lives in the cloud, it's unmatched.
About 15 years ago, I moved to MacOS. I loved the hardware-software integration, but MS Money kept me tethered to Windows. Thanks to msmoneysetup, I now run Money natively on my Intel MacBook — no Boot Camp, no extra licenses. It installed in about 43 minutes and works beautifully."
— Bill
Kevin's Story: Escaping Quicken and Finding a Lifelong Tool
"Quicken-lite on Windows 95 was my first exposure to finance software — and it was ugly! MS Money 1997 won me over instantly with its clean design and powerful reports.
I purchased every version up to Money 2007. Today, I use Money Plus Sunset on Windows 11 and Linux Mint, thanks to Nathan’s msmoneysetup project. With Pocketsense for downloads, it still meets all my needs."
— Kevin N.
Mrs. Law's Story: 30 Years of Loyalty
"I switched to Money around 1995 after using Quicken. I've looked at other finance packages since — none of them do what I want like Money does.
Now in my 80s, I still rely on Money every day, updating my portfolio regularly thanks to Dan Gaier’s tools. Life without MS Money is inconceivable."
— Mrs. Law
Ronald's Story: No Other Software Comes Close
"Since the 1990s, MS Money has been the best personal finance software — by a mile.
Even when Microsoft dropped support, the Money 2005 UK version and Dan Gaier’s updates kept me going. I’ve tried others — nothing comes remotely close to Money."
— Ronald Brandman
Why It’s Still Worth It
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No cloud lock-in.
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No expensive subscription fees.
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Full ownership of your financial data.
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Lightning-fast performance compared to bloated modern apps.
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Tools that actually help you plan — not just "view" — your finances.
Even frozen in time, MS Money delivers financial visibility that today’s apps still haven’t matched.
Share Your Story
Are you still using MS Money?
I'd love to hear your story — and so would others who are rediscovering this classic tool.
Feel free to reach out at [your email or submission method].
Cal Learner
- Portfolio shows investment performance in various ways the brokers don't.
- Consolidates financial info onto my computer(s) rather than somebody else's; the cloud is just somebody else's computer.
- No new bugs. We know how to deal with existing bugs/quirks, but don't need to regularly relearn
- Allows looking back at events/purchases in ways not thought of at the time
- Custom and "Favorite" reports help with taxes
- Microsoft Money Sunset has nice multiple-vintage backups system
Bill & Michelle Becker
- Friendly support community of active users
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Tom Roberts
The investment Portfolio Manager has a wide range of adjustments to be able to assess progress, including the ability to track weightings by sector (assign ‘comment’ to sector name under investment ‘details’) so we know when to rebalance a sector.
With the present portfolio value of our investments as baseline, we used the Lifetime Planner to input our planned income, estimate taxes and inflation. We also input our real property assets and the Planner permits definition of planned appreciation, timing of future expenses and selling date. With the Planner model baseline set up, we ran scenarios for life expectancy, loss of income, exchange rate fluctuation, property depreciation, change in living expenses, etc. Then prepared a report with the inputs and outputs of the model generated by the Lifetime Planner; the Financial Planner at our bank had little to add to improve the analysis.
Besides monitoring our income and expenses every month, we use the Budget Tool to compare our expenses when we move between countries, since one country has a lower cost of living but requires us to rent both car and accommodation. The actual income from the budget, along with the projected income from our broker, also provides the key data for estimating our quarterly tax payable to our gov't.
The budget works with the Cashflow Tool which traces out the stability of the accumulated balances of our day-to-day accounts. The tool has the ability to select which accounts to exclude and the scenario date can begin in the present or the past to anytime in the future. Without a budget, the tool can projects the future based on the value of past transactions.
The Home Inventory feature has a useful function to Organize Important Records. We used this function to inventory our documents, pensions, insurance, our Wills, taxes, account numbers, expiration dates, etc. With all info in one place, it is then easy to print out a summary of all important data.
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Paul Marsh
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