2005 features a bust

[gdesignr]

I guess I can't complain too much about a product I get free after rebate
when I purchase TaxCut every year, but I thought I'd mention 2 things that
are bugging me just in case someone is listening.

First, Cash flow should have the option to show closed account information.
I worked very hard over the past 2 years to pay off an account, which I then
closed. Now Money's past cash flow doesn't show that closed account, so it
looks like I had a huge pile of cash instead of a pile of debt last year.
It's totally inaccurate, and it takes all the joy out of such an
accomplishment.

Second, the Debt reduction planner in 2005 seems busted. My other account
with a balance is steadily being paid off, set to be paid in full in May, but
since I upgraded to Money 2005, now it moves my pay off day up a month every
time I make a payment. I've tried re-running the planner to try to reset it,
but it shows that I'll be paid off in March, even though there is no way that
is possible with my scheduled payment amount. It will be May. That made the
debt reduction planner pretty much useless. Luckily I won't need it much
longer, but it would have really been annoying if It had happened last year.

Otherwise I'm very happy with Money. When I first got it a few years ago, it
helped me get organized and on the track to being debt free. (well, except
the mortgage). I'm not sure I could have done it without it. That said,
Money hasn't improved at all over the years. I even went to Premium, but the
only difference is in the look of the interface.

 

[gdesignr]

Cool... in regards to the issue with the debt planner, I went looking for
more info, and found this page

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;299420

It has details on how to reset the planner to start from scratch, and that
seems to be working. I'll know for sure next time I make a payment if the
payoff date stays in May

 

[Jeff Martin]

I've just recently started looking at the debt reduction planner. One
annoyance I found is that I can't seem to select which order I want the
debts paid. If I set it up to pay more than the total of minimum
payments, it applies the extra to the largest balance instead of the
smallest. I want the excess applied to the smallest balance to pay it
off quicker.

 

[Wayne]

Sure it's the largest amount and not maybe the one with the largest interest
rate? Paying off the larger interest rate will actually allow you to get out
of debt faster than just paying off the smallest bill, which may be what
Money is trying to do for you.

Either way it would be nice to have it allow you to choose. I just tend to
allow it to figure out the debt plan for me and pay it my way, this will
still keep up to day my projected out of debt time, and gets around it
telling me how to pay my debts.

--
Thanks
Wayne Sepega
Jacksonville, Fl


"When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But
let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour.
That's relativity." - Albert Einstein

 

[Bob Peel MVP]

With the greatest respect to those that DO understand the philosophies of
DRP, I think MS judged it safest to apply the algorithm that saves you money
by paying off highest interest first.

 

[Wayne]

Well Money applies a nice algorithm for you, but I would still like the
ability to override it if I wanted too. Currently I have a PMI payment on my
mortgage, granted I just added it as part of the split and didn't look to
see if Money had a way to handle it, and my PMI payment is much higher than
the amount of interest I pay out each month on any one of my other debts.

So being able to tell money I'm going to pay on this for X months would be
nice so that it would work me toward getting rid of my PMI.

BTW, know of a way to get the PMI to show up correctly under Money? and have
it fall off automatically when I have 20% in the house?

Wayne

 

[Dick Watson]

DRP algorithm is not malleable in this way. It knows interest rate and
nothing else.

The only easy way I know of to do the scheduling PMI thing you want is to
schedule an "opposing" deposit starting the month you stop paying the PMI
and running it for the remaining length of the mortgage. This will work cash
flow forecast, but won't work much of anything else. If it runs out in the
next twelve occurrences, you can edit the series to omit it and edit the
next n occurrences to include it. You could also schedule the PMI as a
separate payment, with a limited number of periods, but this would mangle
epay/apay/download matching.

If you have done the math to know that paying down the mortgage to void the
PMI requirement is a better economic move than what DRP otherwise
recommends, I'd just go with it. DRP is a simplified starting place for
people who can't even get that far.

 

[Wayne]

What I planned on doing is just changing my scheduled payment once the PMI
runs out. At that point I lose PMI, Home Owners Insurance, and Property
Taxes. All in escrow right now. So sounds like what I was planning on doing
is what I need to do.

Thanks

 

[Jeff Martin]

Positive. The large one that it is trying to pay off first is 0%. I
tested and confirmed that it pays off the larger one first by changing
the amounts and that is what it is doing.

The DRP is pretty much useless if you can set your own strategy.

 

[A J Gladson]

Wayne,

PMI is not easy to get rid of. Good luck!

 

[WildCelt]

I am experiencing a frustrating problem with the debt planner as well.
It keeps wanting to make a $5000 one time payment that I cannot get rid
of. I set the one time payment to zero, but underneath it still says
"Money has appiled your one time payment of $5000..."

 

[Bob Peel MVP]

It is a long standing "feature" if I understand you. The line that says
"Money has distributed your entire extra payment of X...." seems to be the
sum of all one time payments since you first started playing with DRP -
could even be from an earlier version of Money.

I have just such a line but it doesn't seem to affect my DRP.

You could try resetting the DRP from Tools > Settings > Planner Options but
make a copy of the .mny file first just in case!

 

[WildCelt]

Yup, that is exactly the "feature" to which I refer. I have tried
resetting my planner, to no avail. Unfortunately, it does affect my
planner. It keeps wanting me to make a $6000 car payment!

Thanks for the suggestion, I appreciate it. If anyone else has ideas,
I'd love to hear them.

 

[Bob Peel MVP]

Again take an extra copy of your .mny file and try the Reset Lifetime
Planner patch.

 

[Bob Peel MVP]

Ooops could have sworn I posted the link! Ah well!

http://money.mvps.org/patches.aspx

 

[WildCelt]

Thanks a lot Bob! I'll try it when I get home.

 

[Gordon]

I guess I can't complain too much about a product I get free after rebate
when I purchase TaxCut every year, but I thought I'd mention 2 things that
are bugging me just in case someone is listening.

First, Cash flow should have the option to show closed account information.
I worked very hard over the past 2 years to pay off an account, which I then
closed. Now Money's past cash flow doesn't show that closed account, so it
looks like I had a huge pile of cash instead of a pile of debt last year.
It's totally inaccurate, and it takes all the joy out of such an
accomplishment.

Second, the Debt reduction planner in 2005 seems busted. My other account
with a balance is steadily being paid off, set to be paid in full in May, but
since I upgraded to Money 2005, now it moves my pay off day up a month every
time I make a payment. I've tried re-running the planner to try to reset it,
but it shows that I'll be paid off in March, even though there is no way that
is possible with my scheduled payment amount. It will be May. That made the
debt reduction planner pretty much useless. Luckily I won't need it much
longer, but it would have really been annoying if It had happened last year.

Otherwise I'm very happy with Money. When I first got it a few years ago, it
helped me get organized and on the track to being debt free. (well, except
the mortgage). I'm not sure I could have done it without it. That said,
Money hasn't improved at all over the years. I even went to Premium, but the
only difference is in the look of the interface.

I also have more praise for, than complaints against MS Money
2005, but I do have one serious complaint. I can't get it to wait
until I'm ready, before updating my portfolio. I would like to
have the option of making the decision, myself, as to when the
on-line updating occurs. I have my computer set up on a DSL
internet service, so, any time I open MS Money, it does an
automatic update.

 

[Dick Watson]

Compared to, say, M04, what about M05 do you find deserving of praise? Or
are you praising it in the absolute? (As in M05 is better than paper and
pencil or better than simply guessing what state your finances are in or
better than just logging into all of the different provider's websites to
figure out what your financial state is.)