Introduction

Like most people who buy Quicken, you're probably looking for help: with credit card receipts, checking account statements, retirement plans, and on and on the list goes. You want Quicken to provide an overview of your financial health, while sparing you the time and tedium of balancing your checkbook and tracking every investment by hand. Quicken 2008 can do all that and more, and this book will show you how. The program's hundreds of features share one common purpose: to help manage your personal finances. If you have trouble remembering to transfer extra cash into higher-interest-rate savings, for example, you can set up Quicken to remind you. If budgeting's your downfall, Quicken can help build a budget to achieve your savings goals.

Quicken isn't hard to learn. Using the program as an electronic checkbook isn't much different from recording checks and deposits in a paper register. Features and techniques that you're familiar with from other programs (windows, dialog boxes, drop-down menus, keyboard shortcuts, and so on) work the same way in Quicken. Best of all, once you enter a bit of financial information into Quicken—like a check, deposit, credit card transaction, or loan payment—you never have to type it again. Quicken can use that information over and over to calculate things like what you've spent, how much you still owe, or even your net worth. Every minute you spend learning the program is time well spent.

Your Quicken ambitions may be no bigger than balancing your checkbook. Yet somehow, owning the program might get you thinking about aspects of your personal finances that you were content to completely ignore in the past. As you learn to do more with Quicken, you'll expand your knowledge of—and ideas about—money. Then again, sometimes Quicken seems to raise more questions than it answers: Return of capital from stock—what's that? What does "net worth" actually mean—and why do you need to know yours? Luckily, the book you're holding picks up where Quicken's help resources leave off.

This book begins by telling you how to set up Quicken 2008 to fit your needs. It explains the program's basic features and answers questions you're likely to have (but Quicken Help doesn't answer). If speed is your thing, this book shows you the fastest ways to perform financial tasks—like shortcut menus and keyboard shortcuts. It also provides comprehensive discussions and step-by-step tutorials for people who need a bit of handholding. Along the way, you'll discover features and benefits most Quicken owners never knew existed.