The only way to get data out of the program is in .QIF format, one measly account at a time. It’s worth noting that Quicken no longer supports _importing_ .QIF files for most account types, claiming (in article 3886 on their support site), and I quote, “QIF technology is over 10 years old and was designed for technical support purposes. … QIF Data Import requires many steps to download, can provide a poor customer experience, and can lead to duplicate transactions and errors.”

That old technology is good enough for you should you want to _export_ data from Quicken, however. Intuit is going to make darn sure that you have a “poor customer experience” and suffer from “duplicate transactions and errors” if you try to take your data to any other program.
Rating: 1 / 5

It has helped me to organize, set goals, learn when to say yes and when to say NO. It opened my eyes to so much, I was amazed at how little I knew about finances, saving, debt, goals, self-esteem and even Real Estate. The author, although a man, seems so in-tune to the struggles of today’s women–single, married, divorced, widowed, single-parent–all women and gives answers and guidelines–not just philosphies and baloney. It is a “nuts and bolts” book that gives you step by step instructions on how to turn your life around and be prosperous, happy and successful and he does it in a lively and sometimes humorous manner.

I am so happy I bought this book-it has been very, very insightful. Take the time-you’ll be glad you did.
Rating: 5 / 5

The Bad:
As with any book that tries to get you to change your life, you need to pick and choose the ideas that best suit you and fit your lifestyle. Hunt tells us we should give 10% of our money away, in a sense back to God. Among other reasons, this is to feel more connected with the world. She states a few times how people write in saying that they’d rather give their time and how Hunt feels this runs counter to the principles of giving away money. I for one, feel much more connected to the world when I am volunteering – writing checks and putting them in the mail is what you do to those evil credit card people you’re trying to get rid of.

Another GLARING frustration I had with the book was all the shameless plugs to her website. Not because I am against shameless plugs, but because in order to ACCESS the features she mentions, you have to buy a subscription! Key to the whole book is her Rapid Debt Repayment Plan (RDRP) which, as she puts it on her website, can be a very complicated thing to figure out on your own. If you have rudimentary knowledge of a spreadsheet program, such as excel (and no, you don’t HAVE to be a financial whiz to figure it out), know how to use formulas and even hide columns, you can crete a RDRP for yourself and save yourself the $20 yearly subscription.

I found this caveat frustrating because it was not stated in the book that this was a subscription source (perhaps it wasn’t when the book was published). So if you buy this book and can’t figure out excel for yourself, you could easily spend almost $40 in no time that isn’t going towards your credit payments. This issue made me question the line Hunt walks between her capitalistic enterprise (which she admits she loves) and her desire to truly help those of us out there with debt. What about giving 10% back to her readers?
Rating: 3 / 5

I didn’t learn any sensible budgeting techniques in high school, college, or graduate school. I decided I needed to learn to handle my money better and needed to get out of debt. I found this book at the Christian bookstore and purchased it. It revolutionized my financial thinking. It took about 18 months for me to get out of debt, and I have stayed out of debt since.

1. KEY THOUGHT: The Freedom Account. To this day, I still use a Freedom Account. I am married now, but my husband and I have a freedom account fully stocked for a new car in our future, health care, flood insurance, home insurance, car deductibles, etc. It is so freeing to realize you have that money set aside for things that may well/are going to happen. A great technique.

2. KEY THOUGHT: The RDRP (rapid debt repayment plan). So many people tell you you should pay off your highest-interest debts first. To me, it was motivational to start with my smallest debts. It was like a steamroller taking the money that I once was paying for debt A and sending double,triple, or quadruple payments to debt b. I really liked this technique! Currently, my only debt is a house mortgage. I use techniques I learned from the RDRP to pay down my mortgage early as well. I usually make more than twice the monthly payment so I can end my 30 year mortgage within 8 years.

3. KEY THOUGHT: Save 10%, Give 10%, Live off 80%. I really liked that Mary had her 80/10/10 rule . I think it’s so important to realize that you have to save and give while still paying off debts. It was a very unique view, and refreshing!

I really think people will enjoy this book. I also subscribed to Mary’s Cheapskate Monthly newsletter for several years as I got my finances in order. One nice thing there is as a subscriber you can have access to all the previous issues! I learned about many things there not covered in this book: Price Books, Once-a-month Cooking, Maximizing Food Dollar Value, etc. Fascinating reading

I hope I’ve helped someone… At the very least, you could check tihs book out from a library to read… but, you will likely find that it is well worth the price to buy it!
Rating: 5 / 5

Stylistically they made a few changes to colors and fonts, which I personally think are an improvement, but that’s preference more than anything. The nuts and bolts of the program have changed very little. They do let you modify your tabs which is something I’ve been looking for since 2002. You can now choose which tabs you want on your main start screen which is nice.

The program is also more stable. My old 2007 version would semi-frequently lock up during bank-info downloads. This one hasn’t locked up once, and is a lot more stable on my Vista 64-bit system. I hope it retains that stability when I upgrade to Windows 7 in a week. (I’ll update my review once I am on W7).

The bottom line is does this upgrade offer something substantial enough to warrant spending the money to buy it? I don’t believe so. Aesthetic improvements aside, upgrading to a more stable version, while nice, would not be necessary if the program had been programmed correctly the first time around. I do like that it crashes less, but that’s really an issue with the 2007 version being buggy and could have been fixed with a patch instead of a complete program replacement. I’m not a big fan of paying for new versions of programs that do basically the same things as the older version without any compelling improvements.

That said, this program does what it’s supposed to do, and does it pretty well overall. Do you need to upgrade? Probably not. You’re not gaining any remarkable new features with this version, so if your older version is stable and does what you need it to do, save your cash.

*****UPDATE 01-13-2010*****

I’ve been using QB2010 on 64-bit Windows 7 for months without a hiccup. Intuit really improved their platform stability with this release. It’s not crashed a single time vs. crashing regularly with QB2007. Also, they’ve released an service pack which adds support for some additional banks, as well as patching a few glitches (ones I never noticed or that didn’t effect me). Overall this is a good QBs release.
Rating: 3 / 5

Dear Mr. Mundis,

I am writing to thank you for essentially saving my life. For the last 10 years, since I was 21, I have been drowning in debt — student loans, credit cards — and filled with anixety and depression. Every time I dug myself out, I did it by throwing every single penny I had into my debt, then needed to borrow again right away to pay for expenses that arose. Even though I make a decent salary, I haven’t had money to buy simple things like clothes because I am putting all my money toward debts. I have put off graduate school and other things I really want to do in my life for years while I try to deal with this. I am guessing I am not that unusual, but I never really talked to anyone about it until a few weeks ago.

Someone I respect a great deal recommended “How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously,” and I finished it in a single sitting. I was completely stunned when you said that I came first and my creditors came second — those words really changed my life. I put needed expenses and expenses that make my life fulfilling back into my spending plan and started from there, as you recommended. And I decided to work with a reputable credit counselor to help negotiate my horrific credit card interest rates down from 31% and 29% to 8% and 9%.

I now actually have a completely reasonable plan to pay off all of my debt in 4.5 years — and that assumes no increase in my income over that time, and I expect it to increase. I can also afford to take the prerequisites I need for graduate school and put $50 a month toward clothes. I can even put a tiny amount into savings for a contingency fund in case emergency expenses arise. I am again completely stunned.

Your book is so straightforward and blunt while at the same time completely compassionate. I was expecting scolding and shaming, which is basically what I’ve been doing to myself. Your advice was completely doable, and I really believe I am on my way to being debt-free.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Rating: 5 / 5

Starting with the first chapter, Adopt a Positive Debt-Fighting Attitude, Ken gets the business owner in the right frame of mind to turn things around. In my experience, this it the phase that stops many people in their tracks and keeps them from finding a solution.

In the second chapter, he describes his own experience starting a specialty retail store that was hit by a recession (sound familiar?). He describes his struggles and how he handled them. He knows about sleepless nights, and the panic of watching your dream going down in flames!

Then chapter by chapter he leads entrepreneurs through the steps they must take to get their business back on track. Strategies include workouts, settlements, dump-buybacks, and more. He uses plenty of real-life examples to make the book interesting and help readers realize they aren’t the only ones who have struggled.

If you want to nurse your ailing business back to health — or you need emergency surgery — this is the book you’ll want to read.

Rating: 5 / 5

This book contains no offensive content.
Rating: 4 / 5