I recently helped a friend install and setup Quicken as she had never before used a budget or tracked their income and spending.
They live paycheck to paycheck and I just know they could do better if they had the information about their own habits and the power to change them.
The nice thing about quicken is that you can download your transactions from your bank so manual entry is often not necessary.
You will need to update spending categories once in a while if the bank guesses wrong or guesses nothing, but overall its a huge time saver.
The look on her face when she realized how much she was spending on a couple of key categories was priceless.
Her guess for each category was WAY under what the truth was, by hundreds of dollars.
This kind of problem is typical.
We don't always think those little trips to the store will add up to such big numbers and then wonder why there's nothing left over at the end of the month.
After seeing the quicken reports for just two months she was able to streamline her budget and stick to a plan that allowed them to make a serious turnaround.
Now they have extra money at the end of the month to put toward outstanding credit card debt, start saving for college (they already have retirement through work), and generally have some peace of mind.
Many people are afraid of budgets and would rather get a root canal.
But she can honestly say that with a little guidance from quicken she is now addicted to watching those numbers and gaining control over their spending.
If you have proficiency in a program like quicken share that knowledge with someone who needs it.
Be sure they're ready to receive your information, but once you've trained them you'll have literally saved their futures.
It's up to them to maintain the discipline, but they will now have the tools and the knowledge to be financially secure.