money

The 404 378: Where Jill Schlesinger eats Wilson's Asian pear

Asian pears are delicious, which is why Jill Schlesinger--The 404's very own financial expert from CBS MoneyWatch--likes them so much! After getting through some munching and slurping noises in the first minute by Wilson, Jill explains to us what is going on with the economy and why we need to fear the End of Days. Just kidding...mostly.

Not being financial experts by any means, Jill explains some basic terms to us so we know what the heck is going on. Like what is the difference between the unemployment rate and weekly jobless claims? Plus, she goes on to say that she thinks that everybody should have at least six months of living expenses saved up, given that the average person is jobless for 22 weeks now. And maybe we should start spending money again if we know that we're not about to lose our job. It would help the economy out. We know it sounds very different than most of our inane topics to most of our audience, but money is something we all need to know and understand. Plus, we love how Jill lays it on us with financial straight talk.

On the second half of the show, Jill tells us about her CBS Evening News appearance and her lady crush on our very own Katie Couric. Jill comments about the growing political discourse about a possible second stimulus package. Check out the segment. We've embedded it into this blog post.

Come back tomorrow, where we've got Steve Guttenberg. Of course, we're got the doors barricaded, just in case HR comes running in. And! We've got Wilson's Audio Draft. (Editor's note: I promise I listen to music. Whale sounds anybody?)

UPDATED: Before we forget, download the new 404 artwork for your desktop background.Desktop Backgrounds: 4 x 3, 16 x 9 and 16 x10, iPhone.

Full Disclosure: CNET, The 404, MoneyWatch and the CBS Evening News all are properties of CBS.

EPISODE 378 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Financial software

Money Manager Ex provides an easy method for monitoring household income and expenditures. While easy to operate, users may be turned off by the amount of work required to keep the numbers accurate.

The program's interface is easily the highlight of Money Manager Ex. With a simple-to-manage tree outlining accounts and reports, users can quickly monitor their situations. Inputting new data flowed intuitively and required a small commitment of time. In addition, the program provides users with an incredibly in-depth Help file, providing details on every aspect of the program. The program plans ahead for investments, savings, and expenses. … Read more

Easy budget program

Keeping your family's budget on track can be a difficult, if not frustrating, experience. We found that Simple Home Money Manager lives up to its title with an easy-to-use approach that makes it easy to know where your money is going.

The program's clean interface is easy to understand, but we liked the start-up wizard that takes users through the various steps of organizing their budget. With simple-to-understand categories of incoming and outgoing money, it's easy to enter individual items. Users can designate an entry's recurrence, add a note, and can even assign an icon. At … Read more

Intuit discounts Quicken as MS Money fades

With Redmond discontinuing Microsoft Money, Intuit is offering a series of discounts aimed to lure more folks to use its Quicken personal finance product.

In a blog posting, Intuit said it is offering the discounts on Quicken products through the end of July to all users, not just the Money users left in the lurch.

Specifically, Intuit said that it is offering $20 off on Quicken Deluxe (now $39.99) and $30 off Quicken Premier (now $59.99). It is also chopping $30 off its Home & Business product and $50 off its Rental Property Manager product. The company is … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 995: Go to a bloody coffee shop

Should you do a prepaid broadband card? What if it costs you more for the convenience? What if your payments expire after 10 days if you don't use them? You know what, we think the coffee shop is probably a better bet at that point. We also discuss why Microsoft has stopped making Money and what effect Craigslist has really had on the newspaper industry.

Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video) | RSS (audio) | RSS (video) Episode 995

KCBS celebrates 100 years http://www.rbr.com/radio/15066.html

DTV transition is nearly here. … Read more

The 404 361: Where we ask who does number two work for?

It's back to the regular news stories on today's show, and we start off strong with talk about how the iPhone 3.0 may give sex toys a run for their money. See what happens when you give developers control over the vibration functionality?

Microsoft has announced it won't be making Money anymore--the software that is--but who actually used that program anyway?

Next, we discuss how the Internet is successfully turning the English language into nothing more than a bunch of incoherent misspellings of words with numbers in them. "n00b" is now a real word? We're starting to regret this whole Internet thing.

A Stretch Armstrong movie? Really? This isn't going to end well.

There won't be an episode tomorrow, but fear not, we're going to feed you with a classic 404 from the past that's sure to tickle you. See you Monday!

EPISODE 361 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

How Intuit managed to hold off Microsoft

The defeat of Microsoft Money at the hands of Intuit's Quicken marks a rare chapter in the annals of software history.

Intuit is one of the few companies to take Microsoft head-on on its home turf--packaged software--and come out on top. Even more notably, Intuit has managed to do it several times, with Quicken of course, but also with QuickBooks and TurboTax.

Of course, it was more than just Intuit's success that led to Money's demise, which CNET News first reported on Wednesday. The product was ultimately doomed by several factors, including a shift away from packaged … Read more

Microsoft to discontinue MS Money

Microsoft plans to stop selling Microsoft Money, its venerable, but not market-leading personal finance program, CNET News has learned.

The software maker has been notifying financial institutions and plans to announce the move to customers over the next 24 hours via a posting on its Web site and a notification in the software. Although Microsoft will stop selling the product at the end of June, it plans to support it through January 2011.

After that point, people can continue to use the product, but they will no longer be able to get automated data feeds from their banks, credit card … Read more

Rivals well-known finance programs

With AceMoney Lite, one can easily organize and track spending, build budgets, track investment performance, set up payment reminders and recurring bill payments, create reports and pie charts, and so much more, for free.

The program has an eye-friendly interface that is also fairly intuitive to use. To begin, just open the application, click on the account button for your one account, and provide all of the particulars as prompted. Once your account is set, you can manage your budget and set up categories from a very long list of possibilities, which is helpful for reporting how you are saving … Read more