I’ve used Quicken 97 for my personal finance without any problems, but I figure in nearly 20 years they may have improved some things. Is there anything I’m missing out on?
Here is Intuit’s website comparing the versions of Quicken 2014 for Windows. I doubt you’re going to find anything that compares Quicken 97 to the current ones. But the big improvement that I think you’d find in the current one is the ability to download transactions for your bank and investment accounts. Also, you can track the value of your investments online, and you can track expenses using a smartphone app.
Another thing. If you’re talking about Quicken for Windows (as opposed to the Mac version), you might want to wait a month or two as the 2015 version will be released shortly.
Another option is to move to an online service like Mint (also owned by Intuit).
BTW, here are Intuit’s instructions for updating your Quicken file to the current one.
Given that you’re not currently downloading information from your banks and credit cards, you won’t miss a thing.
If you WANT to be able to do that, you’re going to have to upgrade now and about every 3 years because they force users to upgrade the licenses or they quit supporting bank downloads.
The thing with Intuit is that, like other software companies, at some point their product is both mature and good enough. So then they start faffing around with the UI, with how various things are handled, and even start trying to intentionally break things to force upgrades. Also, their Mac version sucks and hasn’t been updated in several years.
I’d actually be surprised if the latest version was a real improvement of Quicken 97. If you don’t care about the fancy new features like a smartphone app and downloading transactions, stick with the one you’re using and save yourself some money.