Money Blue Book

Review Of Free Online Programs To Help You Budget And Track Spending

Unless you are a billionaire like Warren Buffett with an endless supply of cash to draw upon, chances are you’re operating under a monthly budget like the rest of us are. In most cases, the best way to keep your finances in order and save money for the long haul is to devise a sensible budget, track your monthly spending habits, and stick to your laid out plans without frequent deviations. The problem with offering suggestions about setting personal spending budgets is that there usually isn’t one way that works best for everyone. It’s a highly personal and customized affair due to the great differences in how we all each handle tasks and micro manage events in our lives.

I personally use a variety of online based financial tools to help me chart out my monthly net worth reports and personal balance sheets. They help to encourage me to make better financial decisions for myself and to continuously plan for the future. As a strong advocate of using streamlined software based tools that automate and aggregate one’s finances, I particularly recommend using programs like Quicken Online and Yodlee. Both budgeting programs are free and offer great convenience – automatically pulling income and expense data from your bank and credit card accounts into a single viewable source without requiring you to manually compile the data by hand.

But at the same time, I understand that there are lots of people out there who prefer to lay out their budgets and plans the old fashioned way. Those who shun online automation and prefer to do their budgeting by hand may want to try out some of the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet based budgeting tools below. Many have found that by having to manually enter transactions into their checkbooks and budget programs every week, that they tend to more careful in monitoring their spending habits. To credit financial guru Dave Ramsey’s spoken philosophy involving cash versus credit card spending, it simply hurts more when you have to write out your expenses by hand as opposed to having the spending transactions automatically populated into a computer program. For some people, this forces them to think long and harder about certain spending choices during the budget building process.

Test Try Each Free Budget Software Out To Find The Best Personal Fit

Over the years, I’ve attempted to come up with the best way to budget, but I don’t think there is any single one tool or popular method that works for everyone completely. But while I realize that everyone has their own unique way of doing things, I’ve decided to provide a list below of some of the best free online budgeting tools (in my opinion) to help get you started. All of the software tools listed below are available off the Internet free of cost (or available for a free test trial) to help just about anyone set up a working budget for his or her home, or small business. I recommend tinkering with each one for a few minutes to get some ideas on on how you can make it your own. Many of the account aggregation and online budgeting programs reviewed are customizable to your individual needs and I’m confident you’ll find something that works for you.

As the whole notion behind budgeting and smart financial planning is to cut costs and save money, it seems sort of counter-intuitive to go out and spend a lot of money on expensive accounting or budgeting software. While premium software packages like Microsoft Money, Quicken, and QuickBooks are highly recommended accounting and budgeting solutions for those who can afford them, there are plenty of free alternatives available for those with modest budgeting needs. Those with simpler needs can easily establish monthly and yearly budgets for their business or home by turning to free budget software programs online to chart their finances and track their net worth changes. At the very least, utilizing budgeting software tools may help to encourage you to take a more pro-active approach to personal financial planning.

In terms of the ones I’ve selected as recommended programs, just so you are aware, I’m highly partial to online software tools that are not only great for budgeting purposes, but are also cleanly designed and pretty on the eye in terms of graphics and website layout. Feel free to provide some suggestions and recommendations of your own!

List Of Popular Free Online Budgeting Software Programs and Excel Spreadsheet Templates (Not ranked in any particular order)

1) Quicken Online (Free) – I absolutely love Quicken products as they always seem to nicely meld form with function. Quicken Online in particular is a free, web based budgeting tool run by popular software maker Intuit that helps users chart their net worth progress and spending habits. With Quicken Online, users get access to a one stop source for all of their account aggregation needs. By having their bank account balances and credit card transactions automatically pulled into the Quicken online system, users can chart their financial progression over time and plan out monthly budgets with the aid of Quicken-fied charts and graphs.

2) Mvelopes Personal (Free Trial) – Taking financial guru Dave Ramsey’s cash envelope system to heart, the Mvelopes system provides users an online envelope budget management solution. By dividing your income into online envelope spending accounts for expenses like groceries, entertainment, and bills, you can budget for the future by setting money aside in advance and increase the money you save. The Mvelopes Personal tool is not free, but they do offer a free trial offer to give you a chance to kick the tires a bit before driving it off the lot.

3) YNAB – You Need A Budget (Free Trial) – YNAB, aka the You Need A Budget spreadsheet program, is a popular budgeting tool for those struggling to get out of debt and attain financial peace. The downloadable YNAB spreadsheet software offer is not free, but does offer a 60 days free refundable deal if you decide to return after the test trial. Aside from getting a host of powerful budgeting tools, you’ll also get additional bonus spreadsheets to help you get acquainted with using a debt snowball, a mortgage analyzer, and even a handy car maintenance scheduler.

4) Yodlee MoneyCenter (Free) - Yodlee offers the best account aggregation technology available in the market today. With its well honed account consolidator service, users are able to automatically sort their account transactions into specific categories to meet their budget planning needs. Currently the company has major partnerships with numerous corporate banks, brokerages, and credit institutions like Fidelity, HSBC, Mint, Scottrade, and Capital One. This one is a must have and must use. Highly recommended.

5) Pear Budget (Free) – Calling itself easier to use than Quicken or Microsoft Money, Pear Budget’s a popular and highly touted intuitive budgeting and expense tracking tool (with over 100,000 claimed downloads). Pear Budget’s original free program is still available for download in Excel spreadsheet format, but those desiring a more “pretty-fied” version may want to try out the new web-based version, which offers a free introductory 30 day trial period but then costs $3 a month (still very affordable however).

6) SimpleD Budget (Free) – SimpleD is a simple, open source budgeting software designed for personal household financial management. The free downloadable program allows users to plan out personal budgets and track expenses by allocating income into specific spending categories. The application is quite customizable and allows for the use of multiple currencies and language types.

7) AceMoney Lite (Free) - This is the freeware version of a more premium personal finance manager. It’s equipped with all of the fancier features of its bigger sibling except multiple accounts management. AceMoney Lite supports all of the basic features needed to help any beginner to personal finance get started with financial budgeting, expense accounting, and investment tracking. AceMoney Lite even offers a special eBay feature to help small businesses manage their eBay auction transactions.

8) Mint (Free) – Mint is a very popular and rapidly growing online money management tool. This minty fresh online service uses well-established Yodlee account consolidation technology to power its account aggregation feature, but pairs it with a variety of free online budgeting tools. If you’re looking for a very beautiful online interface with easy to understand charts and graphics for your budget planning needs, Mint should be one of your top picks. However, as the service runs off of affiliate advertising income, be prepared to receive a fair share of product pitches on occasion.

9) Buxfer (Free) – Offering a beautiful online budgeting interface, Buxfer’s an online personal finance software you should take a look at. Buxfer offers the usual account aggregation functions and free budgeting tools for users, but even throws in useful features like group shared expense tracking for friends or roommates that share bills. The basic version is free but you’ll need to upgrade your membership to get unlimited account access to other more enhanced features. But even then, we’re only talking about $1 to $3 a month for the extra budgeting perks.

10) BudgetTracker (Free) – The free limited version of Budget Tracker allows for basic budget tracking, bill payment, and transaction recordation tied to calendar dates. However, more enhanced account data import and export functions and stock chart access does require the user to upgrade to a paid $2.95 per month subscription version. Still, it’s a fairly cheap, and feature-rich way to budget.

11) BudgetPulse (Free) – Developed with simplicity in mind, BudgetPulse touts its user friendliness and comprehensiveness in providing budgeting value for its customers. Best of all, the web based budget tracking software is indeed free. The company is also uniquely fanatical about privacy and user data security (big pluses), indicating on its website that for security reasons, the company has no  intention of ever linking directly to user banking accounts or credit cards.

12) My Spending Plan (Free) – MySpendingPlan’s currently a free online budgeting software for users who need help managing their budgets and reaching their financial savings goals. The online site can be used to plan out entire household budgets or just for specific tasks like weddings or home improvement projects. The free tool allows you to create shopping lists, set up bill payment dates, and create savings goals. The site even offers an interesting predictive Auto-Assign Budget technology to help recommend ongoing budgets based on past and present spending habits, matching them with your income limits.

13) Expensr (Free) - Acquired by MoneyStrands not too long ago, Expensr is currently a free online personal finance application, still operating in beta mode it seems. Resembling somewhat of a Quicken and Microsoft Money lite of sorts, it looks to be a fairly basic but useful tool for those with simple finances and budgeting needs. The service is free so worth at least a quick peak.

14) Money Trackin’ (Free) – Yes the domain name’s missing a letter “g” at the end, but that’s to make it sound hip I guess. Money Trackin’s a free online webapp that allows you to track all of your expenses and income sources automatically, thus allowing you to have a clear view of your financial situation at all times. Along with the usual household budgeting tools, the free site also offers functions to help track shared expenses and provides accounting tools for small business needs.

15) Buddi (Free) – On its website, the developers of Buddi references the program as a personal finance and budgeting program aimed at those who have little to no financial background – perfect for beginners. Simplicity with basic functionality’s the name of the game here. While offering nothing too fancy, it does offer the essentials of budgeting, account tracking, and financial progress report generation. As an open source budgeting software tool, Buddi will run on any machine with Java installed. The software is indeed absolutely free but does welcome donations and contributions from happy customers.

16) GnuCash (Free) – Compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, GnuCash is a deceptively complete personal finance tool for ordinary consumers and small businesses alike. This freely available budgeting and accounting tool offers users a very powerful and flexible software-based platform to track bank accounts, stocks, income sources, and expenses. GnuCash is indeed free to use and offers much of the same professional accounting features you would expect from premium paid personal finance packages – such as balanced double entry notations and accurate financial reports. The free budgeting software program’s regularly updated and maintained so the program’s bound to continuously improve over time.

17) PLCash (Free) – Honestly, I’m not the biggest fan of home made budgeting tools, but PLCash is a very well put together budgeting program. Plus it’s also completely free and routinely updated and maintained. PLCash offers the basics of what you would need in any budget tracking tool – the ability to manage multiple accounts, juggle balances, allow for the importing and exporting of financial data to other programs like Quicken, with even extra bonus features like the ability to print checks in a variety of ways. As a Java based program, this free budget software tool is compatible with almost all computer operating systems.

18) Microsoft Office Accounting 2009 (Free Trial) – This free software download is provided courtesy of Microsoft, so we can expect a pretty well put together budgeting software program. This rather extensive small business accounting package may be a bit much for ordinary household consumers looking for a free/cheap budgeting software tool, but the free 60 day trial offer is worth a test run at the very least. Keep in mind though, it’s not cheap.

19) Microsoft Office Online (Windows) – Excel Budget Templates (Free) – If you prefer to run your personal budget projections by hand and track your expense estimations and actuals manually, Microsoft provides a wealth of freely available Excel spreadsheets and Word based tables for your budget downloading pleasure. Many of the freely available templates are compatible for running complete household budgets and even for specific budget plans for special events like weddings. Did I mention that they’re all free?

20) Microsoft Office Mactopia (Mac) Budget Templates (Free) – For the Apple Mac fans out there, there are also free Excel spreadsheet budget templates for you as well, however your pickings via the Mactopia site are significantly slimmer compared to the wider variety available to Windows users. Thus it’s time to ditch the Apple and switch to the PC. Just kidding.

Search Online For More Free Budgeting Software Options To Download

Visit Download.com and SourceForge.net for even more assorted free downloadable home and small business budgeting tools. In particular, I recommend checking out the ones that have garnered the most positive approval from users and editors – usually denoted with exceptionally high review rankings and star ratings.

As I grumbled a bit in an earlier personal finance blog post, I’m suffering from a bit of a bout of blogger’s block recently. What started out as a torrent of gun-ho, blog posting eager beavery has dwindled to a couch potato-ry display of procrastination and summer slumpery (yes I know, I’m making up words here). However, despite my motivational troubles of late, I made the decision recently to rekindle my blogging business drive. To jump start my previously respectable and focused work at home habits, I decided to force an immediate change of scenery solution to get myself out of my temporary rut – by going on an overseas vacation. Of course, I wouldn’t want to head out without the ability to bring my blogging business platform and online writing tools with me – I will require the services of a portable notebook computer.

Since I gave my only existing laptop computer away to my younger brother so he could use it for his new graduate school studies, I decided I needed to go out and buy a new one for myself. As I’m actually in the midst of working my way through one of those supposedly free online laptop gift reward offers at the moment, I debated whether to wait around until I received it before heading off on my trip. At the end, I decided I could always sell the free laptop reward on eBay or Craigslist for extra money some other time in the future. So I decided to go ahead and buy a new laptop computer for work travel portability. The following are some of the considerations I went through when choosing a new laptop computer.

What Features Should I Look For In The Perfect Laptop Notebook Computer?

I’m not a tech blogger, nor am I even close to being an expert on how to buy a notebook computer. While I love computers, I really don’t update myself on all the latest news and advancements in technology related products. What I am is just an ordinary consumer who has purchased laptops and computers before as a student and as a working professional, for myself, family, and friends. I know what I like and I know what’s practical for most personal and business applications. I also enjoy visiting retail stores like Best Buy and Circuit City that offer in store display products for consumers to tinker on, tap away furiously, and basically abuse to their heart’s content. It’s one of the many reasons why I like retail brick and mortar electronic stores as opposed to online shopping sometimes. At retail stores, when it comes to products like laptop computers, you have the ability to pick the product up to physically gauge the weight and feel, the ability to feel the sensation of the laptop keyboard spring response as you type, and the first hand ability to visually assess the quality of the merchandise.

As a financial blogger with a legal background, I’m definitely not a savvy expert on computer CPU processor terminology or a know-it-all when it comes to deciding whether one memory component is better than another memory component. But I do know what works for me and what is practical for most laptop consumers in the real world. For my purposes, so long as a laptop computer is form appropriate in terms of weight, size, and aesthetics, and performs with proficient speed, and able to handle appropriate writing and browsing tasks at an affordable cost, I’ll definitely give the laptop model a serious consideration.

Here are some of the most important features to look for in a laptop notebook computer. The items in this little list don’t cover everything, but they are the primary features and components that most ordinary laptop users will want to consider when choosing a new notebook computer. I’m sure some of the so-called laptop hardware experts will be surprised at the features I find important and amused by the ones I deem less worthy of my concern.

1) Glossy Screen or Matte/Anti-Reflective Screen – Other than the keyboard, the screen is probably one, if not the most important feature of a great laptop computer. Personally, I highly prefer the glossy screens over the duller matted ones, despite the fact the great majority of computer users (probably 80% or more) seem to prefer matted displays. While the glossy screens tend to be more reflective of light and has been reported to cause eye strain in some users, I’ve never had any viewing problems or reflective difficulties associated with the glossier displays. I love the glossy screens because the colors are displayed much more brightly and with more richness. Color palettes are not only displayed with greater vibrancy, but the resultant effect is a laptop screen back light that seems stronger than that of the matte.

Matted displays on the other hand, while not reflective of light and supposedly less imposing of a strain on the eyes, display colors and shades that are much more subdued. My old IBM Thinkpad laptop was a matte screen and I always had problems with the display being too dark. Ever since I bought a glossy Sony Xbrite LCD monitor for my desktop computer, I fell in love with the glossies and never plan on going back. Due to my great experience with Sony glossy screens, I almost always recommend their displays over other brands. I’ve owned Dell’s and other brands as well and have found their screen colors to be comparatively duller.

2) Keyboard Size and Responsiveness – As I will primarily be using this new laptop for word processing and blogging related functions, having a stellar keyboard with accurate spring back response will be extremely important. The keyboard is definitely a major make or break issue for me. After visiting all the local Best Buy and Circuit City stores, and having matched the opinions expressed on online review sites like CNET to my actual experience at the retail stores, I’ve narrowed down what I believe to be the top 3 laptop brands that offer the best keyboards – Lenovo (formerly IBM Thinkpad), Dell, and Sony’s Vaio SZ business series. All of the other laptop brands out there like HP, Sony non-SZ series, and even Apple offer sub par keyboard typing experiences in comparison. Of course this is just my personal take and opinion, but I highly prefer laptop keyboards that click crisply as you type with very responsive and clearly defined bounce backs as keys are pressed.

The legendary IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads are above and beyond the very best when it comes to keyboard design and technology. Very few other brands even come close. The only ones that can even compare are the Dell and Sony VAIO SZ series keyboards (the non-SZ series laptops offer keyboard buttons that seem a tad too soft). While some might not like the noticeably louder clicking sounds that emanate from the Sony SZ keys, I actually find the sharper key taps to be very reassuring and responsive as I type.

3) Laptop Machine Weight and Screen Size - Unless you are buying a laptop computer as a desktop replacement computer that will spend the bulk of its time sitting stationary at your home office desk, the laptop’s weight and size will be fairly important factors to consider. In my ideal business oriented laptop, I prefer a light weight machine that doesn’t exceed 5 lbs (4 lbs is highly preferred). Anything higher than 5 lbs is treading into the heavy brick category in my opinion. I’ve lugged around laptops before and have found that after including the additional weight of the electrical power strip, the mouse pad, the mouse, and other external hard drive extras, any laptop that exceeds 5 pounds can quickly weigh down the laptop bag fairly significantly.

Interestingly, the laptop screen size itself is not something I pay too much attention to when it comes to choosing a notebook computer. If you ask me, unless you are buying a desktop replacement, you needn’t pay too much attention to the screen size. Even smaller screen computers generally perform just as well as the larger ones. Usually, it comes down to a trade off between screen size and weight. Having a larger screen size affords more computer desktop space and is certainly nice, but it also means the computer is likely to be substantially heavier. I’ve found that the compact 13 inch screen is perfectly ideal for most ordinary users, including bloggers and writers who don’t really need the extra desktop space for their work. For my purposes, anything larger than a 13 inch screen would probably result in a portable computer that’s significantly heavier than I’d like.

4) Processor and Memory Hardware - I rarely pay attention to the processing speed or memory hardware when choosing a laptop. I’m sure some computer techies would probably be shocked, but I personally view such laptop parts as inherently interchangeable. I’ve rarely had any problems with slow processing speed or issues involving not having enough memory. These days, with the rapid rate at which new developments in computer hardware get released into the marketplace, there isn’t much point in trying to stay on top of the latest technology. Most of the desktop computers and laptops sold out there usually offer the top of the line hardware anyway, or at least close to the top. There’s no real point fussing over one chip over another and it’s unlikely any of us regular consumers would be able to tell a difference based on performance alone anyway. You’re better off hinging your laptop buying decision on components like the keyboard or type of screen offered.

5) Built In Camera and Microphone – While neither are essential components, having a built in camera and internal microphone are handy features to have. Having them already installed into your laptop screen cuts down on the added weight from having to carry around extra accessories. With the growing use of video instant messaging and the use of Voice Over IP services like Skype for audio conferencing purposes, it’s good to have a built in webcam in your notebook computer. It shouldn’t be a make or break issue though, so don’t let it hinder your ultimate buying decision.

6) Extra Features and Gizmos Like Special Video and Sound Cards, and Extra USB Ports – Having extra USB ports is nice because it allows you to hook up multiple components like your mouse, printer, scanner, digital camera, and external hard drives at the same time. While the ideal laptop should have at least 4 USB ports, 2 is often enough for most entry level users.

As for having fancy 3D video cards or premium sound cards, unless you plan to be a heavy gamer or work as a 3D graphics designer, these are luxuries that are nice to have but not really essential in a new laptop computer. My suggestion is to not pay these components too much attention. Focus on the screen type and keyboard instead.

7) Customer Support and Product Reliability – One thing that I’ve learned over the years is that internally, computers are all basically from the same stock. Other than a few proprietary and unique components like computer screens and keyboard design, the internal processor and hardware components are all the same among the different computer brands. Almost all of the manufacturing and assembling processes are outsourced to other companies. For example, would it surprise you to know that Dell and many of the major computer brands out there don’t actually build their own computers? It’s true. What the brands actually offer is customer and technical support for computer repairs and troubleshooting. Manufacturing responsibilities are outsourced to other companies and all their laptop and desktop computer parts are built and assembled by third party manufacturers like Seagate, Panasonic, and Intel. Thus, oftentimes, one of the few distinguishing factors among different computer brands are the differences in customer support warranty packages. Most of my laptop buying and technical support experiences have centered around IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads, Dell laptops, and Sony notebook computers – the vast majority having been generally positive and favorable.

Most computers in the market offer the industry standard warranty of 12 months. When it comes to buying extra laptop warranty coverage, I advise against it – use credit card warranty programs instead. You’re much better off buying the laptop computer with a credit card and extending your original manufacturer’s warranty by a year or more with the special warranty extension perks that many credit card issuers provide for consumers. By extending your laptop warranty to a combined total of 2 years with credit card warranty programs, you’ll get pretty good mileage out of your portable computer. As laptop lifespans are generally 2-3 years and computer prices drop fairly fast, you may be better off buying a new laptop after the end of the 2 year warranty period should it break down after that time. Don’t waste your money on purchasing additional extended warranty add-ons. Many retail store agents push this type of extra service, not because it’s such an invaluable service, but because it’s one of the few things the reps can earn lofty commissions on.

My Decision To Ultimately Buy A Sony VAIO SZ Series Business Laptop

After weeks of tests and comparisons at local area electronic retail stores, I finally settled on buying a brand new black Sony VAIO SZ750 business laptop. The price, while more expensive than that of standard consumer laptops, offered a laptop that was a perfect fit for an aspiring full time blogger on the go like myself. The keyboard typing experience is quite exceptional on the Sony VAIO SZ series and the laptop is very light at 4-5 pounds. The glossy screen display also offers crisp colors and an excellent viewing experience, a trademark of most Sony VAIO computers. I love the black exterior color design, reminiscent of my old IBM Thinkpad during law school. The only thing that would have made the Sony VAIO SZ even better would have been a red pointer device. While most people seem to dislike those handy red pointing devices in favor of the classic laptop touch pad, I actually like the pointing sticks a lot more, probably due to my days as a Thinkpad user. I had considered buying a Lenovo Thinkpad, but the lack of glossy screens in the Lenovo notebook line eventually led me to go with a Sony VAIO. As usual, I paid very little attention to the processor, memory, or even hard drive specifics – making my decision primarily based on keyboard and laptop screen quality comparisons.

Getting Rid Of The Infamous Sony VAIO Computer Bloatware Programs

My only gripe with the Sony VAIO laptop I purchased is the extremely high and ridiculous amount of bloatware that came pre-installed. Bloatware is basically the lingo used to refer to free, but useless software that comes pre-installed on many new computers. Oftentimes third party software developers like AOL, Microsoft, and Norton Anti-Virus pay computer manufacturers like Sony and Dell large sums of money to install their promotional software programs into all new computers sold. Most of the time, the software installed are not even fully functional versions, but rather demo test trial programs designed to compel the user to pay more money to buy the full software at the end of the trial period. The pre-installations essentially bloat your new computer, causing it to unnecessarily devote processing power to handle the excess software load. For those like me who desire a clean desktop and streamlined hard drive installation, getting rid of all the preinstalled software can be a major pain in the you know what. Oftentimes it’s also hard to differentiate the unnecessary bloatware from the essential programs.

Sony is probably the king of bloatware. While they build pretty decent computers, for whatever reason, the company don’t hesitate to sell out their computer consumers to the bloatware developers as they readily stuff their new computers with all sorts of pointless software programs that consumers are unlikely to ever use. The following list are all the pre-installed programs and applications that came with my new Sony VAIO SZ laptop. While the specifics will likely differ among Sony computers, the majority are likely going to be the same. I’ve bolded the ones I’ve kept. The non-bolded ones are the pre-installed software programs I’ve deemed to be bloatware and useless. Please let me know if you disagree with any of my bloatware assessments. I removed the bloatware programs by accessing the uninstall program feature through my desktop’s control panel and individually removing each one. The whole removal process wasted about 1-2 hours of my time. Thanks Sony.

List Of Pre-Installed Software On My Sony VAIO Laptop (The Programs That Are Somewhat Useful and Perhaps Necessary Are Bolded)

• Activation Assistance For the 2007 Microsoft Office Suite
• Adobe Acrobat Professional 8.0
• Adobe Flash Player
• Adobe Reader
• Alps Point-device for Vaio
• AOL Toolbar 4.0
• ArcSoft Magic-i Visual Effects
• Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2007
• Click to Disc
• Click to Disc Editor
• Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office System
• Corel PaintShop Pro Photo X2
• Crackle Screen Saver 1.0
• DSD Direct
• DSD Direct Player
• DSD Playback Plug In
• HDAudio SoftV92 Data Fax Modem with SmartCP
• Java SE Runtime Environement 6
• LiveUpdate 2.3 (Symantec Coproration)
• Location Free Player
• Microsoft Office Component Files (all)
• Microsoft SQL Server Component Files (all)
• Microsoft Visual C++
• Microsoft Works
• MSXML 4.0 SP2 Files
• MobiTV Icon
• Napster
• Norton 360 (Symantec Corporation)
• NVIDIA Drivers
• OpenMG Limited Patch 4.7
• Protector Suite QL 5.6
• QuickBooks Simple Start 2008
• Roxio Easy Media Creator Home
• Setting Utility Series
• SigmaTel Audio
• SmartWi Connection Utility
  
• SonicStage
• SonicStage Mastering Studio and Filters
• Sony Snymsico for Vista
• Sony Video Shared Library
• Spy Sweeper
• SupportSoft Assisted Service
• VAIO Camera Capture Utility
  
• VAIO Center Access Bar
• VAIO Content Folder Bar
• VAIO Content Folder Setting
• VAIO Content Metadata (all)
• VAIO Control Center
• VAIO DVD Menu Data Basic
  
• VAIO Entertainment Center
  
• VAIO Entertainment Platform
• VAIO Event Service
• VAIO Help and Support
• VAIO Media (all files)
• VAIO Movie Story
• VAIO Movie Story Template Data
• VAIO Music Box
• VAIO Music Box Sample Music
• VAIO OOBE and Welcome Center
• VAIO Original Function Setting
• VAIO PC Wireless LAN Wizard
• VAIO Power Management
• VAIO Productivity Center
• VAIO Security Center
• VAIO Service Utility
• VAIO Startup Assistant
• VAIO Status Monitor
  
• VAIO Survey
• VAIO Update 3
• VAIO Wallpaper Contents (not needed but nice to have some different wallpaper options)
• WIDCOMM Bluetooth Software
• Windows Driver Package Intent Corporation
• WinDVD for VAIO

Ask yourself this question – when was the last time you balanced your checkbook? Do you even know what balancing a  checkbook entails? The fact of the matter is, writing checks and issuing payments in the form of paper checks is a steadily dying practice, thanks to the tremendous growth of the Internet and all of the new fangled technological advancements in the area of electronic and automated telephone banking (even phone banking is getting phased out in favor of the web). Much the same way the future of newspapers and the outlook of traditional forms of written news are being called into serious question, and much the same way they are being slowly rendered irrelevant by the overwhelming convenience and cost efficient benefits of the World Wide Web, so too will the practice of check writing and manually balancing accounts ultimately go the way of the dodo bird.

Personally, I can barely recall the last time I actually went through the hassle of balancing my checkbook manually. The tedious bean counting practice of manually comparing my own personal account records with the recordation information provided by monthly bank statements is simply not something I’ve readily adopted over the years. The last time was probably in high school when my mom sought to teach me about basic account management by forcing me to watch her go through the motion of recording transactions neatly on the gridded transaction register that comes with each set of checks. But other than that first initial lesson, I don’t think I’ve ever done it in real practice. After all, I bank online almost exclusively, and other than the monthly rent checks I write, I seldom glance at my checkbooks anymore. In fact, I highly recommend readers do the same. We are entering the new technological age where efficiency, speed, and identity security are paramount concerns. Electronic banking and online bill pay offer the type of convenience and security benefits that paper checks and manual payment systems simply are unable to provide.

Write Personal Checks Sparingly To Minimize The Risks Of Becoming An Identity Theft Victim

If you asked me, checks are nothing but potential identity fraud cases waiting to happen. After all, you wouldn’t go about your daily life randomly handing out slips of paper with your complete personal identification and financial information scrawled on them would you? But that’s basically what you’re doing when you open up your checkbook and issue a personal check. Personally, I write very few checks nowadays, and here’s why. When you write a personal check at your local Safeway or CVS, or when you cut out a check to your local pizza delivery guy, you are opening up a tremendous security risk by leaving the check behind. On that check is your name, address, phone number, bank’s name and address, bank account number, bank routing number, and even your actual handwritten signature. Oftentimes, as is the case at most supermarkets and department stores, cashiers even request additional identification from you and write the information directly on the face of the check. This additional ID request can include sensitive information such as your driver’s license number, your social security number, and even your birth date.

While many banks eventually mail the used canceled check back to you, not all banks do. Some merely scan the checks and upload the displays onto your online account for you to see. It’s almost impossible to know how many sets of eyes have viewed the check and how many scans or copies were made. What’s exceedingly apparent is that anyone who sees the front of your personal check has sufficient information to open fraudulent bank and credit accounts in your name. One very unknown fact about checks is that anyone can take an account number and routing number off the bottom of a personal check and create new fake checks with them. The name displayed on the check doesn’t even have to match the actual customer name on the underlying bank account in question. Oftentimes, retailers and banks simply don’t check to see if the numbers on the check match up with the right names for that account.

While I personally abhor writing checks, viewing the practice as not only archaic but outdated, there are still limited circumstances when I simply can’t get around it. Because I lease my current condo apartment from an ordinary pair of mom and pop landlords, they’re not properly equipped to handle credit card payments. As such, each month I’m obligated to mail a personal check out to them to cover my monthly rent. Sometimes, you have few alternatives and must write out checks, and that’s acceptable in limited circumstances like paying your rent, your mortgage, or paying your monthly credit card bill. But if some traveling salesman or pizza delivery guy comes to your door, don’t write him a check, because all you’re doing is giving him a potential tool (a blank check if you will) for trouble. Even if it’s the seemingly innocent girl scouts selling cookies at your door, I recommend paying by cash instead of paying by check so long as the sum is not too prohibitive. Avoid check payments if you can unless you’ve already established a history or measure of trust with the person or company.

Online Banking Is Truly A Much More Efficient Way To Balance Your Checkbook and Track Your Account Finances

The actual practice of balancing your checkbook is a method to verify and confirm that your own personal records accurately match your monthly bank statement transactions. The purpose is to catch mistakes and unauthorized transactions as they happen. While most bank transactions are processed and recorded accurately, sometimes mistakes occur. Usually, bank customers have anywhere from 30-60 days to bring the accounting error or unauthorized transaction details to the attention of their bank. Failure to notify the bank in time about any account discrepancies may result in forfeiture of the bank’s liability to pay you money to make up for the difference. That’s why it’s generally important to balance your checkbook, or reconcile your account balances as accountants like to put it. The best way to do that is to get in the habit of banking online, particularly with the aid of Internet banking aggregators. Online banking not only affords you accurate and real-time updates of your bank accounts on demand, it also provides a variety of account history information to help you budget your spending.

By giving you instant access to your account balances at all times, online banking  helps you plan accordingly. Failure to know how much money you have in your checking or savings account on a regular basis may lead you to blindly spend more money than you have, through ATM withdrawals, excess check writing, and debit card purchases, causing you to incur unnecessary bank fees and charges. Protecting yourself from overdraft and bounced check fees is a must when it comes to sound financial planning.

There are a variety of bounced check and insufficient fund fees that banks and merchants levy when there isn’t enough money in your bank account to cover your authorized checks. A single bounced check can easily cause $50 or more as not only the bank will charge you a $20-30 processing fee, but the merchant who received the paper check from you is likely to charge you an additional $20-30 merchant fee as well for passing a non sufficient fund check. Without knowledge and daily tracking of your checking account balance, insufficient fund and late payment fees can quickly add up and spiral out of control. For the overdraft prone, many banks currently offer overdraft protection to ensure that your checks never bounce and that all ATM and debit transactions still go through. While you’ll still have to pay the bank’s overdraft or bounced check fee, at least with overdraft protection you can avoid having to pay the merchant’s return check cost, and stay in good standing with the payee and the people you do business with.

Another service many banks now offer is the option for customers to link their checking accounts with a savings account. In the event the customer accidentally exceeds his or her available checking account balance, funds from the linked savings account will automatically be used to satisfy the shortfall. While there is usually a small transaction fee for this automatic coverage via the savings account, the charge (around $5-10) is often substantially less than having to pay a non sufficient fund charge to the bank and an additional bounced check fee to the merchant.

While some banks also allow checking accounts to be linked up to credit cards as a backup source of funds in the event of a cash shortfall, I don’t recommend this option. In the event of insufficient checking account funds, the overdraft becomes a cash advance on your credit card. Oftentimes the cash advance fee is levied immediately and cash advance interest charges start accruing immediately. The better option is to utilize the linked savings account alternative, mentioned above.

View Your Online Bank Accounts Daily and Mentally Keep Track Of Your Balances Throughout The Day As You Spend Money

When I speak of balancing my own checkbook, I’m not actually talking about sitting down with wads of purchase receipts and manually matching handwritten checkbook transactions to information found on my monthly bank statements. That would be much too unwieldy and time consuming of a regular task to undertake. In this day and age, between writing checks, swiping credit and debit cards, and using online bill pay, it’s simply too much work and too cumbersome to carry around a paper register and write down every single transaction. However, that doesn’t mean I am not tracking my finances and transactions at all times – I’m simply using a broad mental tracking method to keep tabs on my check, debit, and credit expenditures as opposed to using a manual recordation approach.

The whole point of keeping those accounts balanced is primary to catch those rare but pesky bank recordation mistakes and to ensure that you have even funds in your actively used checking accounts at all times to handle payment requests. For those who want to adopt the same mental tracking method that I use, it’s actually quite simple – all you have to do is get in the habit of viewing your online account balances on a regular basis. Ideally, you’ll want to check your bank account balances every single day. There’s nothing particularly obsessive or compulsive about that. After all for example, if you’re looking to lose weight or count your calories, you would want to step on that bathroom scale regularly to track your progress. In the same way, you want to know where your bank account balances stand at all times. You want to always have a mental figure for the day and make sure you spend well below that amount. If you are new to the practice of mental tracking, you may want to keep a small transaction log (like the ones used for checkbooks) on your person until you get the hang of it. But ultimately, the goal is to rely on mental tracking instead of wasting time and effort writing down every single day to day transaction.

Since all of my credit card, checking, CD, and online high yield savings accounts are linked together on the web and enabled to make automatic monthly debit payments without my continuous oversight, I always make sure I have sufficient funds in my checking account to satisfy all upcoming bill pays. For those who utilize automatic debit payments to handle recurring bills as I do, It’s important to establish a sufficient monetary cushion in your checking account to handle unexpected ATM withdraws and debit card uses to avoid having to pay insufficient fund charges or late fees.

Some banks like Bank of America offer special enrollment programs to help customers better track their spending by rounding up purchase amounts to the nearest dollar. With the Bank of America Keep The Change program, each time you use your Bank of America check card (essentially a debit card) to buy something, the purchase amount is rounded up to the nearest dollar denomination and the difference is automatically deposited into a linked savings account. Not does only does the program greatly promote savings, it makes it a lot easier to mentally keep track of daily purchase transactions as you don’t have to contend with adding up cents.

Using Credit Cards Is Actually A Smarter Way To Manage Your Money Than Using Checks or Debit Cards

The practice of using bank debit cards to manage money is a growing trend as society steadily moves away from cash and check transactions. However, the reality is that most people don’t manage their debit card spending very well and most don’t balance their debit transactions daily, either in written form or mentally, like I do. Personally I’m not a big fan of using debit cards. In my opinion, debit cards are simply check writing in glorified plastic form, minus some of the potential identity theft issues discussed earlier. While it’s substantially safer and more secure than writing paper checks, debit cards still come with the same problems inherent in check writing – payment amounts are withdrawn from your checking account immediately and thus you have to make sure you stay within your checking account limit at all times or face having to pay over the limit fees.

The better solution is to go with a payment mechanism that does not rely on immediate account debits – like credit cards. Due to grace periods inherent with credit cards, compared to debit and check payments, there is less worry when it comes to insufficient fund requirements and bounced payment requests. Credit cards also offer substantially stronger fraud protections against unauthorized transactions and charge mistakes. Oftentimes a quick phone call or an explanation letter is enough to get unauthorized credit card charges removed from your bill, and the best part is that you don’t lose any money while the billing dispute is going on.

Ideally, credit card usage usage is the way to go in an otherwise perfect world. In a perfect world, all cardholders would be responsible credit users with the self control to not spend wildly beyond their means, and would be able to always make sure they have enough money to pay off their credit card balances every month. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world we live in and not everyone is qualified to use credit cards as their primary method to pay for things.

We live in an extremely politically correct country these days, which means anyone who even mentions anything negative about someone different (like negatively pointing out a foreign accent), or criticizes someone for their inability to speak the language properly, he or she is immediately labeled as prejudiced, racist, or somehow inciting hateful views. I’m truly none of those things, but I feel a personal finance blog platform is as good as any to express my own personal views about my own experiences on the matter. While I was born overseas, I came to the U.S. when I was only 2-3 years old, so I’ve pretty much grown up as an American and learned to identify strongly with the crux of American culture and its values. While a key component of American culture is the ability to embrace diversity and appreciate differences between different types of people, both foreign and domestic, there are some circumstances when I greatly prefer the services of a fellow American.

This preferential situation comes up whenever I call a live customer service help line. When I pick up the phone and make that affirmative decision to seek help via a toll free telephone number, my reasonable expectation is that I will reach someone who can communicate with me in an intelligible way, and help me resolve my consumer business problem quickly and efficiently, so that I can go along my merry way. It’s bad enough that I often have to spend 30 minutes or more waiting on hold before I can talk to a live technical support representative, but these days, it seems when I finally reach that live person, he or she turns out to be completely unable to communicate with me using comprehensible and discernible English.

I Can Deal With Difficult To Understand Accents In Real Life (By Using Hand Gestures), But When The Situations Happen Over The Phone, The Conversations Can Get Comically Tedious

I am terrible when it comes to understanding different accents. Even British English accents trip me up on occasion – but at least it is somewhat closer to American English in terms of speech and pronunciation, albeit a bit more deliberately pronounced I suppose. While I can understand the different types of American English accents such as a southern, Boston, and even accents that distinguish different races and ethnic groups prominent in this country, I still have frequent difficulty understanding the cultural nuances and accents that aren’t considered mainstream American English. This difficulty in understanding foreign accents is most pronounced and debilitating when it comes to conversations over the phone with someone from another land, especially when I find my phone call re-routed to some outsourced call center located overseas and wind up with a customer service rep who speaks with a thick accent that I simply cannot understand despite my best efforts.

While in a real life conversation and business work setting, heavy accents aren’t as significant a detriment as there are other methods of communication such as using writing and through natural hand gestures to punctuate one’s point, in the world of customer service telephone calls, this type of linguistic verbal diversity is a significant detriment and handicap. When it comes to customer and technical support help lines, communication and speed are two important elements to a quick and satisfactory resolution of the problem at hand. There are plenty of jobs where having a perfect American English accent is not crucial and one can get away with not having otherwise perfect American English, but a position as a customer service call representative that caters to Americans is not one of them. The job absolutely demands that the agent be able to communicate with the language of the target country. Is that really too much to ask? Oftentimes in such scenarios, time and patience are limited luxuries. In such situations, having a thick accent is a very undesired handicap to have, particularly when the issue needs to get resolved quickly over the phone in a short period of time without the benefit of time to get to know each other. This is the biggest problem many customers such as myself are having with companies that continue to outsource their customer service call center jobs overseas to English speaking, but heavily accented countries like India.

Facing An Indian Customer Service Representative With An Incredibly Thick Accent Is Like Talking To A Brick Wall – Nothing Gets Through, and Time Is Wasted

When American call center customer service jobs are outsourced to other countries, I think it’s reasonable to expect the call agents that will be handling the calls to be trained to speak in proper America English. However that is not always the case. Especially when it comes to Indian call centers, the accent is often an interesting mish mash of British English, local Indian dialect, and butchered American English. What often comes out is an unintelligible murmur, resulting in humorous and frequently embarrassing exchanges between the rep and the customer.

A few years ago, I bought a Linksys wireless Internet router, but had major trouble setting up my wireless connection. I kept losing my wireless internet signal and so I embarked on a customer service phone call quest to solve the problem. I dialed the company’s 1-800 number and was promptly connected to an agent. Little did I know, but my call from Maryland, USA was instantly routed thousands of miles across the planet to a different time zone to a call center in India. Immediately when I heard the agent’s accent, I knew it was going to be a long day. It started as soon as my phone rep introduced herself with a thick Indian accented “Hello”…followed by a …”my name is Mary”, a presumably English name moniker chosen by the Indian customer service rep for the convenience sake of their mostly American clientele instead of compelling them to remember a more difficult Indian name. For the next 60 minutes, I struggled valiantly to understand her words and sentences. I tried to remain polite and understanding, but I kept asking her to please repeat herself, much to my continued embarrassment. Every sentence on her part would be followed by a “What?” on my end, or would be followed by a momentary pause as I scratched my head and tried to figure out what she was trying to tell me.

After a while, I could tell she was getting fed up with having to repeat herself after every instruction, but then what was I supposed to do? I desperately tried to understand, and I really did try – but it was a constant guessing game on my end. I simply could not comprehend the Indian customer service representative’s thick Indian English accent. At the end, I got little accomplished because she and I were simply unable to communicate. I found myself spending more than an hour repeating her own words back in my vain attempt to make some linguistic sense. Eventually I had to give up and seek help from another customer service rep. The next rep’s Indian accent was just as thick and I ultimately had to call back several times before I finally found an agent who’s accent was more bearable. But the experience left me with a very negative view of the company and their irresponsible cost cutting efforts to send customer service jobs overseas when the work could be better handled here.

American Companies Who Cater To American Consumers Should Seriously Re-Consider Their Indian Outsourcing Strategy Or Face Consumer Backlash In The Long Run

This is a serious problem that many major American companies who choose to outsource their call center jobs to low cost foreign countries will ultimately have to face. Customers such as myself may eventually take our customer service frustration out on the company and defect to one of their competitors. Based on some news reports I’ve read, many companies that have attempted to outsource their customer service functions abroad have not realized the cost savings they expected, discovering that there are hidden costs that far outweighed the potential savings in labor expenses. Oftentimes, due to significant customer complaints about difficult to understand customer service representative accents and great differences in culture, companies have had to expend significant amounts of additional money to train the agents on proper American English and terminology. Ultimately some of these outsourcers have brought those type of jobs back in-house and back into the country.

Faced with backlash from customers like myself who have great difficulty understanding heavily accented Indian English, some companies are actually taking the next logical alternative step by shipping the work over to other moderately English speaking countries, like the Philippines. As a former U.S. controlled territory, the Philippines at least offers a more Americanized work force with a better understanding of American culture that can potentially offer employees with lighter accents. There will still be an annoying accent to deal with, but at least the twang, so to speak, will be significantly less painful to understand than that spoken in India.

There are currently also signs that the trend toward outsourcing call center jobs to low-wage countries like India or even the Philippines may be slowing down. Research shows that some call centers are most effective when staffed by Americans and there is at least some growing attempt to keep jobs here. I’ve noticed that many companies are now trying to keep the bulk of their daytime customer service call center jobs in the United States where the calls can be handled by American English speaking agents. For customer service lines that provide 24 hour coverage and take on evening calls however, some still get routed overseas to places like India, but many daytime calls are now being mercifully handled by call centers in the U.S. At least that’s what I noticed recently when I called my cable internet provider’s help line several times recently. When I called during normal daytime office hours, I got a service rep that spoke perfect English, but at night, I basically played the ole accent guessing game, doubling and even tripling the length of time spent trying to resolve my problem.

For those of you out there who are embarrassed to admit but also have difficulty understanding accents, I recommend making your 1-800 customer service and technical support phone calls during the day. Sure that means using up your precious anytime wireless phone minutes, but you stand a much better chance of reaching someone in this country than if you called after hours.