Question for married users of Quicken (or other account aggregation software)

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WinstonTeracina
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Question for married users of Quicken (or other account aggregation software)

Post by WinstonTeracina »

Long-time Quicken user who recently married. All our financial accounts and credit cards and tracked and synced in Quicken. Between the two of us, we are probably updating tractions once or twice per week.

Due to this habit, we’ve had some instances where we’ve ruined “surprises” for the other person. For example, I'll see charges on my wife’s card from my favorite retailer a week or two before my birthday. This has been happening to me for over a year now, but I never mentioned anything and just acted appropriately when the time came. However, with my wife taking a more active role in our Quicken usage, eventually this started happening to her and now I’m not even sure how to shop for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

Any other married couples out there using aggregating software have a solution for this? We really don’t have much interest in opening a separate spending account that we’d only use a few times a year.
75% - Equities (2/3 VT + 1/3 * (40% AVUV + 40% AVDV + 20% AVES)) | 25% - Series bonds + EDV
02nz
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Re: Question for married users of Quicken (or other account aggregation software)

Post by 02nz »

WinstonTeracina wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 4:42 pm Long-time Quicken user who recently married. All our financial accounts and credit cards and tracked and synced in Quicken. Between the two of us, we are probably updating tractions once or twice per week.

Due to this habit, we’ve had some instances where we’ve ruined “surprises” for the other person. For example, I'll see charges on my wife’s card from my favorite retailer a week or two before my birthday. This has been happening to me for over a year now, but I never mentioned anything and just acted appropriately when the time came. However, with my wife taking a more active role in our Quicken usage, eventually this started happening to her and now I’m not even sure how to shop for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

Any other married couples out there using aggregating software have a solution for this? We really don’t have much interest in opening a separate spending account that we’d only use a few times a year.
Buy gift card in advance, then use it to buy the gift itself so it doesn't show up as a charge.
como
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Re: Question for married users of Quicken (or other account aggregation software)

Post by como »

We don't do many birthday / anniversary gifts, but when Christmas rolls around, each of us chooses one of our less-used credit cards to buy our gifts with. Or should I say, my spouse does (because I'm the primary person who looks at our finances) and I just don't log into that account until after Christmas.

We still use a version of YNAB that requires manual input, but I basically just put in a placeholder charge with the amount and category but a temporary vendor name like "Christmas" and go back and correct it later. It usually works pretty well as we have a budget for those types of gifts. You may be able to do a similar thing if the purchaser downloaded the transactions and then renamed them, but it's been a long time since I've used Quicken and I don't know if it would pair the transactions for future downloads.

It would be really hard for either of us to pull off a surprise that was far more costly than usual, but it's probable one of us would be frustrated by the other person completely blowing the gifts budget.
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WinstonTeracina
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Re: Question for married users of Quicken (or other account aggregation software)

Post by WinstonTeracina »

02nz wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 4:52 pm Buy gift card in advance, then use it to buy the gift itself so it doesn't show up as a charge.
Thanks! I hadn't thought of that.
como wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 5:01 pm We don't do many birthday / anniversary gifts, but when Christmas rolls around, each of us chooses one of our less-used credit cards to buy our gifts with. Or should I say, my spouse does (because I'm the primary person who looks at our finances) and I just don't log into that account until after Christmas.
I like this idea too; for us it's only Christmas and our birthdays (which are only 3 days apart). We could try asking each other to avoid syncing transactions during this time.

Appreciate the responses.
75% - Equities (2/3 VT + 1/3 * (40% AVUV + 40% AVDV + 20% AVES)) | 25% - Series bonds + EDV
02nz
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Re: Question for married users of Quicken (or other account aggregation software)

Post by 02nz »

WinstonTeracina wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 5:10 pm Thanks! I hadn't thought of that.
BTW, best to do this with Amazon gift cards, which has several advantages over typical retailer gift cards - it can be held in a balance almost like a bank account, and it can be used to buy almost anything - even gift cards for other retailers, like Best Buy, Safeway, Lowe's, Uber, and a ton more.
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