hypeway

Microsoft announced its plan to discontinue MS Money, a long-time rivalry to Intuit’s Quicken personal finance software. It’s a little shocking for me to learn the news, since I used to be a MS Money user for a few years. Despite the fact that I had used for Quicken for a long time before I switched to MS Money, I thought MS Money was pretty solid and it’s been keeping Intuit on its toes.

Various articles by CNET and bloggingstocks.com point out that the discontinuation of MS Money comes as a result of cost cutting and growing competition from Quicken, as well as Internet-based Mint.com and Wesabe.

The problem I am seeing is that Microsoft tends to get itself into a game of competing with the leaders instead of being the leader when it comes to innovation. Remember the Web browser war between Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer? The search engine race against Google? The video game console, personal music player, personal finance software, and the list goes on and on. I won’t miss MS Money, since I’ve already switched back to Quicken a while back and have used Mint.com for quite some time. Will the Microsoft Zune end up like MS Money eventually? Only time will tell.

Last week I discovered that E*Trade is offering a $25 bonus to customers who simply open a new Complete Savings Account between February 1, 2007 and February 28, 2007. On top of the $25 bonus, this savings account offers 5.05% APY, without the minimum balance requirement and account fees. I quickly contacted E*Trade about the promotion, since I just converted a matured 6-month CD account to this savings account on the last day of January. Although I was told that I didn’t qualify for the bonus at the end of the phone conversation, the $25 eventually came through into my account this week. Big thanks to the E*Trade customer service staff who worked with me on this matter!

So here is the lowdown: 1) Contact E*Trade and mention the promotion; 2) If the customer service representative mentions the terms/conditions for the bonus, which requires an ending balance of $25000 (or something like that) at the end of March, you can just tell him/her to review the offer at http://etrade.com/earnmore, and specify the disclosure#2. That should take care of the obstacle E*Trade might have intentionally put upon this promotion.

CNN Money has an article listing 25 guidelines for anyone making financial decisions. They range from mortgage payment rules to investing tips, and retirement savings to car buying strategies. Use these 25 rules to set your goals for the year or the years to come.