I’m not one

to get terribly frustrated and throw temper tantrums, but there are some things

that really push my buttons. One thing that really annoys me is software that

takes control out of my hands.

I use

Microsoft Money 2005 to keep track of my checking, savings, credit cards, and

investment accounts. We aren’t talking a large Rockefeller trust fund here, but

I like to keep on top of my finances — it’s my accountant training. MS Money

came with a computer purchase and it works okay, but I discovered one thing

last weekend that makes me want to rip it out of my PC and erase it from

existence.

USBank

raised the credit limit on my credit card and Money won’t let me change that

number manually. I have to configure Money to talk with USBank

so that kind of information can be exchanged. However, I have specifically

decided that I do not want any software on my PC contacting any servers on the

Internet unless I am sitting there clicking the links myself. I do not trust

Microsoft or USBank to:

a)       Accurately transfer information back

and forth and reconcile differences in the various transactions, or

b)      Not use such information to try to

sell me life insurance or money market accounts or other such crap I don’t need

or want.

Therefore,

I have not and will not configure for that level of behind my back interaction.

But, taking that stand means that I cannot make a simple change to the account

information Money stores. To me, that is just not acceptable. I decide what

information I want to keep, I decide when to enter it, I decide what is

accurate, and I decide what is best. I don’t want to be coddled by my banking

software as if I’m some financial misfit. When it comes to my finances, I’m an

anal retentive accountant — thank you very much.

So I’m

wondering it there is an open source option to Money and Quicken that I can try;

preferably one that doesn’t try to do the “we can connect to your bank and

exchange personal information at will without your knowledge” feature. Any

suggestions would be greatly appreciated.