About two weeks ago, The Practical Nerd put together a great, easy system to track and manage your money without relying on commercial money software. It’s the system I use to keep track of my expenses and income, and it’s darn-near foolproof, while being accessible anywhere. If you haven’t read it, check it out!

I felt that more people needed a system similar to this one for the following reasoning:

Not cost a dime. I don’t have that kind of money.

Be upgrade-proof. Buying Microsoft Money is a great investment – until the next version comes out. This system is free all the way through. You can’t be burned by new versions here.

Among other reasons, of course. Big software companies are notorious for not making their software changes retroactive. In other words, to turn a profit, they make you buy a new version of the same software you’ve been using. I understand it in business terms, but as a user, it sucks big time. But fortunately, there is news on that front.

According to Mashable, Microsoft has officially discontinued development of Microsoft Money after 20 years of development. Here’s Mashable’s take on it:

Well, as I’ve written in my lengthy post about the reasons for Twitter’s success, it’s partly due to the fact that users want their applications to be connected, to be accessible from anywhere, to allow collaboration with other users: all those things that the web 2.0 movement has brought us. Furthermore, users have gotten used to the widget approach; they care less about humongous applications that do everything, and they want widgety, simple applications that do one thing well.

And that’s exactly what my money system does. In fact (not mentioned previously), Google Docs’ collaboration features means you can share those online checkbooks with whomever you want. That would come in handy with a joint checking account, wouldn’t it?

So, in conclusion, it looks like Microsoft is getting smarter and catching on. It seems kinda coincidental that this announcement comes recently after my brilliant money management system hit the Internet. Or maybe, just maybe, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is one of my subscribers. You be the judge…

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