Tools for managing your money

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For years, my husband and I have been building our household budget in a basic Excel spreadsheet. It's proven to be a flexible tool that can help us reach our big spending decisions.

But as our family's financial profile has grown more complex, we are finding that we need a more robust money management system. We want to track our household expenses, as well as our RRSPs, RESPs, and investment portfolio. We also want a tool that can itemize where our cash is going and help us save for our goals.

My search for a new personal finance tool unearthed a vast and confusing number of choices. The personal finance software market is crowded, with many banks and financial services companies competing to organize your cash flow.

The options fall into two categories - tools that you can download to your computer and online tools that reside on the provider's server. Typically, the downloadable tools carry a fee while most of the online tools are free. Both types offer many of the same features to track spending and create budgets.

A recent entry in the Consumer Reports' money blog gives a thorough out there. It also suggests that if you're not fully comfortable putting your financial information online, the download style is for you. Be aware, though, that there are fewer downloadable than online tools available these days.

In fact, one widely-used download will soon become extinct. Introduced in the early 1990s, will be shelved at the end of this month. However, Microsoft users will be , which remains the most popular downloadable tool. The basic software for home use - Quicken Cash Manager 2009 - is available from Intuit for $39.99.

Other downloadable options include less well-known tools and , which offer similar bells and whistles and are priced within the same range as Quicken.

In the online category, Intuit recently rolled out as a free application. I was excited to try this product as it offers all of the money tracking tools and colourful pie charts I want. I also feel I can trust the Quicken brand to keep my financial information secure. However, I had a lot of difficulty getting the site to connect to my online Canadian banking account, a key feature of the tool.

There is a large crop of other personal finance online software tools. For a review of several of the top sites, check out Silicon Valley Blogger's review in her blog . She looks at and compares , and .

While there is a truly dizzying array of options, most personal finance tools offer all of the gizmos you'll need to get your finances in order. The most important thing is to pick one that you will enjoy using. We're still looking for the perfect replacement for our spreadsheet.