Kevin Kruse Blog

Today 11am: I discovered that, in order to track my investments a certain way, I needed to purchase an “unlock code” from Intuit to upgrade to a beefier version of Quicken. $70 and 2 minutes later I was done.

Today 1pm: I read the back page of Fast Company magazine; it’s a whimsical “break up” letter to Quicken, complaining of Intuit’s non-stop efforts to force annual upgrades and their practice of killing support for older versions.

Today 3pm: I get an email from Quicken saying I can save $20 by immediately upgrading to the 2009 version of Quicken. I’m not making this up! Apparently the 09 version is out in about 2 weeks, and instead of them comping me the new version they try to sell it to me 4 hours after they take $70 bucks for the old version.

Want free personal finance software? Try Mint.com, Wesabe.com, and Expensr.com.

People often experience buyer’s remorse in the immediate aftermath of a purchase. Do everything you can to smooth the adoption process and reward continuity.