I use Quicken only to track credit card expenses - none of the analysis and downloading features. However, I am using a 32 bit version and would like to get current with Quicken so that I can move to a newer OS.

Quicken is now a subscription service but, if you do not renew your subscription, the software continues to function. You just don't get access to help, updates, et cetera. That works for me and buying a one-year subscription is like buying an upgrade....fair enough. However, on the off chance that Quicken should fail after a year, I would want to re-install.

Quicken offers a back-up disk for a few bucks extra which, on the surface seems like the perfect solution EXCEPT I don't know if the disk is still useful after a year. Does it (or, could it) have code that makes the disk non-functional after a year? If anyone out there is a Quicken user who has taken the approach the way I am thinking, I'd appreciate hearing.

Any other thoughts, gratefully accepted (other than, why don't you switch to _________? I've been using Quicken since Attila the Hun was in third grade and and am not crazy about changing.)

After decades of assiduously avoiding Quicken for what I still think were good and sufficient reasons, I switched to it some eighteen or so months ago because of dissatisfaction with the app I was then using and because Quicken had finally completed a desperately needed total rewrite of their patchwork code base (and because Amazon was offering the subscription at an extremely tempting price). I am still not enamored of the subscription model, but for very high maintenance apps such as Quicken (My bank alone changes the access rules every few months) I have come to believe it is probably the most realistic option.

The last two updates have included highly significant upgrades: 1. Working with financial institutions that require two-factor authentication and just this past week automatic, account reconciliation. With major changes like that occurring multiple times in less than a year the original CD might make you feel better, but would in fact be so far out of date as to be relatively useless. 😱 In the event of Quicken failing as a company, I place my reliance on Time Machine to backup my executable code along with a daily CCC clone of the data volume and a weekly bootable clone, together with Quicken’s ability to export the database in a form that most of their competitors can import should I need or desire to switch. A short term disaster fallback is Quicken on my iPad.

I don’t know if I answered your question or not, but that is my story and I am sticking with it.

My needs are much simpler than yours....I only track credit card spending. Every time I make a charge it is entered into Quicken and I have an ongoing tally of spending. If I want to go back and see what I paid for something, it’s a simple report. Ditto if I want to know how much I’ve spent over the years at a particular vendor.

I don't download from any financial institutions and I don’t do any in-depth analysis of spending trends or investments, et cetera. Nada. I just need to have a version of Quicken that will work with current and future operating systems - much as I’ve used Quicken 2007 all these years, only once having to update (2016, I think).

The flaw in my plan to "buy once and never again" is that downloads end after a one year subscription. That is why I’d like to know that, if my Quicken blew up, I could just re-install what I had. Hence this question:

I can’t answer about the disk but it is possible that it would phone home to check on the lease status. I recommend contacting Quicken and asking them.

Worst case scenario, if you've got a spare Mac hanging around, you can set the date back and use it as a dedicated Quicken machine.

Actually, if you've got that spare Mac, you can run your existing Quicken on it as it stands.

I still have my last Mac (for the grandkids to use) and I considered your suggestion - thank you for it. However, the thought of booting a slow-to-boot separate machine every time I want to enter a credit card expense....... Also, I've only kept that machine because it has an audio input which is, through Bluetooth, the only way I have of getting some stuff to my 27". If I locate a mini recorder with Bluetooth, or a good Bluetooth transmitter, I'll give the 21" to the grandkids to take home.

From what you describe Quicken sounds like complete overkill. Numbers could easily handle your task and with some design on your part provide even more analytical tools than Quicken. Then you would be relieved of any concerns about future compatibility or cost.

Maybe, but I’ve been using it since it was first offered and it has tons of data that I periodically access. It also generates reports that are easy and clear, and a great help at year-end when I’m preparing next year’s budgets.
I’ve been using Excel for a very long time (right after it replaced MultiPlan) and, again, it does everything I need it do without learning something new. In fairness, I have periodically taken a look at Numbers for spreadsheet stuff since it was first released and remain unimpressed.

This stodgy old leopard does not wish to change its spots.

Actually I thought about Excel and it does things that are beyond Numbers ability, but Microsoft would withdraw support for it at any moment and it isn't free. But it is unquestionably a very viable alternative.

NOTE: I may not be an old leopard but maybe an old jaguar (jaguars are native to Texas) and I worked for Microsoft for two years training their tech support engineers and have since assiduously avoided Microsoft software. But then I have always been a contrarian by nature.