I have learned so much over the past four years as I researched various types of financial software, and I have sincerely enjoyed sharing financial software reviews and tutorials with my readers. But, the time has come for me to move on to other adventures. My last day here (April 15) is four years to the date that I started writing for About.com Financial Software, which is a bit ironic for me.

If you have this blog on your RSS feed, please do not remove it. Soon, someone else will be providing you with impartial financial software reviews, valuable tutorials and other financial software information.

I wish you all the best!

Does the U.S. Internal Revenue Service test tax software completely? The answer will surprise you. It sure surprised me! Get the details and find out if your tax software is reliable.

• 10 Tips For Choosing the Best Tax Software

Quicken and Microsoft Money are still the most well-known titles for Windows personal finance software, but they aren't the only options for managing money in a Windows environment. Check out my recommendations for the best personal finance software for Windows in 6 Personal Finance Options for Windows.

• 11 Options for Mac Personal Finance Software
• 11 Options for Managing Money Online
• 6 Personal Home Inventory Software Options

A reader in the Financial Software discussion forum asks about envelope budgeting with Quicken. This inspired my tutorial for setting up savings goals in Quicken, which is one way to envelope budget with Quicken. Another possibility is to use a cash account to stash away cash for short term savings.

Quicken 2008 has a feature called My Savings Plan that could also be used for envelope budgeting, but My Savings Plan can only be updated one month in advance and is better for fluctuating expenses. Quicken savings goals are great for anticipated expenses you want to save up for and that do not fluctuate.

Dedicated Envelope Budgeting Software | How to Set Up and Use Quicken Savings Goals | What is Envelope Budgeting? | Quicken 2008 New Features

How cool is this? Use tradeMONSTER for your investing and stock trading and you will be able to Tweet your trades, ask other traders questions, comment on the market, etc., because Twitter is now integrated with tradeMONSTER.

trade MONSTER also offers real-time streaming data, an easy-to-customize setup with drag and drop mini-app modules, paperTRADE for testing stock trading strategies and tradeMONSTER's commissions are low ($7.50, whether you trade 100 shares or 5,000 shares).

Go to trade MONSTER's site to get more details.

TurboTax users, share your thoughts with those who - at this date - need to choose tax software quickly. Post a review of your experience with TurboTax in the User Rating and Review at the top of my TurboTax review.

TurboTax Tax Software Versions and Prices

After using the Mint.com iPhone app for a few more days, Jennifer Kyrnin decided to update her Mint iPhone app review. She still gives the Mint app 3 stars, but decided to stop using it because the app bugged her too often with budget warnings and her account balances weren't always immediately updated.

You can write your own review of the Mint.com app using the link at the top of the Mint.com iPhone App review.

Have you finished your tax return? If you used TaxCut desktop or online software to complete your taxes, why not give a quick review of your experience with TaxCut to help others decide whether or not to do their taxes with TaxCut? Post your review in the User Rating and Review at the top of my TaxCut review.

TaxCut Tax Software Versions and Prices

Setting up a budget in Microsoft Money and Money Plus is a two-part procedure. First, you use the Savings and Spending Budget to set up a general budget for living expenses, emergency funds, retirement and "fun money". The Savings and Spending Budget then shows you the ideal distribution of your income for budgeted items but you can tweak those numbers to suit yourself.

The budgeting details come in on the second part of setting up a budget in Microsoft Money: using the Working Budget to define more details and to set up the Spending Tracker to keep an eye on selected budgeted categories in Microsoft Money, typically from the Money Home Page.

Check out this tutorial for setting up a budget in Microsoft Money to see the budget set up in action.

If you are using Quicken 2006, you will have to upgrade Quicken before the end of April, 2009. This is when Quicken 2006 will hit the sunset, and web-based features will stop working. Robert Mitchell at ComputerWorld.com reflects on The Quicken Ultimatum, and I'm curious whether he will stick with Quicken or try some other financial software. Robert mentions Quicken Online, but Quicken Online still doesn't have all the features Quicken has. But, it may have the features he needs, given the Quicken desktop has expanded the feature base so much over the years.

Robert, if you read this, you can turn off the cha-ching in Quicken so your wife isn't bothered by that infernal, repetitious and non-essential sound. The Quicken cha-ching bugs me, too.

• Before You Upgrade Your Financial Software
• Quicken Review