Quicken vs. GrowthAdvisor: Which is Best for You?

Struggling to decide which tool to use between Quicken and Growthadvisor for your financial planning? Then you’ve come to the right place.

In this post, we’ve compared one of the first financial planning tools Quicken with our Internet-hosted product GrowthAdvisor.

But instead of comparing them head to head, we decided to do something different. Here’s why.

Typically, you’d want to compare your options and pick the best one. But what if you could use both products?

For example, GrowthAdvisor will help you make more money from your Employee Stock Options. Think of GrowthAdvisor as a career and wealth builder . And Quicken will help you manage your budgets, savings, and investments.

Let’s take a look at each one.

What is Quicken?

Quicken is one of the oldest money management tools—if not the oldest one. It’s the personal finance planner that appeared back in 1983. Over the years it has launched different versions of its product with different features.

In a nutshell, Quicken is your all-on-one money management tool. It helps you track your income, pay your bills, and set and maintain your budgets. It also helps you manage your savings and track the value of your home.

And! If you have investments, Quicken can help you track your portfolio too.

Let’s take a look at Quicken’s many features.

What are Quicken’s Features?

Quicken has consistently come out with a new version of its software every year. So it has lots of features for both Mac and PC users.

1. Track Your Spending.

Use Quicken to track your daily spending: groceries, shopping, entertainment, and so on. Add as many categories as you want.

2. Bank Statements.

Check your transactions from your bank statements.

3. Offline storage.

If you want extra security, store your financial data locally on your computer. 

4. Tax Reporting.

Use TurboTax to generate tax reports and pass them on to your accountant.

5. Check Printing.

You can even print checks with Quicken! They’ll look neat and professional.

6. Bill Payment.

Pay your bills directly from the Quicken app.

Read a full list of features with detailed explanations here.

Why sign up for Quicken? 

Quicken is one of the best personal finance management products on the market. And maybe it was the best at one point, but it can be overwhelmingly complex, especially if you’re new to money management.

Plus, if you don’t have enough money to track in Quicken, it’d be overkill. It’s like buying an expensive calculator that can also make you dinner, dry-clean your clothes and walk your dog. You’d probably opt for a cheaper calculator that does one simple thing: calculates.

In other words, Quicken is great for that phase in your life where you can use its complexity to your advantage. Until you get there, your best bet is to focus on building your career to make extra money to track in Quicken.

That’s where GrowthAdvisor comes in.

GrowthAdvisor helps you kickstart your career in a smart way—by showing you how you can earn much more money with Employee Stock Options.

Let’s take a look at how we do it.

What is GrowthAdvisor?

GrowthAdvisor is your career and wealth builder.

Our Internet-hosted product launched in 2019. We predict the accurate value of your Employee Stock Options for up to 10 years from today. Wow. That’s like traveling into the future and learning the number of your winning lottery ticket!

Why did we make this product?

Because it’s our mission to educate and empower employees like you to help you navigate your career and grow your wealth.

With GrowthAdvisor, you can increase your Employee Stock Options earnings from $40K to $1.6MM. And you can become financially independent and retire 10-15 years earlier.

How? We’ll tell you in a moment.

First, let’s take a look at GrowthAdvisor’s features.

What are GrowthAdvisor’s features?

GrowthAdvisor offers unique features that no other financial management product offers at the moment (we’re very proud of this fact):

1. Earn more with Employee Stock Options.

Browse 800,000+ companies to see which companies offer the best Employee Stock Options grants from the biggest options pool.

2. Wealth Guide.

See how much you’ll make in the next 10 years of your career and don’t miss the opportunity to make the smartest career moves.

3. Career Planning.

Pre-plan your career for the next 10 years, down to the month.

4. Negotiation Chart.

Know when and how to negotiate a better Employee Stock Options offer.

5. Company Valuations.

Match your dream job with the highest company valuation, then make this job a reality. Compare company valuations from any company category:

• Startup: Pre-Funding

• Startup: After Funding

• Medium Company

• Big Company

• 6. Exit Likelihoods.

See the likelihood percentage of any company’s exit—be it IPO, acquisition, a shutdown, or stable profitability.

Why sign up for GrowthAdvisor?

GrowthAdvisor will give you access to the financial data of the best-performing companies: their future profitability, exit scenarios, and value.

You can use this data to get better job offers, negotiate more Employee Stock Options, and to know when to exercise your options to earn the most money.

RELATED: Mint vs. Quicken vs. GrowthAdvisor: How to Choose the Best Tool

You’ll also get access to data on salaries, revenue, equity growth trends and the number of shares any company gives out—from over 800,000 that we’ve analyzed.

With this information, you can make smarter career decisions.

How? Let us illustrate with our Snowball Technique.

How to make smarter career decisions with GrowthAdvisor’s Snowball Technique

When you were little, you probably heard a story about a kid who made a huge snowball and then rolled it down a hill to make it even bigger. As it rolled down, that snowball doubled in size every 100 feet or so. Heck, maybe you even tried to roll your own. It was exciting to watch it grow, wasn’t it?

This is similar to the investment advice of putting $100,000 into a mutual fund. Your initial $100,000 will “roll down a hill” and double in size every 7 years or so. The point of this advice is to get you to start investing. Over time, your investment will grow bigger and bigger. Just like snowball.

Now, let’s say you want to roll the biggest snowball you possibly can.

If you start rolling a snowball down the hill that’s only 1 foot wide, the snowball will double in size every 100 feet. Yet it won’t be as big.

But if you start rolling a snowball down the hill that’s 10 feet wide, the snowball will double in size every 100 feet and will be much bigger.

To compare this to investment, your investment in the mutual fund will double every 7 years. That’s 3 to 6 times total over your entire working career.

How using the Snowball Technique can increase your gains from $40K to $1.6MM

Let’s take a look at a typical college graduate, Sam.

SAM’S SLOW GROWTH SNOWBALL TRACK

Sam has just graduated from college and got his very first job. But Sam didn’t have any savings and hadn’t yet built up an investment portfolio. So when he began savings from his salary, he had only to $5,000 to start investing.

Here is Sam’s “Slow Growth Snowball Track”:

• Age 24. Sam invests $5,000 in a mutual fund.

• Age 31. Sam’s $5,000 doubles to $10,000.

• Age 38. Sam’s $10,000 doubles to $20,000.

• Age 45. Sam’s $20,000 doubles to $40,000.

Sam was happy that his money doubled every 7 years. But Sam has started with a “Small Snowball” of only $5,000. So at 45 years old Sam ended up with only $40,000.

Now let’s take a look at another typical college graduate, Angela.

ANGELA’S FAST GROWTH SNOWBALL TRACK

Angela also has just graduated from college. And Angela also didn’t have any savings and hasn’t yet built up an investment portfolio. But Angela chose to use GrowthAdvisor to help her grow her wealth. So instead of simply getting a job and saving money from her salary, Angela decided to use Employee Stock Options.

Here is Angela’s “Fast Growth Snowball Track”:

• Age 24. Angela starts a company with Employee Stock Options (ESOs). She hasn’t used GrowthAdvisor yet.

• Age 26. Angela uses GrowthAdvisor.

  • GrowthAdvisor shows Angela that her current company will earn her only $9K per year in ESOs.

  • GrowthAdvisor finds the many other companies that can earn her $60K to $100K per year in ESOs.

  • Angela interviews at a technology startup that GrowthAdvisor recommended. The startup makes her an offer that will earn her $26K per year in ESOs.

  • GrowthAdvisor creates for Angela a Negotiation Chart that she uses to get more ESOs in her grant, bumping up her earnings from $26K per year to $70K per year.

  • Angela gets the job and earns $70K per year in ESOs.

• Age 30. The company that Angela has started is acquired.

  • The acquisition payout to Angela is $400,000 for the 4 years that she worked there. She expected $70K per year but got a bit more—$100K per year.

  • Angela invests $400K in mutual funds.

• Age 37. Angela’s $400K doubles to $800K.

• Age 44. Angela’s $800K doubles to $1.6MM.

  • Angela was very happy that she started a company right after she graduated from college. And she was even happier that she decided to use GrowthAdvisor early in her career. So at 44 Angela ended up with a whopping $1.6MM.

What’s the end of this “Snowball Technique” story?

Sam is 45 years old with $40,000. Sam is very sad. Angela is 44 years old with $1.6M. Angela is very happy.

Now, this is the Snowball Technique kicking arse.

So you see, if you decide to use GrowthAdvisor, you can earn $200,000-$400,000 more from your Employee Stock Options. If you then invest that extra $200,000-400,000 and let it double every 7 years, you’ll make a lot more.

Key Takeaways

Regardless of any money management products available out there, if you have no money, you won’t win.

Focus on kickstarting your wealth, then use a handful of the best products to help you track and build that wealth.

Ready to give us a try? Get started here.

Questions? Email our team at support@growthadvisorhq.com