Best Personal Bookkeeping Software? [View all]

I used to love Quicken, in part because several organizations I consulted for or volunteered for or served on the Boards of, used QuickBooks software and I got very familiar with that, lo those many years back. So it wasn't much of a stretch to learn Quicken for household and simple self-employment business bookkeeping.

What I loved about Quicken included:

Very flexible in allowing you to design and customize your own categories, attach subcategories to them, designate them as significant for tax reporting purposes, etc..

Almost universally compatible with every bank we did business with, enabling easy downloads of account information in compatible formats for the software on my desktop PC, and even allowing me to set up and recognize transactions and automatically categorize them during the download process.

The reporting function had all the capacity I needed, could store and automatically update reports I used regularly, and create new reports on the fly without too many baffling 'features' to navigate.

And, finally, it used to be pretty simple. It started out as (essentially) a computerized check register-with-ledger-and-books tool, and for a good many years it pretty much stayed that way.

Then they started "upgrading" it. Now you can trade stocks, pay bills automatically, get a new mortgage, manage investments, create budgets, and probably walk the dog, I don't know.

Doubtless there are people who use every bit of all those functions, use them on mobile apps, rely on them and don't mind having all the information about their financial management fully integrated on the cloud with everything else about them.

Me, I mind. While I like being able to DL info from my bank accounts and drop it into the financial management program that lives in my desktop computer, I really DON'T want it fully integrated in the cloud with everything I do. I DON'T use mobile apps (don't even have a "smart" phone)! I DON'T want to use it to pay my bills, track stocks, etc.

I simply want to balance my checking account, track my household books, and produce reports for tax preparation now and then.

And, once I learn how to use the program, I'd like to be able to simply keep using it, without having "upgrades" shoved at me every year, and without having to pay an annual extortion payoff -excuse me, "subscription"- to the software vendor, to maintain its interactive functions with my bank.

So, alas, my days of being a Quicken customer seem to be drawing to a close.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a simple personal finance management program that doesn't hold you up for money every year to push "upgrades" you don't need or want on you, and doesn't require constant Internet connections and logins simply to use the program on your desktop?

Anyone?

Please??

hopefully,
Bright