Old Dogs and New Tricks

I have just spent the better part of three hours trying to save time.  My children have long belittled me for not keeping up with the new financial times.  I resist using a debit card for minor purchases.  I insist on writing checks instead of having the cash register print them, because I use duplicate checks.  I keep a full set of books (on the computer but entered manually) instead of just letting the bank do it.  I even occasionally use real money.  They consider me to be hopelessly outdated and old fashioned. 

So tonight I decided that possibly there was some merit to their claims that Internet banking was much faster and more efficient, especially if coupled with my Quicken program on my computer.  Since computer programs no longer come with a manual so you can read up on what you are going to do, I just started in by clicking.  Before long I had accessed some of our bank accounts and with a click things started to download.  Great.  Soon I had a whole lot of new information in my Quicken accounts.  It didn't take long until I was clicking away and clearing transactions from my accounts.  So far so good.

Then I hit a snag.  I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do and since these programs are so fool proof they don't tell you what to do or even what you are doing, I was lost.  I think they are based on the idea that first you must do it wrong then find out what to do right.  Of course, once you've done it wrong you have to undo the whole thing and start over.  Of course you can go to the help menu, however you have to figure out how to word the question so the help menu gives you an answer.  I must word things very weird, because I never get the answer that I want, so I have to keep asking and reading and reading.

After hours of reading answers that aren't what I need, clicking random buttons, and becoming more and more frustrated.  I have accomplished about half of what I could have done in about 15 minutes using my old method.  Plus I have a whole mess of stuff I don't know what to do with.  Now I will have to call one of the whiz kids  tomorrow and seek help to straighten it all out.  All of this because it is so much easier and quicker to do my banking electronically. 

Maybe you can't teach old dogs new tricks.