I just got a MacBook and really wanted to move everything off the IMac, but when I tried to install the old 2005 version on the new MacBook I ran into problems importing my old data, so I bought Quicken Essentials for Mac 2010 - the only Mac-based Quicken. The last version of OS X that could legally be installed in a virtual machine under a different host OS was Snow Leopard, which does support Quicken Essentials 1.7.4. Perhaps that could work for the OP. Quicken has released Quicken Essentials for Mac, version 1.5, with essential features that have been missing. Included are check printing and exporting data into tax file format. Quicken is the only reason I run Parallels in my rMBP. Quicken Essentials is a joke; and in serious need of an upgrade. I've never understood why they have left it so feature poor when compared to the windows versions. With their Quickbooks product line they are much more aligned. Save your money. Don't buy Quicken Essentials. Quicken today announced the launch of Quicken 2019, the newest version of its popular finance and budgeting software for PC and Mac. Quicken 2019 introduces web access for the first time.

If you've been a Quicken user making the transition to Quicken Essentials for Mac you're probably interested in migrating your old data file. Quicken Essentials for Mac comes with a separate application for translating data files, the Quicken File Exchange Utility. Let's see how well this utility works.
For my test, I set up a test Quicken 2006 data file. In this file I created four accounts:

• A checking account
• A savings account
• A mortgage
• A brokerage account with a few different stocks

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That last account I put in on purpose, knowing that Quicken Essentials for Mac has no ability to manage brokerage accounts. I wanted to know what would happen when the Quicken File Exchange Utility ran into this.
I also set up a couple of memorized transactions and a couple of scheduled transactions, again to see how well the Quicken File Exchange Utility would manage these items.
The Quicken File Exchange Utility comes with an eight page user manual that describes how to migrate from both kinds of Quicken (Mac and Windows) as well as Microsoft Money. Let me take this opportunity to repeat the most important eight words in this manual:

Create a copy of your current data file

Backups are important, people.
The Quicken File Exchange Utility is the only way to open up an old data file in Quicken Essentials for Mac. There's an Import option in the File menu, but if you use it and point it over to your old data file, you'll be prompted to launch the Quicken File Exchange Utility and convert your data file:
When you launch the Quicken File Exchange Utility you're presented with a three-step process (and yet another admonishment to use a copy of your data file).

You're then prompted to identify the data file that you wish to import. I picked my test data file:
and we were off and running. Conversion was quick, and resulted in a new data file:

So, how did it do? The data file retained all four accounts. Both the checking and savings accounts got copied over correctly, as did the mortgage. The brokerage account was copied, but with no data in it. Other details:

• I had several customized categories, each of which were moved successfully
• The scheduled transactions were transferred correctly as well, including the scheduled mortgage payment (which was a transfer between the checking and mortgage accounts)

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Overall, I'd call this a success. Yes, it's lame that QEM doesn't support brokerage accounts, but it worked as advertised.
One final note -- I've tried this conversion several times with the same data file, and in one iteration I had an issue in which the conversion got stuck, stalling out with a window that said 'Copying your file (this could take a while)'. I did a force quit, and things were very bad -- not only did I not have a converted file, I could no longer open up my original data file in Quicken 2006. Like I said (and like they warn),

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use a copy of your data file, not the original.