INDEPENDENT financial advice is what everyone should seek when they are about to buy a pension, make an investment or take out a mortgage. But it isn't always easy to find, and properly trained, experienced, fee based advisers are thin on the ground. Their services can be quite expensive.
The next best thing is for the ordinary saver, spender or tax payer to arm them selves with enough information about these products and services, not to mention the tax system to at least make an intelligent decision about the plethora of options out there even if that decision is to seek out professional help.
There are now three up to date personal finance books on the Irish market, The 1996/97 Money PAYE and Tax Guide by Sebastian Devlin of the Taxation Advice Bureau, Family Finance by Colm Rapple and Personal Finance by Gail Seekamp.
The TAB Money PAYE and Tax Guide will be familiar to regular listeners of the Gay Byrne show which has promoted its virtues for many years. Sebastian Devlin is a regular contributor to Gay's show, and to this column, especially on tax matters. His book is extremely comprehensive and is by far the most succinct of the three with short, crisp definitions of savings and investments, as well as Irish and UK personal and corporate taxes.
This is the perfect reference book, especially since every section is scattered with examples of how to calculate tax benefits and allowances, the tax and cash flow implications of buying a property, taking out a pension or even a school fees savings plan. This year, the TAB guide has devoted a new chapter to Benefit in Kind and company cars which is easy to follow and should help any motorist trying to decide whether he/ she should opt for the company vehicle or take the salary increase instead.
At £6.95, this guide is very good value and is particularly strong on matters of tax. People with no experience whatsoever of financial matters may find the spare writing style a bit lacking on the best advice side. But with its excellent index, anyone with a specific question about earnings, tax, and the financial implications of investments and savings this is the ideal reference book.
Colm Rapple is the dozen of personal finance writers and his book, Family Finance can he found in many Irish homes. Published by Mr Rapple's own Squirrel Press, this hook has had a major facelift in recent years. Not only is it more comprehensive, but the layout is much improved, with good use of red letter margin notes which often act to warn or caution the reader about the product or service. His writing style is simple and friendly and anyone who has heard him on the radio or on his regular slot on RTE's Live at Three, will think that "he writes just the way he talks" the best compliment you can give any storyteller or journalist.
The illustrations and examples (of tax calculations, pension benefits, etc.) are both large and clear the best of the three books. If there is any complaint on this front it is that there are not enough of them. For example, he includes two tables to illustrate how post office savings contributions grow, but not life assurance products a table which showed the way premiums are allocated (or not) to investment units over the term of a contract would be very useful.
Mr Rapple's guide, at £5.95 is the cheapest of the three which is good news for hard pressed families and people on low incomes. The book also happens to be very strong on the matter of Social Welfare benefits and allowances and his easy to understand commentary in this complex area should be a real comfort to people seeking financial assistance or to older people unsure about their pension entitlements or allowances.
My main criticism of this book is that it is still lacking an index and at first glance the chapters appear to be laid out quite randomly. Anyone who has a query about pensions, for example, will not find the `P' word anywhere on the contents page. A further scan will eventually find a reference on line 21 to Never too early to plan for retirement
Gail Seekamp is the personal finance editor of the Sunday Business Post and Personal Finance is the updated 1996/97 version of a book that first came out last year. Over 300 pages long, it is the largest of the three and in some ways the most comprehensive having added a very extensive, well illustrated chapter about the tax and financial implications of divorce.
One of the great strengths of this book is the wide use of tables, charts, checklists and `real' examples to illustrate the different topics. Of the latter, she will work out just how much interest Johnny will pay when he borrows £5,000 to buy a boat she calculates Joe's tax relief on his AVC contributions and illustrates the inheritance tax bill Aoife will have to pay after her granny dies. The chapter on inheritance sheds a great deal of light on this notoriously dense topic and offers the best explanation I have ever seen on the cumulative effect of bequests on your overall tax free threshold. She also devotes a chapter to the particular problems women often experience when seeking out financial services and gives plenty of space to financial planning for parents of young children.
This book, which costs £7.99 is systematic in the way it defines and analyses the complicated web of financial products, services and personal taxes waiting out there. Ms Seekamp's writing style, like Colm Rapple's, reflects her `day' job in that it is written in a sharp, sometimes dispassionate sort of way but her conclusions at the end of every chapter are very sound. She also supplies a list of consumer organisations and agency's addresses as well as an excellent index and glossary of terms.
If I have one criticism of this book, it is that the layout is rather dull. The topic is a serious one, and unlike the other two books which include cartoon illustrations, the only light note struck in this book is the pithy quotations that head each chapter my favourite is comedian Jack Benny's comment on life insurance "I don't want to tell you how much insurance I carry with the Prudential, but all I can say is when I go, they go.
