Where to Get Help

DOES the thought of organizing your personal financial affairs still overwhelm you? Take heart. You need not indeed, should not do it all by yourself.

Help in getting your finances together ranges from books that can motivate and educate you to professional financial planners who can compile voluminous studies of your economic life. Or you can enroll in courses, attend public seminars and ask the advice of a stockbroker, an insurance agent, attorney, accountant or banker.

There is no reason why you cannot at least decode the basic ciphers of money management in a few weekends of dedicated reading. Among the best books are The Money Book of Money by Robert Klein and the Editors of Money, The Power of Money Dynamics by Venita VanCaspel and The Money Encyclopedia, edited by Harvey Rachlin. The Lifetime Book of Money Management by Grace Weinstein explains clearly and in great detail how to develop and carry out a long term financial planning strategy.

For tax planning, it is hard to beat Jullan Block's Guide to Year Round Tax Savings, which uses actual IRS case studies to explain the tax laws without jargon. Another sound choice is Miller's Personal Income Tax Guide, which has work sheets to lead you step by step through IRS forms.

Finding a useful guide to investments is harder, because there are so many bad ones around. Your top choice for a broad ranging work is The Complete Guide to Investment Opportunities by Marshall Blume and Jack Friedman. Each of the book's 58 chapters is written by a specialist in a particular type of investment, be it Art Nouveau furniture or Treasury notes. Two outstanding guides to Wall Street are Louis Engel and Brendan Boyd's How to Buy Stocks and Charles Rolo and Robert Klein's Gaining on the Market. The latter explains in layman's terms the strategies of professional investors. If you plan to buy a house or invest in property, The Real Estate Book by Robert L. Nessen will tell you just about everything you need to know.

Courses on personal finance are offered by more and more colleges, universities, community service organizations and other sponsors of adult education programs. The charge is often as little as $75 or less, or even free for senior citizens. The chance you take is that your teacher is merely a salesperson in the guise of an educator, so check his or her credentials closely. Avoid instructors whose expertise is limited to selling stocks, bonds, insurance or other so called investment products.

If you want extensive personalized advice about investing, budgeting and pulling your finances together, you should hire a professional financial planner. People who have trouble getting started discover that the help of a financial planner even just at the beginning can make the difference between success and failure. You can get names of recommended planners from bankers, accountants and stockbrokers.

Financial planners sometimes offer public seminars to expand their market. These meetings usually are advertised in local newspapers, and they can be worthwhile. Often the planners charge nothing for the first hour or two of consultation, then $75 to $200 for each additional hour.

Finally, you can get an inexpensive education by enrolling in one of the thousands of investment clubs.