Reads to Riches

Guides to the joys of cash

Perhaps a windfall-profits tax should be levied on prolific financial journalists in these inflationary times, because the inkwell is as mighty as the oil well. Anyone who can write with wit or apocalyptic certitude about how to cope with shrinking purchasing power and vanishing nest eggs does not have to worry about where his--or her--next Mercedes 300 is coming from. In women's magazines, articles on sex have almost taken a back seat to advice on money management. Bookstores are crammed with many new volumes about the joy of cash and the juggling of credit. But among the surfeit of get-rich guides and Chicken Little screeds, at least five books merit attention:

Sylvia Porter's New Money Book for the 80's. This syndicated columnist's 5-lb. doorstopper sells for a hefty $24.95, and anyone with the stamina to lug it home probably will not need any other money guide. Written for a reader who seems to know absolutely nothing about personal finance, Porter's 1,305 pages--completely updated and revised since the publication of her bestselling Money Book in 1975 --cover budgeting, energy saving, career planning, investing, dressing well for less and even dying thriftily. (She recommends preplanning the funeral and discussing costs in advance with the mortician.) There is a section coyly called "Sex ... and ... Money" that offers suggestions on how to shop for and reduce the costs of an abortion. Glossaries help to explain insurance, stock market and real estate terms that Porter calls "bafflegab." Her style is brisk and hortatory. Porter warns her readers: "If you need a spring rain coat, don't stop off at the section reserved for bathing suits and buy a bikini at top price. I've done this sort of thing plenty of times, and I bet you have, too!"

Everyone's Money Book by Jane Bryant Quinn. Conversational in style and lucid in its ex planations, Quinn's book, a third shorter and at $14.95 almost 50% cheaper than Porter's, is also a lot more fun to read. One section quotes Robert Frost: "Take care to sell your horse be fore he dies. The art of life is passing losses on." The book is well indexed, cross-referenced and divided into discrete subject areas; each chapter assumes the reader has not read the others. Quinn covers the usual ground of budgeting, investing, saving, home buying, divorce and burial. Her 101 pages on life insurance are especially valuable. The Newsweek columnist and television reporter analyzes and compares the bewildering array of policies and options. Term insurance, she advises, is usually the best policy for young families.

Your Money by Richard Phalon. The reader who follows all of Phalon's advice may or may not "minimize his tax bite and manage himself into a surplus" as the author promises, but he will have had a good time for his $8.95. Explaining that loan rates can be negotiated, the Forbes magazine editor urges readers to take a firm stand with their bankers: "Insert the term 'banking relationship' into the conversation like a nicely greased thermometer and mention the imposing size of your checking and savings account balances. If that doesn't get you at least a centigrade or so more cordiality -- to say nothing of a quarter to a half point lower rate -- maybe it's time to consider taking your business to a more receptive environment." Be yond that, he skips lightly over financing a house, buying life insurance, investing in the stock market and dealing with the IRS.

Your Money Matters by Donald Moffitt. Even some six-digit corporate executives have no idea how they will bankroll their retirement, so Moffitt has collected his Wall Street Journal columns on personal finance into a $4.95 paperback for them as well as more modest money earners. Moffitt writes with cheekiness; the section on how to buy directors' liability insurance begins: "So you were dozing in your Eames chair when the other directors approved that 'commission' to His Austere Majesty the Grand Serene Slob of Lower Slobbovia?" Six pages on cutting home heating costs are invaluable, if only for touting a 70-c- National Bureau of Standards publication called "Making the Most of Your Energy Dollars in Home Heating & Cooling."

The Complete Consumer Book by Bess Myerson. The shopper who spends $9.95 for this book will discover that even consumer advocates can be guilty of false and misleading labeling: Myerson is by no means "complete." The 100 or so pages devoted to owning a house, for example, dispatch property insurance in four paragraphs. Retirement planning in Myerson's view seems to consist only of setting up a tax-deferred IRA or Keogh Plan savings fund. The former Miss America and ex-commissioner of consumer affairs for New York City is hardheaded about bargaining over terms, especially when buying a home. Counsels Myerson: "If you find the house fails to meet certain standards, you should not immediately cross it off your list. But, armed with the information of what is needed to bring the house up to high standards, you gain the leverage you need to convince the seller to lower the price."

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