Software Vault: The Sapphire Collection/Software Vault (Sapphire Collection) (Digital Impact).ISO/cdr16/cyberr02.zip/JOHNP

Text File | 1994-10-18 | 6KB | 92 lines

             Jonathan Pond's Personal Financial Planner
                             review by
                           Danny Williams

    If there is one thing we all know about money, it's that we
would like more of it.  We've all been teased by multimillion dollar
lottery prizes or Ed's personal message about your next ten million
dollar check.  Although either would be nice, most of us need
planning, saving, and investing to make sure we're not living off
cat food in our later years.  Jonathan Pond's Personal Financial
Planner (PFP) from ActiveBooks is a good source of just the kind of
information you need.
    Even though PFP comes on a CD and runs on your computer, it is
more of a book than a program.  This is not another
balance-your-checkbook program.  It does not pay your bills,
amortize your loans or help you track credit cards.  It helps you
take a long-term look at your current finances, where you would like
to be several years down the road, and what it takes to get there.
Unlike a book, though, PFP periodically asks you for information
about your current financial condition or future plans.  Text boxes
are then customized according to what you enter.  For a simple
example, if you enter $1,000 per month in income combined with
$15,000 in credit card debt at 19%, the text box along side the quiz
might suggest you get a part time job to help pay off that debt as
quickly as possible, or to transfer the balance to lower rate cards.
Jonathan himself even chats with you personally via sound and video
bytes scattered throughout the "book."
    The installation is straightforward and usual for modern Windows
applications.  The installation creates an ActiveBooks group and
copies a few files to your hard disk.  Bulky video and sound files
are left on the CD.  I did get a couple of unhelpful "An error has
occurred..." messages during the install, but clicking Ignore a
couple of times at least got the program functional.  Even after the
ugly install, the program runs as advertised.  There is no uninstall
utility included, but all files copied to the har d disk are in one
directory except for an ACTIVEBK.INI in c:\WINDOWS and I didn't find
any entries in WIN.INI made by PFP that might foul things up later.
    Running the program popped up a small window, about 1/4 of my
1024x768 screen, in the upper left corner.  "No problem," I thought,
and moused for the resizing bars.  Unfortunately, there aren't any.
The program is designed to run full-screen at standard VGA
resolution and proportionally smaller on higher resolutions;
resizing is not available.  Although this appears to be a
significant shortcoming, the READ.ME file tells me "this behavior is
normal."
    As with any book, PFP is organized with a title page, table of
contents, many pages of content, then an index and glossary.
Glossary items are hyperlinked from the text, so any time you don't
understand a term, the definition is likely only a click away.  A
sliding pointer on the bottom of the page gives the current page
number, and moving the pointer quickly takes you to any page in the
book.  The table of contents is unusually sparse for so large a
reference "book," but a click on a table item shows subhea dings for
quick "thumbing" to any section.  A hierarchical tree display is not
available, so you must remember in which major heading your topic is
hiding, or go hunting for it a click at a time.  This is not as bad
as it sounds, however, since the program automatically picks up
where you left off from the last session.  A "bent-arrow" history
button goes back through pages last read.  The question mark help
button is context sensitive, and the menu button provides bookmarks,
notes that can be "stuck" to pages in the book, and a quick exit
from the program.
    Quizzes are sprinkled throughout the book to collect information
from you.  This information is used to tailor sections of the book
to your specific financial condition.  A "Welcome Quiz" on page four
is the first of several that PFP uses and asks your name, number of
children, and income.  A few pages later, the multiple choice Wealth
Quiz helps you lay out how well your planning is going and areas
that need improvement.  If your life insurance is inadequate or you
have no will, this quiz will politely remind you to get these
crucial things attended to.  Other similar quizzes take up only a
few more of the 235 pages, properly leaving most of the book to
explain the nuances of such things as taxes, insurance, and
retirement.
    Your computer needs to be at least a 386 with 4Mb of RAM, and
Microsoft Windows 3.1, PFP needs 5Mb of disk for files and another
2Mb on the drive holding your temp directory.  An MPC equivalent
system with a 256 color VGA card and monitor, sound card, and CD-ROM
lets you see and hear all the multimedia parts, but the program will
work fine with just the CD.
    If you are in the market for a financial planning manual, want
some basic information on planning your financial future, and want
to see what may be the future of written material, pick up Jonathan
Pond's Personal Financial Planner.  There's a lot of good stuff in
there, and the presentation makes it fun to read.

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