Two personal finance guides that should be on every family and small company bookshelf this year are Colm Rapple's Family Finance and the Taxation Advice Bureau's 1998-99 Money Pensions & Tax Guide. For under £7 each, these books will provide an up-to-date source of information on everything from personal tax allowances, mortgages, savings and investments and the cost of debt.

Colm Rapple's book is the easier of the two for most people to understand and his advice on savings, borrowings and social welfare entitlements in particular, is very sound and conservative. He appreciates that ordinary earners are in no position to lose their money, either from unwise investments or because of misselling by financial institutions and intermediaries and he includes all the correct warning messages.

The TAB book, which also takes its rightful place in the best-seller list, is more comprehensive than Colm Rapple's guide. It is particularly strong on tax issues for both individuals and companies and provides excellent product definitions, tables and illustrations of how various allowances, deductions and computations work. The sections on Benefit-in-Kind and the financial and tax implications of divorce are particularly good this year.

A criticism is that the layout is a bit tired and topics tend to run into one another. That said, it provides a huge amount of detailed information and is especially useful for anyone who is self-employed, has a small business or has income other than a PAYE salary.