November, 2003 - Even though 66-year-old John Dietl of Pembroke Pines, FL, had spent most of his career as an accountant, he was having trouble making his own retirement plans add up.

“My company had been giving retirement seminars, and they’re good but they’re only a brief overview – it’s not a lot to go on,” he said. In search of more information about retirement planning, he turned to books, investment seminars, and the Internet, only to find himself more confused.

“There’s a ton of stuff out there, but everybody is pushing their own little thing,” Dietl said. “It was hard to find information that was unbiased and objective. You can read 150 books on the topic and still not be sure you know what you need to know.”

“At one point I had two financial planners,” he said, “and it was still hard to understand the reasoning behind what they were telling me to do with my money.”

Then one day, while searching the Internet for answers, he came across an advertisement for The Encyclopedia of Personal Finance™. “It was on the recommended list on Bob Brinker’s web site, and when I saw that it gave you all this information on one CD, that intrigued me a whole lot,” he said. “Once I received it, I was totally overwhelmed. I said, ‘My gosh, it’s all there!’”

“I was impressed by the way the articles take you step by step from the basics to more advanced information. I could just go from screen to screen and find everything I was looking for. It’s all very well written and concise, and you know they’re not trying to sell you on one kind of investment or another,” Dietl said.

Risk tolerance and asset allocation were two Encyclopedia topics Dietl found particularly useful. “My financial planner was telling me to put 60 percent of my assets in stocks and 10 percent in bonds. When I asked him why, he just said that was their basic philosophy. I never got a good definition of what they were trying to accomplish,” he said.

“Using the Encyclopedia, I was able to combine the articles on risk with articles on asset management to really understand how to make that kind of decision,” he said. The information he got from the Encyclopedia allowed him to ask better questions of his financial planner and review his investments based on his own goals and risk tolerance. As a result, Dietl worked with his financial planner to reallocate his assets among growth and value mutual funds to achieve a solid investment strategy.
Dietl also used the Encyclopedia to review his estate plans. “My advisor had suggested a life insurance trust for tax advantages. The Encyclopedia was one of the few places I could find information about this kind of investment,” he said. “Thanks to the CD, I felt comfortable that I was making the right decision.”

Now, Dietl recommends the Encyclopedia to friends and relatives who are managing their own retirement plans. “I tell them, get the CD and read it. It’s so beneficial, you’ll see exactly what you need to do,” he said.

“Every corporation in the United States should give The Encyclopedia of Personal Finance to their employees who are about to retire,” Dietl said. “It would make the transition a whole lot easier.”

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