Software Review of:
Net Wealth 
Kiplinger 

The main menu consists of Personal Assistants, Plan Builders, Intellitools, Reports and Help Central. Personal Assistants include Portfolio Manager for your investments, Credit Counselor to help eliminate debts, Life Insurance Advisor for the right amount of life insurance and Tax Estimator to help track your tax bill so that you avoid surprises in April. Plan Builders include Create-a-Plan, What If, EZ Goals, Cash flow Analyzer and the Net Wealth Reporter. Intellitools are a Retirement Forecaster, a Mutual Fund Selector, a Retirement Funds Advisor, an Allocation Counselor, a College Locator and a College Cost Projector. Help Central has video tips, a financial glossary and a Program Help that explains features and functions. 

In order to run Net Wealth, a 486 or higher PC is required. Windows 95/98, Microsoft IE4 or better, at least 2X CD-ROM, 8MB RAM (16MB for active desktop), 12 MB available hard disk space, a monitor, printer and mouse complete the system requirements. 

Reading the licensing agreement provided some important information for the user. You may make one backup (archival) copy. The original purchaser may transfer the program to another user provided that user agrees to the terms of Use, Warranty and Disclaimer.  Net Wealth software may be returned within 30 days. It is made very clear that the program provides information that is general in nature and can not be specific to one individual. Net Wealth installed smoothly, quickly, and easily. It did install Internet Explorer 4 even though I have IE 5 on my PC. 

Net Wealth runs in a browser window and thus is easily navigated with single clicks, the Back and Forward buttons and the side bar menu. Each window has a ‘Guide me’ button which provides the help menu for that page. There also are videos on most of the windows. I started out in Portfolio Manager. The portfolio manager lists the user, the user’s spouse, portfolio name and portfolio type. Initially it contains as portfolio types taxable investments, IRA, Roth IRA, 401K, and other tax deferred. The next area that I checked out is the credit counselor. Here you can input information about all credit card and loan information as well as any other debts that you owe. Net Wealth will show you how to pay off your debts with the lowest possible interest expense. With the help of Net Wealth you can see instantly what a few extra dollars each month can do to get you out of debt faster and completely. I did not explore the tax estimator or the withholding wizard at this time because some other software programs enable you to track your tax bill and file your withholding so that you do not either overpay or underpay your federal taxes. 

I started exploring Intellitools next. The first area that appealed to me was the Allocation Counselor. The purpose of this area is to assist in determining an individual’s tolerance for risk and suggests how to invest based on that tolerance. I was very honest in answering the series of questions that were presented. The results showed that my tolerance for risk is medium and my investment length is 3 to 8 years. With this information they recommended a portfolio composed of 50% Lg. Cap, 15% Sm. Cap, 15% Bonds, 15% Cash and 5% Intl. Stock. I could then make some changes in risk tolerance and investment length for a different recommendation. I agreed with my medium risk tolerance, but changed my investment length to over 8 years. The portfolio recommended now is 55%Lg Cap, 20% Sm Cap, 20% bonds and 5% cash. 

My next area of exploration was the Retirement Funds Advisor. I put in an age of 62 with plans to retire at 65 and with no current portfolio, a model portfolio was recommended with 35% Lg Cap, 45% funds and 20% cash. I then put in an age of 56 and a retirement of 60. The model portfolio made the same recommendations. My next entry was age 28 with plans to retire at 55. This time the model portfolio changed drastically. The model recommended 70% Lg Cap, 20% Sm cap and 10% Intl stock. 

Having received advice from the Retirement Funds Advisor, I went next to the Retirement Forecaster. The purpose of this section is to make sure that you have enough to live on in retirement. This is a questionnaire including how much income do you need per year at retirement. I initially entered the ages at which we retired and what I thought we needed in income. Here I ran into a snag that ultimately was humorous, but very frustrating while I was working. This program is listed on the box as being "Y2K Ready". I entered all date information in mm/dd/yy format. I got to the end of the questions and Net Wealth would not go further because "the retirement date is before the birthdate". I looked at this and went back to the birthdates and saw that my yy had been converted to 2037 and 2030 instead of the correct 1937 and 1930. Seeing the error, I made a note about Y2K ready and changed the offending dates to 19 only to have the program refuse to accept the change. This happened repeatedly until my frustration level had peaked and I was ready to throw in the towel or more accurately the retirement. Just at that point, the program accepted the changed birthdates and the forecaster showed a cash flow that indication my income would be reduced by 75% within 40 years. Clearly a need to re-think and re-plan my investments since I expect to see January 1, 2050. 

The Mutual Funds Selector enables you to select a fund and choose Minimum Investment, Manager Tenure, Yield history, 5 year Return and other specific items related to mutual funds. It then makes recommendations based on your criteria. I skipped the College Locator and College Cost Projector due to time constraints. 

Money Calculators instantly show how time, inflation, rate of return and other factors affect your money. This section was really interesting with inflation; savings accumulation and present value set as links to additional information on financial planning. The inflation link shows graphically that $50,000 today inflated at 4% for 25 years will equal $133,292. Clearly if you need $50,000 to lie on today then $50,000 in a savings account paying 2.1% will not sustain you when you retire. The savings accumulation shows that starting with $30,000, adding $2000 per year growing by 5% per annum for 25 years will yield a total of $167,432. The third link in money calculators — present value — graphically (and frightenly) shows how $100,000 eaten away by 3.2% over 30 years can be reduced to a value of $38,870. 

Lastly I went to Plan Builders. Here it is possible to create-a-plan, use the what-if calculator and set attainable goals with EZ Goals. EZ Goals enables you to plan your finances in order to purchase a new or second home, a new car or that special cruise vacation. Here again there is a video to help you. In Create-a-plan, I set up a 63-year-old male who plans to retire at 70 and live to be 98. It asked a series of questions to enable you to plan for retirement. 

I have one word of caution about Net Wealth — be sure to insert dates with 4 digit years. I think this program has everything that you need in order to plan your finances wisely and in order to have the financial fluidity for a comfortable life. I especially think that this would be good for young families that are struggling to provide for their children and still have the things they want without spending 25% of their income on interest. 

Kiplinger’s Net Wealth lists for $29.95 and is available at their Internet site <www.net-wealth.com>. It is also available at most stores that sell Kiplinger Tax Cut. Be sure to check for a manufacturer’s rebate, as they are sometimes available in the amount of $10.