Your Wealth Bldg Yrs

Money saved and invested doubles in seven years and triples in 11 (if the interest rates are not depressed), financial adviser Berg (Moneythink, etc.) points out; he urges young people to start building a fortune while time is on their side. In one of the best treatments of its kind, the author describes the workings of various financial instruments and markets: bank accounts and certificates, stocks and bonds, real estate syndicates, commodity futures, etc. She also explains how to derive maximum benefit from such job-related factors as an annual bonus, expense account, retirement plan, and profit-sharing. There are excellent chapters as well on inheritance, estates and trusts, buying (and hanging onto) a first home, budgeting, borrowing and paying the tax collector. Unnecessary allegories and net-worth questionnaires in the opening section are tedious, but the meat of the books is first-rate. Author tour. (February 25)