THIS is the time of year when the latest editions of the personal finance books appear in the bookshops.

Competition now dictates that such titles are revised annually which makes a new purchase necessary if you wish to keep fully up to date with the Budget changes and new legislation that may affect the family's financial position.

Family Money once again recommends the following three - The 1997/98 Money Pensions and Tax Guide from the Taxation Advice Bureau (TAB), Colm Rapple's Family Finance 97/98 and Personal Finance from Gail Seekamp.

Each of these books carries a wealth of information about savings and investments, mortgages, tax, insurance and pensions, benefit in kind, working abroad as well as issues such as social welfare benefits, marital separation and divorce, inheritance and capital gains tax.

The TAB book is probably the most detailed and technical, but is still very accessible and would probably be of considerable use to a self-employed person or someone running a small business.

For the average reader, author Sebastian Devlin has this year included a breakdown of PIPS and PEPS, the new low-cost savings products, complete with a table which illustrates the tax advantages of the PEP over the PIP. Cost: £7.95.

Colm Rapple's Family Finance is the original self-help book and is ideal for anyone concerned about where their hard-earned money is going. Rapple's comforting style and the book's easy layout should provide reassurance to anybody with a mortgage, an overdraft and a clear need to save, every month for education or retirement or rainy days. At just £5.95 this book is a real bargain.

Gail Seekamp's Personal Finance, is full of charts, tables and real-life accounts of how to cope with family finance issues. She includes useful chapters to issues for women and children, and there are excellent glossaries, appendices of addresses and a personal portfolio planner.