READERS often ask where I get my ideas and information to write my personal finance columns, a task that I first took on almost 30 years ago.

Well, one thing I tell them is that after 30 years I'm still a student, still learning the intricacies of investment products and strategies. I rely on what Isaac Newton once said: "What we know is a drop. What we don't know is an ocean."

I never took business or economics in college, but enrolled in 1979 in the school of hard knocks. I started out establishing resource people in the world of finance and pelted them with questions. I'm still pelting. Retention has always been a problem. I suppose if I could have retained all the answers I would be engaged in less pelting today. But I would still be pelting because the world of personal finance changes by the hour. The introduction of new products and changes in tax laws goes on endlessly.

One of the problems I face is Wall Street's addiction to invention. The street delights in coming up with a new investment on almost a daily basis. Then a competitor, not wanting to be left behind, has to introduce its version of that creation, tweaking it a bit to make it sound more proprietary. Then another street company, not wanting to be out-dated, comes up with another version.

Changes prompt reader questions: "What do you think of agricultural exchange traded funds?" So I have to look into that new creation and I usually

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tell readers not to waste their money. So they ask me "What do you like?" I had to solve that problem years ago by coming up with an asset allocation and some products to sate it in so that I could then tell readers: "If its not on my list, don't buy it."

But, still, I learn a lot from my readers. it's important to know what's on their minds. If they can convince me that an idea is a good one I may write favorably about it. But most of the time I slam the idea, bestowing on myself the title of the "old curmudgeon."

I don't get much feedback from professional investment managers, like stock brokers or financial planners. I'm sure most of them disagree with me, but I feel that in their minds they're saying. "That's just Pletschet. Who listens to him?" Or maybe they're just trying to avoid adverse publicity.

To keep up with the world of finance I read The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Barron's weekly, BusinessWeek, and two monthly financial magazines, Smart Money and Kiplinger's. Then there's the endless raft of information and data on the Internet. I get a lot of pitches in the mail, but I throw away most of them, because who wants to invest in oil wells in Siberia? I'm also turned off by full-page ads placed by money managers, seminar producers and other hucksters. Such ads are expensive, but investors who fall for the pitch pay the tab.

The Wall Street Journal has changed dramatically over the past few years. It carries a lot of non-financial news now. Barron's weekly is a bit stuffy, designed more for upscale investors. Of the magazines, I think Smart Money is the best. I have managed to survive without Fortune, Forbes and Money. There are only so many hours in the day to read financial glut, and the number of hours I work each day is slowly dwindling. Retire? I abhor the thought. I can't imagine waking up in the morning and planning my day around television.

Sometimes readers ask who I think are the best financial writers and I usually mention James B. Stewart, who writes in The Wall Street Journal and Smart Money (Journal owned) and John Waggoner in USA Today. Normally financial writers can't write about their own stocks, but Stewart apparently has some special arrangement with the Journal because he often discusses his portfolio. Waggoner is skilled at laying out the pros and cons of an investment.

One pitfall in my job is making a mistake in print. Obviously, potentially thousands of readers could pick it out and attack me. So I rely heavily on "To err is human."

In a recent column I was commenting on how the real estate limited partnership collapsed as the result of the 1986 tax law, but I mistakenly said real estate investment trust. In another column, I told a reader who was having trouble with a stockbroker to complain to investment regulators. Another reader took me to task for not suggesting that the aggrieved reader first appeal to the office manager where the broker worked. It's a good idea.

One major lesson I have learned over the past 30 years is that just about anyone is capable of handling their own finances. Most readers repel the idea out of fear. They worry they may make a major mistake, so they sign on with a stockbroker, financial planner or money manager and often discover that they, too, can make mistakes. An elderly relative or friend may not be up to the task, so then YOU must take over the job.

There are enough tools available to the do-it-yourself investor, such as the Internet, discount brokers, no-load mutual funds, money funds, Treasury securities bought directly. Don't be fearful of the learning process. That's how I survive.

Cliff Pletschet's Personal Finance column appears Friday and Sunday. Send general-interest questions to him at P.O. Box 28147, Oakland, CA 94604; or phone (510) 531-5620. Give your name, city and the question in brief form. To subscribe to his quarterly newsletter, Investment Educator, send $20, made out to Personal Investment Education, to the above address. Also, visit our Web site, www.investment-educator.com.