Investing

Money 911: Early Retirement, IRS Debt & More on Today

Today’s panel looks at ways to reduce debt and plan for a lengthy retirement. What’s the best way to lower student loan payments? How do you handle a large debt to the IRS? What should you do if you are upside down on your mortgage? For answers to these questions and more watch the video clip below.

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Bankruptcy to Saving on Money 911

This morning, Today’s experts answered your tough financial questions. How do you keep a business bankruptcy from going personal? No employer 401K, what’s the best way to save? Should you refinance your home loan? For answers to these questions and more watch the video below.

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Tackling Life’s Challenges on Today’s Money 911

Today’s expert panel touches on what to keep in mind when co-signing for a student loan. Should you rent or buy a home after retirement? What is the best way to handle payments due for medical expenses? Plus, get some tips on green investing. To learn more, check out the video clip below.

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Ask Jean: Investing in Your Future

I have money to invest for my retirement but I have no clue where to place it to have it work for me. I recently learned that $3,000 can turn into $375,000 over 30 years, and I have exactly that amount to invest rather than having it sit in a savings account. What should I do with this money? – Mikio

Mikio,

These days, I think you’ll have trouble earning that much on an investment. You’d need to earn between 17% and 18% annually on your money, which is a little unrealistic. Investing is something done over time – you don’t want to just put $3,000 into an account and never look at it again. Instead, you should open More…

Ask Jean: What to Do With A Windfall

My father in law gave us 10,000 dollars as a gift. What should we put it in? Maybe a CD? I also want to start a college fund, but I don’t want to pay a penalty if my daughter doesn’t go to college, or wants to go to a trade school. – Mary, New Jersey

Mary,

That all depends what the money is for. Usually, when you have a large sum of money, you’ll want to choose to either save it or invest it – unless you have a large amount of debt to pay off at high interest rates – then, you might want to put it towards paying down some More…

Ask Jean Tuesday: Funding Your Future

“I am just getting started with working full time. My job offers a pension which is automatically taken out of my check. My job also offers a supplemental retirement plan. I currently have no savings. I am going to contribute to a supplemental retirement plan AND I would also like to start saving for a 6 months emergency fund, hopefully, with ING Direct. Should I contribute more to my retirement plan or a 6 months emergency account?”  – A. Santos

This is a perfect question because it shows that you are thinking in exactly the right way!  The answer is that your emergency savings comes before the supplemental retirement plan.  Figure out how much that emergency nut has to be (six months worth of living expenses — i.e. money you’d need to sustain you if you lost your job not the amount of money you choose to spend every month), More…

Safely Investing Your Savings

Today’s Mini Money Makeover candidate had what every financially secure person should have-a savings to fall back on in case of emergency. The problem? All of her money was going into that savings account. She was scared to invest. Her money wasn’t working to make her more money. Have the same problem? Watch the video below for some helpful tips.

A Year Later

It was nearly a year ago that we saw the collapse of one of the country’s largest investment banks and the dive into the deepest recession since the Depression. Today on Wall Street President Obama lit into investment bankers.

“Instead of learning the lessons of Lehman and the crisis from which we are still recovering, they are choosing to ignore them,” he said. And later, “Hear my words: We will not go back to the days of reckless behavior and unchecked excess at the heart of the crisis, where too many were motivated only by the appetite for quick kills and bloated bonuses.”

My question is: Will consumers and investors be guilty of the same? Individuals, unlike Wall Street, are looking saner than over the past few years.

We’ve learned, over the last year, to spend less and save more. According to a recent study by HSBC, over the past six months, 55 percent of survey participants have cut back on leisure activities, 46 percent have cut back on travel and 40 percent have cut back on electronics spending. We’ve learned that a night in with Netflix can be just as good as a night at the movie theatre. And thanks to public figures (namely Michelle Obama) we’ve learned that Talbot’s and J.Crew can be just as chic as couture. Going hand in hand with frugality is saving. Over the course of the past year, we’ve learned that saving for a rainy day is more important than ever. Today, the U.S. savings rate has climbed from 1.2 percent at the beginning of 2008 to an average of 5 percent during the second quarter of this year.

We’ve learned — once again — that you can’t time the markets. Individuals who pulled out after the fall were unfortunately many of the same that missed the recent 50 percent run. (Missing just the best 20 days over the past 20 years would cut the return of an investor who had plowed $10,000 into an S&P 500 index fund from $93,000 to $39,000.) That’s why I still believe that the best strategy is to More…

Ask Jean: No Golden Rule

This week’s question comes from Patricia in New Jersey:

I have money that I want to invest in gold. I want to keep the value of the money and am very afraid of the economic climate. Are gold coins, or gold stocks a good idea?

Many financial planners suggest that a portion of any well-diversified portfolio be compromised of gold or other commodities such as oil. “I wouldn’t allocate more than 5%, maybe 7% or 8% max,” suggests Cathy Pareto, President and Founder of Cathy Pareto and Associates.

When you purchase gold, you have several options. You can purchase it as an exchange traded fund, as mining stocks, as futures, or as bullion.

If you’ve never invested in gold before, Paul Mladjenovic, author of “Precious Metals Investing for Dummies,” suggests starting with bullion (high-quality gold or silver in bar or coin form) such as the American Eagle coins, which are issued by the United States Mint. He warns to steer clear of medallions or commemorative coins. “These are more expensive and have a dealer markup,” says Mladjenovic

Today, more and more investors are looking to gold instead of stocks to provide some financial stability. But before you start plotting where to stash the shiny stuff, you’ll need to consider both the positives and the negatives of investing in gold. More…

MSNBC/Carlos Watson

Off The Hook?

This weekend I was on MSNBC with Dylan Ratigan and Matt Taibbi (who recently wrote this piece for Rolling Stone magazine) discussing whether the government has let Wall Street off the hook too easily.  Watch the video below for my take: