By Laura Hand
Monday, November 03, 2008 at 7:16 p.m.
Read more: Economy
WSTM's panel of financial experts --on the phone Monday evening--fielded dozens of thoughtful questions about money planning and managing
Among the common viewer themes:
Is it time to invest in the stock market? Among the answers: not for a short term, money making turn-around. With 5 years or more, it's probably a good bet. Also, only if you also have 3 - 6 months quickly available cash to handle emergencies or large expenses.
Safety of investments is an ongoing theme, as well. Annuities are a possibility, looking at overall goals. If you need cash, annuity surrender charges could wipe out any growth profits.
Contributing to IRAs and 401Ks were also viewer concerns. Yes, contributions should continue even though values are down:
Actually with values down, the investment buys more.
And, our experts also fielded questions on credit card debt--there are several strategies to pay that debt down, including consolidation, talking with the company to bring down interest rates, and setting up plans and systems to systematically pay the cards off.
