how do you do that? with a touch of this button. can i try that? [ chuckles ] wow! good luck getting your remote back. it's all right -- i love this channel. shopping less and saving more. now, that's progressive. call or click today. it sticks to your teeth so well... you can even drink water with it on. crest whitestrips advanced seal. get a dramatically whiter smile... while you do just about anything. satisfaction guaranteed. introducing synvisc-one, a new way to treat osteoarthritis knee pain right at the source and help you get back to doing the things you love. synvisc-one is the only treatment that can give you up to six months of pain relief with just one injection. it's a natural substance similar to healthy joint fluid that lubricates and cushions your joint, and relieves pain without the serious side effects that

pain pills can have. for your free information kit, call the number on your screen. synvisc-one may not work for everyone. before beginning treatment, tell your doctor if you are allergic to products from birds - such as feathers, eggs or poultry - or if your leg is swollen or infected. the most common side effects are temporary pain, stiffness, swelling and fluid build-up around the knee. synvisc-one has not been tested in children, pregnant women or women who are nursing. to learn more, call this number, go online or ask your doctor about new synvisc-one.

tonight, protect your money. cash machine con artists. check this out. they could be peeping at your p.i.n. save money, hybrid versus diesel in a head to head matchup with your wallet. who wins? i've got the answer. plus, fiesta time, you won't want to miss our blast from the past. it's all "on the money." now, you know i'm here to help you make the most of your money. what could be better than saving

money on a saturday night. chipping away at debt, it takes two things, commitment and mass. you bring the commitment and i'll crunch the number for you. and together, we're going to get you out of debt. laura, you have a little over $22,000 in credit card debt and personal loan. >> caller: eight years ago when i met my husband, one of things we bonded over was our mutual love of travel and worked for an airline where we could fly for free but nothing else was free. so -- >> lodging, food, all that stuff. >> caller: while it was fun and we bonded. we racked up a bit of debt in the process. >> tell me about the personal loan though. >> caller: that was taken out about five years ago to help offset some costs of my husband's school tuition and to pay off some other credit card debt. >> and that one -- that rate on

that loan is a fixed rate of 13.99. >> caller: uh-huh. >> you have the credit card debt and that ranges, so you don't have anything right now over 14%, right. >> caller: yes. >> to help you, you know who we brought in, john. what do laura's numbers tell you -- we've got the personal loan and got the credit card debt. >> i think you used the magic word when you said fixed that was the magic word. looking at the difference between fixed debt and rerevolverirevofling debt, it may not be the same tomorrow versus today or yesterday. >> even her credit card agreement say fixed, put everything in double quotes here, they are not, john, right? >> no, laura, listen. your credit card agreement is not an agreement, a piece of paper with words on it that both of you signed. the fixed rate can change

tomorrow or change pretty much for any reason, any time any reason rate increases and can happen any time between now and february of 2010 when the card act becomes enforceable law. when that happens then the interest rates you're paying on the credit cards cannot go up and change adversely is the term unless you do something to deserve it. meaning you miss payments, 60 days past due -- >> between now and make a lot of big changes to your credit card. john, when you have personal, you have different kinds of debt, you have to pay attention to your terms. >> absolutely. the terms are what sets apart the two different types of debt she has here and it helps to make a very easy decision about which one she should throw the most money at. from the perspective of paying 15 to 14% on my credit cards, doesn't mean what i'll be paying

tomorrow. what you are paying on the personal loan is going to be what you're paying tomorrow. i would basically bank that rate and throw as much money as you can at the credit card debt because you don't know what the rates will be tomorrow. >> i'm with you, john. laura, the truth of the matter, between now and february of next year, i hate to see them jack up your rate or double it. laura, let's get you out of debt. with the current plan, you are paying every month, you have about 22,000 -- just your credit card debt here, okay. right now what you're paying, you told us paying about the minimums or soxt if you add $200, 150 or so. slap another 200 to the highest interest card and pay the minimums and everything else, you'll have it paid off in three years. >> fabulous. >> any time you guys have more

money coming in, put more towards the debt and it will go even quicker, then you can tackle the personal debt. that's your to-do list. tackle the credit card debt because it is variable rate. it's about terms with you. second, pay back that personal loan. thank you so much. what do you think? >> caller: thank you, it's great. we'll get on it immediately. >> let's head over to our next caller. sharon in michigan. you are taking real control of what was a spending problem. tell us about it. >> caller: yes, that's right. my husband and i are both fortunate in this economy to have full-time jobs with what i'm sure a lot of people would consider a pretty good salary. the problem is we had several years of spending beyond our means and bad decision-making and now we're at the point where we really want to own up to the debt, take control and get rid of it so we can get rid of the

guilt when we do want to buy something or spend the money that we are earning. can you help us with a plan to attack the credit card debt and get rid of it? >> absolutely. don't worry about the guilt. you'll feel happiness because you can actually afford everything you're buying. john, you took at look at sharon's credit. i applaud her for tackling this. what do you think. >> what i ended up finding, you are 76% utilized which meepz absolutely nothing to people who don't understand credit card debt, the relationship between balances and credit limits, your debt divided by your ago agree gat credit limits, 76%. not good. i ran some simulations on what the scores would be in the high 600s. the not great, no terrible. what's holding you from the 780 plus range, credit card debt. >> i have a plan here. pay your minimums on the debt.

the highest rate card, i want you to put -- and i use this amount, $200 because it is a tipping point as to where you start out running the credit card system and run not debt. if you continue in the plan you're at now, you have about 43,000 in total debt. it will take you seven years to pay it off. we can't have you doing that. $200 cut that in half, you'll pay half of the amount of amount, $5,000 in interest. what do you think? >> i think it's doable. >> you got to sign up to have the payments ought mated. make sure you don't use your cards any more. if you can commit to that, the math will work for you. sharon, you have another question because you're looking to fix more than your credit. you're looking at the overall financial picture? >> caller: we're looking at the five-year plan to perhaps move to a different house or something. we thought a financial planner would be a good resource for us

to help with our debt and to basic investment strategies and help us to save for a house, things like that. but i don't know how to go about finding a good financial planner or what questions to ask. how much they should charge, those kind of things? >> i love those questions, we have a great financial planner right here to help you out. kelly camp bell, author of fire your broker. all about hiring a financial planner. unlike a broker, a financial planner, you take care of your money life 360. for someone who has credit she's working on, a home, retirement, you look at everything together. how does sharon know where to go and who to get? >> well, first of all, those are great questions and sharon, you're starting at the exact right age. the earlier the better. you want to focus on the fact

you want to get the right person in the right place. you want to talk about, do they have designations. a certified financial planner, you can go to certified financial planner board and find a person that is licensed and guess what, you can see if they've got issues with their record, which is nice. >> that's a big one. sharon, you can look them up sec.gov. you want to make sure there's no conflict of interest in how they are getting paid. >> one of things to focus on, how are they getting paid, do they charge a fee or get commissions? commissions aren't necessarily a bad thing because you may not be at the level where you should be paying a fee. if you want to go in for a financial plan and what i should be doing but i don't necessarily want to give you the money or have you earn commissions off of that, that person should be charging a fee.

takes a different license, they'll give you a whole -- paperwork that will show that they can charge a fee. one other place to go, cfp.org go to finra.org. you can see if they have blemishes on their record. >> sharon, what do you think. >> caller: this is great. this is helpful for us. >> excellent. thank you so much. please keep us posted. we want to know who you end up with. thank you kelly campbell "fire your broker." kelly and john will join us later in the show. stay tuned. i want to help you with your debt and get you the credit score you deserve. we've got much, much more right after this. next -- thieves stealing card numbers caught in the act. >> i felt like he was robbed. not much else they can do. they can do whatever they want

when they get the p.i.n. number. >> are you a hybrid or diesel? we'll rundown the pros and cons of each. you don't want to miss this. >> a thrill an honor to be back on with the hot money momma, believe me. one of the first viewers we helped. tonight he's back. find out if he listened to our advice. undefeated professional boxer floyd "money" mayweather

has the fastest hands boxing has ever seen. so i've come to this ring to see who's faster... on the internet. i'll be using the 3g at&t laptopconnect card. he won't. so i can browse the web faster, email business plans faster. all on the go. i'm bill kurtis and i'm faster than floyd mayweather. (announcer) switch to the nation's fastest 3g network and get the at&t laptopconnect card for free.

e. call or click today.

do you need help getting out of credit card debt? call me at 877-753-cnbc. on tonight's money watch, the next time you hit up the atm, be wear, someone could be peeping at your p.i.n.

here's the fraud squad. >> came out with a stunned look on her face and said, there's no money in the account. >> she said there's insufficient funds. i tried a different account, same thing. tried a couple of things and i thought, i didn't know what was happening. >> cathy and ken thomas had been swindled and all they did was use their bank card to make a purchase. >> they were watching me key in the number. >> people lost $100,000 to five criminals who hit atm machines at convenience stores. that's canadian detective jeff cap lynn who shows us how easy it is to rip you off. >> this is a video of the atm itself. >> watch that guy in the red hat walking into that atm. he attached a device that fits over the top of the legitimate

card read every. it's battery powered and recorded debit card numbers being used. here comes his accomplice, has something else under his coat, a long light bar with a pin-hole camera that recorded people's p.i.n. numbers. >> they can get hundreds of different people's bank information each hour. >> now all a crook has to do is marry the card number to the p.i.n. number to get into people's accounts. this video helped convict these two. for cathy and ken it was a hassle getting their financial lives back together again. >> i fell like he was robbed, there's not much else you can do. they can do whatever they want when they get the p.i.n. number. >> author of "the truth about identity theft", jim, welcome. that was crazy video. we had you on last year and saw you skimming with your own fake

atm? >> yeah, we did something similar, bought our own atm machine and did the exact same thing, we record today and recorded the p.i.n. it's frightening how easy it is to pull off. >> you have really good tips when you go to the atms, whether on the street in the store, what can you do to hopefully make sure this is not a fake atm or someone is skimming off of you? >> when you walk up the machine, wherever you put the card in, go ahead and put your hand in and wiggle, if you can pull it off, that's a bad sign. give it a yank, it won't come off if it's legts mat. if you can put your hands on it, give it a push and start moving the machine, that's not a real atm machine. it would have been stolen by now. >> someone could take it on a truck and take along with your numbers. >> we had you on too posing as a waiter and skimming cards. how do we protect ourselves from

that? >> it's a lot harder. when the waiter comes up you give the credit card and they walk away. in europe they are using devices where the waiter comes up and scans your card at the table. that is fantastic, if you have a restaurant doing that, you know where your card is. beyond in a it's more difficult. best thing you can do is use your credit card because that will take the funds and if they are stolen, you can call up and say, you know, i'm disputing this, they go no problem. with the debit card those funds come directly out of your account and now you have to convince them to put the funds back into your account. >> spoken like a smart man. i totally agree with you, you have to use credit cards not debit. you say key here, you have to review your statements because that's where the clues may be. >> it's so important. so many people just get their statement and if it seems close to what they expected it to be, oh, it must be okay and pay it.

criminals are smart. they are realizing this, instead of charging $20,000 on your card, they might go out and charge $20, $50 a month, assuming you might not notice the small fees. and you need to go through and scrutinize line by line. anything you're not sure what it is, call europe credit card company and say, what is it. what company it was and dispute it if it's not something that was yours. >> it happened to me. i looked at my statement, $60 a month they were taking out. from stealing cash to saving cash. on your next car. the download on diesel versus hybrid. >> reporter: since toyota unveiled the prius, it has quickly become the top seller foregreen vehicles. while more companies have rolled

out their own electric or hydrogen models, clean diesel alternative vehicles arrived and are giving hybrid a run for their money. aweddy launched its suv and bmw and volkswagen have models, a dozen choices for consumers and 2010 will bring more models. but automakers face an uphill battle when it comes to past perception that diesel engines are noisy and the fuel burns smokey. >> this is not your grandfather or father's diesel engine, it is incredibly cleaner, fuel efficient. >> reporter: 30% more fuel efficient than gasoline and more miles per gallon and saves to the environment that may be too good for consumers to pass up. for "on the money" i'm michelle fran zen. >> phil, listen, everybody has

been about hybrid since day one. we hear a lot about t hybrids are good but diesel, this is not my momma's diesel which was stinky, smelly noisy. >> deesles got a bad reputation last in the united states. in europe, almost everything is diesel. some of these vehicles are getting incredible fuel efficiency. what we're seeing right now a new crop of diesels trying to reintroduce them through the u.s. market. >> you say mileage here, this is a big reason why the argument for a diesel is the mileage. >> well, some of them have extremely high mileage, probably not as high as the prius but the cruising range is phenomenal. >> you have the top three diesel picks from edmunds. let's explain. what is the cost per mile? explain a little bit how this is calculated. >> a lot of people don't thinch

of the long-range cost of earni earning car, you have maintenance and fuel costs too. with the diesel, of course. the price is volatile, going up and down all the time. right now it is about the same as gasoline. last summer it was more than high test. the cost per mile all of those things factored in over a five-year period. >> we have the jetta here. and you say the cost on this one is good. not a bad msrp either. >> a modestly priced car. a german car feel. will drive better than a lot of hybrids, they are floaty. >> not a fan of starting down and stopping. >> the regeneral tif breaking makes it jerky on and off the gas. the jetta say nice pick. i drove it from los angeles to colorado. >> what about the bmw, i love the searries. it is a performance car and

typically diesel has not been placed in performance cars. this is the introduction of the driving style for people. a lot of people if they jumped into the car wouldn't know it is a diesel. the low end torque, buy horse power but drive torque. >> you absolutely doxt this is called speeding up. mercedes benz, gl, if you have quite a bit more money to spend. this is a type of car -- a car like this, you can drive this into the ground, another point about diesel, they last. >> typically the engines are a lot more manufactured, you know they will last sometimes phenomenal times, 200, $300,000 miles, this is a car that will last forever. the build quality is sensational, plus you'll get fairly good fuel economy. diesel is reform lated so there's less sulphur in it.

>> it is a clean diesel as they call it and europe has been doing this for a long, long time, hence we got a jetta and bmw. >> do you think american car manufacturers are doing this. >> they are going much more towards hybrid. it seems to be the wave of the future because it's halfway to full electric, which is probably the next step. we will see the influx of some other diesel engines particularly from honda they developed a diesel engine they are bringing over now. we'll be right back. next -- >> got $20,000 and wondering where to put it. >> bob this is really interesting. >> one of our dollar dilemmas. and later, it may be tempting, but i'll explain why you should think twice about paying your mortgage off early. so, what's the problem?

these are hot. we're shipping 'em everywhere. but we can't predict our shipping costs. dallas. detroit. different rates. well with us, it's the same flat rate. same flat rate. boston. boise? same flat rate. alabama. alaska? with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. dude's good. dude's real good. dudes. priority mail flat rate boxes only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. - oh, come on. - enough! you get half. and you get half. ( chirp ) team three, boathouse? ( chirp ) oh yeah. his and hers. - ( crowd gasps ) - ( chirp ) van gogh?

( chirp ) even steven. - ( chirp ) mansion? - ( chirp ) good to go. ( grunts ) timber! ( chirp ) boss? what do we do with the shih-tzu? - ( chirp ) joint custody. - dog: phew... announcer: get work done now. communicate in less than a second with nextel direct connect. only on the now network. deaf, hard, hearing and peopith speech disabilitiesit . yeah, so? it stinks in here! have you smelled this chair? or these curtains? you've gotta wash this whole room! are you kidding? wash it?! let's wash it with febreze! whoa! [ sniffs ] hey mrs. weber. [ sniffs ] hey, it smells nice in here. you know, i like to keep things fresh. helps me concentrate. [ male announcer ] for all the things that you can't wash, wash it with febreze. with cialis for daily use... a clinically proven, low-dose tablet for erectile dysfunction you take every day

so you can be ready anytime the moment is right. tell your doctor about your medical condition and all medications and ask if you're healthy enough for sexual activity. don't take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. don't drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long term injury seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than 4 hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision stop taking cialis and call your doctor right away. (announcer) 36-hour cialis. or cialis for daily use. ask your doctor about cialis today, so when the moment is right, you can be ready.

are you wondering it now is the time to buy or sell your home? call me at 877-753-cnbc. you have money questions for me that don't need the ten-minute answer. it is dollar dilemma time. what's your dollar d joy? >> i'm in the market to purchase my first home. i was wondering if you think it was worth taking money out of my 401(k) to put towards a down payment of the home. >> key here you said first home and 401(k). if this had been not your first home, don't borrow from a 40 1 k to put money down on a home, but you can take out -- i did this, $10,000 is the limit and it has to go towards the cost of buying that first home. be really careful about the paperwork. why are you looking to buy?

are you ready to buy? is the market thing. >> caller: it's definitely a market thing, the rates have never been this low and housing market is coming down. i think it's a great opportunity. >> it is, joy. however, here's the thing you have to pay attention to your money. the housing market, we're seeing signs of recovery, you and folks are saying, new homes sales are going up and existing home sales are going up, does this mean prices are going to go up, they have gone up a smith. you feel this pressure to do this, joy, but it has to be worth while to you. do you have a.m. many emergency funds set aside that's separate from what you'll put on the down payment? >> caller: i do, yes. >> you don't have any loads of credit card debt or other debt. >> caller: no debt. i feel i'm very comfortable it's time to do it. >> congratulations it sounds like you can.

make sure -- don't buy too much home, make sure your mortgage and property taxes and home insurance do not exceed 35% of your take-home. crunch those numbers, don't buy too much house, joy. good luck. $10,000 limit, go to irs.gov. meg, what's your dollar d? >> caller: my husband and i together contribute 30 to $40,000 a year toward retirement. we want to know if we should do it all in the pretax 403 b's and 401(k) for the tax benefit now or should we use the $12,000 allowed to contribute to a roth to get the tax-free benefit later? >> you probably should do a bit of both here's why. listen, the benefits are this. with the pre-tax, you know, this is like investing with the full amount of money you earn, right. with the roth it is post tax. the roth is not deductible. what you're putting in your

pre-tax, this is going to grow xped den shally as opposed to the post-tax 70 bucks. more depends on what investment choices you have in each. all of the research so far has shown, when the two are in a race and they race together in terms of growth, at the end. even though the roth you're not going to get taxed at all, there's tons of advantage at the beginning with the pre-tax and tons of advantage at the end because you don't pay taxes. at the end they are neck and neck. what do you have to invest in the 403 b, do you like what the options are? if there's not enough options there, put more money towards the roth. but split it. >> okay. >> thank you so much. >> bob in new york sent us an e-mail. i have $20,000 i want to invest. where should i put my money? i want to put it into a vehicle that can grow without having to adjust the allocation.

bob, this is really interesting because usually when i get a where should i put my money, that little caveat is not in there. that means you basically want to get something, put your money there and sit on it for good. that means, though, that you can't hedge your risk. it sounds like you'll earn a smaller percentage rate on it because you're not going to touch it. so that means a couple bond funds, that's where you should put it, why not municipal bonds, then they can sit there and grow. you won't get a great earning as if you put it not market, especially into an ira and adjust it over time. got a dollar d you can't crack? join our fan page on facebook. next -- a former flight attendant driven to bankruptcy after an accident. >> i was doing everything i could to hold on to my home.

but i finally hit the brick wall and the healthwise it almost killed me. >> we'll show you how to prepare for a worst case scenario. >> one of the first viewers we helped. no retirement, no savings -- >> how much have you managed to put away? >> tonight he's back with an update. when it comes to getting rid of your debt, it's all about efficiency. go at your credit card debt with a system. first, stop charging. next, concentrate on wiping out the debt with the highest interest rate first. once you knocked out the first card, tackle the next and the next and the next. remember, when you're done, put the former debt dollars into savings.

even if you have insurance, a medical emergency can quickly become a money emergency. here's nbc's chris jan sing. >> reporter: dawn will be the first to tell you she led a charmed life, a flight attendant nen as a rural postal carrier. a serious car accident left her unable to work.

>> i was doing everything i could to hold on to my home. i finally hit the brick wall and healthwise it almost killed me. >> reporter: after a lifetime of working a working saving she was broke. a journal showed out-of-pocket expenses for major illness or accidents even with insurance can ruin finances. for diabetes, injuries, stroke and heart disease, average cost top $20 nourks. $20,000. >> experts call it medical bankruptcy that usually starts when someone gets sick or is injured. it sets off a devastating domino effect. can't work and lose their jobs and eventually lose their experience. >> reporter: never assume the worst can't happen to you. for "on the money" i'm chris jansing. >> donna joins us on the money line right now. donna, you have been through so much. tell us how you're doing right

now. >> caller: today i'm blessed. life is simple and it wasn't easy but i look around my apartment and i have this roof other my head. this is my castle and i'm happy today. >> now, you have income disability income, right? what kind of income do you have now and can you expect in the future? >> caller: well, i'm considered disabled, i'm not allowed to work. i live on gross wise 1575 before insurance and dental and vision come out of it of the then i pay rent, it has gone up. it has not been easy, but, if you put one foot in front of the other, which i've done and i've pray a lot. god has been part of my recovery here. people can do it if they don't give up the hope. i know there's millions behind

me with the economy going through the same thing. and -- >> donna, here's the thing, you have been blessed with such a great attitude towards this because you are happy with enough because you know what it's like to have nothing. and at the time you lived a very full life, world traveler with different homes and donna, what you've been through is something all of us need to prepare for to help learn some lessons from what you've been through, we have john and kelly campbell. john, donna had to declare bankruptcy. she was insured. >> it is important to point out. there's a couple of things i'd like to tie a bow on and ask her a couple of questions. what chapter bankruptcy did you file, 7 or 13. >> caller: chapter 7. >> medical debt is dischargeable in a bankruptcy. this $40,000 did you incur this debt before you filed bankruptcy

or after. >> caller: i incurred this debt over the time of the accident. they pay everything while you're going to the specialist and whatever you have to go plus you're getting an income from them. and what they've done is they are saying that because i am now in a lawsuit against the woman that hit me, which has been going on for quite some time. >> my second question is who's liable for this accident. that is the lesson to take away. bankruptcy isn't a -- the scarlet letter. dead beats don't file bankruptcy predominantly, generally filed by people with medical disasters. >> more than two-thirds of people that file for bankruptcy had insurance coverage. and john, you've been on the show with me many times before. earlier last year we had folks on that we had to tell them stop working so hard to pay off the debt. you can declare bankruptcy, this is medical debt. >> that's why the bankruptcy

laws were recreated to help people like donna. it boggles they can't get something simple like this. if you file on this date and the debt was incurred before this date it is dischargeable. it's that simple. >> kelly, looking ahead and this has been so much in the news with health care and disability falls under this. what can we do to plan? it could happen to any of us, what can we do in our overall plan to make sure we don't have to go through this. >> donna, we're going to learn from you. everybody should be listening to this message, you need to be insured. you have to think about. donna had disability coverage, a government policy. she automatically had that. a lot of people may have to pay for disability coverage but it's worth while getting. think about life insurance, god forbid you die and your family is left in the cold.

you need to keep the protections there. you want to be prepared. think about any of these things that could happen. anything can happen. donna was insured got in an accident while working and it still came back to bite her like there was no tomorrow. you have to think about what was the worst case scenario, make should have sure you have plans enare ready for t donna was kre vee ative, she learned to live more simply, lived on a lot less money and you need to think that way. i commend you for that. donna has been doing public speaking about this. one good idea, take the public speaking and see if you can make income out of it. >> donna, you are very, very motivating with your story. donna, what do you say to folks out there in terms of lessons they can learn from what you've been through? >> caller: first of all, no one is immune to this. and like i was listening to you,

be prepared, the best that you can. but if you can start living simpler before something happens to you, bring it down a notch. you know, people forget they have families and sit down to dinner and enjoy each other. i was off and racing and thinking i needed to keep up with the joneses i don't care any more, it's what makes me happy. i find things creative to do that doesn't cost money. because, money tends to rule our lives and we allow it to happen. and there's so much in life to enjoy without that. and it was a big lesson for me to learn. >> donna, thank so much for sharing your story. we can all learn from it. it's not just about money. thank you so much for inspiring us. >> best of luck to you. please keep us post. thank you kelly campbell, and john, you'll get more in

tonight's web extra we're giving you the truth about free credit scores. and if you've got a money emergency, i want to help you, call or e-mail me at carmen@cnbc.com and you can be on the show. at 155 miles per hour, andy roddick has the fastest serve in the history of professional tennis. so i've come to this court to challenge his speed. ...on the internet. i'll be using the 3g at&t laptopconnect card. he won't so i can book travel plans faster, check my account balances faster. all on the go. i'm bill kurtis and i'm faster than andy roddick. (announcer) "switch to the nations fastest 3g network" "and get the at&t laptopconnect card for free".

hi, may i help you? yes, i hear progressive has lots of discounts on car insurance. can i get in on that? are you a safe driver? yes. discount! do you own a home? yes. discount! are you going to buy online? yes! discount! isn't getting discounts great? yes! there's no discount for agreeing with me. yeah, i got carried away. happens to me all the time. helping you save money -- now, that's progressive. call or click today. try clearblue easy digital.

no pregnancy test is more accurate. it's the first test with totally clear results in words. clearblue easy digital: results 5 days sooner. no test is more accurate. [ female announcer ] wishing for a baby? maximize your chances with clearblue fertility monitor. your wish can come true.

money is on our minds now more than ever. keeping it, saving it and spending it and growing it. for most of us, that's the challenge. that was what i said when i began this show one year ago. what a year it has been. we feel like already we live in this post recession world. but that's the upside to the downturn right, you know more about your money than you probably have ever known before. that's a great thing. i hope i've helped a little bit. even if we had to learn the hard way with the recession, onward and upward. for another blast from the past, we're checking in as one of first viewers on otm. steve in new york was looking for help saving for retirement. >> i'm 50 years old, i have no retirement at work and i just started saving at my retirement.

>> do you have any tax friendly retirement plans, i.r.a.s? >> yes, i want to you max those out. >> steve joins us right now. steve welcome back my friend. how are you? >> it's a thrill and honor to be back on with the hot money momma. >> stop it. that's right, steve. you have saved a chunk of cash since you came on the show. >> that's right. before i say that, myself and my wife cathy would like to congratulate you and cnbc on your first year anniversary. congratulations. >> thanks. thank you, steve. let's talk about you. let's talk about you. because i hear, when we last met you, i did this great pie chart and showed how much you were spending and i said you have to chop away and put the money into retirement. how much have you managed to put

away? >> the last year myself and my wife we've been motivated like crazy. we were able to get over 30 grand away in our savings. and one of things that was very important, i know you pushed was the emergency fund. we have almost have that fully funded for one-year expenses and we've been socking the money away 90 miles an hour in our retirement as much as we can. one of things i learned from watching your show over the past year, when saving for retirement, not to get emotional, but to be disciplined. and one of things we have as main street people is we have dollar cost averaging over the long-term. and that's where the discipline comes in. believe me, carmen, over the past year the stock market has been a little crazy. and there's a couple times myself and my wife were nervous about putting it a way. we stuck to our guns. >> i'm glad you did. even though the last time we talked a year ago, things were

pricier then very, very cheap. now we've seen huge gains. steve, those things averaged over time, dollar cost averaging and discipline, all going to work for you. you have one more follow-up question for me. >> i'm 52 years old and we had to take more risk than most people to catch up. so the way i got moo remy retirement broking down, i have a roth ira and i have my traditional ira going with a large cap stock and income fund. but the question i have for you, being 52 years old, what age duty should start allocating more of my money to a bond fund. >> when you said you have each, one type of fund in each, small cap in the roth -- here's what you need to do, diversify not only between funds but within each of those funds. i don't want you to have more than 20% of your money in any one thing, any one fund.

if you want 30% in a big overall index fund, i understand, but steve you absolutely should have exposure to bonds in each of knows iras to some extent. even 20%, maybe sure again, it's not one bond fund you're not allocating necessarily the whole 20% to. remember the pie chart i gave you, pie chart each of those iras and diversify within them. you don't want to have too too much in the market, thanks for joining us. best of luck. i want to see you again soon. paying off your mortgage early, good idea? not so fast. i'll tell you why when we get back. ♪ ♪

(tucci) only at&t has the best selection of full keyboard phones. like the lg neon, just $29.99 after mail-in rebate.

this e-mail caught my attention, why is paying off a mortgage so bad? i heard this quite a few times with interest rates is an all-time low, i seem to get a better deal than on a saving account. with no other debt besides a car lease, what's so bad about putting extra money to the mortgage? let me tell you. your mortgage rate, do you know

what, only part of a tri fekt at a, if not an octogone. and the housing market. your mortgage is a debt that has risk attached to it. we had a guest on the show who put $400,000 cash down on an $800,000 home. only to see his home value decreased to only $400,000. so all his money was gone. the housing market is a risk. so you have to hedge that risk. listen, study after study has shown. money put into the stock market, long-term outperforms extra money put into a home every single time. now, if you already put a third of your money with your housing payment and mortgage payment and property tax, you're putting all of this money into the housing market, which is a market, why would you put more money into the same market? diversify. save money, invest money,

someplace else. thank you so much. you got a question for me, why not post it on facebook? head to otm.cnbc.com. next on suze, how to talk to your kids about this economy. that's coming right up. do you want to pay less for your loan? we have to get the best credit score you can get. call or e-mail me at carmen@cnbc.com. speaking of scores, john is back on tonight's web extra with a truth about free credit scores and you don't want to miss it. if you missed a show or want to catch a segment again. you can download full episodes at itunes, i want to see you next time "on the money."