it reduces stress and improves the immune system. agreed. good chuckles, good medicine. i'm fredricka whitfield. thanks for joining us. i'll see you back here 4:00 eastern time when we'll have a close-up look at prince harry who is paying a special visit to the u.s. this week. right now time for "your money." a recovery? yes. is it enough for the millions of americans still reeling from the recession? i'm christine romance, welcome to "your money." 165,000 jobs added in april. 173,000 jobs a month on average over the last year. that's enough to bring the unemployment rate down to 7.5% in april. that's the lowest it's been since december 2008. most months we see the unemployment rate fall because people are falling out of the labor force. that's not the case in april for the first time in a long time. the unemployment rate fell because people went back to work. >> monthly revisions reveal more than 150,000 more jobs were added in the beginning of the

year since we thought. the unemployment rate was 4.5% before this recession. we still have a lot of work to do. one big problem, many of the jobs coming back are low-wage jobs. largest gains in april were service jobs, retail trade, health care, leisure and hospitality. every job in america is important, but some of these jobs aren't the kinds of jobs you can send your kids to college on. the quality of the jobs we lost higher than the quality of jobs coming back. the real unemployment rate is 13.9%. that real unemployment rate, that represents the total unemployed but part-time workers that want to be working full time but can't find a full time position. the labor force participation rate, the lowest since 1979. mohammed al-arian is ceo of pimco. austin goldspeed, currently an economics professor at the

university of chicago booth school. i know you expressed concern about the forced budget cuts, how they could hold back job creation. does friday's job report give you any sense of optimism about whether we can sustain jobs growth into the summer? >> only a little. you never want to make too much of any one month but it was a solid month. my fear that is over the summer it's not a real magic secret here. if the growth rate of the economy is going to be only a little above 2%, the unemployment rate is not going to come down very fast. we are just not going to generate this type of job growth or faster than this on a sustained basis and that's what we need to do. >> are we stuck here with a jobless rate that ticking down sometimes but not falling? >> so we've taken a big step towards a better outcome. i'm encouraged by friday's jobs report.

we created jobs, unemployment is coming down for the right reasons. this is an important step. it's not the whole thing. we still have the head winds coming from washington. we still have slow growth, but it tells me that the underlying economy continues to heal and that's good news. i wish it were healing quicker, but it's definitely healing. >> i see a lot of retail jobs here, leisure and hospitality. i think it's great consumers feel confident enough to go to the mall or the strip mall. note many of those jobs will pay enough and put a kid through college. what is the quality of jobs? >> when you start coming back, you'll have a mix of the skilled distribution will be mixed. the unemployment rate for

college graduates is quite low, 3.9%, i think, in this last report. if there was going to be improvement in parts of the job market, you would want it to be in places that have been hardest hit and have the high unemployment rates now. that said, overall earnings did not improved very much over the last three months. we do hope to get improvement on that as well as creating more jobs. i do think it's fair to keep an eye on that. >> i look at professional business services, a category in the labor market report, 73,000 jobs created there. when you talk about computer systems, engineering, you talk about software engineering, anything even software sales and some of the high tech kinds of jobs, there are talent wars going on in some parts of the economy then there's also desperation going on among people out of work six months or longer. we are not seeing improvement

for those long-termed unemployed very much. >> it came down to 4.3 million, but we have a long way to go. if you look at college graduate, their unemployment rate is below 4%. those who left school, their unemployment is above 11%. we've got an inequality element that speaks to structural issues we have to work on, better education, better labor retooling, better training. these are going to be key to sustain employment growth and bring unemployment down to a more acceptable level. >> you keep talking about unemployment rates for college graduates. a recent college graduate isn't counted until they get into the labor market. it's commencement season. we have these kids coming out of college saying 3.9% unemployment rate, but it is going to be tough at the beginning for them to get that first foot in the door.

there are some degree categories where kids are having double-digit unemolympian. >> i think that is a fair statement. it doesn't take an advanced degree to figure out that people that have more skills and more education are doing better and surviving better in this comeback than are people who do not. that screams out of the data. it's commencement season. i think in some fields as you identify there, there is tremendous pent-up demand. in majors not oriented around the sectors that are growing, there will be a little bit of time likely before they get jobs. >> both stick with me. i want to talk about the broader economy. coming up, the fed says it's going to keep pumping billions into the economy every month until unemployment hits 6.5%. we are now one percentage point away. could the ending of the fed stimulus cause economic disaster

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real unemployment held at 13.9% in april. what does that number represent? the total unemployed plus part-time workers who want to be full time, and people not in the labor force but desperately want a job. only six states had a real unemployment rate of less than 10% through the first quarter of the year. the 165,000 jobs added in april

is nowhere near the 250,000 we need every month for a genuine recovery. president obama's campaign promise of creating 12 million jobs in four years, our economy simply isn't growing fast enough. there are bright spots. home values are up. earlier this week the case shiller index showed home prices jumped 19.3% from a year ago. the stock market is pushing higher. records friday. 15,000 on the dow. mixed signals? you better believe it. as for the stock market, thank the federal reserve for that. it's $85 billion a month makes stocks the only game in town. that gives some investors cause for concern. mohamed el-erian says the fed strategy has only a 50/50 chance to lead to growth. how do you get to 50/50 odds?

>> we look at it and it's a gut feeling. we ask the question, is the fed using the right tools to achieve its objective? the answer is no. it doesn't have perfect tools. it's using very imperfect tools. as a result of that, the benefits that come with what it's doing is associated with cost and risks. at some point the cost and risks are going to become material. think of the fed as impacting the destination to good outcome, but it is not in control of the destination. for that it's going to need help from washington and is going to need help from the rest of the world. >> austin goldsbee, washington is something the federal reserve chief announced this week the fed chief, they plan to keep bumping money into the market, 85 billion a month. ben bernanke blaming slow growth on washington. what is really holding things back here? >> the main thing holding things back is we are recovering from a

savage financial crisis-based recession. so the normal mechanisms of v-shaped recovery largely do not apply. now, on top of that slow recovery, we are adding significant drag coming from increase in the payroll tax, coming from the sequester, and that's what bernanke was referring to. i've got to tell you, i disagree with your premise the only reason the stock market is up is because of the fed action. i think that's confused. on the real side of the economy, corporate profits are the highest they've ever been as a share of gdp. if corporate profits are high, you are going to see a strong stock market because that's what the valuations are supposed to be based on. >> very good point. they've got a lot of money in the bank. they are able to get those corporate profits at record highs without commesurate hiring. that has been good for their bottom line, hasn't it? >> yes. >> does that go on in

perpetuity? we look at companies that do well but an economy that doesn't. where does that leave the middle class? >> that is a big question. first on the stock market. undoubtedly, corporate profits and cash buybacks and dividends helped the stock market. the stock market has come up all the way up here. part of it is justified by what we just talked about it. another part is the fed aggressively pushing people to take more risk. we see it every single day. we see people being pushed into the equity market by interest rates artificially low. it's a combination of real factors and artificial factors. first investors are excited they are making money, but are really anxious. they understand that this has an element of artificiality. you get this disconnect how financial markets are doing and how poorly the real economy is

doing. the key issue is to reconcile these things by having the fundamentals melt up to where the financial markets are. >> what happens when the fed stops all the -- takes the training wheels off the economy, if you will? >> depends why. if it takes the training wheel off the economy because the economy has gotten to escape velocity, there will be minor disruptions in the markets. overall, not going to be a big issue. if it takes the training wheel off because the training wheels aren't working any more because the fed has become increasingly ineffective, then we have a problem. >> i have to go back to austin goldsbee. 15,000 on the dow jones industrial average. jobs report, 165,000 jobs created. the white house has to be careful here. they don't want to sound too confident on the economy in case things go south, but there still are a lot of people out of work.

if you were advising the president, how would you have this white house try to be encouraging but not cheerleading? but acknowledge there has been progress since this president took office? >> i think that is exactly right both points. i would add, remember, we add 160,000 plus jobs. that is a very noisy measure. you never want to get worked up positive or negative. last month was surprisingly bad. this month surprisingly good. that's going to be part of the trend. the main thing is what's the growth rate of the economy. >> i just wish we could have every month like february but i know we can't. very nice to see both of you this weekend. have a nice weekend. >> thank you. up next, out of the shadows, but not exactly into the light. a growing number of americans are working off the books. not at the jobs you think.

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the 165,000 jobs added in payroll don't count is the growing number of americans working in the so-called shadow economy, nannies, construction workers, retail clerks and unskilled labor work for cash under the table and don't report their income to uncle sam. today's shadow economy has become much more than those professions. zain asher joins us with more on this. >> these are people with college degrees we are talking about. computer programmers, graphic artists, even tax accountants, which is ironic because they don't always pay taxes on their income. the bottom line is they're still working, still making a living, they are just doing it off the books. who are the people working in america's shadow economy? it's probably not who you think. >> the shadow economy isn't necessarily comprised of people making $5 here, $10 here for

goods and service. it's people who are designers, computer programmers, people preparing taxes, accountants, making tens of thousands of dollars, but who prefer to do it off the books. >> this is a professor of sociology and columbia university. he devoted his entire career to studying the criminal side of the u.s. economy, but a growing number of americans working in the shadows are not typically what come to mind when you think of a criminal. >> they may have skills and what they are doing with those skills is not applying for a job in a formal sense but offering their services to people who might pay for cash or give them another kind of payment and they won't report that money to the government. that's where it become as shadow economy is they don't report the wages. >> today's labor market has changed. in a bid to cut costs and stay profitable, companies increasingly rely on skilled freelance labor. p even in the legitimate economy. >> we see this is this huge

rising trend. it's 42 million americans, 1/3 of the work force. big companies like ibm are predicting that this is going to be half the work force in just the next 10 to 15 years. >> sarah horwitz founded the freelancers union which counts more than 200,000 members across the u.s. all of whom report their income to the government and pay taxes and social security, but she says the pressure to work off the books is there because freelancers often pay higher taxes than everyone else. >> they pay two portions of social security tax, pay the unincorporated business tax in many cities. they are just really taxed so severely that they are the ones who are really providing the economy development and growth in all the growth industries in america. they are overly taxed, not undertaxed. >> economists estimate roughly $2 trillion worth of income go reported each year and that lost revenue affects legitimate economy. it's harder for businesses to

play by the rules if their competitors aren't paying payroll taxes or compensation to employees in the event of injury. workers in the shadows have no benefits or social security, and no legal recourse if their boss decides to stiff them. >> what we need to do is say, okay, it's illegal, absolutely, but a lot of people have the ingenuity, creativity, the power to innovate. if that's where they are going, we want to help them eventually come back into the mainstream. >> something experts say will be difficult to do. we are talking about an extra $500 billion worth of lost tax revenue. that is a huge amount of money. it's the gdp of sweden. when you think about what this country is going through fiscally, the sequester, $85 billion worth of forced spending cuts, that $500 billion could go a big way. >> it would give them the legal protections they need that they

don't have now. and benefits, talking about the shadow economy, immigration reform, bringing people into the light and into the government coffers. justin bieber is giving his backing to a prepaid debit card. does it make financial sense to sign up? see life in the best light.

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children kicked out of head start, fewer meals for low-income seniors. the most vulnerable in america are crying out over washington's forced budget cuts. is anyone listening? the pain of forced budget cuts known as the sequester is taking hold for some americans. call it a case of selected sequester. head start programs are cutting

slots for low-income children in the fall. national head start association gave us a few examples. in kentucky, one large provider says 164 slots are gone. in california 382 spots slashed. in colorado, cutting 138 spaces. ultimately, 70,000 children could lose out. low-income seniors are losing meals on wheels. the southern maine agency tells us they've gone from providing up to 850 meals a weekend to 250. if you get federal unemployment benefits in california, this week your check got smaller. about $79 lesson average. 19 other states and the district of columbia are sending out smaller checks. these cuts trickling down to america's most vulnerable. same time, there's only one part of the sequester congress stepped in to fix, massive flight delays. last week they voted to give the faa more flexibility. a cynic would wonder if members of congress only cared about

fixing flight delays because they would feel those. jon stewart joked about it on "the daily show." >> they don't care about meals on wheels unless it's only rolling down an aisle. >> maybe because they fly home each weekend, the members of congress who insisted on these cuts finally realized they actually apply to them, too. >> we are two months into this u.s. experiment with austerity. it comes as debate rages in europe over whether budget cuts deepened the continents suffering. eurozone unemployment hit a record, above 12%. the u.s. has fallen to 7.5%. the lowest since december 2008. are we putting the u.s. recovery at risk if the sequester stays in place or can the u.s. economy absorb all this? diane swonk is chief economist for mesirow financial. the jobs report friday, 165,000

jobs created. unemployment rate 7.5%. did you see evidence of the sequester in that jobs report? >> very little evidence. the part we started to see was federal jobs did outpace the loss in state and local jobs. that is completely a reverse of what we saw last year. you're seeing the federal government become the head wind as state and lower government cuts abate. good news for state and local side. bad news losing federal jobs. the sequester cascades over time. the sky is falling is not how it works. we'll see these effects multiply as we move into the next couple of months. would be nice not to have them there at all. >> we are starting to see one after here, head start, meals on wheels, flight delays. liberals say that budget cuts and this new-found budget religion is just a way for conservatives to gut the programs they always hated. >> republicans and conservatives have always had this starve the beast theory of politics.

i do think the debate we are having now is about what's the best way to achieve deficit and debt reduction. realizing the x-factor is economic growth. the folks who are on a pure austerity path, first of all, as of the flight delays, cuts have consequences. when it affects them personally, they don't like them so much. there is an attitude it's cut for thee but not for me. especially if though don't have the advanced lobbying firms. we know by what's going on in europe, england in particular, the austerity pack hasn't worked. data has come in. looking for a balanced plan is more advantageous. if we can find a grand bargain that preserved economic growth dealing with the long-term cost curve is an ultimate win. >> we've seen record high euro zone unemployment. is that a sign or symptom of austerity? >> no question about it.

it would be ideal and frankly the federal reserve would love to have complimentary instead of competitive monetary policy. in europe you've seen it to an extreme. they can't stimulate their economies easily with their central bank. it's not centralized and they can't, they are not dealing with it on a fiscal basis. it's making the situation worse. you have depressions in parts of europe instead of just the slow uneven recovery that we had to experience. we are much better off. that said, we could be much better off. we could be to escape velocity where the unemployment rate is plummeting instead of edging down each month or see participate coming back because people have hope. we would be seeing that, i believe if we didn't lose a 1.75%. that's how much we lose if they keep the sequester going until september. they are not willing to

compromise enough on that. you saw some movements in this direction. there is back tracking again. i have hope they'll figure it out and both sides will talk to each other. it's i got to come from both sides. let's back load the pain to when the economy can absorb it better rather than front loading it and prolonging the pain for those people being hurt the most. >> is the austerity argument over in europe? is washington looking at europe saying, wait a minute we can't slam on the brakes here? >> they should be. the problem is you've got, the way politic is divided right now, everybody is sealed in this ideological echo chamber. looking, it's sitting right there, we have a clear comparison but they are reluctant to do the obvious math. >> we are bullish on frustration. john avalon, diane swonk, thanks so much. how can you build your personal wealth? housing and stock market is on a

tear. 15,000 for the bough. job growth is lagging behind. what you need to know about the three legs of your personal prosperity. would not do for your family? punch it. ♪ [ male announcer ] back here on earth, your family is your crew. you would do everything in your power to protect them. that's why there's lifelock. and introducing lifelock junior. call 1-800-lifelock or visit lifelock.com/trek today and see star trek: into darkness, in theatres may 17th. rated pg-13. i work for 47 different companies. well, technically i work for one. that company, the united states postal service® works for thousands of home businesses. because at usps.com® you can pay, print and have your packages picked up for free. i can even drop off free boxes. i wear a lot of hats. well, technically i wear one.

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there are three things that can grow you money, your job, your house and your investments. if you are invested in the market you're doing well. s&p hit a record high this week and the dow topped 15,000. in addition to those better than expected jobs gains, first-time claims for unemployment benefits hit a five-year low. there are worrying signs. the unemployment rate fell to 7.5% in april.

that's high compared to historical levels. before the recession hit, unemployment rate was 4.5%. the economy isn't growing as fast as economists expected it to. you're also taking home less money. recent data from the commerce department shows personal income fell by 3.6% in january. that it's biggest drop in 20 years. matt is the president of penn financial group. jonathan is president and ceo of miller samuel, real estate appraiser. low mortgage rates, drops in foreclosure. s&p shiller index shows prices jumped 9.3% over the last 12 months. that is the biggest annual gain since may 2006. you say we are looking at the report thing and not in a recovery there. >> what is driving what i call happy housing news, last six to

nine months you've seen better news across the board in housing because inventory is tight. it's actually at 50-year lows, inventory is down 25%. when you constrain or choke off supplies, prices rise. incomes are stagnant, unemployment is high and credit remains as tight as it was since lehman collapsed. >> inventory is so tight because maybe the spread between what they paid for their house and what it's still worth is too big. >> that's certainly part of it. >> not ready to sell yet. >> people with negative equity is a big part. the other part is people with low equity. people forget when you have a home and you want to sell, you become a buyer or a renter. rents are at very high levels. you want to buy, you have to qualify. maybe 10% down five years ago or ten years ago was fine. you sell it for break even get your 10% back, but you need 20%.

if you're going to trade up, you're short. a lot of people are not under duress. they just can't sell and are going to wait. >> i want to talk about stocks though. this is 15,000 on the dow this week. five years of a bull market, s&p up 140% since march of 2009. do you think we still have room to grow here? >> i do. everybody out there thinks they're too late to the game. typically the fifth year of a bull market, the average gain is 20%. we are om up about 3% since that fifth year began. there is a lot of upside even though we are sitting at all-time highs. you look at valuations versus 2007. much more attractive at this point. a lot of individual investors are still on the sidelines. they've been waiting to get in. what are you waiting for? we are hitting all-time highs. >> they've already seen a bull market more than four years old. >> they are afraid at the bottom, afraid at the top. get in now if you want to own stocks. >> what stocks do you own? you don't have to give me

specifics. you buy the s&p 500 in a spdr? >> yes. buying the spdr is a great way to go. i love oil and gas. oil and gas, energy stocks undervalued. there are etfs out there. there are different areas in a market. if you don't know, get in the market. all markets are going up. be in stocks. >> we started this setting up three things, your house, in your stock portfolio and your job. you get to be the bearer of good news to say everything is better. we have all three of these legs of the stool not wobbly here? >> the jobs report that came in today is bifurcated like everything else in the economy. you can say this is great news. >> no three-handed economists, please. >> there is no spring slump. that is good news. the report was stronger, 165,000

jobs created. also february and march were revised upward. that's great news. if you strip out the public sector which is still lagging behind and creating a slower economy, you're growing over 3% and that's great. but if you look where the growth is coming from, it's not high quality jobs. retail jobs, talking about fast food, home health aides. that goes to the most important thick which is wage growth. >> what happens when they have to pull away the punch bowl a little bit? >> first of all, it's going to mean things are getting better. only way fed does that if the fed thinks things are getting better. when they initially pull it away, it means things are good. the market should keep going. once people realize the punch bowl's gone and we have to get out there and stimulate the economy through actually

creating jobs, then we are going to face a cliff. >> i feel so bad for savers. they say you're trying to tell me i'm 59 years old and supposed to be putting my money in the stock market where i thought i was supposed to put in a cd to give me a return and they are not getting it. >> it's hard for people. before you were asking what stocks people should be invested in. i think big blue chip multinationals have become the new security play. they are the new bonds. big companies like p&g, are they safer than european sovereign debt? yes. >> you go into big blue chips getting 3.5% yield versus 1.7% in a ten-year note. >> i want to go back to housing. you're seeing happy housing news. part of the happy housing news is mortgage rates so low, 15-year fixed, lowest level

ever, 2.56%. the most popular mortgage rate 0-year 3.35%. sometimes i can't believe these numbers come out of my mouth. you say them and think, am i living in some parallel universe? >> basically free access. it's just so cheap. that has a by-product which is pressing prices higher. one thing interesting is that people that qualify at say a 30-year fixed at 3.5%, if rates go up as high as 5%, which no one expects that in the immediate future, things are still very weak, you don't lose that many people that qualify. in other words, i feel like the drive for low rates in the housing market is almost falling on deaf ears. >> i know people who have mortgages in the 5% range.

i scream refinance, refinance. are we going to get money in the economy by people refinancing the mortgages they have? is that going to be a significant impetus for the economy? >> i think it takes some of the stress out because you're creating more disposable spending. you're reducing the probability of foreclosures and that sort of thing. the refinance world is sort of this unseen, everybody is looking at sales. credit is still tight. you've got to bring more people to be able to reduce the stress of their payments. >> speaking about credit, too. banks want about a 750 score. most americans have below 700. >> this is true. nice to see all of you. coming up, billionaire warren buffett joins twitter. we'll show you what tweets from an oracle look like next. [ male announcer ] this store knows how to handle a saturday crowd.

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up the work place. billionaire investor warren buffett is shaking up this conversation. patty sellers is senior editor-at-large with "fortune" and joins me from the site of berkshire's annual meeting. you sat down with buffet, berkshire ceo. you asked him why women make him more optimistic about america's economy. listen. >> it just stands to reason if the united states got to where it was from 1776 and made all the progress it did with more than half of that period women really being shut out of most activities so you had all this brain power and energy, ability not totally going to waste, but certainly not reaching its potential. just think what you can do when you get the whole team out there. >> have you heard this from other male business leaders? >> well, i think we're hearing it, christine, from more and more male business leaders, more ceos, more directors who are

looking for women to join their board. it's really -- we started the "fortune" most powerful women list in i remember hearing this argument strongly for the first time when we picked our first number one most powerful woman who was the hewlett packard board was hiring to bring to head that company. you know, there began the talk about using the full population instead of half of the population to run corporate america. >> buffett told you he doesn't discriminate when it comes to hiring. i want to listen to what he said about that. >> it doesn't make any difference. their age doesn't really make any difference to us. their sex doesn't make any difference to us. their educational background doesn't. in the end, we need to come up with the best person to run it because talent is scarce. >> i hear that all of the time.

talent is scarce. i want the star performer. why are women still missing from top leadership roles? >> there are 2,500 fortune 500 ceos. a little over 4%. why is that? i share the cheryl sandburg point of view which is that women think of power differently. it's not about climbing the ladder. it's about having broad influence and we make other choices. we don't necessarily -- when women start companies, the reason i believe that there's no female mark zuckerberg is women start companies to create businesses they want to work for. often they leave big companies in corporate america and they just get tired of the huge institution and they want to create their own companies and they don't want to create fortune 500 companies. guys start companies mainly to

make money and build really big businesses. i actually think that we're never going to get to parity at the top of large corporate america. i think it's important to make progress. it's really wonderful right now to have role models like cheryl sandburg and marissa mayer. marissa mayer is the youngest ceo male or female in the fortune 500. it's really cool that 82-year-old warren buffett is responding to these young women by speaking out for the first time in a big way about women in work. >> i was looking at facebook results this week and cheryl sandburg exercised $821 million in options. you don't usually see that many zeros on one of those s.e.c. filings. she's doing something right because she made a boat load of money this week and a lot of women watching her career and what she's doing. this interview was about social

issues but she also convinced us to get on social media during the interview tweeting warren is in the house. you can see more of that interview on cnnmoney.com. thanks for joining us. coming up, justin bieber giving his backing to a prepaid debit card. you have seen celebrities doing this. does it make financial sense to sign up if you're a fan? should you hold one of their cards? find out next. yeah, i'm looking to save, but i'm not sure which policy is right for me. you should try our coverage checker. it helps you see if you have

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prepaid debit cards. justin bieber just the latest celebrity to attach his name to one. the number of cards in the market are growing and consumers are signing up in droves without reading the fine print. would you trust justin bieber with your money? what about russell simmons? maybe suze orman. they are pushing prepaid debit cards. you load the cards with cash and swipe away. it's going to cost you. >> fees can run the gamut from a monthly service fee to an activation fee. even fees for doing things like calling customer service or having a transaction declined due to insufficient balance. sometimes even checking your balance at an atm can be enough to trigger a fee. >> all kinds of fees to use your

own money. bank rate looked at 24 of the most widely issued prepaid cards. >> managing your money is important and there's a great company that can help do you that. >> for the card he endorses, 3.95 every month just to have it. 2.95 to put money on from another debit or credit card. you can transfer once from your bank account free each month and 1.50 for an atm withdraw and if you don't use the card for 30 days in a row, you pay $3. spend smart issues the bieber card defending fees saying it's try to help parents and teens start a conversation about reasonable spending and bieber helps get that message out. greg mcbride from bankrate.com says celebrity cards usually aren't the best value. >> consumers looking for lower fee prepaid debit cards can find them. they're not those endorsed by celebrities. >> traditional bank fees are rising too.

maybe that's why consumers don't mind they are pay be so much for prepaid debit cards. the amount put on tripled from 2008 to 2012 and expected to top $168 billion by 2015. that's a lot of money. nearly the gdp of kuwait or romania and enough to by 131 double-decker planes. industry trade groups say parents use them to teach kids about financial responsibility but financial advisers say there are better ways to do that. >> prepaid debit cards are spending money to use your own money but they don't necessarily fix your credit and it's too expensive. >> if you don't have a checking account, look for a credit union in your area. check out smarterchoice.org or go to bankon.org. prepaid didn't cards are easy and convenient. if it's something you're willing to pay for, go for it. you need to know the fees ahead of time and consider other

options. many options you won't say so much to use your own money. thanks for joining the conversation here on "your $$$$$." you can find me on facebook @christineromanscnn. have a great weekend. a look at our top stories this hour. in northern california a fun night out has taken a tragic turn. last night a fire ripped through a limousine carrying nine women. details straight ahead. a 17-year-old soccer player allegedly lashes out at a referee punching him in the head and one week later the referee dies. we dig into what the consequences might be. fbi agents are once again conducting