back to the house where he came from. those are the things, those are the facts that we need to stand firm on because today it was my son, tomorrow it might be yours. >> demonstrations in support of trayvon martin are being held in more than 100 cities across the country. we'll have more on those rallies coming up at the top of the hour. thanks so much for joining us. i'm fredricka whitfield. christine romans up next with "your money." another week, another record high for stocks. but are you missing out? i'm christine romans. this is "your money." did you miss your chance to run with the bulls? not those bulls. i'm talking about the bull run in your investments. 20%. that's how much u.s. stocks have climbed this year. a 20% gain in any other aspect of your life would certainly get your attention, your weight,

your paycheck, your gas prices. your stock portfolio, perhaps the only way to build wealth in america right now, is on fire. that's only if you're vested. the problem is, half the country is not invested in the stock market. maybe you're still scared the bulls are going to gore you. that's what the last recession felt like. plus, good-paying jobs are scarce, wages are stagnant, so good investments are hard to find, i know. but what if you had a million dollars? >> i would put it all in one stock. that would make me invest more aggressive aggressively. >> i don't really follow it so i don't know what's going on. >> i don't feel secure in the stock market in the united states. >> i keep my money under my mattress. >> under your mattress? most of us don't have a million dollars to invest. unless you have high interest credit card rates keeping you down, you probably have some

interest. it has to be tailored to your needs. keith, what are your clients asking you now? are they scared -- let's use another metaphor. kids with a bowl of jelly beans who just can't stop eating right now. >> the reality of the base of answers you just had there are quite reminiscent of regular investors, too. people are kind of fighting last year's war, and i think you made another great point, which is if your weight was up 20%, you would definitely have some issues with that, but in this case the stock market is up 20%, and for right reasons. joblessness down this week, we have a stock market on fire, and really, in terms of economic advice or advice for your portfolio, you have to get out of bonds. that's another thing people need to be paying attention to. you sell bonds because growth is rising, and that's something where people should not lose money. rule number one, don't lose money. >> so many people have asked me this week, what should i do with my 401(k)?

your takeaway is the end of the world trades like gold and bonds, people should be scaling back their bond exposure. that's what you're telling people. >> yeah, we've actually told people to sell their entire bond exposure. i think that's the biggest risk by far. so again, if the biggest risk is per versely growth, which is kind of an interesting fear, but it's fear itself. if you're really scared, you're buying gold and you're losing money, you're down about 25%. you're long bonds and you're losing money, you need to get out of that stuff. if you want long growth, sell bonds. >> we just got some free financial advice from keith mccullough there. an andi-is a writer for the "new york times." the first thing ben bernanke said in his testimony is congress is holding back growth. passing a budget, dealing with budget cuts, the debt ceiling, immigration, all these things

congress has to deal with, will we get progress on all these fronts? will congress get out of the way and not be a roadblock at some point? >> at this point it seems very likely they will do these trillion cuts known as sequestration, about 80 billion which will hit this year and they'll keep on for the next decade. it seems like there isn't a lot of motivation on the part of congress to get rid of those, but we do, we have to raise the debt ceiling this fall, probably right around halloween, and it seems like that might be a trigger to get congress to take care of these other issues, there are some folks who want to do tax reform, some folks who want to invest in fannie and freddie, and right now congress is really stymied and not a lot gets through. they have to help with the debt ceiling and they hope this will spur them forward to get past what they have. >> the pullback on stimulus is dependent on economic recovery.

does that scare politicians in washington who have the wind at their backs thus far? >> ben bernanke said this before. he said the fed is pushing on the accelerator as much as they can, they're buying all these assets. the economy is looking much better but not much. the growth is fine, it's not great, it won't bring the employment back really, really fast, so ben bernanke wants congress to do more, but they've been recalcitrant, they haven't listened to them. deficits have remained somewhat high because of where we are in the cyclical recovery. >> keith, let me ask you, with all of these, i guess, macro and global issues, should people be more worried about when to kbge out of this dream run or how to get in if they're not in already? it's an interesting time to talk about your position in the stock market and in these big asset classes. >> the reality is people are

along two big asset classes, stocks and bonds. so you get out of bonds and you have these pullbacks in stocks. i like to buy them on 3 to 6% pullback, so if you missed it, you missed it. you have to get over it and get on with your life. if you get back to what bernanke is really doing here, i think to a degree it's fear-mongering itself. washington is actually scared of growth. for him to blame policymakers, if he just fwot ogot out of the and got on with it, if the tapering got on with it, the dollar would strengthen, interest rates would rise just like we saw in the 1980s and 1990s and people wouldn't spend their day just being worried. that's a central issue we need to get rid of, we need to get confident and we really need to let markets clear. >> thank you both for your perspectives. see you soon. what else happened this week that matters to "your money"? give me 90 seconds on the clock.

>> corporations are sitting on record piles of cash, but don't expect to see it in your employees can expect raises of just under 3%. the hardest working country is mexico, followed by chile and korea. mexican workers log about 500 hours more work a year than an american worker for a fifth of the pay. mcdonald's angered its workers by offering a financial guide, offered no budget for food and allocated just $20 a month for health care. further evidence of the stock mart boom five years after the wall street meltdown, ira balances are at a five-year high. the average kitty now more than $81,000, up 53% since 2008. the wake of the financial crisis is finally getting a leader. they stood in the way of elizabeth warren's brain child

for years. >> this is not the case. >> so she beat them and joined them by winning a senate seat in massachusetts. and this week richard cordrey was considered by that same senate as financial director. skechers is dishing out $40 million by falsely advertising those shoes would tone your bootie. coming up, buying, selling or pawning. this guy's negotiating skills are hard-core. >> i'll give you the whole package including two chain saws, four nail guns, golf clubs and a crowbar, $800 altogether. thank you very much. i'll have them write you up. >> les gold from "hard core

pawn" shows me how to find a deal. ko coming up. it's part of our goal to inspire more than three million people to rediscover the joy of being active this summer. see the difference all of us can make... together.

for some the way to make an easy buck is to sell their stuff. this guy is ready to talk numbers if you've got something he wants. >> an old liquor bottle, some old albums, stamp book. don't you think this is worth

something? >> no. a whole lot of nothing. >> i told you it wasn't worth nothing. >> you need to watch your trap because this means everything to me. >> it don't matter. they don't want it. >> it's only worth what someone will pay for it. others stand a chance at big money. >> my mother has a friend who gave her this early century compass. >> how much would you take for this thing? >> 150? >> okay. how did you come up with that number? >> well, i don't believe there are a great many out there. >> let me go see. back in a second. >> how much is that thing worth? >> $30. >> wow. les gold is star of "hard core pawn" on our sister network trutv. his book is called "for what it's worth, business wisdom from a pawnbroker." dollar stores, pawn stores, these are economic indicators. we've been watching them for a long time, but there's a lot

more to learn from that in the economy, how to do business, how to negotiate, how to be a good negotiator. what's the number one rule? >> be a good negotiator. >> how? >> three easy steps. emotion. when you're selling something, bring the emotion out to the buyer. when you're the buyer, have no emotion because you're going to pay too much. know your bottom line and know when to walk away. that's in any kind of deal. >> you also say everyone, no matter what your job is, you must know how to sell. >> well, you need to know how to negotiate. whether you're a seller or buyer, it's all the same thing. you're just sitting on a different side of the desk. >> how do you remove the emotion from the situation? like that woman in the clip. this means something to me, you're telling me it's worth nothing. how do you do it? >> i'm emotionless. people try to make me believe i want to buy it. i have to look at it from a business perspective. i have 50 employees. they need to get paid. we need to pay the light bill, we need to pay the rent.

so every deal i make is strictly a business decision. >> imagine you work for les gold and you try to go in to ask for a raise, from a guy who knows how to negotiate better than anybody! i'm trying to negotiate at work. what's your advice for anybody asking you for a raise? >> don't depend on your boss to give you a number. if you're making $15 an hour, go in and say, i should make 16. >> shoot higher than you think you deserve? >> well, that's an individual decision. tell why you deserve the raise. i'm a good employee. i've done x and y. make sure you have bullet points. tell the employer why you should get that raise. don't depend on him to make that decision for you. >> do you think men and women negotiate differently? i mean, you have a daughter and a son who work with you. do you think women are not as good negotiators as men? >> i do not. >> why? >> i think women are just as good as men, they just have to believe.

you've watched the show. watch ashley. ashley learned from a great professional: me. so she knows exactly how to negotiate. that's the key. it doesn't matter, male, female, it makes no difference. >> women think they're going to come off brassy and aggressive. the statistics are clear, men are likely to ask for more money in their job than women are, and over the course of a career, a woman can make half a million dollars less because in the first job, she didn't have the confidence to know she could ask for a raise in the first job. >> what you just said, they don't have confidence. it doesn't matter, male or female, you must have confidence. in my book, i talk about believing in yourself, making sure you understand how important you are. i talk about my janitor. here's a guy that works for me, came to me homeless. he wanted $20 for a bracelet, i gave him 200. it was one of those things. i gave him a job the next day. this guy cleans the bathrooms and is so proud of the way he does it.

that's what you have to do as an employee, give 110%, not just 100. >> your stores in detroit, we know that detroit is having hard times economically, the city itself. you travel around the country a bit. what are you seeing out there? what are you seeing about how people are feeling? when they come to you, i mean, they come to you because they need money, because they're, in some cases, in pretty dire straits. >> not necessarily. people come to me because they want great deals. they're smart, and that's the key. you want to go to where the deals are the greatest. come to detroit, come to american jewelry and loan or go to your local pawn shop. that's where you'll get great deals. but as i travel around, the economy is slowly getting better. >> you do think it's getting better. >> i say that because my loan line is getting shorter. my redemption line is getting longer. retail sales are still empty. but because gold has gone down, it markes it a more viable optin for people to buy.

>> so you're worth a little less today than you were a few weeks ago. >> yeah, but i'm always les gold. >> les and i hit the streets for hard core negotiating. watch les show me how to get the best price for a bracelet. i learned a lot. up next, the motor city goes bankrupt. what this historic filing means for the people of detroit. >> a percentage of our wages every year into that, so it's not something that's being given to us, it's our money. and later, less is more for some beach goers. the speedo has lots of fans, but not everyone is taking the plunge. we'll tell you who is holding out.

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first wait till summer. then get the cars ready. now add the dodge part. ♪ ♪ the dodge summer clearance event. right now get 0% financing for up to 72 months and no payments for 90 days on all dodge vehicles. detroit. detroit was once the wealthiest city in america. it was known as the arsenal of democracy because in world war ii it went from manufacturing

cars to manufacturing airplanes and munitions and tanks. literally the people and the industry in detroit changed the course of history. and thursday, this week, after years of manufacturing job losses and economic decay, the arsenal of democracy filed for bankruptcy. cnn's poppy harlow has been covering the story from detroit. she joins us now. poppy, how does bankruptcy work for an entire city? this is the largest municipal bankruptcy this country has ever seen. >> hey, there, christine. yeah, that's right, it is the largest municipal bankruptcy by far in the history of this country. 18 billion and a half dollars in debt. that is how deep in the red this city is. it's unprecedented. so the way this all comes out in court is yet to be seen. but what we do know is this is going to mean some pretty steep cuts for bondholders here, but really, also, likely cuts for

retired and current city workers. their pensions and their health care benefits hang in the balance. that's what so much of the focus has been on here in detroit today in the wake of this bankruptcy. what is it going to mean for people who are counting on those pension checks to come in? now, here's what kevin worthy, the emergency manager of the city of detroit who made this decision along with the republican governor, rick snyder, of michigan, said, look, people are going to have to take cuts in the near term, but in the long term, what you're going to have is a city that gets back on its feet. you've got 78,000 abandoned homes here, 40% of the street d lights don't work, the average response time for policemen is 45 minutes. it's unacceptable, but once we pay all that back, we'll have more money to put into city services. that's the up side, but there is pain to get there, christine. >> what it means for city pensioners and retirees and

active duty city workers as well. you're talking about firefighters who breathe smoke for 20 years, who put their own money into their pension plan and now they're going to have to get a haircut, right? everyone is going to have to take a haircut. >> yeah. i mean, look, we don't know the numbers yet. that will be fought out with lawyers in court for months, maybe years. i just interviewed kevin worthy, the emergency manager here, and i said, is there any way you get out of this without pensioners making some sort of concessions, and he said no. they're going to have to make some sort of concessions on the pensions or the health care benefits. i caught up with some of these people that are here, down here upset. one is janet woodson. she worked for the detroit public libraries for 32 years. she said, i put up my end of the bargain, they need to put up theirs. she is trying to sue to block this. here's what she told me. >> we are now in bankruptcy, so

i guess my pension is in jeopardy. >> reporter: in jeopardy. >> which would mean to me that it has serious repercussions for my life. >> reporter: like what? >> i believe at this point it means i would lose my home. >> reporter: your home? >> like some people, i have a very large payment on my home. it's not an outstanding pension, it's a pension that i can live on comfortably if it's accompanied by my social security, and yes, my home is in jeopardy. >> reporter: so these are real people with really big concerns, christine. i talked to a retired police officer here and he told me, this is a mess. he said, we're going to fight for what we are owed. >> it's such a sad, sad story, but we'll focus on this, of course, and the process. we'll be talking on this program and with you, poppy, about what some of the business owners and people in detroit are doing to try to lift their city up, and there are a lot of really exciting things happening. poppy harlow. thanks, poppy. up next, from speedos to shark attacks to stolen wallets,

richard quest, as only he can, takes a look at what beachgoers love, hate, and have come to expect on vacation. [ male announcer ] when you wear dentures you may not know

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with summer temperatures hitting sweltering highs, many americans are heading to the beach. expedia has released its annual flip-flop survey. think of it as the best and the worst of the beach, according to beachgoers. whether it's speedos, skinny dipping or sand castles, beachgoers have a different idea of their favorite things at the shore. here's richard quest. >> this is a fascinating account of how we all like to spend our holidays. what a diverse lot we are. 17% of germans have gone nude on the beach, a number that's up from last year. while 34% of norwegians find something skimpy like the speedos quite acceptable. other countries, like the french, are also partial to something like this, while most

other countries, particularly the americans, want something more robust with gusseting. 90% of germans love to swim, while 52% of indians like to make sand castles. when it comes to fear on holiday, 50% of americans feel their lot will be stolen, 40% fear sharks while some fear drowning. put it all together with skimpy speedos, it's quite amazing that anybody ever manages to have a break. richard quest, cnn, on the beach. joining me tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. eastern, african-americans feeling left behind in this economic recovery. >> we don't see how the market

is going up. we don't see that point. because all we get is what comes down here, you understand, which is the crumbs from the rich man's table. >> we're taking to the streets of brooklyn, fighting to break the cycle of crime and joblessness. that's "your money," tomorrow. both are elevating the power of codists and programmers to change the world in acceptable ways. jennifer is the founder of code for america. it's a