a lot of panic. a lot of belongings and identity left aboard the ship. do you want to know how to retire with more than $1 million in the bank? christine romans has all the answers. "your bottom line" starts right now. we are two weeks now into the new year. are you still on track with your new year's resolutions? good morning, i'm christine romans. coming up, the best investment you can make in 2012 is get out of credit card debt. you can do it, we'll tell you how. plus, how to retire with more than $1 million in the bank. how a teach er affects your child's future paycheck. you might be surprised how much a good teacher is worth. more than $15 trillion in growing. politicians are deadlocked on how to fix it. only you can tackle your own personal debt.

lynnette is the founder of askthemoneycoach.com. are americans back to their bad old ways? we saw consumer credit up. are people more comfortable or living paycheck to paycheck? >> i think they are living paycheck to paycheck. we saw debt in november. american consumers added $20 billion to their credit cards. i think that people have this sense of frugal fatigue. we have hunkered down so long. it's the holidays, i have deprived myself so long, i'm going to go spend. >> some people are comfortable because the economics numbers are going down. i asked people what they are doing to stay out of debt. one guy said save is my diet. stop eating and stop spending money.

it's not easy. it's easy to say it's a money diet. how do you keep the resolutions? >> don't see it as a diet. if it is a diet, you are debrooifing yourself. if you get great advice about just use cash, live within your means. we are so circumscribed with it. people get tired. they say now i do want to break out of this a little bit and treat myself to something. i think we have to kind of change up as to how we give that advice and tell people -- >> you said don't debrooif yourself. >> yeah. don't use that credit card, but sometimes you can use it. sometimes you have to use it. don't feel guilty for using it. if you fall off the bandwagon and use the credit card. i blew the resolution, it's not going to work, let me go back to the old ways. >> you think resolutions last 30 days? h. >> they have the best intentions.

they start off january 1, rah, rah. then the will power goes away. we don't want people to feel guilty like they are a bad person. we have to deal with the reality. people are going to use credit cards. the challenge is do it smart. you know? if you have the holiday debt, one way to reduce your debt in 2012 is make sure you have the best interest rate on credit cards. >> interest rates are rising again. >> call up your credit card companies now and try to negotiate and get interest rates knocked down. if they won't do it for you, get on cardratings.com. compareson shop. see what the best deals are out there. by lowering your interest rates, you pay fewer dollars. you will more quickly knock out your debt. >> lynnette is amazing. she dug herself out of $100,000. >> that's legend.

k it is legend. >> she doesn't just talk the talk, she walked the walk. it allowed you to grow. you are the walking proof that it can be done. >> yes. >> you have to change your mind set. it's difficult to change your mind set, especially if you need retail therapy. you have to go to the credit card for emergencies. >> this is why i like this idea of moderation in everything we do. i'm looking at this from a psychological point of view. moderation of how you use your credit card. what lynette did -- what she did and what i admire, we have known each other for a couple years now. it wasn't just about getting out of $100,000 of debt. it was changing a whole lifestyle. living a more genuine life. living within your means and not lying to other people and yourself. i'm not saying you did that. >> i did. no question. >> it's what people need to do. they have to look at changing their whole lives, not just

getting out of credit card debt. if you change your life, credit card debt is part of that, getting rid of that. >> i would share with your producer, one of the things i had to do was make tough choices. as a mom, i had my two older kids in a very expensive private school when they were 5 and 3 years old. i was paying $20,000 a year -- >> oh, lynette -- >> using the credit card convenience. i wanted to give them the best start in life. >> you thought you were doing the right thing. >> they are in public school, they are doing fine, they are straight a students. sometimes we get into debt because we think we are doing the right thing. >> nice to see both of you. to wrap things up about how to get out of debt and what you need to do, pay down your highest interest rate credit card first. if you need to pay off one with a low interest rate because it's

a smaller balance and makes you feel good, do that, too. cut down the debt. also, cut your spending. strive to live on 70% of your yk. if you can't afford it, put it down. use a debit card, use cash. you can take advantage of your credit card protection. keep your balance below 30% of your overall limit. please, please, please, please, please, check your credit history at annualcreditreport.com. don't just close your eyes. find out what the credit history looks like. it's important, folks. there are two job markets in america. one is better, one isn't. how you vote may depend on the job market you live in. that's next. in america, we believe in a future that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard

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lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. millions of men, forty-five or older, may have low t. so talk to your doctor about low t. hey, michael! [ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey! welcome. i understand you need a little help with your mortgage, want to avoid foreclosure. smart move. candy? um-- well, you know, you're in luck. we're experts in this sort of thing, mortgage rigamarole, whatnot. r-really? absolutely, and we guarantee results, you know, for a small fee, of course. such are the benefits of having a professional on your side. [whistles, chuckles] why don't we get a contract? who wants a contract? [honks horn] [circus music plays]

here you go, pete. thanks, betty. we're out of toner. [circus music plays] sign it. come on. sign it. [honks horn] ...homes around the country. every single day, saving homes. we will talk it over... announcer: if you're facing foreclosure, make sure you're talking to the right people. speak with hud-approved housing counselors free of charge at... the last few years have been brutal for american workers. look at this. the job losses began in 2008. they really accelerated in the first months of barack obama's presidency. since then, it's been a weary, slow, painful climb out of a deep hole. we are not back up, quite frankly. we have many more jobs to recover before we can recover. economists say unemployment will stay in the 8% range this year.

it leaves us with two job markets. the newly unemployed have a better chance of getting a job. there's another job market where the long term unemployed are shut out here. sherry is a republican strategist and keith is a democratic strategist. thanks for joining us. keith, if you get 8.5% unemployment and stay like this throughout the year, can the president win at 8.5%? >> we don't know. we are going to find out. the trajectory is similar to what we had the first term of the reagan administration. for him, it was 8.3%, it's now 8.5%. it's heading downward. if it continues, it's a positive thing. the analysts aren't expecting that. is that a focus from the first year in almost all the job

losses that took place took place during the bush a administrati administration. >> it sounds like a talking point. i hear that from the white house. >> the jobs that have been added, i think the white house failed to articulate it to the public for people to understand it. almost all the jobs were lost during the first year of the administration. >> if you don't have a job today, you are saying i don't have a job today. as the candidates get to the south, south carolina and florida they have unemployment rates higher than the rest of the country. look at the rest of the country, iowa and new hampshire, 5% unemployment. florida 10%. carolinas, 10%, too. how will mitt romney and his business background play in people looking for jobs? >> it depends on how he communicates it. florida has high unemployment and high foreclosure rate and high latino vote. barack obama got 57% in 2008.

now, it's only 46%. it's an 11% drop. it's very, very bad for him. unemployment is a big issue. the hispanic community is two points higher in unemployment than the rest of us. it's a big issue. if he can't do better, he's got a problem in the minority part. >> this has been difficult for blacks, it's almost 16%. hispanics, 11%. that is far higher than the rest of the population. for many african-americans in this country and hispanics, mostly african-americans, they were in a recession way before this recession. do they not turn out to vote if they are unhappy or what happens? >> i don't think the african-american vote is going to abandon barack obama because of the unemployment rate. people were unhappy in part because of unemployment. they don't blame him for that. if you look at where the economy is right now, african-americans

have typically been affected by unemployment. the african-american community like latinos are more likely to support barack obama. here is the other thing, chris, i think you have to look at the government jobs. we lost 280,000 government jobs last year. many were african-americans. the same time republicans are criticizing the job losses, they are contributing to them by cutting government funding. >> do you think the republican message of cut, cut, cut is not going to cut it with federal workers? >> with all voters i don't think republicans are suddenly going to get the african-american vote. there could be nibbling around the edges. we have job creators. we have job creators saying we need policies to change, different tax rates. we need to make job creation deferent. it takes a small percentage of people of all colors, races and

ethnicities to understand that. maybe they like this president personally, but whatever he's doing isn't working. he was supposed to lower unemployment to 6%. >> 8%. >> he said it could wouldn't go higher than 8%. he said 6%. none of this happened. >> nobody knew -- this has been so hard to predict. >> things add up. >> here is the problem with what cheri is saying. i think obama and the democrats are focused on the demand side. the wealthy in this country benefitted from this economy over the past ten years or so. the stock market, the obama administration, the dow jones was 7949 his day in office. it's well over 12,000. corporate profits are record highs. corporate tax rates are no higher than they were under the reagan administration. we have the lowest tax structure

than decades. the income tax rate is the same as when i was working for the clinton administration. >> they are looking at who is -- >> they are saying the rich are doing well, why aren't we doing well. let's benefit the middle class. >> this is the job debate that will play out for the next -- how many weeks do we have? >> who knows. far too many. >> thanks for joining me. we'll talk to you soon. a landmark new study says a great teacher determines how much money you'll earn later in life. that's next on "your bottom line." over twenty delicious varieties have sixty calories or less per serving and are now weight watchers-endorsed. try green giant frozen vegetables with sauce.

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a landmark new study from economists at harvard and columbia found -- their conclusion, kids with higher test scores are kids with better teachers. one year means $50,000 of additional earnings over the course of that students career. imagine what four years, eight years, 12 years with a good teacher could do.

randy and justin are here. thanks for joining us, both of you. this harvard/columbia study is fascinating. the message is to fire people sooner rather than later. it sounds extreme. randy, we don't get do-overs with kids. can we afford to keep underperforming students in the school? is this telling us we have to do a better job of finding out -- finding the underperforming teachers, not students, teachers and move them to a dichfferent career? >> i felt the economists should do the economy and let the teachers do teaching. i thought it was a very unfortunate thing to say because if you actually did that, we would lose all of our new teachers because the people that actually get really much better over two or three years are new teachers. >> you don't come in as the teacher you are going to be.

>> never. so, i thought that was a very unfortunate thing to say. >> the report. do you agree with the report? >> of course if you have, you know, if you have good performance in schools, if kids do well in schools it gives them confidence to do well in the future. we have to all be about high performance and some of the work we have tried to do is revamp it. take it away from being a principals responsibility 57bd do it together. we will, ensure then that teachers are getting better. if teachers can't do their jobs and if you try to help them and they still can't do it, we have to usher them out of the profession.

>> frankly, testing has a role. data has a role. but, the same day that harvard study came out, the gates, big gates study came out that said you can't just use tests. you have to use multiple measures. what happens is you have to think -- what we need to do is think about what is a teacher teaching and what is a student learning. so, tests play a piece of that but basically, so do student portfolios, so do teacher practice and a bunch of other things. >> justin, i want to ask you, they used standardized tests to rate teachers and posted the ratings online. how much weight should parents give to the standardized tests?

the tests aren't enough? >> i don't think so. it could be 20% to 25%. the states considering 50% as the evaluation is scary. there's volatility in the scores. a teacher who has them performing high one year may have lower performance the next year. parents looking for information oftentimes this data is not coming out until after the year is over. so, the students are moving on. i would prefer, if i had children in a school that my children were in a classroom with a teacher who went the extra mile and cared and gave extra time. it's not going to show up in standardized tests. >> you can't choose your teacher. even if you know how the school ranks -- how do you make sure the teacher in the classroom is going to be the one to make your kid succeed in life. >> let's look at countries that

outperform us. they create a climate. in some ways -- actually, they focus on creating climate so there's high per fformance and real respect and dignity. what we are saying -- >> it's a sought after profession. >> take what justin said about test scores. this sounds easy. it's so totally wrong in that teachers don't get to decide who their kids are in school. >> that's the other thing. >> you want to make sure a teacher is working as hard, if not hoarder with a kid who needs the extra mile. >> thank you so much. all right. how to retire with more than $1 million in the bank. you can do it, we'll show you how. next.

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all right. take a look at this. 25% of middle class americans say they need to work at least 80 to live comfortably in retirement. the economy, your choice of

funds, your annual income, all play a role in how much money you will have when the day comes. but none of them as important as the amount you put away. you don't have to make a lot of money and you don't have to be investing whiz to get it right. donna rosato is an investing whiz and a senior writer at "money" magazine. nice to see you. >> you, too. >> historically low interest rates. but when it comes to your 401k, isn't it the amount you save, the number one factor, and how long you've been saving in determining how big that nest egg will be? >> that's right. the most important lever you have and control you have over your 401k, retirement savings is saving money. it is the thing you have control over. so you don't have to be an investment whiz. nor is it the actual return. you don't want to be in just treasury bonds or money markets. it's how much you sock away and

the earlier you can do it the better it will be for you. >> we both profiled people who don't make a lot of money and sock it away. here's an example. this graphic we're going the show you makes the case for saving early and often. look at the difference. a few percentage points of savings makes over 30-year period, that's remarkable. that's assuming an 8% return when ch you might not get. >> return is important. you have to deal with inflation. but even historically you'll see that over time if you have that 30-year time period you can ride out the big down it is tuturns years where the market is flat. today people in the 20s, student loan debt, they don't have as much money or jobs to put money aside. you don't have to save as much in your 20s if you're just saving something. >> save something, you say. >> save something. if you put away 1% a year, say starting at 25 and you can build

that up, you don't feel it 1%. and then you can build up to -- by the time of the 30s, maybe you can do 5%, 6%, 7%. >> so a lot of people think they're too strapped. they can't even find the 1%. when we talk about saving for retirement, a lot of people will send me messages on twitter and facebook and say, christine, we are nowhere near being able to invest. we are just trying to survive right now but then you'll always be behind. right? plenty of people living paycheck to paycheck put a little away. >> right. they don't make a lot of money and some of the wealthiest people i know are on very modest incomes but it's about a choice and a behavior you have to learn. >> donna, thank you so much. that's wrapping things up for us today. the conversation continues online. we want the know how you are saving for retirement. what's your opinion on teacher effectiveness and rating a good teacher. we want to hear from you. find us on facebook a