. >> we met officer epperson at the kern valley state prison in california.nly with pepper spray and a baton, he's the lone officer responsible for supervising the inmate kitchen staff. >> i have six, seven inmates back here now. i've got one sitting on the line. granted, i got four, five cops outside that door. that door's locked. there's only one dude out there with the key. you have to trust them to a certain extent. they have no reason to assault me. unless they're totally pissed off or i disrespect them. >> among the inmates epperson places his trust in is the number two cook, carter hill. >> tell me what your sentence is. >> murder. >> you're here for murder? what's your sentence? >> 51 to life. >> you know, it's interesting. sometimes there's this dynamic in prison when you're interviewing somebody, if there's a corrections officer and an inmate together, they'll pretty much watch their ps and qs. they'll tell you into the camera what the other guy wants to hear. but when we met carter hill, we got some real brutal honesty that day in the kitchen. >> i

good question and we of course want to thank jean chatzky, david bach and david epperson.haron will answer your questions up at 9:30 on today.com. >>> up next, breast health 101. what every woman needs to know. >>> later on in "today's home." a high-priced look at low-cost items. first these messages. my recipe for french toast. take toast. spread with i can't believe it's not butter! add jacques. he's french. oui. ♪ mmmm. oui like. [ male announcer ] i can't believe it's not butter! has irresistible fresh butter taste with 70% less saturated fat than butter. [ kim ] you can have it all. [ male announcer ] i can't believe it's not butter! ♪ [ guy ] ring, ring. progresso... i love your new loaded potato with bacon. that's what we like to hear. ring, ring. progresso... ...switch our phone service? ...no, i think we're pretty happy with our phones. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. ca jun raw seafood pizza parlor french fondue tex-mex fro-yo tapas puck chinese takeout taco truck free range chicken pancake stack baked alaska 5% cash back. right now, get

jean chatzky author of "money 911" and david bach author oand sharon epperson.s viewer e-mail is from texas who writes "i'm a physician with a good salary, no debt and i'm the owner of three rental properties. i'm in love with a young lady who is $700 in debt, including an irs judgment, two student loans and a fine for a felony conviction. i want to marry her but would like to know how you would advise us to partner up." >> okay, look there's not just one red flag here, there are five, and there are five big ones, and i would say don't marry her. i mean don't marry her. >> wow. >> she's going do come after you. >> at least not right now, and if you're not going to listen to me and the guy used the word love and marriage and he's in it. if you're not going to listen to me, get a prenup and get a really, really good prenup and a financial adviser who can put this fiance of yours on the straight and narrow. you've got to see progress toward a better financial ed because this is going to happen again. >> keep talking but keep everything separate. don't commingle any

david backe is author of "debt free for life" and sharon epperson is a personal correspondent for cnbc nbc.com. let's get started. we go to the phones. roger is on the phone calling from bryceville, florida. good morning, roger. >> caller: good morning. >> what's your question? >> caller: i have a conventional i.r.a. that i have to start taking distributions from in about a year. now, i won't need the money for current living expenses, so i've got to find a place to reinvest the distribution. and so i'm curious as to what your thoughts are on converting to a roth now. >> jean? >> do you have the money to pay the taxes on the roth outside of that account? >> caller: no, i don't. >> then don't do it. >> doctor, it hurts when i do that. >> it will cost you 30 to 40% of that money to pay the taxes to just eat into your principle. you're better off pulling the money out and investing it in a taxable account, or if you're thinking about this as money for your kids down the road, because you don't need it to live on, you may want to look at buying a life insurance policy with some of the mone

♪ >>> time for "today's 911" money experts, answering your questions this morning we have sharon eppersond david bach, otherwise known as james bond, the author of "debt free for life" and farnoush girabi, personal finance contributor to yahoo.com. >> i always wanted to be james bond. >> bach, david bach and the bond girls, very nice. let's get to it. wayne in chicago is on the phone. good morning. >> caller: good morning. >> what's your question? >> caller: my wife is retiring the first of the year. she went to get information about a pension she had with a company that was bought out by a large corporation. when she was terminated from that company back in '99, her estimated pension was over $1,000 a month at retirement. now they say it's only a couple hundred a month. how do we know this amount is correct? is there a way to verify that amount? >> sharon, a lot of folks have to be in wayne and his wife's situation. >> a lot of people are trying to find the lost pension and want the full benefit. you need to check the plan'sical class and when you can do this easily yourself you need to

that is renegade diverged to epperson davis was privileged and then we forget this about abraham lincoln. from the time he was a young boy, abraham lincoln was worked as hard buy his father as many american slaves were worked on the plantation and abraham lincoln was nine years old was handed the adults lies rail splitting acts and worked dusk till dawn to do manual tasks and chopping trees. his hatred of slavery began when he was a boy and considered himself his own father's enslaved and about that somehow he would rise from humble origins and not spend the rest of his life working in that way. they're both more of reason and restraint lincoln never acted rationally when he was president of the jefferson davis began it by being anti-secession and gave no heed to the consequences and he was not at all a crazed abolitionist. they shared experience in the military with the humble elect did kappa 10 with jefferson davis as an officer in the regular army and they suffered in their use almost the identical tragedy that spare them and change them and made them different men and lincoln and dav

. >>> we have sharon epperson at the news desk with more. >> we begin with the story of a powerful earthquake today in eastern turkey. the state-run news agency says the quake was a preliminary magnitude of 7.3, struck near the city of van, collapsing some buildings. rescue workers trying to reach people believed trapped in the wreckage. no official word on deaths or injuries. >>> a momentous day in libya, following the death of moammar gadhafi. they are declaring liberation from an 8-month-old civil war. >>> a cocktail waitress is denying she is wild about harry. annabelle roberts is live in london with the latest on prince harry. good morning, annabelle. >> hi there, yes. the lady in question, 26-year-old jessica johnson has spoken out. she says harry is a real prince charming, but kind of goofy with her, not sure that's such a compliment. she admits there were a couple of dates, but no kisses. he got up close just to talk to her. prince harry, of course, has quite a reputation as a party lover and is often pictures at nightclubs, somewhat the worse for wear. he recently split from his girl

sharon epperson.to see you. >> good to be here. >> we have 13 million people looking for health insurance. >> at least 19 million. about 35% of those people are self-employed or small business owners. one out of four, their employer offers coverage but they can't afford it or they may not get coverage. >> first of all a ppo. >> preferred provider organization. that's the ppo. you have a network of doctors you can choose from. if you choose in the network you will get a higher amount of coverage. >> hmo. >> health maintenance organization. people know about them. you have to stay in network to get the best services. >> hsa eligible plans. >> health savings account. you're actually going to be able to get like a 401(k) account to put money in pretax to pay for health insurance needs. it's a high deductible policy. if you're young and healthy that's a good plan for you. >> for freedom and flexibility but paying more you are looking at indemnity plans. >> that gives you the most flexibility in who to choo

. >>> sharon epperson at the news desk with more of today's top stories. good morning. >>> good morning, lester, good morning, jenna. good morning everyone. >>> a powerful earthquake today in turkey. state-run news agency says it was a preliminary 7.2 and struck near the city of van, collapsing 250 apartment buildings. there are a number of deaths and 50 people injured. >>> france's first lady carla bru bruni left the hospital with the birth of their first baby. daughter julia was born thursday in a paris hospital. >>> a cocktail waitress is london with the latest on prince harry. good morning, annabelle. >> hi there, yes. the lady in question, 26-year-old jessica johnson has spoken out. she says harry is a real prince charming, but kind of goofy with her, not sure that's such a compliment. she admits there were a couple of dates, but no kisses. he got up close just to talk to her. prince harry, of course, has quite a reputation as a party lover and is often pictures at nightclubs, somewhat the worse for wear. he recently split from his girlfriend, chelsea

. >> allison epperson, i'm an average citizen. i have a question. when do we know we've won the global war on terror. >> when do we know we've won the global war on terror? well, the facts are, obviously, it's not similar to what we think of as a conventional war where, you know, we get the battleship missouri and steam it into tokyo harbor, get all the guys there to sign a document saying we quit. that's not going to happen. and, um, i think there is evidence out there that we're making significant progress. i think getting osama bin laden, very important and very useful. nonstraited part of -- demonstrated part of that process. but i think also it may be the kind of thing that just gradually fades over time. but i don't think there's going to be, there's likely to be a kind of aha moment where you can say, ah there, it's done. >> we'll take a couple more. sure. >> vice president, i'd like to take you back to your earlier comments about the middle east and bring it back in history. the great controversy at the close of the bush 41 administration wa

. >>> sharon epperson joins us at the news desk with some of the headlines. >> thank you. good morning, everyone. we begin with what may be a big development in the case of missing missouri toddler who disappeared more than two weeks ago. >>> police conducted a thorough sweep of this house on mobd and say an fbi ka daver dog hit on the scene of decomposition on a bedroom floor. two days later, armeded with a search warrant, they came back, spent about 17 hours inside and outside of that home. they carried away a number of items including rolls of tape and a tape dispenser. police say they have received conflicting information from the people that have been interviewed in this case. police have said publicly that they have not received cooperation from the parents. the parents fired back on friday through their attorneys saying they have fully cooperated and all they want is the safe return of their baby girl. since this search 2k3w57, police have fielded some 600 tips. they're looking for the ones to help solve the case. >> thank you. >>> a 32-year-old unidentified man was

you got to show sharon epperson some love too.orning. we resntly found out that fha decreased the maximum loan limit effective october 1st. we've been planning on purchasing a home this winter. we live in an area where fha loan limits have decreased by $119,000. how long do you anticipate that it will take for the housing market to adjust to the new fha loan limits? we don't want to pay current market prices if the market is going to adjust to the new fha terms. >> good question. >> it's a really, really good question. but you have it kind of backwards. the fha has adjusted because prices have already gone down. as long as you pick a home where you think the block is good, the schools are good,the value is good, it's fairly priced and you're planning to live there for at least five years because we know that you don't want to be moving sooner than that, in case prices go down a little bit, you should be just fine. but the fha is adjusting because prices have fallen, not the other way around. >> thanks, deb for the question. we got