greg mcbride of bankrate.com joins us by skype this morning. good morning greg. how did you do the study? >>we looked at 3 different portfolios of $1 million over a 20 year period in retirement pulling out money each year adjusted for inflation. what we found is that hands down dividend paying stocks and in particular companies that had increased their dividends for at least 25 consecutive years not only produced that growing stream of income that's needed to live off of but also minimize your odds of running out of money during that period of time. >>is it still worth it to go into dividend yielding stocks? >>dividend paying stocks are an important component of a normal overall portfolio. statistics have shown that dividends alone account for about 40% of long term returns. so you can't ignore them even if they tend to be those slower growing stodgier companies. >>the conservative route always is the best route. thank you greg. >>thank you angie. at & t is stepping up its game against t-mobile. in a battle over lower prices.... both cell phone carriers are cutti

greg mcbride of bankrate.com is here to explain.good morning. why is it so rare greg? > >it has become increasingly rare over the past few years because of regulatory changes that have really changed the economics of checking accounts. so now instead of banks doling out that free checking to everybody that walks through the door, they're reserving that for customers that tend to have other accounts, products, or larger balances with the bank. > >what's the situation at credit unions? > >that's a bit of a different story. not only was the decline very modest over the past several years but it hasn't changed at all in the last year. bankrate.com latest survey of the largest credit unions finds that 72% of the nation's largest credit unions still offer a standalone free checking account and nearly all of them do if you have something like electronic statements and/or direct deposit. > >good to know. thank you greg. > >thank you angie. general motors and ford are extending deep discounts on certain models through march the automakers are hoping to lure customers back after

but, you know, our survey or our predictions of bank rate led by our chief analyst greg mcbride indicatednterest rates, at least the longer end of the curve to rise over time over the next year. >> it will be interesting to see when we start to -- as you said earlier, we're not really pricing that in at the moment. it will be interesting to see when that takes place. >> yeah. the economy, let's face it, has underperformed here. by its own admission, the fed has tended to be overly bullish on the outlook for the economy. very often the economy has underperformed in the face of the fed's bullish predictions. and i suppose we might say at this point we're hoping the fed is not wrong about that, once again. >> and look, inflation, they've been helped out by the low print of inflation, as well. do most think it will stay low? >> most of on our economists think inflation will rise over the next 12 months. between headline, consumer price and the core, in a sweet spot, around the 2% area over the next 12 months. that is not at a worrisome rate. as we also know, one thing that workers in the u.s.

let's bring in greg mcbride from bank rate.com. it's great to see you. mean the end of low borrowing rates for american households and companies? >> well, not yet, kelly. i think what the fed did today was what was expected. they continued to stair step the tapering process by another $10 billion and pledged to keep the short-term rates unchanged. i think the message to consumers and businesses is 2014 could be your last hurrah to pay down that variable rate debt. things like credit cards, home equity lines of credit, student lobes while you have this tailwind. come 2015, 2016, then rates are going to start to move up, you will have a head wind. now is the time to make headway on that variable rate debt. >> sharon? >> what about the retirees out there looking for some type of safe haven. maybe they have a lot of money in cds, fixed income investments, what can they expect? >> more of the same, unfortunately. it's been a brutal environment for savers and anybody hunkering down in safe haven investments and not just recently but for the last five years. un