here to explain, sharon epperson sharon, good to see you today. >> good to be here. >> talk to me about what's a roth and ho is it different from a traditional i.r.a. >> the most important thing is with the roth i.r.a., you're contributing after taxes with the 401(k), it's before taxes. when you put your money into a roth i.r.a., whatever contribution you put in, you can take out to do with what you like that's important to remember also as we're looking at a new tax year where many people may be in a lower tax bracket. that after tax money might not feel so bad if you're in a lower tax bracket. >> what makes the roth so attractive >> a lot of people want to be able to have the tax money but also right now there's things they're think about what will they do with this money? give it away give it to their kids? use the money for other purposes other than retirement? they can that can use it for college and an emergency fund and they can use up to $10,000 in a down payment for house. >> are there people who should tack advantage of a rocket and others where it's not the best choice. >> th

sharon epperson. and sharon, it's great to see you. >> good to be here. >> it's hard to imagine feeling like you've ever actually made it, but if you get to that point, what now? what's the next step? >> exactly. some may feel it or think that they've made it, but you do have to really check yourself and make sure you're at that point. we do see new studies showing that about 50% of americans now have enough money saved to live a comfortable retirement. and so, that is a significant number. it's happening for two reasons. of course, we have the market highs, but we also have people putting away more money into their 401(k), into their i.r.a., and we're seeing i.r.a. account balances topping $100,000 on average. >> wow. >> for the first time ever. >> wow. >> so that is a significant change that we've seen and a reason why some people may feel more comfortable. $100,000 probably not enough to retire on for many people, but there are others that might be close to their retirement goal. >> you feel great about that, but then when you hear the market's been sitting at new highs, when you think things are fantastic, should you worry about that? do you need to reallocate or do anything along those lines? >> now is a good time to review your goals. think about what your retirement goals are, think about how much money you're going to need in retirement, starting with that retirement budget and planning ahead for that, but also think about what you want to do in retirement, travel, hobbies. those are expenses that you may not have now that you're going to have to consider. think about your life expectancy. the healthier you are, great, great, great, but that means you're going to have more health care expenses in retirement, so consider all those things. >> and i guess that's a big question, too. if you've been invested in stocks to this point, that's great, but things that go up can also go down pretty rapidly, too. >> the market's going great, but that also means you have more risk in your portfolio. while you wanted 60% of your portfolio in stocks, now it's 65%, so maybe it's time to reallocate and reallocating in your 401(k) and i.r.a., is a great place to do it because you won't have the tax impact if you're selling your balance or rebalancing your portfolio. others say i just want to sell and keep in cash, i'm afraid of the market. it's not that you're afraid of the market, you want to be secure that you have enough money for short-term emergencies and short-term expenses, so that's a reason to have cash. >> my biggest problem with ever trying to figure out how much money i need for retirement is, okay, how long am i going to live? how do you plan for those things? >> you think about what you want that money to do for you in retirement. do you want to continue to save just to make sure that you have enough? do you want to spend everything you have or spend a little bit more freely now that you have more money saved than you had expected, or do you want to donate some of that money? and then you start to think of where you want to donate it. >> yeah, that's great. a lot to think about. thank you, sharonure. >> always appreciate seeing you. >>> up next "on the money," a look at the news for the week ahead. >>> and from cookies to careers, we'll talk to the girl scouts ceo about partnerships with nasa, high-tech companies, and why s.t.e.m. is not about picking flowers. we've been preparing for this day. over the years, paul and i have met regularly with our ameriprise advisor. we plan for everything from retirement to college savings. giving us the ability to add on for an important member of our family. welcome home mom. with the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. it's abor it isn't. ence in 30,000 precision parts. it's inspected by mercedes-benz factory-trained technicians. or it isn't. it's backed by an unlimited mileage warranty, or it isn't. for those who never settle, it's either mercedes-benz certified pre-owned, or it isn't. the mercedes-benz certified pre-owned sales event. now through february 28th. only at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer. when this guy got

sharon epperson. it's always great to see you, sharon. >> good to be here. >> what's behind people and their thinking when they're about to reach their retirement goals? >> well, they are looking at the numbers and the average i.r.a. balance is over $100,000. it hit that section-figure mark for the first time ever last year and they are continuing to grow. so many people are very comfortable with what they are making there in their i.r.a. and 401(k) balances are close to $100 on avera $100,000 on average as well. it's also helping their balances rise. >> what should people do if they think they have hit their retirement number, that magic mythical number where you think, i've got it made? >> for a lot of people, $100,000 is probably not going to be enough but what they need to think about is what they want to do and include the fun stuff you want to do, like traveling, activities you may not be able to do while you're working and think about your life expectancy and there's calculators out there that can help you. know that health care costs are rising and that's going to be a significant part of what your costs are in retirement and then you can decide what you want to do with your money in retirement. do you want to still save some of it or spend it all or give some of it away? you need to have a plan. this is a time to review where you are. >> do you make changes to how your money is invested if you decided, okay, i've got "x" number of dollars, i can retire. do you change your balance or asset allocation? >> as you're reviewing what your goals are, you may need to rebalance and reallocate where your investments are held. if you're thinking that 65% if equities is great, now you're at 70% because of the market, you may want to take some of that off the table. the best place to do it is in the 401(k) our i.r.a. and what people need to keep in mind the importance of having cash on hand for those short-term expenses. maybe 20%, you may want to have that in cash and others have talked about considering annuity. that, of course, can be a complicated investment. you may want to talk to a professional about that. >> sharon, thanks, as always. >>> be a better krabercombie & the holiday period prompted the company to hike its fourth quarter sales outlook. now they expect same-store sales to grow in the high single digits. initial guidance was that revenue growth would be in the low single digits. shares popped 12%. who said retail is dead? >>> higher commodity prices helped halliburton. they said their results were helped by improved revenue in the u.s. and overseas. hall l halliburton shares are up 6% to 56.40. and wynn resorts helped overall reverend nu revenues and earnings growth. it jumped 8% finishing the day at 195.23. >>> the insurance giant aig is property property and casualty reinsurer for just under $6 billion. the deal would expand its reach in the reinsurance market and add to earnings. aig shares fell fractionally to $61 evening. >>> the health care company array bio pharma is promising results from its study that tested the effectiveness in treating colorectal cancer. is resulted in an unp