Getting Personal
Chris Farrell and Tess Vigeland help listeners navigate the murky waters surrounding AIG, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and other ailing financial firms.
Getting Personal (Marketplace)
More on The Economy, Wall Street, Commentaries
Links
- Audio: Getting Personal (Part 2)
Each week on Marketplace Money, host Tess Vigeland looks at the week's major national and international stories that will impact the average listener's wallet. - Blog: Getting Personal
Comments
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From Altamonte Springs, FL, 09/25/2008
I spent this week reviewing my portfolios to assess my exposure to potentially failing investments. I found I have a bond that matures in 12 months that my broker tells me is AIG's. (It's called American Financial General.) My broker says the bailout loan makes it safe. This is the same broker that talked me out of my request to sell my Bear Stearns holdings 5 days before they melted. How safe are AIG investments these days?
From York, PA, 09/24/2008
What ever happend to "private mortgage insurance" (PMI) requirement for those who had less than a 20% downpayment and why hasn't that prevented the mortgage crisis and the resulting meltdown of the housing market?
From Pasadena, CA, 09/23/2008
I understand that it is a good idea to have a home-equity line of credit as insurance just in case something bad happens. We don't need the money at this time, and as long as I keep my job we won't need the money.
We have savings equal to a year's worth of salary in an investment account. We also have a 2/3 equity stake in our home -- even using an extremely conservative valuation (using 75% of the value in Zillow).
We had an home-equity line of credit that has expired (we had 5 years to draw on it -- we used a little for a remodel and are now in the pay-down stage.) Should we go out and get another line of credit?
From Bethesda, MD, 09/22/2008
I own 2000 shares of stock in Lehman Brothers. I keep hearing that the stock is gone, but it is still trading around $0.20/share and 100 million shares per day. What do entity do my shares represent? Could the rescue plan change the fate of Lehman? The share price went from $0.05 to $0.22 on 9/19.
Thanks
From seattle, WA, 09/21/2008
would this be a good time to refinance our home mortgage? we have an interest only loan that is fixed for 10 years currently at 6.375 that we're 2 years into. we have little debt, great credit but no major assets and our pymt. is as high as we can take as my husband only works part time since he is also watching our newborn.
09/21/2008
My question is about common stock in Fannie Mae (FNM). I purchased the stock years ago at between $40-$50 a share and sold most of it not long ago at about $25 a share. The thing is: all that time and up until this time I've been buying shares by automatically transferring $100 a month from my checking account to buy additional shares. Should I stop doing that in light of recent developments, or keep going -- since $100 buys a lot more shares at -$1 than it did when share prices were 40 or 50 times higher?
09/20/2008
If I have a $100,000 CD with 4 beneficiaries named, does the FDIC insurance cover each beneficiary up to $100,000 also? In other words, would that account have up to $500,000 in FDIC insurance?
From Alexandria, VA, 09/20/2008
I have a 403b account in VALIC, a subsidiary of AIG. The total is just under $100,000. Most of it is in a fixed income account and some is in large cap stocks. I am already of retirement age but have not started taking money from this annuity. What is going to happen to my money? Will I still get the guaranteed income under the fixed account?
From Breckenridge, CO, 09/20/2008
My husband & I are facing bankruptcy due to a variety of accumulated circumstances. We have an opportunity to settle with our credit card holders (there are MANY) but still cannot afford to settle the full amount. Would there be any benefit in terms of our credit score to resolving some of these on our own and limiting the number of accounts that are involved in the bankruptcy, or does it not matter?
09/20/2008
I have a large portion of my deferred comp invested in fixed income through AIG-Valic and cannot move it until I retire in two years. Is my money guaranteed by a governmental authority or do I have any options? My calls to Valic don't go through.
From north oaks, MN, MN, 09/20/2008
Two questions:
1. Can a person have $100,000 FDIC in any number of banks?
2. Are the executives, who oversaw the companies now being bailed out by the government, going to get compensated for their failures, and if so, what amount of money can they expect?
From Pendleton, IN, 09/20/2008
Would this be a good time to pay off my mortgage? (about 140K) I would need to sell municipal bonds (4%ish) that are above par.
Brad
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