Jill on Money: Oscars, retirement investing

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We now have a record for the youngest caller ever to the show! 14 year-old Louie listens to the show on WCCO in Minneapolis and needed advice about whether or not to spend money on new cymbals. Musician friends of mine say that he should check out sweetwater.com or musiciansfriend.com. Meanwhile, Stephen and Frank are a bit older than Louie, but both are in the early part of their financial journeys and need advice about where to focus their attention.

Shifting gears, we fielded a bunch of retirement planning questions. David from KY is weighing whether to start drawing on a straight life annuity now or wait until the value rises?

Barbara from CA is trying to allocate her $110K portfolio, the majority of which is in cash; married listeners in Georgia are having a hard time balancing different levels of risk tolerance as they invest for the future; Tony from Louisville works for a company with a 401 (k) that provides only limited options - what should he do?

Karen from IN wants to swap her whole life insurance for term and Marc is investigating whether variable annuities make sense for his wife's retirement plan assets. (Um, no!)

We covered the gamut on investment questions-from Berkshire Hathaway (Tim), to triple tax-free bonds (Tom) and of course, a riff on why buying individual stocks is usually a sucker bet (Eric).

Jack from Houston and Greg from Louisville had mortgage pay down questions, while Jeff is trying to help his parents keep their house and Marlene is trying to refinance to reduce monthly payments.

Carl has a choice about corporate benefits and Patti wants to know which retirement account to tap to pay her upcoming property tax bill.

Here are web sites and resources mentioned in this week's show:

-- Jill's Blog

-- How to Choose a Financial Advisor: 10 Questions

-- NAPFA: National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (fee-only advisors)

-- Best CD Rates

-- E, EE and I Savings Bonds

-- The ABCs of Annuities: 6 Questions to Ask

-- The Pros and Cons of Annuities

-- Immediate Annuity Calculator

-- Annuity salespeople don't like me

-- Social Security: Manage your account online

-- Social Security estimator

-- When to take Social Security?

-- Social Security: File and Suspend

-- Social Security: Double-Dipping

-- Medigap insurance

-- Retirement Calculator

-- Retirement Plan Required Distribution Calculator

-- Long-term Care - US government web site

-- Long term care conundrum

-- Life Expectancy Calculator

-- Life Insurance calculator

-- Financial documents: What to shred, what to keep

-- Estate Planning: the Documents You Need

-- NYT Rent vs. Buy Calculator

-- Re-Fi Calculator

-- Another Re-Fi Calculator

-- Reverse mortgage info via HUD

-- Reverse Mortgages: Don't let the Fonz sell you

-- 529 plan info

-- College Loans: What you need to know

-- Student Loan Consolidation

-- Money As You Grow

-- National Foundation for Credit Counseling

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world. If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE

Send an email: [e-mail]

Tweet me: @jillonmoney

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