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#BeReady: From mutual funds to bonds, your questions answered

From mutual funds, bonds to college savings, CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger answers your Twitter questions
#BeReady: Your financial spring cleaning questions answered 01:46

Doing some spring cleaning for your finances and have questions? CBS News financial analyst Jill Schlesinger has the answers.

Helen Milliron (@hmilliron): Do Quicken records suffice for proof or do you need the actual receipts?

Jill Schlesinger: They should, and certainly you don't want to have to hang on to every single one of those receipts, so I say go with Quicken.

Kellie Williams (@wfamily4): I own shares and several stocks and have a mutual fund. All is doing good now. I'm 53. When can I/should I cash out?

Jill Schlesinger: We're not going to try to actually time the market, but ideally you'd like to sell some of those individual shares and put them into a nice, blended portfolio of an asset allocation fund. You really can't go wrong that way. The individual risk of stocks can be tough.

NYGal (@andreajesus10): How do I stick to a budget?

Schlesinger: It is hard. Try to automate things as much as possible including your bill pay and your savings.

Elizabeth Godvik (@GodvikNewzGirl): Should we put extra money into our daughter's 529 plan (she's 1), our Roth IRAs or pay extra on the mortgage?

Schlesinger: I'm going to go for Roth, then 529 and probably not even worry about the mortgage right now. You've got bigger fish to fry.

J.P. Cunningham (@jpcauthor): Interest rate will go up soon. Can't abandon all equities and bonds. Disturbing. Shift away from bonds?

Schlesinger: When you own bonds, as interest rates rise, the value of your bonds goes down. One way to help you get a little bit of shielding from that event -- you can stick to shorter maturity bonds and higher quality bonds.

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