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