what would you say, i never asked you this, what's your key to understanding money? >> my question is we must live below our means and put a little away to build future. it gives cushion and that allows a less stressful life, quite frankly. >> this is why we've been fighting. >> you don't put money away. >> i think it's something you should use to get more money, seize opportunities, take measured risks. >> he likes to risk his, i like to save my, i don't want to lose it. that's frankly a way a lot of spenders and savers are. >> she has a minivan. >> and he has a motorcycle. a perfect metaphor. in our relationships or dealing with any part of this economy, our goal for you this hour is by the end of this hour, you will feel confident about money and be able to speak money in your job, with your mortgage banker, with your spouse, with a little more confidence. >> we wrote a book about it, but we didn't do it alone. here to help you for the hour, jeff garrier, lynette, cal fanni-fox, and louis barajas. welcome to all of -- >> we've talked about this before. there are people who think they can't speak money. they live paycheck to paycheck, maybe putting some in a 401(k), but beyond that it's a completely foreign language. that will hold them back? >> absolutely. speaking money, everybody speaks money. they're just not aware how they're speaking money, and what the money is for. the purpose of the money is a little better life. so how do we use for a better quality of life. >> it's not pursuit of the money at all costs. we're not about that. >> you say -- louis just said everybody speaks money. when your kid comes home with a report card that's not appropriate, are you mad because they didn't study or worried that my goodness, my kid's future just got flushed down the toilet, because he didn't do the right thing in math? lynette? >> and as a mom of three kids, i can attest to that. does that mean they're not going to have a good job, won't have the economic and career advancement that we all want? at the end of the day, when it comes to speaking money, it's true that we speak money every single day. we pay our credit card bills, fill up the gas tank, we worry about the mortgage, et cetera, et cetera, but for a lot of people, they don't feel confident about their skills in a certain area, maybe in investing space, long-term planning, insurance, whatever. that's the sort of overwhelming feeling that i think a lot of americans have. >> ali and i, jeff, ali is the spender, i'm the saver. >> and it physically pains me to see how she saves it. >> it's true. he makes his money grow, and mine is to make sure i have enough for three 529s and retirement for me. people are different, but that doesn't mean either of us is wrong. >> absolutely not. looking at what lynette is saying, when as parents we do have differences, it is important that we model these behaviors for our children, so that they do get a good balance of the parent who may want to risk more versus the one who may want to save more, as louis says, when it comes to speaking about money, it's important we do it in front of our children without making them crazy. we want to bring them into the culture of understanding what investment and saving is all about so that it becomes part of our lives. >> we don't do it in front of each other sometimes. when you're intimidated by money, doug, you deal with people i think they come to you as a financial planner, because they think they have money problems to solve, when in fact they're not talking the same language to each other. is not speaking money the same way to each other. >> oftentimes they haven't had those conversations together. getting in the room and speaking about it is one of the first times they have laid it all out there. it's something important to do, to understand where you are coming from, who is the saver, who is the spender. typically there is one or the other. you can survive when you have two savers. it's difficult to do that if you have two spenders. it's just a matter of opening the communication, like anything else in your life, getting it out there and understand you can get on a path to make it happen. >> what i often tell couples, i think god played a cruel joke on most of us who are married to a certain extent, to invariably pair up a spender with a saver. you really can get on the same financial page, and it's a matter of the communication. when they come to you, it's the first time they've ever talked about it or whatever, but couples need to realize if you have different money styles or personalities, once you start speaking money and assessing your joint goals, you can get on the same page and make it work. >> it can be a compromise, you learn from one another, you become less of a spender or less of a saver, where you try to find that balance. you do need the pro and the con in this thing, because ear not going anywhere, you're stuck in this climate of being comfortable. >> i think as people are attracted to each other, they offset each other, and it works well. those are some of the good things that come out of it. >> but the problem is for some people, financial planning, money is about a product. for other people it's about a process. you're looking to create opportunities, what products are out there available for you. you're thinking when i get to a certain age, i don't want to be stressed out, i don't want to live on the streets. i want to be financially comfortable. even though you may have the same result, you'll approach it differently. if you don't. >> the things have changed recently. there are a lot of people planning for the future planning for the right now. what i hope in the next 45, 50 minutes, we can talk about even if you're planning for the right now you're still putting away for the future. that's what the whole goal is for everyone. >> so the whole point of speaking money, which you and i have learned, if you kind of roughly speak the same language, you know the vocabulary, louis just said buy in. you can buy into the other person's approach. if i kind of get where you're coming from, it makes it easier to understand. >> and you finally realize i'm right. >> many times over the last decade. >> we fight about money and the difference we're going to do it, one of us is an over-spender, one an underspender. can you guess the answer and why it's so important to understand? and how to fix it -- fix him, next. 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[ male announcer ] as you wish, business pro. as you wish. go national. go like a pro. now through january earn a free day with every two rentals. find out more at nationalcar.com. vietnam, 1967. i got mine in iraq, 2003. u.s.a.a. auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation, because it offers a superior level of protection and because u.s.a.a.'s commitment to serve the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. u.s.a.a. we know what it means to serve. where they grow america's favorite wpotatoes. idaho, everyone knows idaho potatoes taste great. but did you know they're good for you too? they're high in vitamins and potassium. and idaho potatoes are now certified to carry the heart checkmark from the american heart association for foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol. so they're good for my family, and for yours. heart smart idaho potatoes. always look for the grown in idaho seal. this won't be the last argument through the hour. time to deal with a subject ali hates, saving money. i'm exaggerating. you don't like your money not sitting there doing anything. >> i can't imagine is in a bank account in the badger of a window in a bank in chicago where you get 0.8%. >> har a percent you get from the bank, that means you get less than that. but me, i'm so afraid of risking money that i lose opportunities. so the point here is we have to figure out what you want your money to do for you and how you get there. that's budgeting, long-term financial, a lot of scary stuff that people don't like to talk about. mostly in america these days, it's about debt. that causes people a lot of tension. >> yeah. >> but can't go into this willy nilly. you need a plan, that's why we've written a book for this. doug flynn, and our great panel are with us. let's talk about retirements and budget. how do people who haven't -- this is whether you're a couple or you're just on your own. how do you start the process? how do you start the conversation? >> no one likes to budget. they don't want to know how much they spend on gifts for each other. >> but it's like a diet, if you don't keep track of every calorie, just because you don't want to know the calculation. >> and most people don't have enough money to do everything they want to do. there's only x amount of dollars out of every month. it's a good thing you have to start saving. once you save enough, then you can become an investor, that's the second part, but you have to know where is your money going? if you have enough money at the end of each month, you can start putting it towards specific goals. some people need help. if they can't find any money out of there, there's money being lost. >> a simple way to look at it 70/10/10/10. >> we clients with a piggy bank that as the one -- >> you gave one to me. >> with 70% and three piggies with 10/10/10. >> we have clients, we give a piggy bank. one with 70%, three with 10, 10, 10. your kids are looking at you, and what are ugh doing and not doing? >> this is a great lesson for kids to understand about choices. after you earn money, that's how you get it. you don't marry it, inherit it, win the lottery. if you want sustainable security, financial security over the lifetime, everybody has to work for a living. after that, there's only four things can you do with money -- save it, spend it, invest it or donate it. i have a piggy bank with four different slots instead of the one little slot. >> a real money coach. >> we -- when i ask them what's their top values, they say their marriage or kids, and i said where in your budgeting, does it show you're investing in your marriage or in the self-esteem of your children? where are you investing in yourself to get yourself more valuable for this global economy? you'll never see that on a budget. so there's a percentage that's missing for growth. again going back to the original quality of life issues. and you'll never see it on a budget. so i allow for that. >> lynette will inspire you for a minute. before you can have a budget and quite frankly grow your wealth, you have to dig out of the debt you've already put together. lynette dug out of $100,000 worth of debt. 100 grand. it's awful to admit. >> but you did it. >> that's correct, a decade ago i had $100,000 in credit card bills alone. it's awful, i know it of course now. i took three years, i paid it off. i never missed a single payment and i wrote a book about it. zero debt, ultimate guide to financial freedom. i knew if i got out of there are 100 in credit card debt, the average household that's holding about $10,000 could do the same. >> most people have -- if they have a mortgage they may have that kind of debt, so that's remarkable that you can do that. >> jeff, let's bring you in. you're a clinical psychologist, you understand how people work on this stuff. and there are a couple points we want to bring up. the first thing is you have to have meaningful conversations. everybody here has said the same thing. people don't say we've been talking about money for years with each other, now we want your expertise. you have to initiate the conversation. even if somebody else isn't bringing it up. it is easy for two partners not to bring it up. you need to be honest about yourself and with your partner about your financial situation. >> and your goals. what you want your money to do for you. >> exactly. this conversation really is about the only thing that you have to fear is fear itself. christine, you said this, you're afraid of what's at the end of perhaps not so much of that rainbow, and therefore we get into this whole idea if we don't talk about it, the issues will go away. well, you have to open it up. it's really just taking the first step of just having the conversation and a series of conversations, being willing to take advice from one another, dealing with the goods news, the bad news, but you know the greatest news? you're actually addressing it, and that really is the very, very first step. >> i speak -- i spend -- i know that you need $250,000 out of pocket for medical expenses in ten years of retirement. i know i'm not saving enough for that and my 529 plans and other things. that makes me nervous. better to know it and face it. >> even beyond the numbers and seemingly scary statistics, there's a fundamental reason why most couples don't talk about money. some of them have fear of what they've done or failed to do. they don't want to be judged. they don't want to say, yeah, i had bad credit in the past, i made financial mistakes, i filed bankruptcy, i lost my home. i was unemployed and the bills got out of hand. people don't want to address issues, because they feel like they're going to be personally judged or called on. >> we could talk about this for hours. louis, you said something i want to get to after the break. you talked about preparing yourself for a global economy. the language of money is entirely global, whether here in china, germany, anywhere else. understanding this new world order of money and its effect on you is critical. we're going to explain in just a minute. make sure you get on twitter to talk to both of us on "how to speak money." if you have questions, tweet us and we'll help you become fluent in the world's most important language -- money. m getting new insurance. marjorie, you've had a policy with us for three years. it's been five years. five years. well, progressive gives megan discounts that you guys didn't. paperless, safe driver, and i get great service. meredith, what's shakin', bacon? they'll figure it out. getting you the discounts you deserve. now, that's progressive. call or click today. just a second. just, just one second. ♪ what are you looking at? don't look up there. why are you looking up? ♪ get outta the car. get outta the car. ♪ are you ok? the... get in the car. get in the car! [ male announcer ] the epa estimated 42 mpg highway chevy cruze eco. for wherever life takes you. outhwash, toothpaste and mouth wetting lonzenges - guaranteed effective on all types of bad breath and dry mouth. nothing works faster than therabreath. visit therabreathforfree.com in order to speak money around the world, let's make sure we're all speaking the same language. when it comes to this term "globalization." this is a term that's come to mean a lot of things, but what it describes is the growing number of people and nations with the access to the benefits of modernization, the ability to prosper, to get richer, to participate in this global economy. bottom line, when you're thinking about a job for yourself or your kids, you've got to think about careers that are either global in scope or give you access to this whole idea of globalization. >> that's because this is the way the world is going. but the problem for americans, ali, is how many people can go to china or india to get their next job. it's one of the pieces of advice you hear. you can argue about whether you should be going where the jobs are. i want to bring in thomas freidman. tom, one thing about globalization, is it is changing the way the world works, faster than american workers ease skills can change. we hear a lot from experts on job placement, that you should be sending your college graduate kid to china or india totals a job. my worry for the vast number of people that is not feasible in any scope. how do average families make globalization work for them? >> the think you have to understand is globalization has its up and down sides. our goal should be to cushion the worst and take advantage of the best. what is the best? the best is the fact if i have the spark of an idea now, i can they'll design it, and skip over to, and jump over to amazon, jeff bezos about dot my delivery. freelancer.com will do the logo, get an accountant on craigslist. basically these are commodities, actually available to everyone. you would be amazed, people accessing a system where my customers can be global, my suppliers can be global, and my collaborators can be global overnight. that's happening everywhere. >> is america's education system churning out people who are able to take advantage of globalization and advance their own family's well-being, or do we still have a disconnect with how fast the world is moving and how fast america is responding? >> we have both extremes, basically. we have a system producing the very people who are designing and driving the whole technological architecture of this new globalization platform, and we have people who are just so behind, they don't have a high school degree and can't possibly access it. >> tom, the bottom line, let's take it back to education. we do know, for those people who have lost jobs in manufacturing to what they call globalization, or as we argue sometimes, the advent of technology that would have eliminated some of those jobs anyway, we do have opportunities for younger people. i have countless ceos tell me the best thing a kid can do is an internship in another country where there's a different language, the ability to learn that language. can young americans equip themselves for this new globalized world? >> no question. first of all, let's understand one thing. if horses could vote there never would have been cars. so this technological churn is going to happen. it's inevitable. the question is how you get the most out of it. the way you get the most is you've got to lean into this world. one piece of advice i always give is think like a new immigrant. new immigrant thinks i'm in this new country, there's no legacy place waiting for me at harvard. i've got to approach this world by understanding where the opportunities are and make sure i pursue them with more energy and vigor than anyone else we're all new immigrants to the hyper connected world finches the big competition is china. ali and i agree it's both those things, as you point out the two very extremes, so china, how important is it that the united states deal with china in a sensitive way so that we don't have protectionism, so that we don't have these two countries at odds instead of as secretary of state hillary clinton says rowing in the same boat in the same direction. >> we have to be very telephone -- tough with them. they have very -- they fiddle a lot with trade laws in a way that force u.s. companies to transfer their intellectual property there. that's been going on for a long time. all our strengths are hiding in plain sight. we do have a free economy. we have a place from google is not censored, where we imagine ideas. look at apple. apple to me has always been the model. imagine it here, design it here, okay? orchestrate the global supply chain here and use china where you can for the assembly, the lower skilled labor jobs and there's a huge market. we need -- or motto needs to be not always made in america, but imagined in america or orchestrated in america. that's where the high value-added jobs will be. >> tom, you're excited about it. i know you're troubled by some of the direction of things are going as well. so you're not sugar quoting it. -- coating it. so are we, tom freidman is the author of "that's used to be us" how america fell behind in the world it invented and how we come back. good to talk with you. >> thank you. your view? china? >> absolutely both. and how the u.s. manages its relationship. ip kred -- incredibly important. >> but you out there, we outline some of them in the book, very specifically to take advantage of this as it's happening. it's the battle of the sexes how to speak money edition. women are increasingly controlling the money, but i have an important message. it has to do with how you manage your money and how you manage money with the men in your lives. that's next. 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[ ding ] oh, that's helpful! well, our company does that, too. actually, we invented that. it's like a sauna in here. helping you save, even if it's not with us -- now, that's progressive! call or click today. no mas pantalones! okay. women earn less than men for the same jobs. one major problem -- women tend to ask for less money. this becomes an issue, not being aggressive in getting that race can be a big drop-off. it's not necessarily trying to be more like men and be aggressive, but getting in there and advocating for yourself or having someone advocate for you. >> i don't know whether you came up with it or someone told you about this i always heard you say about when negotiating for a salary, always ask for something that ends in a three. >> never give the number first and always end with a 3, and then you have a smile on your face. they say why 53? why 103? because i ended with a three, i'm smiling and i'm worth it. >> men don't take that approach. they tend to be more aggressive, suggesting they're worth more than anyone suggested they are worth. they also invest more aggressively. some of you may or may not like this, and i think there's a valid argument here, but women and men often speak a different language when it comes to money. don't take it from me. let's bring in jeff gardere. he's a clinical psychologist. first of all, do you believe that's true? we've seen studies that both the behaviors and outcomes are different when it comes to women and men, negotiating, when it comes to investing. >> i think it was true for many, many years. now we're seeing it changing, especially with unemployment rates and men have been affected by that more than women. i think women are taking more of an assertive approach, but all of that goes around the socialization of our children. we tend to socialize our daughters to be seen and not hear, and our boys to be heard and to be seen. therefore women adopt that approach based on that upbringing, so do men, and i think that is being flipped upsidedown now, because women have much more than this they bring to the table. we realize in many ways they are superior financially, in that they do take the time to think a lot more to the whole picture, because they're in the workplace, they're in the home, so therefore they can see more of that global, that bigger pictures. >> one of the experience in our book was so adamant about this point, sports might be a reason. men are negotiating for i'm going to be the first batter up, or i'm going to pick you to be on my team. and girls are tending to do different things that involve negotiating together and mutual consensus. >> what's good for the whole group. >> exactly. >> women, again, i'll make this quick. it's almost like a relationship. what do women go for in a relationship? they go for more security, someone who has a deeper personal, more complex personality. what do men go for? the short term, what does she look like? what can i get out of it right now? that's the same way men tend to negotiate their jobs. give me the big money, i want it right now, instead of looking at the benefits and how one can sustain one's self throughout a job. >> not getting a $5,000 raise for a woman at the age of 22, is worth about half a million over the course of a lifetime. so not going for the raise, getting the raise, so even for whatever reasons, many will say it's simply women are paid less for lots of different reasons, including discrimination, that's real money. that's real money, doug. >> i cannot tell you the number of women who i know who have been underpaid on the job, undervalued and scared to ask for a raise. they feel like if i asked, i don't want to seem like i'm tooting my own horn. they feel like i got this offer, should i counter? what if they give the job to somebody else willing to make less money? many women definitely feel at a disadvantage at the bargaining table when it comes to the jobs. >> i will tell you working with clients over 20 years, and unfortunately i have a lot of widows as clients as time has gone on. i found that the longer you work with somebody, a woman in particular, eventually they can be on the exact same plain as a man. once any crunch the numbers, it may take more time to come around, but they can be exactly identical in terms of risk level. how they set up portfolios. they don't come in that way, but just explaining it and what you need to do to get there, they're very smart obviously, and they can figure it out and get on the same plain. >> that's why a lot of women are being unemployed less than men, because the men came in with the huge numbers, the big impact, a deep impact i called it, whereas the women were smarter in looking at more of a long-term picture. that's why guys are being laid off much quicker, and women are staying employed. as we take you into the area of taking fuller control of your financial life -- to buy or not to buy? it's a question that many of you want answered. do you buy, sell, rent? we'll get into all of that next. . in louisiana. . they came to see us in florida... nice try, they came to hang out with us in alabama... once folks heard mississippi had the welcome sign out, they couldn't wait to get here. this year was great but next year's gonna be even better. and anyone who knows the gulf knows that winter is primetime fun time. the sun's out and the water's beautiful. you can go deep sea fishing for amberjack, grouper and mackerel. our golf courses are open. our bed and breakfast have special rates. and migrating waterfowl from all over make this a bird watcher's paradise. so if you missed it earlier this year, come on down. if you've already been here come on back... to mississippi... florida... louisiana... alabama. the gulf's america's get-a-way spot no matter where you go. so come on down and help make 2012 an even better year for tourism on the gulf. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. where they grow america's favorite wpotatoes. idaho, everyone knows idaho potatoes taste great. but did you know they're good for you too? they're high in vitamins and potassium. and idaho potatoes are now certified to carry the heart checkmark from the american heart association for foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol. so they're good for my family, and for yours. heart smart idaho potatoes. always look for the grown in idaho seal. this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy a house. >> you've been telling me that for a year. >> christine will tell me why i'm completely wrong, but i'm going to go first on this one. i've been saying it for so long. i figure i might as well give you my argument. number one, you will never, never in your life see interest rates go as low as they have gone. they are as low as they've ever been historically. when you buy a house, most people think of the price. most people say i think prices will go down another 5%. if you are like most americans who buy a home with a mortgage, that might be 15 or 30 years, locking in a long-term mortgage at this low interest rate will be more valuable to you than whether or not your house goes up by 5% or 10%. if you're buying it with cash, that part of the equation doesn't work, but the second thing is you look at these prices. houses are more affordable. for all the bad side we've seen about this, the foreclosures and people who had to sell their houses, there are more available houses. not a quick fix. i'm not saying do this instead of investing in the stock market or preparing your 401(k), but if you're looking for a place to live and want to be there for a long time, this might be. >> if you don't have a credit score of 720 and don't have down payment, it might be more important to repair your personal finances and rent a couple years, but don't take on too much house, that you can afford, that your income stream is good, and i'm an advocate of multigenerations moving in together. this is an important new wave of the future. the old idea of one household, one house, one or two working people in that house, that almost bankrupts people. >> and i don't have a bushel of kids, so multigeneration would give you baby-sitting. >> i need my mother to come live with me, and that would shorten a lot of our costs. robert, help me out, who is right, ali or christine? >> i think it differs by person. maybe that's what you were saying. it depends on your circumstance. also, we just don't know. you know, interest rates have been declining for 30 years, and they've reached an all-time low. so i don't know whether they're going to go up immediately or not. the consensus forecast seems they'll go up a little bit, but it's not clear -- and we don't know what -- i hate to say this, nobody knows. i don't know. nobody else knows either. how could anybody know after the biggest bubble in history, after the near miss of a depression. it's fundamental uncertainty right now. it's really a lost decade for housing, if you look at the wealth that's been lost. some people spent the money built up in their homes to send kids to college, to live a middle-class life, maybe even if things were getting tide tighter. was that a mirage in the housing market that is never coming back? >> i think it's pretty clear it was a mirage, talking about 2005 or 2006. home prices reached levels never seen before. it's not part of a long-term trend. it was way beyond. it was a bubble, something that happened to our thinking that got us crazy. that doesn't mean we won't go back there. we could have another bubble, but it doesn't seem imminent. look at the situation. we're not about to embark on another housing boom, i don't think. >> it certainly doesn't feel like it. >> doesn't feel like that. robert, if you are making the decision whether or not to -- whether to buy or rent is often very personal. it's got to do with your circumstances the. if you don't know if ul's -- you'll's be somewhere awhile, buying versus renting, where do you fall on that? >> well, it's a lifestyle thing. rental properties are different. it is a matter of family situation. soy think you said it right. if i had a young family, want to settle down, get into a good school system, i would -- there's probably some good bargains out there, i'm sure there are, and mortgage rates are at an all time low, definitely do it. but don't do it in anticipation of a boom to make you a lot of money. i don't know how many people are thinking that way. some people i'm sure still are >> robert, it's interesting. you mentioned a good school district. i also advocated in the book as well, if you need to rent to be in a good school district, that might be important. we know a good education is also an investment in your family. so i feel as though that 1990s, 2000s everyone's got to have a house, it's really much more complicated than that now. >> i remember in early 2000s a young woman told me she wasn't going to get an mba, because she had put so much money into a house. what a tragedy. what a mistake. >> that's entirely the wrong decision. >> yeah. human capital. >> human capital. >> human capital matters more, and your children matter more than your house. this idea you have to have a big and beautiful house to impress people is way overrated. i mean, you can get on -- live in a modest apartment, and send your kids to a good school. that makes more sense to me. >> and you don't have to pay the $1200 plumbing bill when something happens. that's another advantage, we profile a guy named sander clark, he's young, maybe want to move to the west coast, he doesn't want to buy a place, because then we wouldn't be able to move for his job. robert schiller, good to see you. thanks so much. i'm going to tell you ways to make money with your money. >> she's finally listening. and get on twitter to talk to both of us about how to speak money. after you've read the book, if you have questions, tweet us. we will help you become fluent in the world's most important language, money. welcome back to the special edition of "your money" how to speak money. never before have savers been awarded so little for stashing money in a bank account or cd. is there any way to park year money. to make money? from least risky to most risky. there's your mattress, of course, the least risky, but it's a bad idea. it's not guaranteed by the federal government, and it won't grow. in fact with inflation your money gets less valuable every year that you leave in here. what about a bank account? you know the answer to this. the pro is it's insured by the federal government in case the bank goes belly up, up to $250,000 an account. the con is you're not getting any money on in. your next option, slightly more risky, though, but with more potential for reward, stocks with dividends. the company pays you interest on each share that you own. one example, altria, the parent company of phillip morris. it's going to pay 6%, merck and pfizer also pay dividends. almost 5%. hundreds of companies do this, but to keep your risk low, stick with large cap, blue chip stocks with a history of raising dividends over several years. with more risk comes more reward. how about high-yield exchange-traded funds or etfs? with these you can pick a basket of stocks. these are some of the most popular high-yielding etfs wisdom tree, van guard. finally, high-yield mutual funds. when you contribute money to a mutual fund, along with thousands of small investors, a fund manager with that money. these are often ranked by the fees and performance of pimco and fidelity are some of the top ranked funds. ali? >> it's very hard. the people who were the most responsible and worst savers and now in the light of this recession, want to be the most responsible, will not be rewarded for that at all. it's unfair, it's terrible, but it is the way it is. doug flynn, you have people that come to you with these questions. they're just, i don't have the appetite for more risk. what do you tell them? >> that's a good point. in the book we have a detail risk profile. i think that's something that deserves to be looked at. i think you might have more appetite than you think with goals 20, 30 years away, goals a year or two away, you shouldn't have anything to do with the stock market, but people contend to put everything in one big bucket. if you separate into your goals, you can start thinking like hey, long-terms goals i can be more aggressive with, but short-term things, savings and money i need tomorrow should have nothing to do with that. and money i need tomorrow should have nothing to do with that. i don't worry if the market goes down 20%. you to start looking at it and thinking about it that way. that's the beginning of developing a portfolio and getting comfortable with investing. two bad things can happen to people when they start investing. you do really, really well or do really, really poorly. and if you do really well, you tend to take bigger and bigger bets until the whole thing caves in. if you do poorly, like the people that invested in the last ten years in the market, they have been burned, haven't made anything, they might shy away from investing for the rest of their lives. that's not going to do it either. >> interest rates are so low, so low. that's because the government is trying to spur, the fed is trying to spur economic activity. >> get people to borrow and get people to take advantages. >> if you're on a fixed income, you're not getting any money for your money. you're not getting rewarded for saving and that hurts a lot of people who don't have a big means. >> it is. most of the miss takes atakes, talking about an older person who put in more money and they want to move to a higher yield, if their interest rates start going up, their principal rate will fall. they're looking at their statement at the end of the month and they lost $20,000. they get scared, pull the money out. >> and book the loss. >> and they book the loss. what is happening, it is all based on emotional. we know that people will earn a lot less because they get scared when the market goes down, just like we have now. and they do have money underneath the mattress. a lot of people do. >> let me ask you this, doug has a practice where he deals with a lot of people who have -- they may not have talked to each other about money but they have a level of sophistication about money. you and lynette, you deal with a lot of people who, this is their first foray into having a conversation with somebody about their finances. how do you approach this differently? generally speaking, the less sophistication and experience and comfort you have with money, the more conservative you are likely to be. >> that's right. you know, lou brought up a point earlier that i think is very relevant here. he said, process versus products. and that's one of the things i tell people who are novices, frankly, to the stock market or world of investing, do not worry about specific investment products. what is the hot stock of 2011 or 2012? what is the best mutual fund? that's the wrong focus. you should be thinking about the process of investing, which is simply, in my view, a five-phase process. strategizing to meet your own personal goals and needs, buying the right investments, holding and monitoring the assets in your portfolio, selling in a judicious manner and tax efficient way for the right reason, with the sale discipline or sales strategy behind it, and then the fifth phase of the investing process is working effectively with financial advisers. your cpa, your accountant. >> just remember, you said they're conservative. i think this is why people get ripped off. there are a lost financial predators, you get 1% in the bank, you're seeing a lot of gold commercials now and financial predators for the novices, people just starting to learn. >> for people who are afraid. >> they don't have enough. when you don't have enough, you want to win the lottery. these little people are standing in line to win the lotto tickets. they want nothing and make a lot of money the very next day and so they get greedy. greed or fear. then they lose a lot of money. you have to be very careful not to -- >> the strategy part of what lynette said is good. i think we all agree, i guess that's kind of our point. if you understand a little bit more about how to speak money, you will simply be less -- >> that's what you have to go basic. educate yourself, buy the book, how to speak money. you didn't pay me to say that. the important thing is, finance is not sexy. and a lot of people will bypass that in the newspapers, the magazi magazines. instead of reading vampire no l novels like i do, get a book on financing and get educated and you'll be a little more into the comfort zone and understand it a little bit better. >> i appreciate that. i would add one thing, you speak the language slightly differently depending on your age. that's in your investments. depending what you need that money to do for you. the way you hear money, when you're 20 is different than at 40 and different at 60. that's really important. it has to be a conversation evolving throughout your working and retirement -- >> in the book, we have an entire chapter dedicated to just being a quiz for you, so this isn't a general conversation this is something you go through and you pick every one of those things and it tells you where you fall into that whole gate. this is a fascinating conversation. i wish we could continue talking about it. jeff guardier, thank you for joining us. doug flynn, a pleasure to see you. lynette cox, the founder of ask the money coach.com. and lewis barahas, thank you for being with us. fights over money may be the leading cause of divorce in this country. christine and i have made it through this book and this hour and we still want to work together. >> hypothetically speaking we made it together through the hour. you're right. since you made it this far with us, you should be a lot more confident, we hope, about your own financial situation. it was a lot to digest in one hour. coming up, we'll share the one thing we feel you need to make sure you know, that you learned when it comes to how to speak money. ♪ imagine me and you, i do ♪ i think about you day and night ♪ ♪ it's only right ♪ to think about the girl you love ♪ ♪ and hold her tight ♪ so happy together [ male announcer ] when life changes, so can your insurances needs. use travelers free guide to better coverage to stay prepared. is your auto and home insurance keeping up with you? contact your local travelers agent, or call 800-my-coverage. you know, throughout the process of writing this book, we came across a lot of people who really said that they were intimidated by the conversation. >> smart people, really smart people. >> people smart in other areas of their lives, confident in other areas of their lives and in their business, their job, their profession, in politics, in news. but for some reason, when it came to money, it was more intimidating. i think of the fact that i don't really know much about auto mechanic, but when something goes wrong with my car, i know the route to take to get it done and get it fixed and compare. that's the approach you have to take with money. and if you do it, it becomes less intimidating. we just can't live under this rock where money is a little bit scary to us, so we're not going to take charge of our own. >> i think the most important takeaway on money is that it is happening all around you, happening in politics, you're speaking money when you vote, every time you go to the grocery store, choosing the name brand over the grocery store brand. it is how you're choosing to push your children in what areas because, you know, we talk about this, science, technology, engineering, math, these are important growing areas of the economy. is your family ready to position itself for those things. every step you take is really speaking money. whether you know you're doing it or not. >> all this discussion about the election, it is all money as well. these are all really important points. i guess one of the other things we thought about is that people speak money differently. sometimes they speak the same language, but they speak it with different accents. >> you and i speak money differently. but in the end, we come from the same place, which is that you need to live slightly below your means, right, to grow your wealth, to grow your wealth, not for selfish reasons, but for comfort and a cushion. >> and to protect your kids and your family and to help them be successful. thank you for watching this special hour of "your money," how to speak money. the book is available online and in your local bookstores. >> we wrote all the book for all of you out there and want to hear what you think. ask