nest egg

Question: I'm a 57-year-old dummy that had a nice nest egg of $805,000. My brokerage firm assigned a certified financial planner (CFP) to me, who made some costly mistakes, but I stayed with him.

This CFP left and the replacement adviser told me the CFP had done some unethical things. He then put me into other investments that went down and have penalties.

Now, no one will return my calls. Does this sound like unethical behavior? What should I do?

Day after day of bad news on Wall Street has left some Americans worrying over the fate of their investments.

But those who work in the financial services are suggesting that people stay calm and ride out the crisis.

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Question: I recently retired and visited a Certified Financial Planner on the advice of a friend. He developed a portfolio for me, at no charge, and presented me with an investment plan for a fee of 1.35% per annum.

I scrutinized all the paperwork he sent me. It seems that in addition to the 1.35%, there are a number of hidden fees, including various fund fees within the portfolio that he said nothing about.

What should I do?

Question: I have a pretty vanilla investment portfolio and an advisor who tells me to stay the course every time I call him while freaking out about the market.

This money is my nest egg. I invest conservatively with mutual funds not individual stocks/ bonds. In other words, should I stay the course or freak out and sell?

If you'd like to build a nest egg with your paycheck, it may be time to give up New York and head for Plano, Texas.

You don't have to be Warren Buffett to secure a decent nest egg. Saving early and often is more important than picking the right investments.

Turmoil in the stock market has people on edge, but Yale's investment guru, David Swensen, explains how his allocation strategy and rebalancing technique have earned consistent double-digit returns over the past two decades.

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With three teenage children, Lorri and Bruce Wilke of Danville, Calif. are caught in the perfect parental spending storm.

Between laptops, cell phones and clothes, the Wilkes seem to outgrow their budget the way kids outgrow shoes.

It's easy to select a good asset allocation for your nest egg on your own, but if you don't have the discipline to stay balanced, a target-date retirement fund could be your best option, says Money Magazine's Walter Updegrave.

If your company offers both a Roth 401(k) and a regular 401(k), investing in both may be your best option, says Money Magazine's Walter Updegrave.

But how much should you put into each?