Financial Planning

John Fuchs was checking his 401(k) account online one afternoon when he saw something that seemed amiss. Listed along with his regular contributions was a $48 charge, in red. That's odd, he thought. Why would anyone be taking money out of his account? After a flurry of phone calls and e-mails, Fuchs learned that the $48 deduction was no mistake.

Benny Wasserman may not be an Einstein, but he plays one on TV. Wasserman, 64 and retired, makes $7,000 or so a year acting the part of the fuzzy-haired genius in commercials (Store of Knowledge), print ads (Toshiba, Harley-Davidson) and movies ("Leave It to Beaver" and an Imax production now playing at Disney World). That's just pocket money, of course, from a sideline Benny started pursuing a few years ago as a lark.

With more than 10,000 mutual funds to choose from, many investors cringe at the task of making selections. With today's special quarterly fund report, The Times and independent research firm Morningstar Inc. provide several ways to evaluate funds--including measurements designed to help investors determine a fund's performance relative to its peers using Morningstar's revamped "star" system.

Kelsey Steinke thought of herself as a fairly bright college student -- except when it came to managing personal finances. "I knew very little," she said. "Not much at all." Compared to some of her peers, however, she was a downright prodigy. "I mean, there are some girls who don't know how to do laundry," she said. "If they can't do their laundry, how can they handle their finances?" That less-than-kind reality, coupled with a troubled economy that has frightened both novices and experts, has spurred renewed interest in teaching financial literacy to high school and college-age and younger students.

Americans older than 50 are better off financially than they were 20 years ago, but many are ill-prepared for old age, with only a third having private pensions and Social Security accounting for more than half of their retirement income after age 65, according to a report released last week.

Ellen and Ray Bluemel are retired and healthy, and figure their eight grandchildren will help them stay active for many more years. The question is whether their assets, damaged by plummeting real estate values, will last as long as they do. "I always tell people the good news is that we're living longer and the bad news is that we're living longer," said financial planner Delia Fernandez of Fernandez Financial in Los Alamitos.

In retrospect, Jack and Grace Harkness know that they should never have purchased a time share in Myrtle Beach. They'd never been to South Carolina. They hadn't planned to go there. Their vacations generally involved visiting relatives or heading to exotic locations such as China and Panama. But the salesman told them that they could use the time-share interest to swap for vacations around the world. And that seemed like a good idea.

Natalie Hickey left her small hometown in Ohio six years ago and aimed her beat-up Dodge Intrepid for the West Coast. Four years later, she realized a long-held dream and graduated with a bachelor's degree in photography from Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara. She also picked up $140,000 in student debt, some of it at interest rates as high as 18%. Her monthly payments are roughly $1,700, more than her rent and car payment combined.

For people who lack the time, expertise or inclination to put together their own retirement portfolios, asset management firms have increasingly marketed "target date" mutual funds as a no-worry, hassle-free solution. The idea: You put the bulk of your retirement savings into a fund pegged to your target date -- the approximate time you expect to retire. Over the decades, without any action by you, the fund's holdings gradually become more conservative, leaving you with a comfortable nest egg.

Is that a cup and handle? Do I see a "W" pattern on the chart in front of me? I am sitting in my den in Venice, staring at a computer screen, trying to discern these things. The charts I am scrutinizing are of stock prices, and I am trying to find the right one, the one that's behaving like a stock whose price is about to soar. Finally, I think I've found it, a ladle-looking image that marks the rise, fall and rise again of a company's worth in the market. This particular company, EZCorp Inc.

Fire and the resultant threat of flooding and mudslides forced Bronwen Aker from her family's longtime home in the Big Tujunga Wash -- and devastated her finances. Single after two divorces, she was living in the forest home she inherited from her grandmother when the Station fire rushed through last summer. The house survived, but the fire denuded the ground and severely increased the risk of flooding, compelling her to move out. Now, the 45-year-old Web developer is paying rent on a house in Canoga Park while also shelling out for taxes and other expenses on the home in Big Tujunga.

Here's a way to make your head explode in one hour or less: Start reading forecasts for the economy and markets in 2010 and try to decide who's likely to be right. Will interest rates rise? Will the recession return? Will the banking system crash again? And what kind of surprises, good or bad, might come out of left field? Every year is a crapshoot for forecasters, but this one is as tough a call as ever because there are so many outsized uncertainties involving government, companies and consumers in the aftermath of the financial-system meltdown.

Kelsey Steinke thought of herself as a fairly bright college student -- except when it came to managing personal finances. "I knew very little," she said. "Not much at all." Compared to some of her peers, however, she was a downright prodigy. "I mean, there are some girls who don't know how to do laundry," she said. "If they can't do their laundry, how can they handle their finances?" That less-than-kind reality, coupled with a troubled economy that has frightened both novices and experts, has spurred renewed interest in teaching financial literacy to high school and college-age and younger students.

Like many people who work on the less-than-glamorous fringes of the entertainment business, Hollywood location manager Dale Dreher does really well some of the time. The trouble is he doesn't always have a job. And that has made providing a reliable income for his wife, Ronnie, and two boys something of a struggle -- particularly over the last year. "I'm not sleeping well, that's for sure," said Dreher, 44, a freelancer like many people in his line of work. "Even when I'm making money, I'm still stressed because I have no plan for the future."

Bashing pint-size radio-controlled monster trucks around bumpy dirt tracks has always been a blast for Dan Dunst, who opened a hobby shop specializing in the pricey toys near downtown Los Angeles last year. But his store, VG Racing, was soon broadsided by the sour economy. Sales at the shop and its online sites have slipped over the last six months, and now Dunst and his wife, Sarah, have to figure out whether the company can continue. "I'm being run over," said Dunst, 50, who also designs and manufacturers custom roll cages for the zippy vehicles that sell for $250 to $800 or more.

Quick -- you have one minute to answer this question: If you had to make a decision today to reallocate money in your 401(k) plan or other investment account, would you sell stocks to buy bonds or sell bonds to buy stocks? This isn't just an academic exercise, of course. With the dramatic resurgence of financial markets since March, millions of investors are staring at their portfolios with a mix of joy and apprehension. People who stayed put in stocks and bonds have recouped a huge chunk of what was lost in the September-to-March crash.

Next year's budget is just about wrapped up at C28 Inc., a small business in Corona that designs and sells edgy Christian-themed clothes and jewelry for teens. C28's budget process isn't just an exercise in guessing sales and costs for 2010. It involves a hard look at what would happen if sales rose, fell or held steady. "Nobody likes surprises in business," said Kevin Miller, chief financial officer at the retailer and wholesaler, which employs 85 people and does about $12 million in annual sales.

For many couples, the financial crisis has come down to a test. How good are they at tackling tough money issues? The question for Lorne Epstein is this: business or pleasure? His wife, Alicia Korten, planned to take about a month off to recharge after more than a year of 80-hour workweeks at the consulting firm ReNual while writing a book called "Change Philanthropy." Joining her on the trip would cost him about $2,000.

Warren Buffett, whose market acumen spurred countless Americans to take their first steps as investors, is taking his insights to the online playground. The billionaire will tutor tots about finance in an Internet cartoon series scheduled to start this year or early next year, producers A Squared Entertainment and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL said in a statement. Martha Stewart, model Gisele Bundchen and the late astronomer Carl Sagan will also appear in their own series.

Like most parents, Rose Bloom dotes on her children, which means she's spending a lot of money toward their education and other needs. Bloom had raised her two offspring herself and thought little of sending her daughter to England to study for a month and helping her son buy a car as his high school graduation gift. "I try to help people all the time. I get sucked into that vortex," Bloom said. "I'm always at the bottom of the pile, which I don't mind."