Pay the bills, cook dinner, help with homework ... we get the daily "to dos" done (mostly) but do we take time to plan for the future? Today I was teaching a lesson called Planning for "What If...?" as in what if I'm disabled or divorced? Or, what if I die? And, as I was talking about the importance of making sure that your legal documents are up-to-date, it occurred to me that my will is critically out-of-date! Life changes. My will (and my husband's) was created when our children were babies – and now our twin sons just turned 18 years! WOW! What do you want to bet that our will could use some updating!

Now, that I have publically declared that our will is out-of-date, stay tuned for our journey as we find an attorney, make some new hard decisions about "what if" we were to die, and go through the process of creating a will.

And, while we're on the subject, is your will current? Do you have a plan if you were disabled and couldn't work? Do you have disability insurance? Read more about these Planning for "What If...?" topics at http://www.ace.uiuc.edu/cfe/whatif/index.html .

A more upbeat related topic is planning for your retirement. Right now (as the temperature drops steadily and a big snowstorm is forecast for Central Illinois), retiring to a place warm and sunny is very appealing. The Plan Well, Retire Well website has a section on goal setting, and the very first website activity in that section is called "What's Important in Your Retirement." After you get the chore of updating your will done, take time to plan for the fun in your retirement.

Comments? E-mail to RetireWell@uiuc.edu Comments will be posted.

Unless you've been living in a cave for the last little while, you cannot have missed all the stock market news. I'll leave it to the media and economists to debate the likelihood of a recession and to make predictions about the future. I want to talk about how this is affecting you as an investor.

How's your stomach for this kind of investment risk? And are you doing the right things to manage your fear? In the February Money Magazine, several experts were asked how they are dealing with this volatile market. I really like some of the answers, such as not watching the financial news on TV.

I will second that idea. Don't immerse yourself in news about financial markets. It's great to educate yourself about financial issues, but that's not what you're doing when you're checking your stock's price on your cell phone every 30 minutes and watching CNN nonstop. Paying too much attention to minute-to-minute shifts in the market is NOT going to make you a better investor. It's going to make you more nervous, and nervous investors make bad decisions.

Let's assume that you actually had a plan when you chose your investments. You decided what proportion of your money would go into large US companies, small US companies, foreign companies, bonds, and a money market fund or savings account. You know the stock market goes up and down. So the best strategy is probably just to grit your teeth and stick with the plan. If you give in to your panic and sell, you will be creating a problem rather than solving one. If you sell, you'll have cash on hand that you'll have to decide what to do with. What will you do? Sock it in some savings account paying 1% interest until you have enough confidence in the market to reinvest? Great. You sold your investment when prices were low, and now you're going to buy back inafter prices have already increased. You'd be better off just to sit still and do nothing. Pick a time each year to review your investments and rebalance if the proportions of stocks, bonds, etc. have gotten too out of whack. Other than that, hand's off.

What if you didn't have a plan about how you chose your investments? Then you need to learn the basics of investing, starting with diversification. Our team of educators can help. Register to use our free website, Plan Well - Retire Well, and watch the audio/PowerPoint segments about investing. We're educators, so there's no product being pushed and no questions about conflicts of interest.

And if you've got an upset stomach from all the financial news, take some antacid and change the channel to a comedy show.

Comments? Email us at RetireWell@uiuc.edu.

This is Paul McNamara writing and I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as well as an Extension Specialist (Consumer Economics) with University of Illinois Extension. Outside of the University and Extension, I am married and my wife and I have six children. I have practical experience in budgeting and managing money in the context of a large family!

On Monday of this week our Department hosted a seminar speaker, Ms. Doriana Ruffino (PhD candidate in Economics at Boston University), who spoke on the effects of labor mobility on portfolio allocation. She presented a theoretical model calibrated to U.S. financial data that gives an explanation for the puzzle of the high share of own company stock that many workers include in their portfolios. Her explanation rests in the option that workers have to move to another job within a different company or with a different industry, if things with their company weaken. This explanation also would imply a distinct age-related pattern of holding company stock and this can be tested empirically with data on asset allocation patterns of investors.

Whatever the specific conclusions we can draw about the impact of job mobility on portfolio allocation, research such as Ruffino's highlights the strong connection between a person's human capital and his or her financial wealth and security. This is a well-known connection, but we don't often highlight it in our financial education efforts. Some practical steps to act on might include:

* putting some attention into one's physical fitness and diet patterns to help maintain a healthy weight and minimize the chance of health-care related disability; or,

* developing or sharpening a job-related skill that would increase one's value to his or her company or organization; or,

* taking concrete moves to finish a college degree or advanced degree that would add to one's human capital and employment value.

For most of us, the links between our human capital (especially our health and education) and our financial security are very direct. The research shows that maintaining one's human capital is a good investment strategy!

Good morning – thought I would chime in on the Plan Well, Retire Well Blog .

I am an University of Illinois Extension Educator, as Karen mentioned in her last blog,and I work out of the Champaign Center. The other morning at 6:30 a.m. (yawn!), I was live on TV at WICD Channel 15 talking about credit card debt leftovers from the holidays. I had a TOTAL of 2 minutes and 20 seconds to say all my pearls of wisdom, and as usual, felt like I hadn't had time to say anything worthwhile. (Those TV people have a tough job!) So, this is what I wanted to say ...

After the holidays, take time to organize your credit card debt and get a handle on where you stand.

• Don't ignore your bills – as much as we'd like to, this really doesn't help!
• List all your debt, due dates, and minimum payments.
• Make a plan to pay your debt on time, and try to pay more than the minimum due.
• Decide which bills you want to target and pay off first. Do you want to get rid of the ones with the highest interest rate (a rational choice) or would you feel better paying off some small bills and getting them off your mind (another good strategy)?
• Stop using your credit cards while you're working to catch up with debt.
• Stick with your plan and you can do it.

For more information about getting a handle on your credit, read the Credit Card Smarts fact sheet, "Get Rid of Credit Card Debt." Also, visit the PowerPay website for a super calculator that will let you play with different scenarios for paying off your debt. The numbers may surprise you ... and motivate you to get going with your payments!

Good luck with your plan!

Comments? E-mail to RetireWell@uiuc.edu

I recently did a search to see how many financial blogs there are with URLs ending in .edu. I was a little surprised that I found only a couple, although there are scads of them on commercial websites. Our team of four financial educators has decided to fill that gap!

The Cooperative Extension Service, of which we are a part, is charged with providing research based, unbiased educational information to the public. And that will be our aim with this blog–to cut through the noise and provide you with concise, reliable information about any and all financial issues that impact your ability to plan and save for the future. We also hope to have a little fun along the way. We invite you to join us.

You can expect a new posting each Thursday, with additional posts when current events or random thoughts warrant it.

Since this is my first posting, let me tell you a little about myself. I work in the Chicago area, teaching workshops about everything from choosing the best credit card to choosing mutual funds. I am a Certified Financial Planner™ and I choose to use that training as an educator.

My second most favorite thing about work is to be in front of an audience and see the facial expression that comes when a person learns something, probably something they had found confusing up until that moment. Then, my most favorite thing happens: people start asking great questions based on their new-found understanding.

I won't be able to see your face as your read this blog, but I do hope you will email and let us know when this blog has cleared up a confusing concept for you, or helped you make a positive financial change.

To get a taste of the kinds of things we will talk about on this blog, visit our free web site, Plan Well-Retire Well. You can check it out at www.RetireWell.uiuc.edu.

Welcome aboard!