Personal finance chat with Barbara C. Nevils

Barbara C. Nevils, owner of Nevils Financial LLC, has more than 15 years experience in financial services and education. She has a master's degree from Tufts University and a bachelor's degree from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She taught mathematics for 18 years at Bentley College in Waltham.

April 10, 2007

Barbara_C__Nevils: Good Morning. My name is Barbara Nevils. I am the owner of Nevils Financial LLC, hold a CFP designation and am a fee-only NAPFA Registered Financial Advisor. I enjoy helping people with financial planning and investment management and look forward to answering your questions this morning.

Teri__Guest_: Can you explain a brokerage account and whether it would be beneficial to be used as a checking account?

Barbara_C__Nevils: A brokerage account is held at a brokerage company such as Fidelity. These accounts are used for trading equities or income investments. Some offer check writing and an attractive money market rate on the core account used to settle trades. Most are not set up to handle regular check writing. You should check with the brokerage house on its specific policies.

tvby__Guest_: What's the best way to save for a college education -- a 529 plan or something else?

Barbara_C__Nevils: 529 plans are a great way to save for college. The best way really depends on your particular financial picture. There are several great websites on this topic. The best is savingforcollege.com Hope this helps.

Teri__Guest_: Is there a steadfast rule as to how many allowances to take on your W-4? For instance, if you filed jointly with one child and received $2,000 back in taxes, would it be more appropriate to have more than one allowance?

Barbara_C__Nevils: Form W-4 has a personal allowances worksheet to help you determine if you should be declaring more allowances. Try this link to get to the worksheet and calculate what your allowances should be.

sunny__Guest_: What do you think about permanent versus term life insurance? Our agent is recommending we get some permanent and term life insurance to supplement coverage we already have. We already have some permanent and term coverage on each of us. My husband is 39 and I am 41.

Barbara_C__Nevils: Fee-only planners generally recommend term insurance as a life insurance vehicle. However, there may be some situations, such as estate planning, that might warrant permanent insurance.

tvby__Guest_: When saving money, what's better: a high-yield savings account, a money market account, or straight-up investing in mutual funds? I'd like something better than 5 percent ROI but I don’t want to take too much risk.

Barbara_C__Nevils: Interesting! Your question raises more questions. What is your current financial picture? Should you have a tax-exempt savings account or a taxable savings account? If you have a low risk tolerance, you might not be comfortable with the volatility of an equity or income mutual fund.

Barbara_C__Nevils: Thank you for all your questions. I enjoyed this event. I hope you found it helpful.