>> alison kosik, thanks so much. reporting live from the new york stock exchange. >>> what politician doesn't want the youth vote? it's hip and it's cool and it could help you win. obama overwhelmingly won younger voters in 2008. but this year, it's not clear if those voters will bother to vote. ♪ [ acoustic guitar: upbeat ] [ dog ] we found it together. on a walk, walk, walk. love to walk. yeah, we found that wonderful thing. and you smiled. and threw it. and i decided i would never, ever leave it anywhere. because that wonderful, bouncy, roll-around thing... had made you play. and that... had made you smile. [ announcer ] beneful. play. it's good for you. like a squirrel stashes nuts, you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® liquid gels. nothing starts working faster than zyrtec® at relieving your allergy symptoms for 24 hours. zyrtec®. love the air. can >>> daily vitamins can be helpful but they can also be harmful. i tell people you should get most of your vitamins and nutrients from whole foods. h

here's alison kosik. hi, alison. >> hi there. today we're hemg you prepare for retirement and with me this hour, liz miller and greg mcbride. greg, this question is for you. >> i'm five to ten years from retirement. i have maybe 10% to 20% of my net worth slabl in cash. i'd like to invest and put it to better use but given the political and economic uncertainties, what would you suggest i do with the cash resources? >> and this is actually one of the questions this most of us ask but this gentleman is five to ten years from retirement. what to do? >> the money withdrawing from retirement, it's cash invest ms or high quality bonds. yes, the returns are low but doesn't have the ability to take a whole lot of risk because he needs the money so soon. money this he's going to earmark for withdrawal beyond that ten-year timeframe that can and should be invested for aggressively. >> do you agree with that? should be some risk. >> i think for the longer term and support the retirement, absolutely. there's very high quality stocks with ni

i'm alison kosik in cnn.script----- an ohio inmate is fighting to stop his execution. execution.why he says.. he's too fat... to die. die.the search is on this mmrning for the gunman who shot and killed a doctor in northeast baltimore.what the dootor was doing at the time and why police believe he was shht. 9/18 --free speech ttreatsbth - free speech threatsa maryland legislator is the latest government official to threaten free speech. delegate emmett bbrns recently sent a letter to the owner of the baltimore ravens. burns was upset that ravens player brendon ayanbadejo made statemmnts in support of same-sex marriage. burns demanded the ravens owner "inhibit such expressions from your employee and that he bb ordered to cease and desistt ssch injurious action."owner steve bisciotti is well within pmployees to limit their public comments.but burns demanding such action is way out of line. although he's a pastor, burns sent his reeuest on general assembly stationery indicating he was acting as a public fficial. even worse, burns sits on the economic matters committee whi

kosik in new york. -----end-----cnn.sccipt----- downtown...is thh happening sppt for more america. ameriians.thh city seeing the most peoppe... make ttat big move. bth - the birds & the bees you want to pressrre your 3 &pchild'ssinnocence for as long as possible.no violent video games. or adult-themed tv shows. or movies. ou monitor &pthe internet. and ssrutiniie the children's section t your public library.your child checks out couppe of books includingg"my mom's having a bbby!" and it shocks youuits correct body parts.and it describes ii great detaill exactly whht daddy did to make mommy pregnant.really? is this the best we canndo? with &pthousandd of ccildren's booos why does a libraay find it necessary to make this book available for young children? without warning parents?you mighttexxect this ii san francisco, nee york, l.a. or chicago.but according to online catalogs, this book is in the children's section of libraries across america including albany; aaheviile; &paustin; baltimooee cedar rapids;

alison kosik joins us from the new york stock exchange. getting close to the close. >> yes. >> alison, a big day. >> the federal reserve gets all the credit for the rally you're seeing. the dow up 186 points. we're a couple minutes before the closing bell. look at the dow and s&p 500? they're at their highest levels, don, since december of 2007. the nasdaq trading at its highest level in 12 years. we are watching financials up anywhere from 2% to 4%. home builders up 3% to 5%. a little irony, we are coming up on the four-year anniversary of the worst week of the recession. the lehman collapse, that anniversary coming up on saturday. that's when the dow -- on that monday when lehman collapsed, the nasdaq plunged, what a difference for years makes. >> yeah. >> glad it's in the positive territory. lehman is doubled now it's asking price for its stock? >> lehman is no longer with us. >> i thought you said -- wait, someone just mentioned about stocks being doubled. what are you talking about? okay. i heard double, yeah, that doesn't sound right

alison kosik joins me. will we see a drop any time? >> relief should be on its way soon. the reason we've been seeing gas prices go up is we've had a lot of these short term problems. the biggie is hurricane isaac last week. most of the refineries had to shut down or cut back on production. the down time kept the process of making gasoline happening. it was more of a supply and demand issue. other factors pushed prices higher as well. one oil analyst says that prices could wind up dropping 20 cents over the next month. that coming from tom clossa. the faster these refineries can get up and running, the better. one other thing by september 15th, refineries should be switched to the less expensive winter blend. we could see gas at $3.25 a gallon by december. >> how about jobs? we've been adding jobs for two straight years but what kind of jobs? >> the problems with the jobs being added is most are low wage positions. these are hard to live on and pay your bill. do you pay the medical bill or the electricity bill? there's a study that says 58% of jobs created over the past t

>> here's the other but, though, alison kosik. i can hear people scratching their heads and saying, fishy? this is suspicious. recalculating the numbers with 40 days to go. is there anything suspect here? >> that's a good question because everybody wants the know that. the timing is suspect. but from what we can tell there's no conspiracy here. this is really how the bureau of labor statistics operates. it goes ahead and revised the figures very frequently as it gets more and more information. in fact, these numbers could still be revised again in january. and you know this because when we come out with the jobs report every month there are often revisions to the previous month's so revisions are just sort of a name of the game coming to calculating how many jobs created in this country. >> alison kosik, thank you. if you want to read more, cnnmoney.com with a write on that. don't forget to catch the first presidential debate. denver, colorado. romney v. obama. right here on cnn. >>> overhauling health care coverage, two big compa

so there's time to rebook people.i'm alison kosik in new york. a mother and daughter...fight back! back!how they over powered... a crook! [ male announcer ] for the dreamers... and those well grounded. for what's around this corner... and the next. there's cash flow options from pnc. solutions to help businesses like yours accelerate receivables, manage payments, and help ensure access to credit. because we know how important cash flow is to reaching your goals. pnc bank. for the achiever in you.

kosik in new york. -----end-----cnn.script----- potty training....akkn to a whole different level. level.the bizarre, surprising and public way one mother... taught her children... how to use he toilet. toilet.another baltimore county teen brings a loaded gun to school.the immeddate changessgoing into affect today to protect your kids. kids. with no added sugar. just one glass equals two servings of fruit. very "fruit-ritious." or try ocean spray light 50, with just 50 calories, a full serving of fruit, and no added sugar. with tasty flavors like cranberry pomegranate and cranberry concord grape, it's like a fruit stand in every bottle. [ splashing ] just, you know, demonstrating how we blend the fruits. ahem. try all our tasty ocean spray 100% and light 50 juices. that's been wrapped in a flaky crust stuffed with a gooey center toasted up all golden brown then given a delicious design? a toaster strudel. pillsbury toaster strudel. so delicious...so fun. mom, we're dying. no you're not, you're just hung

kosik n new york. -----end----- cnn.sccipt----- gift...he wanted to leave behind behind anncr: their dishonest ads are everywhere. a west virginia casino spending a fortune... to stop question seven. they don't want competition. the washington post wrote the casino behind the ads is... "most concerned with its own bottom line." and the baltimore sun says it "doesn't have maryland... taxpayers' interests at heart." so when you see these ads remember... they're about what's good for west virginia's casino... not maryland. vote for maryland jobs and schools. vote for question seven. teaching kids science and technology.the huge bbost the city school system is getting. tonight on fox 45 nees at 3ive. 3 3 3

alison kosik is live at the new york stock exchange to do that for us. >> hi, carol. rst of all, romney, believe it or not, is right. 46.4% of americans don't pay federal income taxes at all. that's according to the tax policy center. who are these people? mostly low and lower middle income earners and about half don't pay income taxes because they don't make enough money. the other half, they don't pay taxes because they can take advantage of enough tax credits, to bring their tax liability down to nothing. that group mainly consists of senior citizens and lower income families. it's just the way the tax code is designed. romney is also accurate for using a wide umbrella to include any checks that comes from the government. i'm talking about medicaid, food stamps, social security, medicare and unemployment benefits. by that measure, almost half the country lives in a household that received government benefits in 2010. carol, that amounts to more than 148 million americans. >> but when you say that 47% of americans don't pay income taxes, it makes it sound like those

alison kosik is live at the new york stock exchange. talk about the hidden unemployed. how big is that group? >> the group is very big. that's why there's not this big celebration about the rate dropping. 368,000 people just gave up looking for jobs. they said forget it. i'm not going to keep looking for work. they're not counted in that number. that's not the reason you want to see the unemployment rate fall. then there's that big group. that underemployment rate. some say it's the real unemployment rate and includes people in part-time jobs that want full-time work. it dropped but it's 14.7%. that's huge. that's an eye popping percentage of people. >> with the hiring slowing. we all look ahead when the federal reserves meets. the fed is meeting next week. obviously they can't lower the interest rates any lower than what they are. might we see some stimulus stimulating the economy? >> you may. many believe that this weak report could force the feds hand. when the fed meets next week it may introduce a bond buying program to try to jump start job creation. it's benefits

i'm alison kosik in new york. a man... pulled over who ...or what... he bllmes... por his cciie. crime. 3 3crime. crime.blames... for his who ...or what... he bizarre ... who ...or what... he blames... for his crime. crime. bth - unversal service fund people who work hard, manage their finances, and pay their billl on ttme aae forceddto pay for free cell phones and airtime for those who don't. in the government's liffline don't. in the airtime for those who free cell phones and time are fooced toopay for and pay their bills on manage pheir finances, ppople who work hard, service ffndbth - pnversal service fundpeople who work hard, manage thhii on ttme are forcee to pay for for those who don't. in the governmenttsslifeline program. fund is a pass-thrr fee the - phooe companies ccarge yyu that they in-turr give to the government. essentially it's a 16% ax.the lifelinn program haa been around for 15 years. phan doubled from $$00 million in 20088to more thann$2 billion today. approximately 12 million people have gotten free phoness according to one million households qqalify investig

kosik in new york.-----end----- cnn.script- the 9-11 memorral has a special section... ready to mark today's eleventh anniveesa. anniversary.but not everone's pleased with the memorial.the reason behind the . backlash.saying goodbye to art modell.the funeral services happening today and how you can pay your respects. respects. 3 with no added sugar. just one glass equals two servings of fruit. very "fruit-ritious." or try ocean spray light 50, with just 50 calories, a full serving of fruit, and no added sugar. with tasty flavors like cranberry pomegranate and cranberry concord grape, it's like a fruit stand in every bottle. [ splashing ] just, you know, demonstrating how we blend the fruits. ahem. try all our tasty ocean spray 100% and light 50 juices. saying goodbye to art mooell. the final farewell to the man that brought football back to baltimore... ... on fox 45 news at five. 3 -one world trade center in new york -lit up in red, white and blue- marking the eleventh anniversary of september 11th. 3

kosik.-----eed----- cnn.script----- --keyword tagg-- an elderly woman... dragged from her car! car!the injuries she has.and the reason why the police officer says... he had a reason. reason.the teee suspecc in the perry hall high school what his attorneys are asking for and what that could mean for his triaa. bth - medicare medicare has been in the news lately with mitt romney's selection of congressman paul ryan as his vice presidential running mate.at issue is the ryan-wyden plan - a bipartisan medicare reform prooosal developed by ryan and democraa senator ron wyden of oregon. under the proposal anyone aged 55 or older woold not see any changes. those younger would face enrollment options. -- we only need to slash 3 reimbursement rates. here's the reality. medicare part a will go bankrupt in nada. the big oose egg. the tank is empty.thhs is according to the medicare trustees. the people who run the medicare trust fund. medicare hassbeen in deffcit spending for four years. and will run out

alison kosik joins me on the phone. isaac is gone at least as a major threat as a hurricane. why are we still seeing the high gas prices? >> you know you can blame hurricane isaac for the gas prices. the good news is you can pretty much blame isaac only for the short term. you expect to see gas prices stay higher in the short term and then go lower in the longer term. the reason isaac is because it hit the gulf coast. 40% of the petroleum is located along the gulf coast. the good news is the refineries were not damaged. the reason isaac is having the huge impact is because the refineries had to shut down to cut back during the storm. that knocked out hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil production a day. that down time sent prices higher. also there has been a refinery fire that happened two weeks ago. there were also refinery fires in california that shut down production, as well. all of that drives up oil prices and driving gas prices higher. it is the law of supply and demand. the less gas on the market you are seeing gasoline prices go higher. >> what kind of relief mi

alison kosik at the new york stock exchan. and this number, 382,000, what's the story behind the number? >> exactly. you said it. there's a story behind the number. it's inflated because of hurricane katrina isaac. remember that? >> yep. >> louisiana and puerto rico with an increase of 8,000 claims and that's because businesses had to close because of the storm. mississippi also reported another 1,000 claims. but here's the thing with this. even if you discount the numbers, guess what, that level 382,000 level, still too high. we want to see it -- these total filings closer to 350,000 or under mark to show there's a real solid rebound in the labor market. you know what? we are not seeing it right now, brooke. >> what about the layoffs? we were reporting on the multiple thousand, what, 16,000 people to be laid off by bank of america by the end of the year. but that is not a new number per se. correct? >> right. the good thing is that these workers who are finding out right now kind of takes the guessing game out of this because

let's bring in business correspondent alison kosik in new york. alison, thanks for joining us. you know, here in atlanta i see a lot of stations that are $3.99 a gallon. they don't want to scare motorist it's by putting it at $4 and over. it's at $4 in lots of states. why are the prices so high? >> talk about sticker shock, we're certainly getting it this weekend. gas prices are higher than they've ever been on record for a labor day weekend but they're not as high as they were back in april. guess what? we could all blame hurricane isaac for this recent spike in gas prices. this is because hurricane isaac hit the gulf coast. that's really a key oil production area in this country. you look at 40% of the nation's petroleum refining capacity is right there located along the gulf coast. and that's why you're seeing gas prices really spike, and there you're looking at the difference there between the previous labor day record and we're certainly beating that. but what happened with hurricane isaac was that these refineries weren't damaged, but they had to shut down or cut back pro

i'm alison kosik in new york. -----end-----cnn.script----- in boston. surgerr..approved boston.what one wooan will be r. recievvng.a shooting at morgan state university.we'll have the latest on the victims condtion at the hour and the search for the gunman. 3 3 ♪ [ telephone rings ] how's the camping trip? well, the kids had fun, but i think i slept on a rock. ♪ the best part of wakin' up what are you doing? having coffee. ohh. ♪ is folgers in your cup

kosik in new york. compensation...for --- being duped. duped.how many millions of dollars victims of bernie madoff's ponzie scheme will get in a settlement. settlement.baltimore police are searching for the suspect involved in a deadly crash.tte accident he fled from and the car to be on the lookout for. for. bth - military votingburied among the news stories about the thousands of dead people registered to vote; counties with more registered voters than people; family pets gettiig absentee balllt requests; and the justice depprtment suing to overturn secure election laws is this:the absentee ballot requests by military personnel - including those serving overseas in war zones - are way down. in some cases, by 98%.this is on top of the really atrocious election cycle of two years ago. more than 120,000 servicemen and women who requested absentee ballots for the 2010 election never received them.this year, absentee ballot requests by miliiary in swing states are at unheard of levels. less than 2% in nort

alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. okay. we are excited to hear this. >> you know, more and more good news in the housing market. the price of a typical home went up again in july. this report coming from case-schiller saying home values in 2070s across the country rose 1.6%. this happens to be the third month in a row of gains. this is good news in the housing sector. it was the housing sector that got us into the financial mess so it is nice to see a recovery really taking hold. also, there is a -- positive side effect of this these rising home prices falling foreclosures. becau more quit. this may push potential home buyers off the fence. see the prices going higher and think i better buy a house soon before the prices go even higher. >> okay. also some good news for discover card holders. they are going to get some money. >> some money, exactly. what happened here is discover's telemarketers made people think that they were getting certain products for prewhen they weren't. these are known add-ones. you can buy the

kosik in new pork. -----end----- pitbulls... are hhving a hard time being adopped, aftee a controversial ruling. animal advocates are having with the animals.... n the wake of the high court... ruliing they're inherently dang. dangerous. 3 3 3 [ female announcer ] with the 2-in-1 swiffer sweeper, a great clean doesn't have to take long. i'm done. are you thinking what i'm thinking? ♪ give me just a little more time ♪ okay. all right. oh! [ female announcer ] the 2-in-1 swiffer sweeper uses electrostatic dry cloths to clean better than a broom. and its wet mopping cloths can clean better than a mop in half the time so you don't miss a thing. mom, have you seen my -- hey! hey! he did it. [ female announcer ] swiffer. better clean in half the time. or your money back. warning about ccncussions in young athletes.how the ravens are helping sprend the word. tonight on fox 45 news at five.

alison kosik has more. --reporter pkg-as follows -- drivers re suffering from sticker shock at the gas pump this holiday weekend.but don't worry-- our wallets may be in for a little relief.triple a says in aagust-- we saw the national average price for a gallon of gas spike close to ten percent.that's the biggest monthly gain innmore than three years.and we're paying almost 22 cents moreethan this time last year. the culprit? you can blame huuricane isaac. the storm didn't damage any refineries or rigs in the gulf. but most of them had to be shut down in preparation.on top offthe hurricaae-- recent fires at oil refineries in california and veneeuela also hurt supply-- driving up oil and gas rices.but don't trade in your car keys for a ike helmet just yet.analysts say relief is in sight.most of the gulf coast reeineries are switch from the summer blend n gasoline.so we shoold be able to fill up-- for a bit less cash-- very soon.one analyst we spoke to even said gas prices coulddfall to $3.25 a gallon by dece

alison kosik, thank you my friend. i appreciate it. >>> a quick note. if you're heading out the door, you can take us with you. continue watching cnn from your mobile phone. it's very cool. watch us from your live desk stop. go to cnn.com/tv and all the instructions are there. i've been a superintendent for 30 some years at many different park service units across the united states. the only time i've ever had a break is when i was on maternity leave. i have retired from doing this one thing that i loved. now, i'm going to be able to have the time to explore something different. it's like another chapter. how did the nba become the hottest league on the planet? by building on the cisco intelligent network they're able to serve up live video, and instant replays, creating fans from berlin to beijing. what can we help you build? nice shot kid. the nba around the world built by the only company that could. cisco. we believe small things can make a big difference.e, like how a little oil from here can be such a big thing in an old friend's life. we discover

alison kosik joins me live from the new york stock exchange. i had a research department pull the ipo price on apple back in 1980. $22 a share. split three times which means $2.75 if you bought it back then. >> incredible, isn't it? it is incredible to see the rise of the share price. trading below that $700 mark. but it did cross that $700 mark. hitting $701. and guess what? here what happe what's driving the shares higher announcement of the iphone 5, pro broke reports on preorders, 2 million put in. the phone hits store shelves friday. it is hard to believe, ashley, six months ago that apple crossed the $600 mark for the first time. you know analysts are saying, wait a minute, caution here, the stock is rising too quickly. it could become overvalued. if you look at it this way, apple stock is trading 16 times its fiscal 2013 estimates and it's not expensive compared to amazon and facebook. they trade at higher multiples than that. it means apple shares still, believe it or not have room to run. >> could go higher. let's talk about something

i want to bring in alison kosik from new york to talk about this a little bit. alison, talk about the reaction to this question that people are saying are we better off than we were four years ago. >> yes, and when you hear the question, suzanne, a lot of ways to look at it and the real answer really depends upon a lot of individualtors and in the end, it may be how people feel about their own individual situation compared to the last election. so we had producers go out across the country and ask that very question and here are some of the answers they heard. >> reporter: are you making more money now than you were four years ago? >> yes. >> i make about one-third of what i made four years ago. >> no. >> no. >> i'm making less money and the sad part is that i have a master's degree. and a rp corporate job does noty what it did four or five years ago. >> and making the same money and able to save a little bit, but same as before. >> four years ago struggle and today, even more struggle. >> so there you go. a lot of no's suzanne if people are better off today tha

alison kosik, thank you so much. >>> now i want to talk about a story, we talked about this yesterday, i heard you, read all your tweets, tweet during my two hours here. talking about the morning after pill in some new york schools it is being given to students. but today, we're talking to one parent who is pretty upset over this whole thing. find out what she is doing to take on city leaders. there's a health company that can help you stay that way. what's healthier than that? i i had pain in my abdomen...g. it just wouldn't go away. i was spotting, but i had already gone through menopause. these symptoms may be nothing... but they could be early warning signs of a gynecologic cancer, such as cervical, ovarian, or uterine cancer. feeling bloated for no reason. that's what i remember. seeing my doctor probably saved my life. warning signs are not the same for everyone. if you think something's wrong... see your doctor. ask about gynecologic cancer. and get the inside knowledge. >>> you know how we talk about there is no republican who has ever gone on to win the race for the white hou

that's something that gets lost because we like to talk about apple so much. >> alison kosik, alison, thank you. >>> maybe you're watching football last night, pretty much up unheard of, a coach grabbing a referee in protest of a call, that's the latest headache here involving these temporary referees in the nfl. well, get this, i'm about to speak live with a former nfl ref about whether this is ruining the integrity of a multibillion dollar industry. don't miss it. hey, i love your cereal there -- it's got that sweet honey taste. but no way it's 80 calories, right? no way, right? lady, i just drive the truck. right, there's no way right, right? have a nice day. [ male announcer ] 80 delicious calories. fiber one. ...and we inspected his brakes for free. -free is good. -free is very good. [ male announcer ] now get 50% off brake pads and shoes at meineke. >>> fist it was just football fans talking. now it seems like everyone is abuzz over these replacement referees instead of the regular officials. the two sides are locked in this labor dispute and last night it came to a head in the

ashley. >> all right, alison kosik, thank you very much. do appreciate that mplgts a quick note for anybody heading out the door, no fear. you can continue watching cnn from your mobile phone and then when you get to work if that's where you're headed you can also pop us up on your desktop. it is easy to do. go to cnn.com/tv. by making it without 100% real cheddar cheese. but then...it wouldn't be stouffer's mac & cheese. just one of over 70 satisfying recipes for one from stouffer's. starts with ground beef, unions, and peppers baked in a ketchup glaze with savory gravy and mashed russet potatoes. what makes stouffer's meatloaf best of all? that moment you enjoy it at home. stouffer's. let's fix dinner. the wheels of progress. seems they haven't been moving much lately. but things are starting to turn around because of business people like you. and regions is here to help. with the experience and service to keep things rolling. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let'

there are other places to stash your tirement alison kosik has me from the help desk. >> hi there. here on the help desk we're talking about saving for your rerement and with me this hour e liziller and greg mde. liz, this is the question for you. >> other than a 401(k), how else can i save for rerement? >>t just seems luke a good fallback, doesn't it, the 401(k) and most people only invest in 401(, don't they? >> they do. but ifomeone is in a position thateyan put more in their 401(k) lows, t there are options. if a couple makes a bis an $175,000,youcan additionally put money into a roth i.r.a. th will grow tax deferred and be tax free at retirement. and you can always put about $5,000 right now after tax into just a traditional i.r.a., even when you already have a 401(k). >> okay. anything beyond those that she just mentioned? >> i love the i.r.a. and too mapeople think it is aneither/or proposition. you can do the 401(k) and the i.r.a. and evenor h backdoway to get money into that roth i.r.a. soou could have that tax pool of money when yretire. >> great advice. thanks. if you ha

there she is, alison kosik, at the new york stock exchange for us. alison, put this in perspective. what's happening here? >> reporter: it's just another sign that the housing market, brooke, is really turning a corner at this point. the national association of realtors says part of the reason is what they're seeing is more buyers are taking advantage of lower prices for houses right now. even though prices have been slowly climbing, they're still pretty cheap because of the big hit we took during the recession. plus the mortgage rates are still near record lows. the current 30-year fixed is just at 3.5%. and guess what? they're expected to go even lower. that's because of the federal reserve's announcement last week that it would buy up $40 billion a month in mortgage backed securities. so that makes buying very attractive. there's also a lot of this pent-up demand that's been accumulating since the recession started. a lot of people have been waiting to get out of their homes and now they feel pretty confident or a little more confident about doing it. brooke. >> here's the questi

alison kosik joining us from the sneyock exchange. on, alisw muchf this in the family budget? >> i'm soithoith this just the smart phone itself is expensive. then you get those eye-popping bills every month. one government figure estimates theaverageousehold shelled out more than $1200 on phone services. that also includes we know people are ping ls for land lines, many people don't have them. it'sot hardto figure out whe the increase is comi from. if you want to break it down even mo6 more a year on phone services compared to00 j.d. powers say average person's cell phone bill is about $71 a but if you're a family of four and you all have phones, that total can easily top $200. what's happening here, suzann over the past few years because we're budgeting for our srt phones, we're spending less on dining out, on clothing and tertainmbeusour phones meanverything to us. >> so our phone bills are blg up abe we're saving money on going out and ay seeing peo >> yes.he phone bill? ishere y way to that down a little bit? some of our have a few ideas. they say start withheki, phone pla

alison kosik, thank you. >>> speaking of investments, many of you are asking us questions. we have the help desk to answer them. here is poppy harlow. >> today on the help desk, we're focusing on investing in mutual funds. it affects a lot of folks. joining me to talk about it, donna rosatto and ryan mack. listen to this. >> what kind of mutual fund should i invest in? >> it is a broad question, but she's got a good point. there are so many out there. >> there are a lot of different mutual funds. the first thing is make sure you have a no load mutual funds, no commission mutual fund. >> fees. >> for every commission driven mutual fund, i can find you five that give you just as good of a return. make sure the performance measurement standards, that portfolio manager has been there for five years, has a good steady rate of return that -- >> they usually have a morning star rating on them or something. >> four or five stars. and last is the expense ratio. 1.5% or less. >> i can't emphasize that enough. expense is more important than anything else. studies by vanguard are that