CHRIS & COTY'S MONEY TIPS

The Stock Market? Real Estate? A sock under the matress?

Many people are wondering if they should invest their money. If you talk to stockbrokers, they tell you not to sell your existing stocks, but to buy since stocks are quite low. Others may tell you to take all your money out of the stock market and not invest at all. Who is right?

Frankly, they are both correct.

Follow up:

While you may have invested quite a bit of money in the stock market and lost most of it, the truth is when the market rebounds, you may see a good return on your investment.

Economists recommend that selling stocks will just make matters worse. With the stock market's current volatility, most agree that it's best to just sit tight and wait. For those who can afford to invest in the stock market, now is as good a time as any to find great deals.

AARP has some other suggestions, to wit:

* Open a money market account at your bank and have it linked to your checking account to allow for telephone or online transfers. From that point on, make all of your deposits into the money market account where they will immediately start drawing interest.

* Never deposit any of your income directly into your checking account. The idea is to keep as much of your money as possible drawing interest as soon as you receive it. Keep a minimum balance in the checking account and transfer cash by phone or online only as needed to cover checks written.

* Never put a dime in a passbook savings account. Check with any bank and you’ll find that passbook savings interest is less than the inflation rate. So, savings accounts actually lose money when inflation is factored in. Put that money in an account that will pay you a higher rate of interest. You won’t have to look far. Your new money market account will pay you more interest than a savings account and still allow you to withdraw your money on demand.

The suggestions offered by AARP are important considering that obtaining the best interest rate on your money is at the very core of surviving this financial crisis. Although some of you may not have thought of transferring funds to a money market account, it does seem appropriate at this time.

Ensure that you research several banks in your area to ascertain what their rate of return is on money market accounts. Compare them to your current bank and determine who offers the best deal. Make sure you ask about fees, if any, associated with withdrawals as well as other concerns you may have.

Those of us who have savings and checking accounts may have just learned a new way of not only securing our money, but also gaining additional interest at a time when we need to save every penny.