[Susan Lisovicz, Cnn Correspondent:] The trading week started with a sell off when the house rejected the financial rescue package. And the trading week ended with a sell off after the house approved the financial rescue package. Traders say the Friday vote was baked in the cake. Lawmakers more than one trillion dollars were erased in market value and the lousy jobs report Friday morning put a figurative gun to lawmakers' heads with another 159,000 jobs lost in the economy. The market rallied ahead of the vote and then lost it all ending in triple-digit losses. Now instead of obsessing about Washington for two weeks, investors can again focus the so-called fundamentals. To one analyst, once you get over one hurdle, you start looking at the next and the next one is the weakness in the economy. There's growing doubt that a recession is avoidable even with the rescue package. This past week alone we got crummy news on auto sales, mortgage applications and factory orders. And GE, considered a bellwether of the U.S. economy said it fell over $600 billion of its shares to Warren Buffett cheap. Looking ahead, investors remain on edge. We'll start to get corporate earnings reports. The estimate ahead of that is companies in the S&P; 500 will, on average, see profit declines of nearly five percent from a year earlier. The stock trader almanac says this past week was the Dow's worst since the September 11th terrorist attacks. The blue chips lost 800 points or seven percent. The Nasdaq and the broader S&P; 500 did even worse. Now, back to
[Your Money. Romans:] Is your money safe? What can you do to protect what you have and to grow it to prepare for the future? Walter Updegrave is senior editor for "Money" Magazine. He joins us now to break it down. It has been a tortured few weeks for people who are invested in the stock market and that is 50 percent of the country. We have 401 [k] s. I'm not worried so much with people with taxable accounts the 401 [k], the retirement account, should people be really concerned?
[Walter Updegrave, Senior Editor, "money" Magazine:] Well this, is money that people are putting away for retirement. If you are many years away from retirement, this is money that you're not going to be touching maybe for 10, 20, 30 years. When it comes time for retirement and you'll look back at today and this will be kind of a blip. When you're looking at that kind of a timeframe you don't want to be reacting to the pandemonium of the moment and so if you're 20, 30 years away from retirement and you're early in your career you want to have most of your money in stocks and some in bonds, but you don't want to change that. You don't want to go and shift your money around.
[Romans:] Let's look at where you should be. Because you talked a lot about asset allocation and people call in and ask if well it is OK for me to stay in the market? And the issue here is it's different for anybody and you need to be exposed properly for where you are in your life. Early career, stocks, you say 80 percent stocks and 90 percent stocks and the rest is bonds. Walk me through where you are and you've got the screen up so people can show where you for your trajectory before retirement show how you should be exposed.
[Updegrave:] Sure, so early career predominantly in stocks, you're not so much worried about short-term setbacks in the market. Mid- career you've accumulated some money and you want to be a little bit more careful, but you still need that long-term growth. Maybe you're 70, 75 percent in stocks and the rest in bonds or some other stable investment. Later in your career when your getting into your 50s I would say there you're scaling back a little bit more, 60 to 65 percent in stocks. You want more cushion and you don't want to lose and take a big hit on the verge of retirement. By the time you're actually retired or you're 65, you probably want to be somewhere 40 to 55 percent in stocks. Some people say why do I need stocks at all I'm retired? Why do I want to be exposed to this at all?
[Romans:] Hopefully you'll be retired for 30 years.
[Updegrave:] Exactly, you're hoping that you're going to be around for another 30 years or longer and during that time you'll be pulling money out, but you still need your purchasing power to be growing and you don't want to wind up, say in your 80s facing some big medical expenses and having your money run out.
[Romans:] Walter, what if I just can't I call it the sominex test. What if I look at my retirement and I say you know what it doesn't matter how long it will be until I retire. I want to move more into safety. What should I do if I'm risk averse and I want to move my 401 [k] into a safer place?
[Updegrave:] You have a couple of options and one is you can move into most 401 [k] s and have a menu of options that include some kind of a stable value fund, a capital preservation fund and certainly a money market fund and you can move some more money into there. Again, I caution, the more that you do that, the less of a long-term return you are likely to earn unless you're very good at deciding when to get back which most people aren't, but if you're really, really concerned you could do that. Another thing that somebody might want to do is a lot of 401 [k] s these days offer target date retirement fund where it automatically divvies up your money among stocks, bonds and cash and you pick a date that corresponds to your retirement, which is 2030 or 2040, if you pick a date that's closer, maybe five years before your retirement that gives you a little bit more in bonds and a little bit more in cash.
[Romans:] Thank you so much Walter. Walter Updegrave, we always appreciate it. What if airlines asked you to pay extra just for a right to buy a plane ticket or hotels charge you extra to allow you to book a room. In this economy it's pricing out some fans for giving up tickets that have been in their families for decades. Ali Velshi takes look.
[Ali Velshi, Cnn Senior Business Correspondent:] It's Sunday before kickoff. Fans and families brag about their team and the playoff possibilities and a brand new stadium.
[Woody Johnson, Owner, Ny Jets:] You saw all these stadiums in New York and around the country being rehabbed in a major way or actually replaced because they no longer are functional for what the fans want and from an income standpoint for the team.
[Velshi:] But not everyone is excited. TSL or personal seat licenses are partially paying for the New York Jets and Giants $1.6 billion stadium and fans are footing the bill. Fans like Jay Malakoff.
[Jay Malakoff, Giants Season Ticket Holder:] $80,000 for the right to buy the tickets we've been buying for 61 years.
[Velshi:] Here's how it works. Right now Jay has four Giants tickets each costing $85. To keep those seats he would have to pay a one-time, up front PSL fee of $80,000 or $20,000 per seat and still buy the ticket each year which in the new stadium are being raised from $85 to $160.
[Malakoff:] My seats are right here.
[Velshi:] Same seats, same team, different stadium and a much bigger bill, one Jay and many other fans simply can't afford.
[Malakoff:] How do I tell the 11-year-old son that I can't pass the tickets now to a fourth generation because we can't afford to pay for them? Either that or I'll tell my daughter that I can't send her to school one year because I need to get my tickets for the Jets.
[Velshi:] Jets owner Woody Johnson says it's a delicate balancing act.
[Woody Johnson, Owner, Ny Jets:] We don't really want to price out any of our fans in this new stadium and hopefully we've come up with enough programs and enough ways that finance five-year financing. We have 27,000 seats in the stadium with no PSL as an accommodation to our fans.
[Velshi:] The Jets and the Giants are not the first teams to use PSLs. Currently 16 of the 32 teams in the NFL have them.
[Unidentified Male:] From the teams I talk to and the executives I talk to, there's definitely a balance that they try to achieve in catering to their corporate fans and making sure families still come.
[Velshi:] But some won't. Steve Kernin is turning his back on the Jets after 15 years and he's not going quietly.
[Unidentified Male:] No, PSL. Unfortunately, I think this is the future. I'd like to turn back the clocks because the amount of money that the NFL is raising is beyond anyone's consciousness to even understand.
[Velshi:] According to "Forbes" Magazine, for the first time in any sort, team values in the NFL averaged $1 billion. Fans have always been emotionally invested in their team, but with PSLs becoming more common, they're being asked to become more financially invested as well. Ali Velshi, CNN, New York.
[Romans:] Politics and money. We'll take a look at the candidates and their plans for your money.