Slick debt relief bound to make matters worse

Dear Mr. Berko: My wife and I got ourselves in a financial pickle and we're having a difficult time paying our mortgage, credit card bills and $27,000 in back taxes. To make matters worse, my wife is out of a job because her company closed their doors, and my home renovating business is falling on hard times. I'm 48, my wife is 47, and we're getting desperate -- we can't even make our car payments next month.

Money goes south in these partnerships
Dear Mr. Berko: My broker wants me to invest $35,000 in an infrastructure equipment leasing partnership that is guaranteed to pay 9 percent. And the equipment will be leased to Triple-A lessees. And because the general partners are using leverage of 5 to 1, all the equipment would be completely paid off in 10 years when the leases expire. And at that time, the equipment would be sold on the market and the limited partners would get back about twice what we invested. This sounds like a very smart investment because over 10 years, I'd be getting 9 percent on my $35,000, which is about $31,500 and not taxable because the depreciation exceeds the income. I trust this broker because all the numbers seem to check out. He sold this limited partnership to three friends of mine, and they also checked this out backward and forward. So what do you think?

Financial shenanigans? Shakespeare was right
Dear Mr. Berko: I'm an attorney and a CPA. I'm also retired. Early this year, I sent three letters to the Securities Exchange Commission telling them that the billions in bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch employees was illegal, and I cited "inadequate disclosure" just as Judge Rakoff ruled. One of those letters was addressed to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro. I never got the courtesy of a reply.

Not the time to purchase Toll Brothers stock
DEAR MR. BERKO: I think the housing industry is coming back because the recession is over and want to buy 300 Toll Brothers shares. I was told by my broker not to buy Toll Brothers stock because Robert Toll, the founder and CEO, sold all his stock in September of this year at $22 a share. He says when a CEO sells all the stock in a company he owns that this is a bad sign for the company's future. He suggested that I buy 200 D.R. Horton and 200 Pulte Homes instead of the 300 Toll Brothers. What do you think?

Bonds bound to burn bearer as interest rates rise
Dear Mr. Berko: As you can see from this stationary, I own a large company and we have a pension plan with a market value of $86 million. The current manager has done moderately well in the past year (up 8.2 percent) but was down 26 percent last year, so we still have a long road to travel home. We recently discussed his market philosophy for the next year, and he is bearish on equities so he intends to keep 85 percent of our portfolio in long-term corporate bonds. I disagree and feel that interest rates are headed higher, but he may be right about our economy. I would appreciate your thoughts on long-term interest rates and employing Merrill Lynch to manage this account. We've been talking to Merrill for the last six months, and they seem to have the investment style that we are comfortable with.

Two Florida utility stocks give off healthy glow
Dear Mr. Berko: I'm thinking of buying 150 Progress Energy and 100 FPL Corp., two Florida utility stocks. What do you think of them?

Inflation-fighting TIPS make good sense
Dear Mr. Berko: My brother-in-law told me that you recommended he put 20 percent of his $505,000 ROTH IRA into TIPS. We are the same age, have identical ROTH IRAs, earn the same income with the same firm and have the same debts. I've enclosed a completed Investor Profile sent to me by your office and I will retire in 11 years. Would you recommend TIPS? And if so, why would you recommend TIPS instead of common stocks or mutual funds?

Next year a better time to invest in municipal bonds
DEAR MR. BERKO: I'm going into the hospital next month for major surgery and before I do, I'd like to buy some municipal bonds with a $27,000 CD that comes due just prior to my hospitalization.

Greater safety in diversity with exchange-traded funds
Dear Mr. Berko: I wanted to buy a utility stock, but my broker recommended an exchange-traded fund traded on the stock exchange. He claims that they are better than buying 300 or 600 shares of a utility stock. Please give me your thoughts on these. And if I don't buy an exchange-traded utility fund, what specific utility do you like? I want to own a utility that has good growth potential and a decent dividend with dividend increases. I have $16,000 to invest.

Exchange traded funds safest way to own gold
Dear Mr. Berko: I want to buy $6,000 worth of gold and have listened to and read about some of the exchanges that sell gold to the public, like The National Gold Exchange, that will sell me gold at wholesale. They said gold will go to $2,000 an ounce this year.

Post-retirement CDs stiff seniors
Dear Mr. Berko: We've been depending on CDs for the last four years for safety and income. And we have been moving our CD money around at various banks to get the most income we can. This is becoming nerve-wracking and tiresome, and in the last year or so, with rates now at 1.75 percent, we are hurting badly. We have $385,000 in CDs now that earn less than $8,000 a year, when a year ago, they were earning $17,000 in interest. That loss of $9,000 is hurtful to us.

Don't bet the farm on e-Book glow
Dear Mr. Berko: I've got a bee in my bonnet about the e-Book industry that it will push hardcover and soft-cover books off the shelves so the big booksellers will have to close their doors. Amazon and Sony have great e-Books right now, and when Apple comes out with their new e-Book, I think it will spell the beginning of the decline of the book publishing industry.