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Chat Session: Investing in Mutual Funds: Answers to Your Questions from eXtension Experts

Date: May 7, 2008
Time: 1:00-2:00 p.m. Eastern Time (12:00-1:00 p.m. Central Time; 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Mountain Time; 10:00-11:00 a.m. Pacific Time)

How to Register: To reserve a seat in the May 7th chat session, please e-mail Barbara O'Neill at oneill@aesop.rutgers.edu

Readings: To prepare for the chat session, please read "Unit 6: Mutual Fund Investing" in the Investing for Your Future learning lesson.

Panel of Experts for the May 7th Chat Session

Dr. Barbara O’Neill, Rutgers Cooperative Extension’s Specialist in Financial Resource Management
Barbara O’Neill has written over 1,500 newspaper articles and over 100 articles for academic journals, conference proceedings, and other professional publications. She is a certified financial planner (CFP®), chartered retirement planning counselor (CRPC®), accredited financial counselor (AFC), certified housing counselor (CHC), and certified financial educator (CFEd). Dr. O’Neill is the author of two trade books, Saving on a Shoestring and Investing on a Shoestring, and co-author of Money Talk: a Financial Guide for Women and Small Steps to Health and Wealth™. She is also a frequent presenter at professional conferences. Dr. O’Neill received her Ph.D. in family financial management in 1995 from Virginia Tech. She has received over two dozen awards for program excellence from national professional organizations and over $450,000 in grants to support her financial education programs and research. Her research interests include families experiencing financial distress, measuring the impact of financial education programs, and associations between health status and personal finances.

Dr. Celia Hayhoe, Family Financial Management Specialist with Virginia Cooperative Extension at Virginia Tech
Celia Hayhoe received her Ph.D. in Family and Consumer Resources, M.S. in Finance, and her B.S. in Education at the University of Arizona. Celia received her Certified Financial Planner® designation in 1986. In 2006, Dr. Hayhoe won the Outreach Award for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Virginia Tech. In 2007, she received the Distinguished Service Award from the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education. Her research interests are college students’ use of credit and eldercare financial planning. She has authored three national programs: To Be a Have or Have Not: The Choice is Yours, Money Speaks: Helping Teens and Parent Communicate About Money and Protecting Your Retirement and Other Financial Information for Family Caregivers: What Every Adult Child Needs to Know. Dr. Hayhoe has authored many extension publications and well as refereed journal articles on personal finance topics. She has been interviewed by both the popular press and news media and is a past President of the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education.

Dr. Michael Gutter, Assistant Professor and Financial Management State Specialist, Department of Family, Youth, and Community Sciences, in the Institute for Food and Agriculture at the University of Florida
Michael Gutter's BS degree is in Family Financial Management and his PhD is in Family Resource Management from The Ohio State University with a specialization in Finance. The common theme that connects Gutter's Research, Teaching, and Outreach is helping households achieve financial security. This has involved research examining how socioeconomic status, financial education, personal psychology, and financial socialization are related to financial behaviors. In the context of this model, Gutter currently explores how financial education is related to financial behaviors and whether or not it is effective as a treatment resulting in improved financial decision making. This line of research has funding from the Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation, the National Endowment for Financial Education, and the NASD Investor Education Foundation.

Dr. Elizabeth Gorham, South Dakota State University, Extension Family Resource Management Specialist
Elizabeth Gorham, a native of Iowa, is currently employed as an Associate Professor at South Dakota State University in Extension. She received her bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University, her master’s from Utah State University, and her Ph.D. from Oregon State University. She spent several years in youth and family resource management programming in Utah before transferring closer to home to care for her aging parents. Liz has been active in the eXtension Financial Security for All Community of Practice, serving as a co-author of the Legally Secure Your Financial Future teaching and eXtension curriculums, and the upcoming eXtension Bankruptcy and the soon-to-be- developed Caregiver curriculums.

Other Chat Session Information

• How to Log In to the Chat Session -- detailed instructions for logging in to a chat session.

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