My husband and I are both very cautious when it comes to finances. We've both frozen our credit files in order to prevent someone from opening up a credit card or taking out a loan in our names if our information was ever stolen. Now we have a 2 year old, and ever since she was issued her social security number (practically the day after she was born), I've been wondering how we can protect her from becoming a victim of identify theft. I tried freezing her credit files as well, but the companies said she had to be 18. One company said they don't knowingly maintain credit files on people under the age of 13, but that if we suspect someone is using her identity we can request a credit report. But how would I know to be suspicious? What suggestions do you have to help protect her? Or am I being too paranoid?

I'm planning to use $15,000 this year for either retirement savings or to pay down my mortgage and am unsure of which option to pick. My employer offers a 403b with no matching for the first two years of employement (which I am in) and fund management fees ranging from .7% to 1.7%. I also have 13 years and about $140k left on a 15 year mortgage with a 3.85% interest rate. What would be the better use of the $15,oo0, or are there third or fourth options I should consider? My only current savings is $5,000 in a IRA, and my debts are just the mortgage and student loans that will be forgiven in 5 years. I'm 33 years old and just landed a job that pays $97k.

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My husband and I are receiving $10,000 each from his mother as a gift after she inherited her father's trust. We both have IRAs, he has a 401k, I have a 403b and make required contributions to the MA Teachers Retirement. We have a rainy day savings. We have low interest rates (1.8%) on our 2 cars. He has no student loan debt. I have $16,000 at 2.8% and $27,000 at 6.8%. How should we invest our $20,000 with the idea that we want to use it as a down payment on a house. A house which we are not planning to even look into buying for at least 3 years, maybe as long as 5 years. We've considered just stashing it in our IRAs and then removing the principal amount later when we need it. Or a short term CD which would get us only slightly better return that stuffing it in the mattress. I suggested that we use half of it to pay down my student loans that are at 6.8%. Reducing the principal and thus the interest we pay on it. Thoughts or ideas on what we should do?

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