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The volume of shoppers is expected to decline sharply during the 2008 holidays due to such factors as the financial market meltdown and a shorter season, according to a retail industry survey released Wednesday.

Dear Lucy and Emile,

Question: My wife and I are looking into getting some financial advice. Our bank says they offer free services through their financial adviser. This worries my wife because she thinks that the adviser will push the bank's agenda. Is it safer to go with an individual adviser, or is going with one with a bank just as easy? The Mole's Answer: I'm going to go with your wife on this one. But this doesn't mean that the individual unaffiliated adviser is going to do anything different. Every adviser, including yours truly, has an agenda to push.

Al Gore put global warming into the family dinner conversation; now David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller and the star of "I.O.U.S.A.," a documentary about our ballooning national debt, says that if we don't face up to our fiscal problems, the U.S. could go broke.

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Investors who think shares of Sears Holdings are a bargain after plummeting 80% from their peak should think again.

On the surface, this financial crisis seems pretty complicated. Wall Street firms made convoluted bets on exotic mortgage securities, and those bets failed for a complex set of reasons. But in fact, investment banks went under for reasons that were quite basic.

If you can learn from the mistakes of others, now is a great time to be an investor.

Despite higher air fares and an economic crisis that is forcing many Americans to stay home for the holidays, air travel is expected to be more crowded and hectic than usual this Thanksgiving, experts say.

The season's smartest gift buys - for everyone on your list - in six different price categories, from less than $25 to more than $500.

You've sent us an unprecedented number of questions about how to cope with this scary market. We've asked our top experts to help you out.

If you're considering converting to a Roth IRA, you might want to do it before the end of the year.

Value investors have a simple, elegant strategy. They buy a stock trading cheaply relative to the company's earnings or business value and then patiently wait for the market to catch on to how wonderful it is.

Lisa DeAngelis and Randall Cobb look like investing geniuses right now. While the S&P 500 has dropped more than 40% since last year's peak, the Atlanta couple's retirement portfolio is sitting pretty, earning 4% or so a year.

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Question: I hear the market is a good bargain right now, but I'm still very nervous about losing my money. Is there a way to get some market returns without taking so much risk?

If you were counting on your fixed-income funds to prop you up in tough times, it's been a cruelly disappointing year. Although the news headlines focus on falling stocks, the fear of bad credit is at the heart of this financial crisis - and a bond, after all, is nothing but a loan. Every category of bond fund is down in 2008, making this one of the worst years ever for bond investors. While disheartening, the beating that bonds have taken has some analysts pointing to a buying opportunity - if you're patient.

Is the international investing game over?

Warren Buffett has already told the world what he's doing in this frightful market. The Oracle of Omaha proudly proclaimed that he's "been buying American stocks" with his personal funds.