Help! We're lousy at money decisions!

Leslie Bobick and Cy Guzman aren't on the verge of losing their home. They're not drowning in credit card debt. They have good jobs and decent incomes, and they've got some money socked away. Their emergency? Leslie is afraid to make financial decisions, and Cy avoids them.

'She wants a sure thing'

The combination presents a potential problem for the married couple's future. Though Leslie and Cy both believe in carrying no debt and having good credit scores, they find financial and retirement planning daunting.

"I'm scared of making the wrong decision,'' says Leslie, 48. "When I have (made decisions), I've lost money, and I've been very upset with myself."

Today's economic slowdown makes decisions even harder for people like Leslie, who fear making a wrong choice even when times are good.

Leslie and Cy, 43, had very different money backgrounds when they married four years ago. Leslie had always been a saver. She accumulated a nice nest egg in her retirement accounts and had hoped to retire at age 58.

Cy, on the other hand, was a "live for the moment" kind of guy. Investing was like a foreign language to him. His only exposure was an individual retirement account that his mother had started in his behalf several years ago.

Talk back: What's the best money advice you ever got?

"When my mom surprised me and said she started an IRA for me, I said, 'That's a great thing! What does IRA stand for?'"

Cy says he did odd jobs for years before finding an industry where he wanted to stay. Finally, he landed a job worth sticking around for, and it offered him the opportunity to invest in a 401(k) plan for the first time. Initially, starting contributions wasn't a priority for Cy, but he now contributes, and "every week is moving his money between conservative and aggressive," Leslie says.

The psychology of Leslie and Cy

Leslie says she grew up in a family where money fights were a constant and it was always a struggle to pay the bills. For that reason, she's always been fiscally responsible and a regular saver.

Do you avoid money talks?

Her inability to make investment decisions kicked in after 9/11, when her portfolio lost half of its value. Since then, whenever she wants to make an investment change, she freezes before pulling the trigger.

For example, Leslie will research a stock or mutual fund and mention to Cy that she wants to move some money around. Cy says that six months later he'll ask her what came of the change, and Leslie will respond that she never made the move.

Leslie's hesitation stems from a few bad habits.

First, she takes in way too much information. She receives The Wall Street Journal and two monthly personal finance magazines, and visits financial Web sites, reading everything she can get her hands on. She cuts out interesting articles -- writing notes in the margins -- and researches the strategies offered in the stories. She keeps a file of such articles in her kitchen and keeps the old ones in several boxes in her basement.

Next, she asks her friends, colleagues and neighbors for their opinions, hoping to mirror their financial success. One friend gave Leslie a list of her investments. Leslie researched the funds and picked a few to buy, but she never bought. She even got a recommendation for a financial adviser from a colleague, but she chickened out when it was time to set a meeting.

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Plus, Leslie wants a guarantee. Even mutual funds with solid, long-term performance records make her nervous because she wants to know for sure that they'll continue to make money.

"She wants literally whatever she invests in to jump off the page, flat out, and say 'I'm not going to fail you,'" Cy says. "It's almost unreal."

Cy defers to Leslie on investing matters because he says she knows more about the topic and he doesn't have time to learn.

"I'm not a multitasker, and for me now, my feeling is my job comes first,'' he says.

That's also why it took months for Cy to start his 401(k): He was too busy.

Get out of your own way

There's no reason Leslie and Cy can't save enough for their future. Their biggest challenge isn't even picking the right investments; it's overcoming their own barriers.

Leslie -- and those like her -- should:

1. Stop reading. Leslie is in information overload. So, rather than trying to become even better informed, she should take a hiatus from her magazines and stop clipping articles.

2. Stop asking for opinions. It can be interesting to compare your portfolio with the Joneses', but for Leslie, it's a losing strategy. Just because an investment is right for a neighbor doesn’t' necessarily make it right for you.

3. Don't expect guarantees. Yes, it would be nice to know that Fund ABC, which has earned an average of 8.5% a year over the past 10 years, will continue to earn that much. But no one can make that promise, as the current economic crisis has shown us. And remember, just about everyone's investments lost considerable value after 9/11, but many regained their value or more. Market watchers expect today's market to recover -- eventually.

Cy -- and those like him -- should:

1. Stop making excuses. True, a new job can be stressful, but Cy is losing out on valuable time and matching contributions in his 401(k). He and Leslie should go over the plan's investment choices, select three mutual funds -- a large-cap, a small-cap and an international fund -- and split Cy's contributions among them. He should save the maximum allowed for his plan, even now in the economic downturn, because he has time before he needs the money in retirement. He'll be buying depressed share prices that will be poised for an upturn when the market starts to recover.

2. Start learning about money. Cy is a smart and capable guy. There's no reason he can't pick up a book or surf a Web site to learn the basics. And he should look to Leslie as a resource. The couple could make a date of it -- a picnic with a bottle of wine and a copy of "Investing for Dummies."

3. Take responsibility. Even though most of the couple's assets are in Leslie's name, Leslie is yearning for someone to help and support her. Cy is the best person for the job, especially because their financial future as a couple depends on making the right moves now. For Leslie, a little moral support could go a long way toward helping her actually make the financial moves she's considering.

Together, Leslie and Cy should:

1. Create an asset allocation target for retirement savings. Using an online calculator such as MSN Money's Asset Allocator would help the couple determine how much of their savings should be in each asset class: large-cap stocks, midcap stocks, small-cap stocks, international stocks, bonds and cash.

2. Start fresh. For now, Leslie should forget about the other investments she holds. She and Cy should first pick the best mutual funds available in their respective 401(k) plans and determine how those funds fit into their new asset-allocation objective.

3. Research funds for nonretirement accounts to round out their asset allocation. After they choose funds within their 401(k) plans, the couple need to fill in any gaps in their financial plan. If they need more small-cap and international exposure, for example, they should visit Morningstar.com and see which funds have the highest returns over the longest periods of time. They should then make sure those funds' expense ratios -- the annual operating cost for owning the funds -- are in line with, or lower, than the average for that asset class. Then simply, based on historical performance numbers and within the parameters of their target allocation, they should make the purchases.

4. Let it ride. Once a year, the couple should check their portfolios to see whether they need to rebalance. For example, if large caps lose 30% in one year and international funds lose 15%, their portfolios will have become too heavy in international investments and too light in large caps. They should then sell off some of the international investments to bring that asset class down to its rightful allocation and use the proceeds to balance the portfolio by adding some large caps.

5. Meet regularly. The two should sit down together for a serious look at how they are progressing toward their retirement goals. While they should rebalance their portfolio annually, they should meet more often to discuss their goals, liabilities, savings strategies, etc., to make sure nothing has changed and they're both still in agreement.

6. Consider that financial adviser. Leslie and Cy don't need someone to make decisions for them, but they could use a checkup and some unemotional input into their investment choices. They could hire a fee-only planner – one who sells only advice and not investments -- for an overview of their financial situation.

Do you have a financial emergency that you'd like help with? If so, e-mail your story to MSN Money's Karin Price Mueller at money911help@hotmail.com.

Published Dec. 26, 2008