Investment and Finance

When you make a down payment on your home, you are losing the interest or dividends that an alternative investment could have earned on those funds. This is your "opportunity cost" of money.

With an unleveraged investment such as a mutual fund, your investment return is limited to the amount invested.
For example, if you invest $100,000, and it earns 11% then you earn $11,000. However, with a leveraged investment such as a home or real estate investment, your investment return represents the gross return less the cost of the borrowed money.
For example, if you make a $100,000 down payment on a home costing $500,000 you would earn zero on the $100,000 and $12,000 on the borrowed amount of $400,000, assuming a 11% gross return less an interest expense of 8%.
The higher your expected return, the greater additional benefit of leveraging.
Exercise caution, because if your leveraged investment does not perform as well as expected, you will do worse, and in fact you might lose money if the return falls below the interest cost.

Yes in most cases. Consumer debt can have onerous interest rates like 18% or higher. Thus you have to earn more than 18% tax-free to come out ahead, and that is quite unlikely to do without a significant amount of risk.
With an unleveraged investment such as a mutual fund, your investment return is limited to the amount invested. For example, if you invest $100,000, and it earns 11% then you earn $11,000.
However, with a leveraged investment such as a home or real estate investment, your investment return represents the gross return less the cost of the borrowed money.
For example, if you make a $100,000 down payment on a home costing $500,000 you would earn zero on the $100,000 and $12,000 on the borrowed amount of $400,000, assuming a 11% gross return less an interest expense of 8%.

Yes if the amount of credit card debt is significant and you do not have sufficient investments you can sell to raise the needed cash. Home equity loans often have much lower interest rates, and home equity loans up to $100,000 are fully deductible as interest expense. On the other hand, interest expense on credit card debt is not deductible, unless it can be tied to a business expense.

An IRA is an Individual Retirement Account. It is a type of investment account to provide retirement security for the individual. It was created in 1974 by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Contributions to your IRA may be deductible, and generally, investments in your IRA, including earnings and gains are not taxed until distributed to you. A contribution to either saves taxes, but contribution to the 401K probably has more benefits such as (1) company matching of contributions and (2) the ability to borrow from it in certain cases.

The answer depends upon the size of your living expenses and your financial objectives, but a reasonable rule of thumb is 6 months.

Yes. As long as you replace the funds within 60 days, you can withdraw the funds and not be taxed or be subject to the 10% penalty if under age 59 1/2 years old.

I believe adequate insurance coverage is a key part of a good financial foundation. That said, you should also check with several advisors on how to get sufficient coverage at the lowest cost. Figure in your long-term objectives. For example an inexpensive 20-year level term life insurance policy might be a much wiser choice than an expensive whole life policy.

Over the long-term, a diversified portfolio should outperform a portfolio which is too narrowly spread. Each type of investment performs differently within the same business cycle. Some investments in the mix might do very well and make up for the ones which do not. If you were invested in just one sector and it performed poorly, then your entire portfolio suffers.