Queries Quenched

Folks, meet the Answer Guy.

He is Guy Halverson - persistent, perspicacious, perennial, and unperturbed by the reams of questions sent by our legions of curious readers.

Guy covers personal finance for the Monitor and every week he takes readers' questions and finds financial experts to field them.

The only problem is that we have only one Guy, and lots of questions. We generally allocate enough space for just two questions, but the Internet and the postguy deliver many more.

So this week, we expanded the column to two pages - B4 and B5 - of minding your Qs and As.

And it's one of the most informative personal finance spreads we've run. You may not see yourself in every question, but the answers offer a solid education in personal finance.

They take broad issues - taxation, portfolio diversification, investing on a limited budget - and apply them to real life situations.

You can see how they work.

I always learn something new from the Work & Money section, and the Q&A spread supplied more edification than usual.

So please keep the letters and e-mails coming, and we'll keep searching out the answers.

Mail your questions to:

Guy Halverson

The Christian Science Monitor

500 Fifth Ave., Suite 1845

New York, NY 10110

E-mail them to:

halversong@csps.com

But there's more.

A longtime Monitor reader in Florida called to ask about our sparse coverage of small business.

A pregnant question, indeed.

Most business in America is small business. The subject definitely sits high on the agenda for Work & Money but has fallen through the cracks.

But we'll refocus on the issue with stories. And we'll refocus the Q&A concept to include your queries on small business.

Send them to Guy or to me:

mccormickl@csps.com