I thought it might be nice to close out the year with answers to some reader questions.

A Maryland woman wanted to know if a single woman (mother) dies while she still has a significant amount of unsecured credit card debt, what happens to that debt. She has no assets and her two children will inherit nothing.

I suspect that what the reader really wanted to know is whether the children (probably hers) will inherit her credit card debt. The answer is no, unless the children are 18 or older and co-signed for the debt. In that case, they would be responsible. However, if they are minors and there are no assets available to sell or disburse to creditors, the children can’t be held responsible for any of their mother’s debts. That also goes for the woman’s relatives. You are not responsible to pay off someone else’s debts when they die unless you have agreed to be a co-signer for the credit.

Saving for education

Many readers want to know how much they should save for a child’s college education. In particular, a reader from Arlington, Va., wanted to know this: “Are there any online calculators that I could use to see how much I should put into a 529 account? I have a 3-year-old and I want to open an account for him, and hopefully have enough in there to pay for most of his college expenses.”

A Section 529 college savings plan allows your investment to grow tax-free. Distributions are free from federal taxes as long as the money is used to pay for qualified higher education expenses. Every state and the District of Columbia offer at least one 529 plan.

One good college savings calculator I’ve found (and used) is by Vanguard. Go to www.vanguard.com and click on the link for “Personal Investors.” Then click on the link for “Planning & Education.” Now go to the “College planning” section (stay with me, it’s a useful calculator). Under the section for “College savings tools,” click on the link for “How much do I need to save?”

The calculator allows you to estimate how much you need to save monthly for up to five children. You can tailor the funding plan for each child based on the cost of a particular college or determine how much you need to save based on a national average of college costs which includes tuition, room and board, and fees.

Free credit reports

One of the most frequent topics I’m asked to address concerns credit reports. Tom, of Independence, Ky., wanted to know the best time to order a free credit report: “Should I order all three, or order one every four months from each of the companies?”

First, I hope you all know that everyone is now entitled once every 12 months to one free credit report from the three major credit bureaus – Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com.

The answer to Tom’s question is, it depends. Some experts advise that you stagger getting the reports so that every four months you can see what’s in your credit file. The idea is that you’ll be monitoring your reports all year and thus can spot incorrectly reported information or catch the beginnings of identity theft, which is when someone establishes credit in your name.

However, there’s a problem if you spread out your requests for free reports.

Each credit bureau maintains its own database. So what’s in one file may not be in another. In addition, some creditors don’t report your credit history to all three credit bureaus. That also means you can have different information from various creditors in each of your three credit files. Unfortunately, to get a full picture of what’s being reported, you have to get all three reports.

So my advice is to pull all three of your reports at the same time. If you haven’t taken advantage of the free reports, do it now. The end or beginning of the year is as good at time as any.

Handling 401(k) funds

Finally, a reader wanted to know if you should roll over your 401(k) if you lose your job.

Whether you’ve lost your job or are changing jobs in the new year, don’t cash out your 401(k) unless you are in dire financial straits. An early withdrawal of these tax-deferred funds will result in a penalty. In addition, you’ll have to pay taxes on your earnings. The combination can eat up nearly half of what you’ve got.