[My grandkids] are 5, 10, and 15. While they're young and still at home, I think it's all about learning the value of money.

My parents and I were all afraid of being poor - really poor.

Goals work. Pick one debt, and then put every dime into paying down that one debt. Once that debt is paid off, start paying down the next debt. Pretty soon it's time to move from paying debt to building savings.

Like a lot of you, I grew up in a family on the ragged edges of the middle class. My daddy sold carpeting and ended up as a maintenance man. After he had a heart attack, my mom worked the phones at Sears so we could hang on to our house.

The banks lobbied Washington so they could write the rules that got us into this crisis. They then lobbied Washington to get the money to bail them out. And then they are lobbying Washington to write the rules so they can get us into the next crisis. It's perfect circularity.

It's so easy to focus on what could go wrong, on what else you could do before you try the thing you really want to do. No. Just get out there and try.

We don't win what we don't fight for.