Quinn's First Law of Investing is never to buy anything whose price you can't follow in the newspapers. An investment without a public marketplace attracts the fabulists the way picnics attract ants. Stock brokers and financial planners can tell you anything they want, because no one really knows what's true. The First Corollary to Quinn's First Law states that, even when the price is in the newspapers, you shouldn't buy anything too complex to explain to the average 12-year-old.

The shortest period of time lies between the minute you put some money away for a rainy day and the unexpected arrival of rain.

Auto insurance is a toll bridge, over which every honest driver has to pass.

Savings will not make you rich. Only canny investments do that. The role of savings is to keep you from becoming poor.

You don't date an annuity, you marry it. An annuity isn't a mutual fund that you buy today and sell tomorrow. Nor is it a certificate of deposit, ready for any new use at maturity. When you buy an annuity, you are making (or ought to be making) a 15- or 20-year commitment, at least.

Everyone can get a little sloppy with cash and it's smart to notice. But what's squeezing you is the big stuff you ladle onto your credit cards.

Lawyers are operators of the toll bridge across which anyone in search of justice has to pass.