Money may not be able to buy you love, but conflicts about it can certainly bankrupt your relationship.

The sad thing is many people learn how to manage money after they've made a lot of financial mistakes, some that take decades to fix.

Set up rules for when you will "give" not lend money. Never lend. My people know that I'll help with college. I'll help if they lose they job thu no fault of their own.

My Big Mama is my No. 1 financial role model. Much of my advice stems from what she taught me. She never made more than $13,000 a year, yet she paid off her home before she retired. She saved money from every paycheck. She taught me to be skeptical. It makes me cry to think that I'm a nationally syndicated personal finance columnist for one of the world's best newspapers and my core advice comes from my black grandmother who was a nurse's aide with just a high school education.

That's is life. You move and change according to things that happen to you and things that you make happen because of poor choices.

You can't time the market.

Always keep an eye out for other opportunities.