If you have credit card debt and credit card companies continue to close down the cards, what are you going to do? What are you going to do if they raise your interest rates to 32 percent? That's five times higher than what your kid is going to pay in interest on a student loan. Get rid of your credit card debt.

Money is such an amazing teacher: What you choose to do with your money shows whether you are truly powerful or powerless.

Many people are dreaming. Let me rent. Let me have a job. Let me work until I'm 70. That's not what the American Dream used to be. It used to be, let me own a home. Let me retire at 59 and a half or 65 at the latest. Let me do this. And now, really, given what's happened, good luck with anything happening unless you do it yourself.

The chances of a bank going out of business are extremely slim, but it's always a good idea to spread around major sums so every penny is backed by insurance.

In January we start saving money, getting out of credit card debt, funding our retirement accounts, and we're doing wonderful. Then, every single year like clockwork, starting in November, all of you fall into this trap that says, 'I have to buy this gift... I can't show up at this party and not have something for everybody.

I look around and there are needs that people have. Places have needs. These times have needs, and I have the education and the ability to communicate with it and help to solve those needs.

Consider a 15- or 20-year fixed-rate mortgage instead of a 30-year, if you can afford the monthly payments - they may not be as high as you think.