People have got to learn: if they don't have cookies in the cookie jar, they can't eat cookies.

Absolutely invest in retirement. You can always get a loan to get kids through school. I do not know of any loans to get you through retirement. The markets are seriously low from where they were (even though they've gone up 30 percent recently). Now is the time to be dollar cost averaging; the more money you put in, the more shares you buy. Save for your retirement, people.

Many of the good things would never have happened if the bad events hadn't happened first.

If you pay off your mortgage before retirement, you take a huge financial load off your shoulders. You also become eligible to take out a reverse mortgage once you turn 62.

Try handling problems in the office as dispassionately as you can and I guarantee you will have a better time of it; not least because when you bring emotion into the conversation, you furnish your colleagues with an easy "out" for dismissing you. If you are able to strip out the emotion, however, people have to deal with you based on the facts.

When you start really respecting yourself, those you love, and your money, the result is that you start having control over your money. What follows from that is control over your life.

Don't let what others think or say get in your way; their actions reflect on them, not you.