A wise woman knows how to summon her courage and do what is right, rather than what is easy.

When someone chooses to value herself over the things she can buy, true transformation begins.

After you marry, every asset either of you acquires is jointly held. That's why you both need to be in sync on your long-term financial goals, from paying off the mortgage to putting away for retirement. Ideally, you should talk about all this before you wed. If you don't, you can end up deeply frustrated and financially spent.

When you give, give from the place of the heart because it is the right thing to do, not the easy thing to do.

Opt for a fixed-rate rather than an adjustable-rate mortgage.

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.

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