I don't care how far we've come with "women's liberation," with all these things. In a man's mind, he still needs to be the support of his family. He needs to hold up the world.

Every financial worry you want to banish and financial dream you want to achieve comes from taking tiny steps today that put you on a path toward your goals.

Imagine you waking up tomorrow and you can't get a bank account; you can't get a credit union account. Everything has gone away and you're now living in poverty.

If you are worried about job security and do not have an adequate emergency fund (ideally eight months' worth of living expenses stashed away in a federally insured bank or credit union), you need to focus more on saving money than paying down the balance on your credit cards.

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.

We never had it as rough as the kids have it today. Look at the price of a gallon of gas or a piece of real estate or a college education.

When you've been battered down and battered down and battered down, your spirit gets broken.