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Journalist and TV commentator Andy Rooney took an acerbic view of much of American life.

I recently read a Time Magazine article which helps answer a question you may have asked yourself after discussing weight loss with friends. Chances are you’ve found that one person was able to lose weight by avoiding between meal snacks, another by eating smaller portions, a third, through regular exercise.

How mature is the average eight-year old? Thinking about myself, the answer was ‘not very’ but the stock market (as measured by the Standard and Poors 500 index) has been climbing since reaching bottom on March 8th, 2009.

I think most college students will agree that going off to school may involve some fun but it's basically going to be their job for at least a few years. That said, borrowing today's title from the Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs seems appropriate since it's the song the dwarfs sing as they head out to work at the mine.

This article was first published May, 2013

Fortune magazine recently published an excerpt from a new Bernie Madoff book.

This is really hitting home for me this week. I have a soon to be Senior in College home for the summer and he is into the financial questions. I don't know if it's because he will be living off-campus this fall and is getting into "adult" mode or what. He set up a Mint.com account, a ROTH IRA and is trying to budget for utilities, rent and food. He also purchased renter's insurance.

Of course I’m speaking of fiduciary, a word that has been largely unknown in the investment world until the past several months.

An attorney friend calls a fiduciary relationship one of working on behalf of a client ‘in utmost good faith’.

One of the decisions we all need to make in retirement is how do we want to be cared for in our later ages when we may need some assistance.  I think for most people, they immediately think of long-term care insurance, which may help to offset the cost of skilled nursing care needs, but doesn’t address where or how care will be provided.  An option that covers the where

Stories, both fictional and true, are often great ways to learn lessons. Throughout history people have used storytelling to teach people important lessons about life. Some of the most famous examples are some of Aesop’s fables such as the Tortoise and the Hare. In personal finance, one of my favorite books is The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason.

According to the website BrainyQuote, the famously reclusive Howard Hughes coined the phrase Money can't buy happiness. In reading about his life of producing movies, racing airplanes and dating glamorous women, I note very few times when he did, in fact, seem to have lived happily.