Dennis Quillen

SEVERAL MILLION households every year deal with a crucial decision involving their teenage children. Will their kids head to college, enter the labor force, join the military or perhaps do something different entirely? Often, this involves weighing the costs and benefits of a college education vs. the immediate income from getting a job.
About two-thirds of high school graduates end up being college freshmen. The remaining third defer or never go to college, but they can still end up earning above-average incomes.

WE HUMANS CAN BE a bit irrational. We’ll struggle to the bitter end over potential losses of property, whether it’s fretting over investment losers, trying to recover money we’ve lent or wrangling over our parents’ estate. But strangely, when it comes to what may be our most valuable resource—time—we collectively shrug off losses as a mere nothing. That “mere nothing” can often have significant financial implications for future monies earned or lost.
Time has specific properties.

WHILE DINING RECENTLY at my favorite restaurant, I focused on my food order. But I also got to thinking about economic concepts—an occupational hazard for a retired academic.
Opportunity cost hit me almost immediately. When the urge to eat strikes, I cannot consume two meals at two different restaurants at the same time. By selecting “A” over “B,” I’m automatically giving up an experience at “B.” Next, once in my selected spot,

I DON’T WANT BONDS in my portfolio—or, at least, not to the degree traditionally recommended in financial planning guidelines.
For years, I had accepted the premise that bonds should be included in a serious investor’s portfolio. Not that I necessarily followed that dictum. But I accepted the idea that young people should have a low percentage in bonds, and increasingly greater percentages through middle age and retirement.
I kept thinking that someday I’d come around to more bonds,

IN SUMMER 2005, my 40-year marriage officially ended. My previous world, with its hopes and dreams, was no more. My life as a single individual became the new reality. Part of the new reality was financial in nature. Previously developed long-term plans became fiction. New plans, by necessity, appeared on the drawing board.
My personal net worth had dropped by roughly 50%. I no longer owned my historic neighborhood condo. I lost two of our three cars,

I WILL NEVER FORGET that New Year’s Day nearly two decades ago. My life changed forever in a matter of minutes. I received in lightning bolt fashion the devastating news that my wife of nearly 40 years was filing for divorce. Looking back, I should have seen it coming. But at the time, I was totally unprepared. I didn’t know it then, but I was part of the initial wave of “gray divorces.”
No football bowl games that New Year’s Day.

WE’VE ALL HEARD the expression, “the house always wins.” Does it? The evidence suggests that some casino players can consistently come out ahead. Hard to believe? Pick a casino game that has a definite element of skill and a low house “edge,” and you, too, can be paid to play a game you enjoy. I know what I’m talking about: I have enjoyed free vacations at the expense of casinos for almost two decades.