HOUSING IS THE biggest expense for most American families, typically devouring a third of their budget. Are those dollars getting spent wisely? Here are 10 questions to ask yourself:

Should you buy? If you play around with the mortgage calculator at Bankrate.com, you can figure out how big a mortgage you could support with your monthly rent payments. That will give you a sense for whether homeownership is within reach. Even if it is,

WANT TO EARN THE derision of the so-called smart money? Here are 12 ways to get yourself labeled a financial rube:

Express optimism about the stock market.
Stick with capitalization-weighted total market index funds.
Pay off your mortgage early.
 “Arnott vs. Asness? Missed that one. Was it on pay per view?”
Shun alternative investments.
Buy and hold.
Have no opinion on the economy and market valuations.
Dollar-cost average.
Own a target-date retirement fund.
Never cite Ben Graham,

SAVING ENOUGH FOR retirement, and then turning those savings into a reliable stream of retirement income, together constitute our life’s great financial task. Want to make sure you’re on track? Here are 10 questions to ask:

Are you shortchanging your retirement by devoting too much of your income to other goals? For instance, can you truly afford private school for the kids? Do you really have the financial wherewithal to buy a second home?

EVEN BAD FINANCIAL products and strategies turn out okay for some investors. If that wasn’t the case, they probably wouldn’t attract enough customers to survive, no matter how aggressively they’re peddled. Still, some are so risky or so costly that the chances of a happy outcome are slim. Want to improve your odds of financial success? Here’s how I would categorize the products and strategies on offer today:
Dangerous

Buying stocks on margin
Leveraged exchange-traded index funds
Day trading
Short selling
Writing naked call options

Dubious

Cash value life insurance
Variable annuities
Equity-indexed annuities
Hedge funds
Market timing
Options trading
Technical analysis
Structured products
Load funds
Unit investment trusts
Closed-end funds bought at the initial public offering
Non-traded REITs
Brokers on commission
Carrying a credit card balance

Proceed with Caution

Actively managed funds
Individual stocks
Bonds bought in the secondary market
Closed-end funds at a discount
Rental properties
Vacation homes
Interest-only mortgages
Reverse mortgages
Long-term-care insurance
Claiming Social Security early

Promising

Index mutual funds
Exchange-traded index funds
High-yield savings accounts
Certificates of deposit
Treasury bonds
401(k) plans
IRAs
Health savings accounts
Term life insurance
Rewards credit cards
Owning your primary residence
Conventional mortgages
Home-equity lines of credit
Immediate fixed annuities
Deferred income annuities
Claiming Social Security late

The bottom line: With so many products in the promising category,

OTHERS ARE LUCKY. But we deserve every penny we have, right? The distinction between “just deserts” and “just plain lucky” strikes me as far messier than we might initially assume. Consider just seven of the ways that we can be financially lucky or unlucky:
1. Birthplace. If we were born in the U.S. or another part of the developed world, we’re pretty much starting the 100-meter sprint within a few strides of the finish line,

IMAGINE YOU HAD ONE shot at offering financial advice to a high school or college graduate. Your mission: Come up with 10 rules that’ll help your graduate succeed financially in the years ahead. What would you recommend? Here’s my list:
1. Question yourself. No doubt you’re entering the adult world with a slew of strong opinions—about what you want from life, what will make you happy, what you’re good at, what constitutes success and how to achieve it.

NO DOUBT YOU WOULD draw up a somewhat different list. But here’s what I consider life’s greatest pleasures:

Talking to loved ones over a glass of wine at the end of the day
Losing myself for a few hours in an interesting piece of work
Walking in nature
Spending time with my kids
French fries
Waking up after a great night’s sleep
Knowing I did the right thing
Wrapping up work on a Friday
Making love
A raucous dinner party
Feeling physically spent after a good workout
Finally sorting out a long-simmering problem
People watching
Taking a nap
Ending the day with a sense of accomplishment

To me,

SAVING DILIGENTLY sounds like such a rudimentary skill that it gets scant respect. Who couldn’t spend 10% or 15% less than they earn, so they set aside a little money for the future? And yet the U.S. savings rate remains miserably low and many folks are pitifully ill-prepared for retirement.
The reality: Saving money may be simple but, clearly, it isn’t easy. What does it take? Here are six key ingredients.
1. There’s the obvious: We need an income.

WE IMAGINE WE finally have everything sorted out, only to wake the next morning with a gnawing sense of uncertainty, plus the milk’s sour and we’re out of coffee.
Welcome to the human condition.
We lead lives bounded by limitations, some self-imposed and some imposed on us. Here are just 15 of the obstacles we face:

No accomplishment leaves us happy and satisfied for long.
Our days are numbered, but we don’t know the count.

WE TRY NOT TO BE too judgmental here at HumbleDollar. But if any of the items below apply to you, you might want to get yourself to the financial emergency room. Here are 33 signs you could be in trouble:

You save on eating out by attending free financial seminars.
You earn extra income by purchasing mutual funds just before they make their distributions.
All your stocks are penny stocks, but they weren’t when you bought them.

WE’RE A NATION DIVIDED, two camps clinging fervently to their own unshakeable beliefs and baffled at the nonsense that the other camp accepts as truth.
Yes, you guessed it: We’re talking about money management. Let’s call the two camps the Sharks and the Jets. What divides them? Here are seven fault lines:
1. Get Rich vs. Meet Goals. The Jets have one overriding goal—they want to make heaps of money—and they’ll hop any investment train that can get them there.

WANT TO MAKE YOUR dollars work harder? Here are 11 of my favorite strategies. In each case, you can find additional information by clicking through to HumbleDollar’s online money guide.
1. Fund a Roth IRA—and let it double as your emergency fund. Ideally, you want to leave your Roth untouched, so you milk as much tax-free growth from the account as possible. But if you need to repair the car or replace the roof,

IF YOU’RE READING the business section, you need to read between the lines. Here are 14 things financial journalists won’t tell you:

That unbelievably telling anecdote at the top of my article? I scoured the country for three weeks to find that schmuck.
The Dow industrials fell 263 points today. Why? By the time deadline arrives, I’ll have cooked up a reason.
What qualifications do I possess? An ability to dial a telephone.
Actually,

EVERYTHING I KNOW about investing I learned in court. As part of my litigation practice, I represent investors harmed by the misconduct of stockbrokers, investment advisors and financial planners. Some cases can be brought in court. Most have to be arbitrated before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Many of these cases have common themes that teach important lessons about investing.
Lesson No. 1: Wall Street Doesn’t Have a Crystal Ball. We all know predicting the future is impossible.

WANT TO GET YOUR finances headed in the right direction? Below are nine steps to take in the year ahead. With each step, I’ve included links to the relevant sections of HumbleDollar’s money guide.
1. Ask why. Before you start opening financial accounts and making trades, you need to figure out what you’re trying to achieve. “Not a problem,” you respond. You know what you want: A bigger house, a faster car, early retirement,