Smart money move: "Politically I'm just a little bit to the left of a Sandinista, but for financial stuff I always listened to my father, a Republican investment banker.

"He told me if I always pay my bills with one-third, save one-third and screw around with the last third, I'll be okay, no matter how much I earn. It's the one thing he said that I listened to, and I have never been in any financial trouble."

What I tell my daughter: "It doesn't matter because she does it her own way. I've told her you don't need $125 jeans, but she doesn't listen. She's getting straight A's in college and wants to be a professor of theology. They're almost as flaky as rock stars."